So, I have a confession to make; I am a die-hard midnight snacker.
I've heard conflicting things about whether or not eating at night is particularly harmful to one's diet, though I've heard "you should stop eating after 7 or 8 PM" a number of times. So, I've tried a lot of things. I've tried eating larger meals during the day, drinking a lot of water at night, going to bed hungry and trying to "tough it out", etc. etc. etc.... To no avail. No matter what I do, I always feel hungry at night, even when I meet my calorie goals (or even exceed them). Must be in my wiring or something, I guess.
Eventually, I just decided that fighting my body on this was not going to be a winning battle, so I've instead set calories aside for eating at night, and plan out healthy snacks for nighttime. It seems to be helping (or, at the very least, not hurting), but I'm curious if other people have had this struggle and what they've done that helps. I'm also curious if eating at night is detrimental to weight loss or not, in everyone's experience.
It sounds like you've already make a great compromise for your night eating! Great job!!
Most people I've seen or spoken with have said that no, eating at night does not interfere with weight loss. Some people work odd shifts and the only time they can eat is at night. Others are bigger eaters at night.
My first big change to start losing weight was not eating after 7pm. But that was it. No exercise, etc. Night time was my biggest snacking time. So for me, it was only about the fact that I wasn't eating.
You made a great compromise and you said it seems to be working. If it continues working that's awesome!!
I ate late at night while losing weight and I still do. Didn't slow my weight loss nor has it kept me from now maintaining. I always make sure to leave some calories for a late snack.
Whether you eat between 7am-7pm or space your intake out through out the day (and night), as long as your calories in are less than your calories out, you will lose weight.
Case and point: I have struggled with disordered eating since I was 17/18ish, and most of that time was spend heavily restricting my calories. I managed to starve myself down to 92lbs by eating a cliff bar for breakfast (8-9am-ish depending on my college classes) and then not eating until well after I got home, and having another clif bar at bed to keep me from waking at night due to an empty belly.
Not a healthy way to lose weight - and I can prove that as when trying to recover from that I have rebounded my way to where I currently am weight wise)... If your body needs a late night snack, factor it into your daily diet. If you're counting calories, cut back 50-100 or so from each meal and use those extra calories for that snack that your body needs.
I struggle with the same thing. I am ALWAYS hungry at night no matter what. I am still learning and wish I had some words of wisdom. I started having a small bag of popcorn to help me.
I always save ~100-300 calories for snacks, popcorn, fruit, whatever for late at night. I tend to stay up late (studying, or just messing around) and I realized that I would NEVER be able to cut late night snacking so I may as well just account for it.
On the bright side, it's never seemed to get in the way of progress.
I always considered the 'no eating after 7/8pm' thing was more about stopping mindless snacking than some magical thing involving your body being able to tell time.
Most evening eating is done without care, a handful of this, a bowl of that, almost something to do with your hands when you're distracted by the evening entertainment. If you have a strict no snacking after 7 rule, you don't have that bag of chips, or bowl of popcorn or that second bowl of cereal that you're not even paying attention to.
On the other hand, setting calories aside for a midnight snack is a fantastic idea, and planning them out so you don't go for the easy (and usually not as good for you) options is an excellent idea.
I admit midnight snacking was never my vice, but I have been known to eat supper at 10pm depending on my day and it's never affected my weight loss compared to the days I eat at 6, so long as I'm careful to eat the same amount, and not gorge because it's been 4 extra hours and I'm very hungry
I dont get home from work until midnight. I have coworkwrs who dont eat, but i have no idea how they do it. I've easily walked two miles between lunch and when i get home. I always was a bad night time eater even before though. Bag of popcorn led to many other binge snacks. Focusing on good food that n nourished my body seemed to help. I think before my body thought it was "starving" because it wasnt getting what it needed.
THANK YOU so much for your insight and encouragement so far, everyone!! I'm always nervous that I'm somehow messing up my progress unintentionally by doing this or that... It makes sense that the real enemy isn't eating at a certain hour, but MINDLESS eating at a certain hour.
I'll continue to have my little midnight snacks, and feel a little less guilty about "losing the battle with myself" in terms of not being able to shift my eating schedule. I was half-jokingly thinking to myself that I should relocate to a different time zone to accommodate it, but then I'd probably just get hungry at midnight wherever I moved to!
I always eat pass 9PM and then have a snack around 10:30 with my allergy medicines, it has not interfere with my weight loss. Like you I set aside the calories for those meals/snacks.
I think its worst to fight it, or eat the calories during the day, at night before bed i ALWAYS crave a snack, it can be fruit or a glass of almond milk but if I don't have it Im just EXTREMELY annoyed and end up hitting the fridge eating spoon fulls of shredded cheese cuz Im over it.
What my nutritionist told me is that it's not bad to eat at night specifically, it's just bad to eat before you go to sleep. When your body's not awake and still digesting (which can take from 30min to 2 hours, usually, depending on what you ate), it chooses to store a lot more food since it doesn't need it right now. So it can hinder your weight loss if it's storing so much.
I eat a lot at night, too, and it's something I'm having a lot of trouble getting out of. But if it's been 2-3 hours since I last ate, I won't deny myself a proper snack. Otherwise, I'm just denying my body the nutrition it needs. If I'm going to sleep soon, I'll try to have something lighter, not in the caloric sense, just in the "not making me feel too full" sense (e,g,: having a fruit over a sandwich since bread would make me feel full and give me some trouble sleeping).
That's just my personal choices, though! Seems like you're doing okay (:
Like others have said, it doesn't necessarily hinder weight loss to snack at night. However, eating before you go to bed has a lot of drawbacks. For one, it's not good for digestion - take it from someone who was unknowingly suffering from silent reflux before it became full fledged acid reflux. When I gave up night snacking it was very difficult and now it's just routine, I haven't eaten anything after 7pm in months. I'm used to it.
How long are you staying up and how many hours of sleep do you get at night? A minimum of 7hrs keeps snack attacks at bay for me. Sometimes if I'm up late and I get a snack attack I know that's just my body telling me "I either need sleep or energy right now" so I give it sleep rather than food.
I'm the opposite: hungrier earlier in the day. I also like to be "done with food" by a certain time of day, so I don't have to think about it anymore (what will I have? should I have this? should I have that?, etc.).
The only time I'm not hungry late at night is when I'm unconscious as in asleep I'm naturally a night owl, which can be challenging for will power. Currently I'm fighting off a regain, but when I was dieting successfully, I had a few go-to relatively low calorie snacks for when I lost the will power fight: dill pickles, celery and hummus, celery and PB2, cracker chips and light sour cream, or 14 natural almonds were my usual (I'd try to keep it 100 calories or under.) So I do think reserving calories for a late night snack can work just fine! If I had a little bit of will power, I'd stave off the cravings by drinking water -.- not very satisfying, but sometimes worked. Good luck
Dealing with Midnight Snacking
I'm naturally a night owl, which can be challenging for will power. Currently I'm fighting off a regain, but when I was dieting successfully, I had a few go-to relatively low calorie snacks for when I lost the will power fight: dill pickles, celery and hummus, celery and PB2, cracker chips and light sour cream, or 14 natural almonds were my usual (I'd try to keep it 100 calories or under.) So I do think reserving calories for a late night snack can work just fine! If I had a little bit of will power, I'd stave off the cravings by drinking water -.- not very satisfying, but sometimes worked. Good luck 