midnight binge help

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MelodyPond101
MelodyPond101 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all.

I'm in need of a way to either stop myself from binging in the middle of the night or looking for some low cal options to snacks.

If anyone has a strategy they used to minimise or stop the midnight binge please comment it in this thread. It may help others who are also in the same boat.

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  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,394 Member
    edited May 2020
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    How much are you eating during the day?
    And I think we need a bit more info to help: what is your current weight, goal weight and calorie deficit that you've chosen? How tall are you?
  • MelodyPond101
    MelodyPond101 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks yirara for answering. I'm sorry I didn't have the info needed, so here it is.

    Right now I'm at 110kg and 5'5 and want to get down to a healthy weight, but I chose 65kg as a target.
    My calorie target per day is around 1,500 which would be -0.75kg a week, but I keep going over because I can't seem to get rid of my night binging habit.
    I've been good at eating around the 1,500 during the day recently but it's the nights that have let me down.

    I think I just need some help with strategies on how to get myself to stop binging after dinner.
  • TexasAggie1280
    TexasAggie1280 Posts: 31 Member
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    I exercise at night time heavily right before so when I'm finished I'm completely exhausted and all I want to do is sleep. It works for me, but I'm not sure that would work for most people lol.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Are you still awake at midnight? Or waking up to eat?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,637 Member
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    Are you losing weight faster, slower, or on pace with what your calculated deficit (inclusive of the extra night-time calories) would lead you to expect? The 1500 is based on certain assumptions and I am checking to see if for you the estimates are close enough, or if you're perhaps creating a larger than intended deficit. If it looks like you are creating a larger than intended one, perhaps adjust in order to promote better adherence

    How are you spreading your calories throughout the day?

    While there exist a small number of studies that indicate that a "front loaded" day could produce marginally better results for some people, ultimately, successfully controlling calories is the ONLY way to produce results for everyone. So adherence is way more important than a small relative advantage.

    I've personally found significantly more success by back loading my calories. No, I don't intermittent fast, like many do, I found that trying to do so increased the likelihood of me over-eating and I didn't find it very balanced for me. But I definitely eat the majority of my calories towards bedtime. (if you have digestive issues make sure to leave enough time).

    When cutting calories I found that a number of higher volume / lower calorie items was also helpful. Low cal jello, and low cal refrigerated jello puddings as well as 0% yogurt in various combinations including with cereal or fruit were (and the yogurt and puddings remain to this day) my "go-to's" at night. Other interesting snacks: low fat/cal popcorn, egg/egg white combo seasoned, nuked, and served on slaw mix / other salad, or just a wasa, can of tuna on salad, etc. Even things that will totally mess with your water retention the next day: e.g. soup using stock cube and some veg such as onion or frozen... etc etc :smile:
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    edited May 2020
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    There's no silver bullet for this problem. If there was, we'd all be thin :) But generally, I think nighttime binging is usually a sign of not getting:
    • enough calories
    • enough treats - you're in a "deny during the day, indulge at night" cycle.
      [\]

      You have to remove the "deny" part to address the "indulge" part. Slow down that weight loss goal for a few weeks and up the calories. I agree with @PAV8888 that back-loading might work - try back-loading the extra cals you give yourself for a few weeks. As importantly, make sure some of those cals are going to things you love. So for instance, are you binging on chocolate at night after denying it to yourself all day? Or maybe it's something else. Try to work in some of whatever you're binging at night, into your caloric day, just in reasonable quantities.

      Ultimately, Intermittent Fasting could solve the problem, and that is how I finally did it - being a lifetime night binger and almost out of hope until I started IF, wherein the problem got solved - but I don't think you need to go there just yet. Try getting some more food, and include your favorite snacky things in your cals, and see if it helps.

      PS I am a huge fan of popcorn for a late night binge replacement. I keep a few bags of 150 cal per 28 gram popcorn around at all times, baggied into precise 28 gram portions, and I allow myself ONE bag when I'm just feeling overwhelmedly like I absolutely must have a late night snack. It's satisfying enough ... but without containing the seeds of further diet destruction, like with m&ms or cookies, where you just keep going until they're all gone.
  • PAPYRUS3
    PAPYRUS3 Posts: 13,259 Member
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    If you are not hungry you might want to try deep nose breathing to get to sleep. Works for me - I fall asleep within seconds but wake up several times throughout the night. Here are few different techniques:
    https://www.healthline.com/health/breathing-exercises-for-sleep

    If you find yourself hungry - have a bowl of oatmeal an hour before bed. Dark tart cherry juice works too. There are other food products that have natural occurring melatonin. There are other foods too.

    Oatmeal makes me sleep like a baby for sure...
  • MelodyPond101
    MelodyPond101 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thank you all for the advice and I'll try a few of these strategies/replacement snacks and find my sweet spot.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,931 Member
    edited May 2020
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    my tip would be go to bed before the snacking time comes!

    Being tired makes you more hungry.

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