Hello!

I am a long-time lurker-- it's about time I posted!

I lost a huge chunk of weight when I was 15 (I am 23 now) and have been maintaining ever since. My weight is actually on the low side of "normal" right now; I am currently at 138-140 and am 6'.

My biggest problem is eating at night. I have a horrible habit of restricting what I eat during the day/getting too busy to eat (I'm a grad student) and then eating over half my daily calories over the course of the evening. I know it's not healthy, but it's habit now and I don't know how to change. Occasionally I even wake up in the middle of the night hungry! I always make reasonably good food choices, but still....

A little more background info: I usually end up eating 1600-1800 calories, including night-time noshing (never ever more than 2000) and I get a reasonable amount of exercise (though not strenuous-- I walk for at least 1 hour/day and always take the stairs, etc.)

Does anyone have any advice? I feel like I'm in a rut and I inevitably wake up feeling guilty about what I ate the night before. At the same time, I feel guilty eating too much during the day!

Thanks, and you have all been a source of inspiration, whether I've vocalized that before or not

I've never been a big after dinner snacker (my weak spot is afternoons) but here are some tactics you could try:

1. Plan for a single, healthy snack after dinner

2. Declare the kitchen "closed" after a certain time

3. Brush AND floss and use mouth rinse after you eat your healthy snack. It's really hard for me to eat something when I have fresh, minty mouth

4. Get busy in the evenings - call your mom, come post here, spend the evening at your university library

5. You are in a habit - bust the habit, do something differently

6. Don't make excuses to why you can't do something, think about how you can make changes - what are you willing to change to change this behavior?

7. Limit your access to food in this danger zone. At home - completely clean out all the cupboards, buy just enough healthy food on a weekly basis to get through the week, no extras. When you're out, don't have any cash/change for the vending machines, keep healthy snacks with you

8. If you are having guilty thoughts about what you eat during the day, when you say you don't eat very much during the day, it might be time to see a counselor who specializes in eating disorders. Not saying you are crazy or sick AT ALL - but it's not good if you're scared to eat a healthy number of calories during the day. I would be afraid of doing more harm than good to offer advice in this area.

Good luck!

I have a really busy schedule at work that doesn't always allow me to eat, or I eat less because I'm so busy and stressed.

But it doesn't do me any favours at night when I'm eating late and hungry. I often bring a huge bag of snacks and food to work and try and make myself eat when it's time. Just stop and eat for a few minutes at lunch, for a snack. Even if I'm not super-hungry at that moment because of stress, I know if I don't eat I'll be starving later and reach for crap.

Don't feel guilty eating too much during the day. That's when you should be eating, even if it makes you feel a little stuffed or odd at first.

Wow, thanks for your helpful posts. I have exactly the same problem with eating a night. I try to eat between 3:30pm and 4:00 in the afternoon but then I have a really hard tiem making it without eating again later. And, if I do, I cannot loose any weight. Even a crumb in the evening translates into no weight loss or weight gain the next day. The teeth brushing, declaring the kitchen closed etc were helpful. Thanks.

I'd say to bring stuff with you and on the way to class munch on things, bring a sandwhich and eat it when you have a few minutes- then later eat some fruit that you've brought, and so on. Obviously at night you are hungry cuz you haven't eaten all day. I found that I had to tell myself that things can wait- taking out 5-15 minutes a day to just eat something won't hurt my day. The hw can wait 15 minutes, the samples I'm running will be fine waiting in the incubator, and so on.

Hi kitkat,

You identify two issues in your post, back-to-back - that you are "too busy" to eat during the day, but that you feel very guilty and are restrictive about eating during the day. It sounds more to me like the latter is your difficulty, not that you're really too busy. If you don't eat enough during the day, I'd guess that's the direct cause of your nighttime overeating - if you're denying your body too much, it will find a way to get those calories it needs. It doesn't sound like you're eating too many calories at all, and that you are somewhat aware that you should be eating more during the day.

I would suggest planning out what you'll be eating for the day the night before, even the weekend before, and doing some prep work so that your food is sitting right there in the fridge for you to grab and take with you the next day. (I personally have more time on the weekends, so I will prep for most of the week on Sunday.) Cut up your veggies, hard boil eggs, make sandwiches, wraps, salads, fruit, granola or protein bars... whatever you eat, figure out how much and put it in a lunch bag to take with you. They have some very stylish lunch bags these days. Throw a re-usable freezer pack in and you're set. Then just eat something at regular intervals. I know it isn't appropriate in all environments, but a lot of people don't actually care if you eat discreetly during a meeting or class. Make the time to eat!

If you are really unable to eat during the day, I refer to Glory's post - #8.

And don't keep lurking, join in the conversation! Good luck.

First of all, congrats on your maintenance!

I have a couple suggestions. The first is that in order to make sure you are eating enough during the day, I would recommend scheduling in food. Bring your food to school/work with you, then set it up like, "At 10am I will eat an apple," "At 2pm I will eat some cottage cheese," etc. If you tabulate the calories beforehand of exactly how much you'll eat during the day, then it might help with the fear of daytime overeating. I don't know what you're in grad school for, but if it's something that involves being in a lab where you can't eat, then you can schedule "food breaks," which might be a good excuse to get out of the lab and walk around some.

Also, at night, one trick I use is to drink hot tea if I'm still hungry. It's suprisingly filling. Sometimes I'll say, I think I'm hungry, so I'll have a cup of tea. If I'm still hungry after the tea then I can eat. Since it's hot, it takes a while to drink, and that may be enough that I'm not hungry anymore.

Thanks for the advice! I did way better yesterday. Making more of an effort to evenly distribute my calories throughout the day is definitely key. Also, I think that I am generally shooting a little low with my calorie goals-- I am quite active, and I have a feeling that I need more than 1600 to maintain, so it makes sense that my body is telling my to eat more!