Binge eating at night

i do the same thing. its usually carbs. which is horrible to before bed. good luck to you.

Maybe if you ate enough during the day you wouldn't be so hungry at night. You have hundreds of calories left over almost every day.

I know exactly how you feel...this is a problem a lot of folks have. I say don't deprive yourself at night, but slowly ween yourself off eating at a certain, try to make healthy choices of snacks.

I have this problem too. Except I eat EVERYTHING I can find! Total control during the day, but at night I just get bored and eating keeps my hands busy. :-( i'll be stalking this post! haha

Usually it's after dinner. If I eat a good size meal, a couple of hours later I'm already wanting more food. Sometimes, I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat later while I'm eating dinner!!! It's sick. I feel sick about it.

In some ways I'm scared to eat more calories during the day because I'm afraid I won't have any left at night time, my craving time.

you sound a lot like me. i can be cooking breakfast and im thinking about snacks, lunch, dinner, etc!
last night i ate my dinner, my sons (because he wouldnt eat it), and like 3 snacks after that. (chips, another kind of chips, and pop tarts). i felt gross when i sat there and thought "i wonder what my boyfriend is thinking watching me stuff my face like this". i probably would have ate more but the BF and i were arguing and i went to bed early.
i think its all a mind over matter thing. are you REALLY hungry or just wanting/looking for something to do?

Maybe if you add more fiber to your dinner, it might hold you over longer. With me, I get home late alot and usually will just have a bowl of raising bran with almond milk and those are the nights that don't wake up through the night to snack. Good luck to you.

go to bed earlier, that's what i do. i know that if i'm not in bed by 10 i'm gonna binge, i also know that if i'm hungry before then it's because i'm hungry and not because i'm bored. i also alway make sure to have some late night calories set aside just in case.

i was really bad with this too. It helped me to eat more frequently throughout the day (little healthy snacks) so I wasn't actually hungry at night. And for the first couple months, I incorporated a late snack into my calories early so I knew I had those calories for snacking. I also started making tea at night, or sugar-free/fat-free hot chocolate, so I could have something that felt satisfying but didn't take up calories.

I've got total control in the daytime. I work out for an hour to an hour and a half each day. Mostly cardio, and some strength training.

My biggest problem is night-time. I get really hungry and I binge eat. I try to make good decisions, but I never seem satiated. Should I go to bed earlier so I forget about my grumbling tummy? I'm trying to find out why I eat so much at night. Though I admit it is getting easier the more I stay on my calories and the more I say no to myself. My favorite foods at night are going in the meat drawer and eating the deli turkey/chicken by itself. Slice after slice - four or five slices. The other night I had a small piece of lasagna + two eggs. I seem to be my hungriest at night time.

Any suggestions?

I would guess you're doing this because you're needing comforting before going to bed. It's probably more psychological attachment to food than it is physical hunger....try taking 10 mg of melatonin. It's a safe herbal supplement and it will put you to sleep within 30 minutes....So you could have it during dinner if you wanted and by the time you're done, you'll be tuckered out. Put yourself in bed, stay away from the kitchen and let the medicine work. you'll drift off and forget your cravings. This is a quick fix of course, not a solution. You could also try sleepytime cocoa to have in bed. Satisfy a sweet tooth and drift off.

I'm sure there are both psychological and physical reasons as to why you're binge eating at night, so I will simply share what's worked for me:

1. Eating several small meals throughout the day - no matter if I'm not super hungry. It keeps me from eating everything in sight at night.
2. Staying away from television. For some reason, I want to snack. I'm not necessarily hungry. It's just a psychological response to watching TV and wanting to eat.
3. Drinking tea. Everyone always says, "drink tea! it staves off hunger" and I always wanted to punch people in the face. Really though, it helps. Chamomile and peppermint are my favorites. And go for a loose leaf tea! They are so much more pungent and satisfying.
4. Seems a lot of people do this too: Go to bed earlier. Staying up late tends to kick your body into gear for a "second meal."
5. And last but certainly not least: I had to train myself to not binge eat/snack at night. I am on week 3. Yes, week 3. Week 1 was really hard, but once I stopped eating 2-3 hours before bed, and went to bed feeling slightly hungry, I woke up starving, ate a hearty breakfast, and broke the late night eating cycle. It takes time, but if you stick with it, your body will be trained to know that dinner is over, it's time for your digestive system to rest, and to go to sleep. This, out of all my tips, has worked the best. And in these short few weeks, I've dropped the 2-3 pounds that have been super stubborn for me. My theory is it's because I used to eat right up until I went to sleep, and it became pure fat storage.

Hi,

If your working out for that long you may need to have more protein, IE a protein shake after your training and maybe one a couple of hours before you train. You could also try a casien shake at night as this will fill you up and slowly release into your system over night. Hope this helps

I totally get wanting to save your calories for later in the day just in case but obviously that's not working for you so it's time for a change. That never worked for me either - I used to skip breakfast then eat a huge lunch and still be starving all afternoon so I'd snack and snack and that's how I got to my highest weight.

Something that's worked really well for me is to eat 4 meals per day, all with a pretty good mix of carb and protein and also stick to around the same calories per meal (300-400 for breakfast, 300-400 for lunch, 100-300 for snack) and also get a calorie burn of 300-500. That way I know I've got about 600 calories left over for dinner on average and that should pretty much cover whatever I'm in the mood for.

Also, it sounds to me like you're boredom eating and you might be like me where TV can be a huge trigger too. Maybe try to do something else to keep yourself away from the fridge (and maybe the TV too) - read a good book, play a game, go for a walk (or do an exercise DVD), call a friend, hang out on MFP, do something crafty, etc.

Good luck!

All great ideas! Thanks for refreshing my mind to these coping plans.