I'm having a huge problem w/ night time eating. I don't know why but it's like after 8pm all I want to do is eat. I do pretty good throughout the day but then night time hits and I feel like I'm starving. I don't know what to do to stop this. I know I have a problem w/ will power and thats something I have to work on but at this rate I'm never gonna lose any weight. I'm so upset w/ myself right now I just needed to vent. Any suggestions or advice welcome. Thanks.

What kind of activities do you do in the evening? I find if I'm too sedentary, particularly watching tv, the munchies hit really hard. Same if I have any alcohol.

My solutions are to drink a lot of water and go for an evening walk. You also might want to try having a handful of nuts around 8pm. That often takes the edge off for me.

I go brush my teeth right after supper. This helps signal me that my eating is done for the day.

I also chew a lot of gum in the evenings.

When the weather is decent I go for walks in the evenings, just like Ferumbras. It helps.

Handicrafts such as knitting or crocheting, that sort of activity, helps keep my hands out of the cookie jar.

I don't think there is any one easy answer to the problem of evening snacking. We just gotta keep trying.

Oh, I forgot. Another good way for me to not think about the munchies is that in the evenings, my husband and I often play a card/board game (Dominion rocks!). That keeps my mind busy and it's fast-paced enough that there's no time to go to the kitchen for a snack. If I did, he'd yell at me for making him wait.

I also have a huge issue with eating at night at around 8pm (even after, like you said, doing great and staying on plan all day). I count calories and I have started saving around 500 calories out of my 1500/day specifically for eating at night. I try to drink water all day long, which helps with the full stomach feeling. I also make really low-calorie foods to eat at night, like a couple of cups of hot broth with some veggies or ground turkey in it (50-150 calories for what feels like a lot of food). I find that really fills me up. I also have a cut-off time for eating around 10pm, depending on how late I get home from work/school and when I plan on going to bed.

Recently, I have been having a lot of issues with night binging and stress eating, and I have started actually setting a timer for 15-20 minutes and setting my food aside for that amount of time until I am allowed to take another bite. Forcing myself to wait helps me feel fuller and helps the compulsion to eat subside at least a little. Also, sometimes I am binging because I am tired and trying to relieve stress from my day; it only recently occurred to me that if I am really tired and I want to eat, maybe I should just go to bed! LOL.

Personally, the first thing I had to do was evaluate WHY I was snacking. The simple answer for me was -- I was bored. The only thing that worked for me was keeping healthy snacks around like carrots or cucumbers instead of my ol’ standby of chips and dip. I wasn’t going to beat the boredom by going for a walk especially after working out. And water was just not cutting it. Sometimes having a cup of coffee or tea helps me too. I just can’t, under any circumstances, have bad munchies in the house. If I don’t have it, I can’t eat it. And I never have to hear it calling me from the kitchen.

Thanks everyone It really helped hearing that others have/had the same problem and what you've done to get through it. I think I eat b/c I am bored and I also have problems w/ depression. Sometimes, ok a lot of times, food is a comfort to me. Soooo I'm going to go the grocery and stock up on carrots and cucumbers. That way I can munch but it won't kill my calories I think I'll also find something to do in the evenings to take my mind off of thinking I'm hungry. So I guess I need to take this one step at a time till I find what works for me. Thanks again everyone.

I just can't keep things in the house that I will go after. No chips, cookies, etc. I keep cucumbers and salad as my anytime foods.

I also plan my evening snack - typically a carton of yogurt.

There are lots of reasons for your struggle. Hopefully you can use the support here to develop new habits.

It's possible that you might explore Overeaters Annonymous for eating compulsions. Good luck