Did a little shopping this AM. A clerk called me tiny....twice. I don't think I look timy but I admit being called tiny is preferable to being asked if you are pregnant when you are not.I have had that experience as well.

Fellow maintainers, I really need some help. I cannot consistently control my after-dinner eating and it's been causing me to regain slowly but consistently. I have been struggling to stay at 126 the last few weeks and all my skirts/pants are clearly tighter, suggesting that my weight is creeping even higher.

I've tried leaving the kitchen (I just sneak back in later, as though the scale won't notice if DH doesn't), tried allowing myself a 100-cal evening snack (it snowballs into 300+), tried a strict no-food-after-dinner policy (I obsessively think about food all evening until I'm shaking with the need to nosh), tried distracting myself with work (I just get snacks to eat in front of the laptop), etc. I just don't know what to do. Every morning I tell myself that today I won't give in, but at least 1 day in 3 I do. Yesterday was particularly egregious- I must have eaten nearly 1000 calories of almonds. Annoyingly, my belly doesn't feel bloated, I don't feel sick afterward, and I thoroughly enjoy the food both while I'm eating it and after I'm done, so it's hard to call it a binge, though I'm clearly out of control. It's only the next morning that the regret sets in (and I can't face weighing on the scale).

I maintained for several years without having a nightly battle like this. I don't understand what's going on. WHAT CAN I DO?

Do you plan your daily meals ? If not, why not try it ? That way you can make an allowance for your evening snack.

Andrea-- I'm sorry you're struggling. Do you think there is something emotional or stressful behind this? I like Bargoo's idea but I'm not sure if it will work for you. What about planning on doing something in the evenings to get you out of the house? A long walk or a bike ride, followed by a bath and bed!
Hugs. I'm sure this will pass but obviously you want to reign it in sooner rather than later.

neurodoc,

Can you rearrange your eating schedule to accommodate night eating? e.g. skip breakfast, tiny lunch, big dinner, snacks?

Neurodoc,

I struggled with that problem two years ago, for several months. In my case, I think it was some hangup about not wanting the "eating phase" of the evening to end, because that was also the "relaxing" phase of the evening. Once eating was over, I was forced to confront the coming work day by planning what to wear, finishing last-minute assignments, etc. And I didn't want to do that. I managed to separate the two, with difficulty, by first adding in a night yoga class (I normally hate exercising at night), then by having a ritual tea-and-ONE-cookie half hour before bed every night. It eventually worked. Maybe you can find a new rhythm to your evening.

Birchie, the additional weight training has made me ravenous right afterward, and through the rest of the day through dinner if I don't get in enough protein. I'm still figuring out how to eat the right way. But yes, I think that there is some gain involved. My waistband is a little tighter, but it's more noticeable in the quads.

I'm still wrapping my head around weight training and my goal for my body. I do know that what I once admired now looks a bit too frail to me. I used to agree that it was difficult to be too thin. (I know it's possible to be too rich.) Now I'm classifying some women at the gym as underweight. But that's a common aesthetic in the NY area, and for all I know, they work in high-end retail or the fashion industry.

This is so insightful. I know exactly what you mean. Mostly I feel this during those periods when work seems to be asking an awful lot of me, and when I haven't had any time off for a while.

I have two days off and feel guilty about it, honestly, but I am sworn not to check work email until Friday morning, when I go back.

JayZeeJay, that's it almost exactly- I don't want the "eating phase" of the evening to be over. In my case I think it's a combination of what you wrote (I too often get back to work after dinner), and the psychological effect of "that's it, no more food until breakfast." It doesn't matter that I'm not actually hungry any more, I just feel so deprived when I know that all my calories are gone for the day that I stupidly rebel. I think it would work if I could actually go back out somewhere after dinner, like to an exercise class (and kill 2 birds with one stone), but the hours between 6 pm (when I usually get home from work) and 9 pm are the only ones with my boys, and it's just not reasonable for me to walk out on them in order to avoid the kitchen.

Krampus, I kind of do that now: I eat ~240 cal at breakfast and ~360 cal at lunch and snack, allowing myself between 800-900 cal for dinner and dessert when I'm maintaining for a daily total of 1500 cal. But the thing is, I could easily eat double my daily calorie requirements in a 5 hour period if I let myself get too hungry by fasting (or nearly fasting) the rest of the day. And right now, since I've gained 5 pounds over my goal weight, I need to be eating at a deficit (1200 cal/day).

Somehow, I need to convince myself that my "full" signals need to be heard and obeyed (aka, Intuitive Eating) instead of my listening to my emotional urges for food when I'm not hungry. I used to do this naturally so I don't understand why it seems to elude me now. :>(

Andrea, I feel for you. I haven't had this particular problem (yet!) but we've all been there, metaphorically speaking. The never-ending war of maintenance, one battle at a time.

I hate to be the person who throws a book at every problem, but I really think the principles of the Beck book, based on CBT, could help you here. I mean, it sounds like - if there's no physical reason for hunger and more eating - that this has become a bad habit that needs to be changed, and that's what the book is all about. I read the book and applied her principles and exercises early on in my weight loss journey and they really made a difference. I don't really do them now at all, but for a period of about 3 months I totally committed - index cards, daily affirmations, the whole bit - and that gave me a huge kick in the pants to break some bad habits and build some new ones.

Of course, you might already have read the book or be using these strategies anyway, but it's worth a shot! If nothing else is working, there's something out there that will. (Yeah, I'm a bit of a Pollyanna.)

Oh, work kicked my butt this week and I am very behind on posts.

saef - I understand about the scale, but I must say that, given your posts and what I can infer, you could out-cardio and outlift me any day of the week. :) I, too, was lured into those IE threads and have read them with interest. I've been down that path before, though, and I know that I can't commit to the true non-diet mentality that everyone says is necessary to really have success with it. However, those threads have inspired me not to be so hard on myself. I'm also experimenting with putting in some (calorie counted) food in that I would normally avoid, because of the sugar or carb content. We'll see how that goes.

krampus - How are you doing? Are you planning to stay at the low end of maintenance through summer? Just curious, how much of a struggle has it been to get there and stay there?

Allison - I love PB2 mixed in Greek yogurt, too, as well as spread on top of a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich for dessert. I also mix it into frozen berries, which is kind of a weird texture, I guess, but I like it. I don't do protein shakes but it seems like it would be easy to use that way.

As for me, this week has been so busy I haven't had time to overeat. :) Good problem, I guess. This weekend I'll be at an outdoor festival and plan to allow myself a beer, and the food won't be the lowest calorie, but I feel confident that I can navigate and come up with a good option. Just no fries - they would have been a temptation before, but I've given up eating mediocre fries. And, let's be honest, outdoor festival fries are mediocre at best.

Today might be a challenge. Might. Yeah, should say will be a challenge. DH and I are golfing in a charity golf tournament. Lunch and dinner as well as food offered at several tee boxes on the course. And drinks. They always have drinks. At least I'll be getting some exercise.

I got my PB2 yesterday and forgot to bring some into work to mix with plain yogurt. I'll remember for next week.

Meanwhile, on the 4th of July challenge I joined as a way to kick myself in the butt, I'm down .7 this week. I was hoping for 1 pound, but I've been less than stellar on my exercise. My stupid DVD player in my bedroom won't let me load a disk so I gave up rather than use my laptop. That was my excuse. I really need to stop making excuses.

IE doesn't work for me at all. I apparently don't have any 'full' cues, and am always having 'hungry' cues. Even when I just ate.

Thank goodness, I'm down 3.4 pounds from that last scale reading.

I did this by cutting back on healthy snacks, particularly nuts, letting myself get hungry -- at moments, I've felt RAVENOUSLY hungry -- and keeping busy while traveling in the Poconos and in Upper Bucks County for two days.

I'm still higher than I want to be, but seeing some progress has really improved my disposition.

Jen and Shannon, thanks, as I'm bearing witness before you both: I'm giving myself permission to abandon any pretext whatsoever that I can learn Intuitive Eating habits. All that way of eating seems to do is give me another reason to reproach myself: Why can't I be more in touch my feelings? Why can't I live more naturally and shed some of the shackles of our 21st century civilization? Because I live a highly unnatural life, that's why. I sit at a desk with laptop for hours on hours. My sneakers never get mud on them because I'm surrounded by pavement and concrete. I'm in a car or riding the subway. Sometimes meetings run through lunchtime. Sometimes I commute from Connecticut, go to the gym, then can't eat till 8 PM. Sometimes if I want to fit in the gym before a full day at work, I've got to get up at 4:15 AM & eat breakfast immediately. I cannot go back to an Edenic state of living or state of mind. And I'm not going to beat myself up because I'm not willing to turn into Natural Outdoor Wise Woman. Fine for others. My connection with the outdoors is eating lots of vegetables while watching cable TV shows stream on my laptop. So it's okay that I cannot live a more natural, intuitive life that more closely resembles ancient times.

Hmmmmph, trying to cut resulted in extra pointless eating because I felt deprived. What a shocker! At least I'm not sitting down with 5,000 calories worth of junk food and gobbling it all down alone as I watch TV though, and my weight is spiking by 1 lb instead of 5+ overnight.

Also grumble grumble had 1 beer and felt like garbage all morning, can't metabolize alcohol well, grumble grumble.

I just went to lunch with my boss and had half a greasy roast beef and cheese sandwich with thousand island dressing and some chips. I threw out the other half and will probably make something vegetable-y at home for dinner later. Unfortunately tomorrow is a bridal shower that I did all the shopping for - 100% snacks, 80% carbs and 20% fat. Lots of dense stuff like nuts, dried fruit, cookies, cheese. Someone is making a cake. I really hope I don't OD on party snacks and then feel bad about it, because we all know that feeling stinks.