Nightly overeating?
 

Am I the only one who has a HUGE urge to eat in the evening, even if you aren't hungry?

Like I crave sugar so bad and I just want to eat eat eat.. and thus I have gained weight.

Anyone have this problem or have solved it?

Yes yes yes!! I had, still may have this problem. I would if I could not eat all day and eat most of my food at night. I am on ideal protien and I have been having good results but I still hoard food to eat at night. I eat my dinner late and always have a snack later on. I find that making myself go to bed earlier than I normally would helps. I look forward to others suggestions. Good luck

.

No your not alone, very hard to understand:mad:

This is a really common issue for many of us. I think it is partly the comfort factor - end of day, cozy on the couch and "treating yourself for a hard day". The other factor I feel is deprivation. At least the sense of it. Developing a routine that allows you to eat delicious food that you really like goes a long way with this issue. Also having an evening ritual and "closing the kitchen for the night". For example today I will have bacon and fabulous home-grown tomatoes on toasted sourdough for dinner (eat tons of veggies earlier in day) - one piece of good bacon thoroughly crisped in the MW, thin sliced really tasty bread plus the incredible 'maters. Then the evening walk. Then a show on TV or a good book and some popcorn popped w/o oil or a small sweet and tea or coffee. Then the kitchen is closed. Literally the lights are off, candles snuffed. I sleep really well when satisfied and not in the throes of guilt ;)

I can be 100 percent good all day and I will binge and quit drinking enough water the moment I get home until I go to bed. I think it's because I don't have the same structure at home as I do at work.

I make a point of sitting down and tracking all that I eat, so that I can see the calories add up and put a kibosh on it fast.

I used to eat a lot of junk late into the evening. I started my diet by quitting eating anything after lunch.

I just drink beer in the evening now. And that seems to work nicely.

I think I'm going to have a closed kitchen after 6

Last night I had the munchies. finish work at 10.15pm. I always have hot milk or chocolate before bed. Mainly to get calcium in, and have done so for ever and a day. (Skim milk). So I stopped myself just eating anything I had 2 cruskets with vegemite and that seem to satisfy me.

I calorie count so I make a lite jelly everyday and eat it all, I might save it for late night snack, just a thought. My intentions are always honourable then the devil seems to sit on my shoulder

Scood. :shrug::cp::trampo:

You need a new ritual to use when you are decompressing.

And a motto: The kitchen is NOT my decompression chamber.

I'm finding it helpful to reserve some of my food budget for evening snacks. Tonight I had 34 g of roasted soynuts (150 calories, 10g of protein). I also had a large apple, sliced thinly sprinkled with sea salt (125 - 150 calories).

I find that I usually want a salty, crunchy snack especially while watching a movie, but the salt and crunch are more important than the calorie count.

Other low-calorie favorites are salted edamame, seasoned nori strips, raw veggies with a thin dip like low cal Nuoc Cham (a viatnamese dipping sauce). I make mine with fish sauce, rice wine vinegar or lime juice, water, garlic, and a bit of stevia or splenda). Snow or snap peas are especially good, but even 2" squares of cabbage are pretty darn tasty.

Any thinned salad dressing works well too. If I'm going to use a bottled dressing (which I rarely do because my own low-cal dressings are better), I prefer to use a small amount of full fat salad dressing and thin it with rice wine vinegar or lemon juice, rather than trying to find a palatable low calorie dressing (they exist, but every time I find one I like, it ends up being discontinued and my success ratio ends up being about 1 in 20).

While I'm not quite as hard core as you are, Ian, I use a similar strategy. In the evening I treat myself to 8 oz of wine (sometimes more) and feel content with a relatively small dinner, like a bowlful of veggie stirfry. After that the shop is pretty well closed. I don't watch much TV, which makes it easier to stay away from evening munchies. What makes it all work for me is having substantial breakfasts, lunches, and midday snacks.

F.

This is so like me! I have a problem with eating biscuits in the evening with a nice cup of tea! (Typically British!) I think a lot of it is a routine/comfortable way of life that you build into your day - just need to get yourself out of the habit of overeating/snacking and then problem solved... easier said than done though. I think just doing something else is a better distraction for me e.g. listening to music, reading - rather than trying to eat something 'healthy'. As in my brain I'm just thinking that I've deprived myself instead!

And by biscuit you mean a US cookie, right?

I do too, to be honest i've reserved my main meal as my evening one, i don't think it has stalled my weight loss and it makes my diet manageable as thats when i actually want to eat but then thats it, i try not to snack and if i do its a bowl of raspberries (high fibre, sweet, low cal) or nuts.

:goodluck::trampo:I find it hard to control that late night munchie feeling. I have been dividing WW peaches into little containers portion size, or yoghurt with half a smoothie cube (banana/mango).

If I get the munchies I eat one of those or a lite jelly (7 cal ) which you can eat the lot

Maybe that idea can help, swapping ideas helps me stay motivated

Scood

I also drink lots in the evenings, which seems to satisfy any hunger pangs. However, I'm not as hard core as either Ian or freelancemomma...my drink of choice is water sweetened with Mia (this suggestion assumes you don't have an issue with artificial sweeteners). I find the sweetened drink also satisfies my sugar cravings.

Night eating (after about 10 pm or so) is definitely my demon. Some nights, something clicks in my brain, and I just can't stop thinking about food and what I can eat. I've found that if I can resist for about an hour or so without eating ANYTHING (even "free" foods like celery and such), the obsessive craziness will pass (usually).

To help a sweet toooth, i take a bit of fruit and put stopped cream on it. Craving dead.

I used to eat mindlessly at night, not because I was hungry, but because there was stuff to eat and I thought cos it was there that I should eat it. I also found that I wasn't eating enough through the day and starving by dinnertime so that I'd eat and eat. I'd eat all through dinner and nibble sometimes right up to 10pm. When I started WW I found that I had to change my nightly routine. If I usually ate while watching tv then I'd pull out the laptop and surf the net while watching my show. By keeping my mind busy the urge to eat could be contained. I also cut out anything that would trigger a binge and reintroduced these slowly weeks later (some of them I haven't even introduced yet). I also tried to swap a good thing for a bad thing. Like if I once ate chocolate after dinner, I'd now eat a tiny bag of individual wafers filled with choc. I didn't deprive myself. If I wanted chips I ate a small bag. I'm getting there and losing weight, but I still have to be mindful that I could potentially fall back into my old habits if I'm not careful.

That sounds ridiculously good. Great idea about thinning salad full-fat/flavor dressings, too. I cannot find a good substitute for my Marie's Blue Cheese (all of them taste too sweet).

Anyway, carry on!

I definitely DEFINITELY relate to this. My issue always begins at night, mostly with alcohol which turns to snacks I justify after having a couple drinks. Then drinks become too many and snacks become meals, and....there you have it. All of which have been reinforced over several years now. I'm the proverbial man-on-the-couch with the beer numbing out in front of the tv and I've got the abs to prove it. lol

This one is not sweet at all and it's easy and tart.

or you can use
http://www.maries.com/imagehandler/m...90/436/29.xpng
which tastes pretty much exactly like the original.

I read an article a while ago about how we are simply tired in the evenings and mindlessly eating to give our body energy to stay awake, when we should really be just going to bed. LOL Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

I do this. I really hate going to bed empty. Makes me feel edgy. Whether I've been perfectly on plan all day or not, no matter the mix of macronutrients, no matter if I drank lots of water or some alcohol, I get the evening munchies. Trying to work a plan to deal with it.

It seems a bit of an emotional thing too. I don't really like going to bed, or letting the day go if I haven't achieved something emotionally satisfying. It was really bad while I was married, because I didn't really want to go to bed with X. And then after the divorce, the anxiety of it all clung to me for the longest time. Plus feeling lonely. So filling up on some sort of mind-numbing food helps me turn off my brain so I can go to bed.

So as I think about it now, since I've been working on the emotional side to this nighttime eating thing, I've had more problems with being able to fall asleep. Oddly, the munchies seem to disappear around 10 p.m., but I am still left with edgy anxiety.

I definitely have this problem, what I try and do is push all my meals back..I have breakfast at noon, lunch at 3pm or 4pm and then save 1/2 my calories for dinner at 8pm followed by a glass of wine. This means I do get to eat at night :)

I used to feel hungry at night before I started losing weight and during the first few months. In fact, lately I've been picking up that habit again!

The way I overcame it originally was mind-over-matter. Even now, I talk myself out of eating by keeping busy with my drawing or writing (or assignments!). What I find to be my problem is that I always have to be doing something. For instance, if I'm watching a TV show that's getting a little tedious, my brain will think of food and suddenly I'm hungry! Sometimes starving! And yes, I will be thinking of chocolate or something sweet.

Drawing on suggestions that I've read since joined 3FC, my advice to you is to either a) overcome your cravings that you stop thinking about eating at night or b) eat, but do it in moderation and find foods/drinks that are healthier. If you are calorie counting, choosing better options is the way to go. I have drinking chocolate that's 99% sugar free and ice cream that, although slightly more expensive, is a lot healthier in calories than the leading brands.

Annnnnnnnd........we have a winner. This is me entirely. I wish we could talk. :(

I have this very problem. I have been able to squish my all day long always hungry feeling and can do great with my calories, but come night time I just can't get through the evening without at least one snack. When I first started calories counting I would eat my calories before night time even came under the idealistic hope I would be a good girl and stay out of the kitchen. I just can't do it. I Love food I will always love food and it is my small reward after a long day of chasing a toddler. I like to sit down either read, play a game or watch tv once my son is in bed and I need a special treat when I am doing it. So now I have trimmed back on the extra calories in my meals and save some for night. If I don't I will go over my limit and all was for naught. Naturally, I don't eat as much junk at night as I did before but maybe half a candy bar or a jello cup with fruit or some popcorn. Sometimes I just have to have chocolate, and if I don't get it I feel deprived and then next thing you know I am not on a diet anymore.

Oh, I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but you could start counting (whatever way you portion control) at night. Maybe your day's worth of calories/points/exchanges/carbs starts at 9pm, then you count until 9pm the following day.

If anything, it's a mind game and gets you to adjust during the day when you don't have so much temptation to binge, but it really helps!

I have this problem as well.
 

I used to have huge cravings at night and I learned its due to your blood sugar/insulin at that time. However, I'm on the ideal protein diet and the cravings are gone, but I still have the habit of going for food at that time. I can easily not eat the whole day and then 10pm-2am hits and I'm eating pasta and all kinds of stuff I shouldn't.

I do this A LOT! I can follow a "diet" or eat well during the day, and after I get home from work in the evenings, I start eating dinner, then it's like I can't stop and I just begin eating everything in sight! Then I'm kicking myself afterwards and I begin to feel crappy for eating like that, then I go to bed and cycle continues on and on, day after day.
This week I have been off work, spending some time at home and I have noticed myself eating a lot more. I'm kicking myself for that one too. I've got to get back into the groove of exercising, walking, eating clean, etc. I feel awful when I don't.
This time of the year (in the US) is so hard considering all the holidays coming up and I seem to eat more fatty/comfort foods in the fall/winter months!
Gotta get back on track!!! Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way!

I have the exact same problem. I pack my lunch and rarely go out for lunch, so I do fine during the day. I have quick and easy meals for breakfast, such as microwavable egg white, canadian bacon, and cheese on a whole-grain muffin (from aldi) or a meal replacement shake.

Once I get home, I usually eat whatever my mom makes, so its usually calorie dense. Then, I just keep craving junk the rest of the night even though I already reached my calorie allowance. I need to work on self-control.

Evenings right after work are my worst time for compulsive eating, because that's my way of releasing tension. So, yes, definitely. But I've never been a late night snacker like most people. Just a large dinner where I eat way more than my body needs. I'm getting better at that through meditation to help reduce anxiety.

I know this sounds weird, but every time I wanna eat at night I use some mouth wash and food (and by food I mean chocolate which is my weakness at night) and chocolate taste weird after brushing your teeth or using mouth wash.

Just saw this topic again. Grateful that it's here for me tonight because I'm really frustrated by this behavior of mine!

I have been using food to self medicate in the evenings, and this causes me to totally overeat. Once I start, can't seem to stop myself. So I just asked myself why start? I can make really great choices during the day, but in the evening, once I get home from work, I get edgy and my brain starts buzzing and I have been using food to numb. I start eating, even if I'm not hungry. And even if I have plenty of calories left at the end of the day, I'll eat all those and then more, until I'm stuffed and sleepy.

I often wondered how I could just break up with food altogether, because the fat would melt away if I could do that! I've been able to give up a lot of different foods for health reasons. I can manipulate macronutrients very easily. But quantity and timing seems to be an elusive thing for me to manage.

I have been able to sustain intermittent fasting for quite a long time, just not eating from the moment I go to sleep until about 2 the next day. 16-hr. fasts. But in those 8 remaining hours, I can eat ALL my calories for the day. So IF becomes useless.

So now I'm going try to shift my eating window to 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., because I seem to be able to control quantity and content best during those hours, and I'll just avoid eating altogether after 2 p.m.

I have to find another way to deal with the evening edginess. Push-ups!

I notice that I munch late at night when I'm feeling particularly anxious or stressed. It doesn't really help that hubby and I have totally different schedules, and he goes to bed by 9pm, leaving me alone and a little lonely up until 11pm. 9-11pm is pretty dangerous territory for me and that's when I reach for snack foods, mostly salty. When whatever event that I'm stressed about passes I feel fine again and immediately start craving more raw foods. I hate stress and anxiety!!!

This sums it up for me! I finished grad school last year, and am working long hours at two jobs to try to pay off student loans. After seeing patients all day, when I get home, it is like my self control goes out the window. I convince myself that I "deserve" things that are not the best choices because I have worked so hard, had a crappy day, etc. Ugh.

Kenda

You are definitely not the only one! I do the same thing! Everything was great until I got back to school -_- I'm literally paying for food on campus on top of giving money to the vending machines. I tried tactics like not having money on me and stuff, but that wasn't getting to the root of my problem. I really need to listen to my body and what it wants. It wont be easy, but it is definitely possible for all of us!

What's been working for me is to find foods that are healthy alternatives to the foods I crave at night. It's usually a salty snack and a sweet snack. So I might have some no-oil popcorn or whole grain pretzels and some dried cranberries. I take a serving (which is always enough). It's been working out pretty well as I realize that I just need to meet the craving and it's my choice if it's a healthy or non-healthy alternative.

And I also always have a bottle of water at my side - that helps a lot!

Tam