Midnight snack queen
 

So about a year ago my husband and I started a new job as therapeutic house parents. It's incredibly stressful as rewarding and unfortunately it had jumped my snacking, especially when the kids get to bed. Due to the dangerous combo of snacking and it at night had caused me to gain weight. I want to be at a point where I don't need to snack at night. Any suggestions?

I'm a night forager; I can't sleep without my snack so I plan for it by eating
less during the day so I can have my night time snack. It's easier to keep
busy during the day and then after everyone is in bed and I have time to
myself I like to have my comfort snack. I tried to do without it but since
it is important to me, I just plan for it.

I'm the same as Michele Friday, I too like a "midnight snack" in fact most nights I find I can't do without it. I do the same thing, I hold back a certain number of calories to have a snack. I can't seem to sleep on an empty stomach, and a glass of skimmed milk and an apple late at night helps me a lot. :)

Everybody's body and needs are different,buy in my case I know that when I get the midnight munchies it means something is wrong. Either I have not eaten enough in the day or I am using food as a eat to relax before I go to bed, especially if I'm craving carbs.

Whatever method of eating you are following your primary goal has to be satisfaction. You have to meet your nutritional, psychological, and bodily needs. I try to do this by fully sitting and enjoying my meals (mindful eating), getting good sleep, downtime, a dose of exercise and some meaningful joy during the day such as spending time with someone I love, meditating, visiting a beautiful place or enjoying a hot cup of tea. The point is that your body has a lot of needs.
When we load our schedule with work and deprive ourselves with restrictive diets out bodies rebel and demand the easiest satisfaction there is, food. That's why I say that midnight snacking alerts me to something being off in my day - If I have met my needs my body does not demand cookies at 11pm.

If I don't get proper nutrition during the day, I will get up in the middle of sleeping and go eat while still 95% asleep. It's awful. Then I wake up feeling sick, too.

For me, eating dinner as early as 7pm or as late as 9pm helped a lot. Then I have food in me when I go to bed. That solved my night eating problem.

This might sound stupid but have you tried not snacking after dinner? I understand stress and cravings but are you actually hungry?

If you are actually hungry than you've already gotten some good suggestions but the main things I would think about trying are:

Eating supper later

Eating a larger supper

I tend to eat more of my calories in the evening. I haven't really had a problem with the midnight munchies, but eating more calories in the evening-time seems to work better for me for some reason. Perhaps your body is also wired similarly?

I'm lucky. The one thing I love more than food is sleep. So I skip dinner, go to sleep slightly hungry, wake up real hungry but lose over night.

If I were not so lucky then I would try a boiled egg or two or a glass of milk before going to bed.

Heck, I'd even have a boiled egg as a mid-night snack if I had to.

Or canned fish. But that's an Ian thing and you probably do not want to go there if you share a bed.