Late-Night/Midnight Cravings?

Question

I am a HUGE night time eater. If I'm going to binge, it's at night. Now, I'm basically on a diet if I can even call it that. I'm eating 5-6 small meals a day, however, I do tend to stay up late at night and that's when I'm most vulnerable to over eating or eating period and my family is no help either.

What can I do to cut out the cravings? My stomach feels empty at night(not right now, I just had Chilis) and makes all sorts of noises and while that gives me a little will power to not eat cause it means I'm eating less, I feel like I'll slip up:/

I'm trying not to eat past the 7 p.m.- 8 p.m. slot

I'm considering diet pills to help suppress appetite but they usually have caffeine which is bad.

How can I cut the cravings out?

nermalinda · Accepted Answer

I love to eat at night. So I tend to eat less in the morning so that I can save my calories for night. Some people say eating at night is bad, makes you fat, etc, but I don't believe it. I don't think it matters when you get your calories as long and the number of calories is right.

Also, when your body thinks it's not getting enough food, it sends out all these chemicals that do all kinds of crazy things. Like one thing is it can actually make you WANT to stay up late in order to get you to eat more calories. Or it can prevent you from being able to sleep until you eat. The other thing is, a lot of times, when the body wants or needs sleep, it will make you hungry in an effort to make you eat carbs and get sleepy. So sleeping can really help you want less calories.

Have you ever tried very gradually increasing your calories? Like adding 100 calories for a week? I heard on some calorie counting forums that people sometimes diet to the point where they are at a lowish calorie level and then they start getting hungry, cravings, binging etc. But if they raise their cals, they will gain weight.

Some people seem to find that if they very gradually increase their calories their body might either not gain anything or gain like 1 pound then lose it while they maintain those new calories, then they can move up again. So by eating a tad more, they are actually able to raise their metabolism by like a few hundred calories over time and maintain their ideal weight on more calories.

I have been having a slightly similar problem and I've come to the conclusion that I cut my calories too low too fast for my body to be able to burn the fat then slow my metabolism enough to make me not be hungry at the calories I would need to maintain.

My current plan is to bump my calories back up to maintenance, then I'm going to very slowly cut back until I start losing again, then maintain that until I plateau, then cut, then hold, then cut until I lose all the weight. Theoretically this should decrease hunger. The weight loss will be slower, but it will be sustainable.

I got this info mostly from like bodybuilders who are masters at manipulating body fat levels, so I'm guessing it will work. It's my best bet atm.

If you're not into all this calorie manipulation, the best advice I can give is to eat more and more water rich foods with higher volume. Even foods with more air in them to make you feel fuller. If you feel like you might binge, try eating a giant salad and/or a big raw food smoothie made with high water fruits and a few veggies. That way, you get lots of nutrients, your stomach gets full, but the calories are MUCH lower than what they would be with any other foods.

So I would say eat the giant salad and/or the low cal smoothie and make yourself go to bed right away.

whatson · Accepted Answer

I have started to drink a protein shake/smoothie in the evening and it usually fills me up. I found a vanilla chai one that I drink and it works really well. I could easily go all day without food if I had to, no problem. At night though, I struggle like you do. It's a really common thing to occur when the sun goes down because of the serotonin/melatonin relationship.

Please don't take diet pills, I have been near desperate to try them as well but there are just too many sad stories about people using them.

Sometimes if I really want to eat, I'll jump in my bath tub for a while. The warm water usually helps curb the hunger feelings and I can't go back and forth to scour the panty/fridge if I'm in the tub.

KarKingJack · Accepted Answer

Is there any foods that are sort of null point when it comes to your diet? Like you can eat loads of it and it won't affect it good or bad? For me its cheese. So if there is, you can snack on that at nighttime

moloz · Accepted Answer

How exactly do you satisfy these cravings? With what I mean.

charizzle · Answer

there are appetite control foods/drinks that suppress your hunger for the time being, and they do not have a lot of calories. one of them is apples, and water. here's a link explaining to you how you can suppress your appetite with certain foods/drinks link

i eat A LOT and am known to be a bottomless pit and it scares people. though I have a high metabolism, I still have to control my eating. so what I usually do is have an apple, or drink a huge glass of water, or eat a stick of celery, and then go to bed so I sleep the hunger away until the next morning when it's time for breakfast. lol.

ZenQueen · Answer

I love some hot tea, it fills me up and makes me sleepy, make sure it's herbal/no caffeine and avoid sugar/honey. I used to be like you, well I have my days still, usually I would eat so much til I passed out, It was the only way I could sleep. If you are eating throughout the day then I don't see how those are hunger pains, maybe just your stomach digesting? go for a night walk, try to get away from your fam , I know how hard that is when they are all eating around you, maybe join a 24 hour gym just so you have a place to get away to.

Butterfly_kisses09 · Answer

Just get a healthy snack. Maybe something like fruit, yogurt, a granola bar, anything like that won't mess up your diet. As long as you arn't eating junk food, you should be okay.

vishna · Answer

try to eat more fiber late at night and drink lots and lots and lots of water, lol if you were asleep you wouldn't feel the hunger pains :)

bel42 · Answer

lol , am the same way.  I just finished eating a full packet of cookies. Anyway , just drink lots of water. Or replace the foods you eat at night with fruits.

dudeman · Answer

i just drink a lot of water

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