How to stop night eating?

Perhaps plan for food during that time that are known to reduce hunger. If I have a sweet tooth I usually make some hot green tea and eat 70% cocoa chocolate with it (I love the green black organic mint chocolate). If I'm genuwinely hungry I eat raw veggies with hummus (I love the tuscan herb hummus) or apples and peanut butter, etc.

I really try to make a combination of fiber, fats, and protein and not over do it on carbs.

This was a tough one for me when I was getting fit. Basically I did the following to control it:

1) Eliminated the easy, "stuff in my mouth" fast snacks - no pretzels, no chips, no cakes/cookies etc. The more time it takes to make, the less likely you are to go through the effort to eat it at night.
2) Just basically got it set in my mind to have a time cut off of no more food - for me it is 7PM. I workout every night from 7 -8:30, so it is pretty easy not to eat then - ha.
3) If I feel really hungry despite 1 and 2 above, I just try to eat a really small healthy item and then allow it 5 minutes to curb the hunger - a good example is a handful of sunflower seeds - eat them, wait a full 5 minutes and you will notice your are not so hungry anymore.
4) My personal mantra is "eating this is not going to taste as good as not wearing it" cheesy but ti sometimes smacks me back in line with my regimen...

I'm suffering the same thing. I do great all day long but then the night hits and I can't sleep and I just lose it.

I have tried saving calories so that I can have something to eat and notruin my calorie count.

I try setting aside something to eat so I know what I will/can eat without messing up my count.

I know that my mind does not always function well when it's late and I'm not sleeping and I just want to sleep, so I've written a big sign telling myself what I can eat tonight, instead of just going for the junk food or whatever I can find. Sigh: Eat blueberries and yogurt.

It is a BIG problem for me, and I would appreciate any other ideas to get through. I know that if I could just go to bed and sleep, that I would be a lot skinnier because I wouldn't be getting all the extra calories during the nght.

GOod luck!!!

try melatonin.

I'm a save calories for a late night snack person. I'd rather eat healthier during the day so I can have that last snack before bed. And it doesn't have to be alot of calories. I work with what I have left. If I have a couple hundred I might have chips and salsa, if I have ~75, I'll have a pudding cup, if it's ~35 I'll have a half cup of berries. It's just a balancing game. It gets easier once you know how many calories are in what and can choose without having to look it up. But that comes with time.

Oh and drink water ;-)

I'm a save calories for a late night snack person. I'd rather eat healthier during the day so I can have that last snack before bed. And it doesn't have to be alot of calories. I work with what I have left. If I have a couple hundred I might have chips and salsa, if I have ~75, I'll have a pudding cup, if it's ~35 I'll have a half cup of berries. It's just a balancing game. It gets easier once you know how many calories are in what and can choose without having to look it up. But that comes with time.

Oh and drink water ;-)
I like your ideas too and you have had a great weight loss success too. Congrats to you!

I've only been using MFP for about a week, but I've been dealing with binge eating disorder my whole life and in the past 2 years, have discovered some great tools to stop binging. I've managed to stop binging all together, so hope that some of these tools also help you

Here are a few things that have helped me along my eating disorder/binge eating journey

-Eating every few hours, but pushing meal times back to ensure that I am eating at the same time as everyone else I will be around, so I don''t feel the need to eat twice.

-Exercising at night keeps me busy, stops me from eating more during the day (because when I exercise I get really hungry and want more calories than are allotted,) and sets up a night time routine; exercise, shower, meditate, sleep I also find that if I exercise at night, I'm more likely to avoid eating because I feel proud of myself for burning those extra calories.

-Practice meditation. Mindfulness has been an incredible tool for me when it comes to thinking about food, what is inspiring the need to eat (boredom, emotions, etc)

-I only keep foods that have to be prepared in the house. In the beginning I found that if I was in binge mode and wanted to eat everything in the kitchen, having to prepare the meal would take the power out of the insatiable desire. As I progressed and gained control of urges to binge, I found that I would start to prepare a meal and end up turning a boiling pot off or tossing 1/2 prepared food out, knowing that I didn't really want to eat it.

-If you've got to eat, air popped popcorn, celery, and cucumber often give me the crunch I need to keep me from snacking on foods that have higher calories

Good Luck!!

low carb diet helps me a lot too btw.
it curbs my appetite and makes it so easy for me to stay on track.

Agree... I'm a total night eater too. I often don't eat until 3 pm then push my meals back to save most of my calories at night.. My dinner is ten to eleven every night. I'm usually not even hungry during the day and of course low carb helps more than anything ..

I'm interested in ideas here.....my problem is waking up in the middle of the night and eating junk. I guess we need to find something better to do than eat! LOL I feel like I get the munchies.

ME TOO!! I find myself waking up and thinking I don't care and eat fruit snacks or a cerial bar or whatever. Its like your half asleep and your inhibitions are gone lol. I do find that if I cave about an hour before bed and eat half a banana or a small bowl of low cal cerial it helps and I don't wake up in the middle os the night. As for getting rid of the night cravings I dunno. I am worse when I really cut my carbs throughout the day. Guess it's something you just have to work at and train yourself not to do.

I read somewhere that when you are eating out of boredom rather than actual physical hunger, your food cravings only last around 20 minutes to half and hour.... perhaps you could find something to do that takes about this long so you can "ride it out"
Examples:
Crossword
Read a chapter in a book
Have a quick tidy or clean
Do some laundry
Read a magazine
Play a computer game like solitaire or minesweeper
Go for a walk (helps if you have a dog!!)
Knitting?
Have a relaxing bath
Give yourself a pedicure/manicure
Check the news on the internet

I think you get the idea lol.

Also, lately as i have been dieting, I find it helpful to think of my progress when I crave something naughty... and i visualise how I want to be... healthy, strong, confident. Then how I will be in a year if I give up .... suddenly that sweet treat doesn't seem as appealing!
Good Luck

I use two already-mentioned things: one that I close the kitchen and just do not eat after dinner unless it's a dire emergency (stomach growling), and second, I eat more fat in dinner than probably most people do - fat is what keeps me from being hungry.

If you're not comfortable eating something higher in fat, then at least reduce the carbs with dinner that get your blood sugar up, just in time to crash as bed time approaches. More protein, and cut the refined carbs from that meal if you possibly can.