how to stop night snacking

[spamsk8r]

Sorry, but there's nothing wrong with a handful of baked white flour or most tortilla chips. It's not like I'm eating a bagful of doritos.

You're kidding, right? Yeah, there's nothing wrong with a huge insulin spike before bed. Or eating things with zero nutritional value. Nothing at all.

 

[Kaido]

I'm 6' 0'', ~173 lbs. I decided a while ago that I needed to do something about my gut and excess fat, so I started to get my ass in gear. I joined a boxing gym and made my diet, as far a I can tell, very healthy.

I've been doing pretty well with everything, but I have one major problem still: Night snacking. No matter how well or how much I eat during the day, I always find myself going for snacks at night when I sit down to relax. The snacks vary. Sometimes I eat decently-healthy things, like yogurt with granola and fruit. Other times I eat things like pretzels, chips and salsa, or sugar and fat-filled cakes and sweets.

I'm having a really hard time with this. Sometimes, the craving for something to snack on is overwhelming, and that's when I get into trouble. I really, really want to stop this nonsense because I've been doing so well, and I don't want to undo the hard work I'm doing with my diet and exercise.

So guys, do you have any suggestions on how I might curb my cravings for food at night and stop snacking?

Go to bed early.

I'm not kidding. Also, graze throughout the day. I eat 5 to 7 small meals a day. By the end of the day, my desire for snacks is greatly minimized. My last meal of the day is usually a couple tablespoons of natural peanut butter, which has a lot of fat to fill me up.

 

[gramboh]

If you're worried about body comp, and your diet is mainly under control (sounds like it is), I would focus on lifting heavy weights and increasing your weight to at least 185, you will look more impressive (shirt on and off). There's no point to having visible abs if you are a stick.

 

[NAC]

I know the habit. It was hard for me to break also. For me it was a few things:
1.Don't have bad foods in the house.
2.Drink water when you are hungry.
3.Allow yourself as much of something very low calorie as you want. Like celery. Or cucumber with a little seasoning salt which is pretty yummy. Or any other non-starchy vegetable. In the beginning I ate it because of my habit of eating. After a while I found I just didn't want it.
4.Also, although this probably doesn't impact a habit of night eating, I like to have a protein shake before bed.