Hello, Peeps!!

Welcome!

Sorry to start with a big question, but - are you using a food scale? Because if you are gaining weight and don't want to, you don't have a problem of not eating enough. If you eat fewer calories than your body oxidizes, you lose weight. If you eat more, you gain. So if you're gaining, you can figure out how to work with that to get into a deficit or at least eat to maintenance.

Late night snacking is the bane of many. There are some ways to stop it. One way might be to step back and say, "NOT for five minutes." Then keep going after that. After all, and as you know as a Yoga instructor, all we have is this moment. Putting off eating late night snacks "just for this moment" is all it takes.

marydrohan52 wrote: »

i will try that "not for five minutes"..thank you...yes...i do use a food scale. all i know is what my doctor told me..after keeping a food diary for 3 months including IF, it was discovered i was NOT eating enough..apparently so much less that she believed my body went into survival mode..this site is helping me a lot..my biggest hurdle is late night and i don't understand why...i'm generally full from dinner..i try to eat always before 7. i'm a work in progress. as i said, i've been a fitness instructor for 30 years and yoga for 8..now i've added strength training...we shall see...have my fingers crossed (of course, my age may make things a little slower, but not impossible.) thank you for the "just this moment"..putting it into practice tonight....;)

I'm somewhat reading between the lines here, so I may be inferring things you're not actually implying. If so, apologies in advance.

One concept is that late-night snacking can be fatigue related. Common sense: As we get more distant from last night's sleep, fatigue accumulates. At some point, fatigue can trigger appetite, because the body seeks energy and food is energy. The implication is that if sleep quality or quantity can be improved, that may help. Also, if there's high stress, classic non-food stress management techniques may help, because stress is fatiguing. Over-exercise for current fitness level can also trigger fatigue and cravings, too.

Of course cutting calories too far (trying to lose weight too fast for current size) can trigger cravings, too. In that sense, a sensibly moderate loss rate can sometimes get a person to goal weight in less calendar time than targeting an aggressive loss rate that causes deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or giving up altogether. Even fast loss takes substantial time, if there's a meaningful total amount of weight to lose. That

For myself, I also found that nutrient and food timing was a relevant variable in night cravings. I learned that I needed a solid breakfast with ample protein, then protein through the day. Once that was in place, my night-time cravings decreased significantly. I also found that my cravings for calorie dense sweets (like candy or baked goods) decreased when I made it a point to eat several servings of whole fruit daily.

Those specific tactics may not work for you, because these things tend to be very individual. But you may get some insights by noticing days when you feel extra crave-y (or less crave-y) in the evening, and thinking about what was different that day in eating, exercise, sleep, stress, or other relevant factors you can adjust in some way. Experiment, notice what helps, learn from that, adjust habits, repeat.

A common strategy people here follow is simply to save some calories for a night-time snack. It's a myth that eating after X o'clock (too close to bedtime) means more fat gain (or less loss). There's very little difference in fat loss results from distributing the same calories differently over the hours of the day, typically. (Of course, morning weigh-ins can be a little higher from late-night eating because there's more food/fluid still in the digestive tract from more recent intake.)

Some people with night cravings also elect to eat dinner a little later to help with the situation.

The idea that there's a "survival mode" where we burn fewer calories so stop losing weight is iffy. If we eat too-low calories, we can become more fatigued (so rest more, subtly burn fewer calories, slow down some things like hair growth or immune system so burn fewer calories that way), but that won't stop weight loss. (If it did, no one would ever starve to death. Sadly, many die of starvation worldwide every day, and they aren't fat when it happens.)

Eating too little can make loss somewhat slower than we'd expect, and increase health risks, though. Some people may find the sweet spot for calorie intake is higher, in terms of keeping energy level high, making daily life movement and exercise sessions well-fueled, sticking with calorie goal rather than going over more often, etc. (This thread goes into the science behind that sort of thing: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1 ).

I'm betting that you can work out some improvements in the current situation, if you pay attention to what causes varying craving levels, and use that insight to adjust. I'm cheering for you to succeed, certainly!