nighttime sweets

[dewdrop129]

my number one weaness and struggle is sweets. Moreover, I mainly only have sugar cravings at night. If anyone has sugestions for food that could fool or satisfy the late night sweets cravings (besides will power lol) without totally destroying cal and sugar goals. PLEASE lol

[USAF-Larry]

I don't  normally do late night snacking, @dewdrop129, but when I do need a snack I get about 3/4 cup of Stonyfield Whole Milk Vanilla Yogurt.  It is healthy, tastes good, and satisfies any craving.

[emili]

Frozen yogurt pops by Yasso. Each one is 100 calories and so tasty. You can also try Fiber One 90 calorie snack cakes. They are kind of small, but with a cup of hot tea- so good. There is of course always fruit. You can have 10 ounces of strawberries for 90 calories- add a little stivia or sugar free syrup and its devine.

[marfar]

One of the explanations for which here's something sweet is due to decreased suprarenal gland function. When we are stressed, glands secrete adrenalin as we ready for a great battle, and if appetite for sweet appears succumb, it releases serotonin which calms us. How can we keep all this away? If you have enough willpower, you can go "mental" over these desires. If you do not succeed through self-motivation, I recommend: - evening eating a handful of seeds or nuts. There is a strong link between appetite for sweet and lack of healthy fats in our liver. /- rest, relaxation, 8 hours of sleep per night /- cinnamon, studies have shown that cinnamon inhibit appetite for sweet considerably /- try to eat an apple, some dried fruit or a small piece of dark chocolate (> 70% cocoa) /- eat in the morning /- add supplements that also contain chromium /- drink plenty of water (minimum 2 liters per day). Water must be drunk slowly and in small portions.

[dawnleigh]

I used to be big on sweets in the evening too so I make sure that I feel full after dinner, and I try to get out of the habbit of mindless snacking while watching television, but when I do feel like having sweets I have a go-to box of homemade cookies and muffins under 150 cals each. Popcorn (not in melted butter obviously) is also a good quick sweet snack to make.

[Ssozi]

Try fruits. A banana or an apple. Though still not recommended for night, but at least you will get other benefits, healthy benefits, like fibers in bananas, feel full, without necessarily triggering fat building tricks in your body.

[USAF-Larry]

Grab a handful of raisins. Nutritious, tastes good, and satisfies the craving....

[MercyIsleSiren]

We tend to go to two different options with single serving frozen dessert snacks.

Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches

Healthy Choice organic fudge bars

[A_Lurker]

Dried fruit (but watch the portions).

I know I'm always the voice of insanity, but how about some kind of sweet.  I know that I'm an evening snacker, so I save calories for it (usually 300 calories).  There's no point in pretending that I'm not going to have something so I plan for it.  I'm a Costco shopper and usually when I'm there I will pick up a box or two of prepackaged items.  (brookfield chocolate covered fruit-90 cals, welch's fruit gums-80 cals)

Other nights it will be cheese and crackers, or nuts, or trail mix. 

[modelmalina]

Hi,

I also had this problem. A friend of mine would always have something sweet at night.

Candy bar, ect. It started my habit. Luckily I decided to break it. I decided to try fruit at

night. A handful of raisins, an apple, or a banana ect. Try it and see if it helps you.

[Iowagirl70]

I love 1/4 cup of Ricotta cheese (low fat of course) with fresh or frozen berries. Tastes like I am having ice cream and comes in around 90 calories. 

[marfar]

Foods have different insulin response. Carbohydrates are absorbed as monosaccharides (,, decomposed into monosaccharides, carbohydrates are absorbed "- Human Physiology). Calories theory can not explain why you gain weight by eating often. If you want to lose weight you are interested to control the amount of carbohydrates (food quality), not counting calories! -calories can not explain why some pills, steroids, doubles your weight in the course of several months; -calories can not explain why an animal who was castrated whether you will gain weight eating less (hormone imbalance); -calories can not explain why overweight people eat less which do not weaken; -calories can not explain why insulin hypersecretion leads to obesity. Animals in nature does not calculate calories, but herbivores will fatten to survive the harsh winter. But animals do not have access to sugar, juices, cereal flour! Conclusions: weight control is done by hormones, not calories; no matter what time you eat counts to have sufficient break between meals, such as insulin to decrease. Insulin stimulates frequent meals - not what you want to do! No willpower to lose weight through exercise, but hormones are the ones that control weight!

[Dominique]

@marfar: I think you’re overthinking hormones and underplaying calories. Let’s take hormones: do they affect weight loss (or lack thereof)? Definitely. Can you use "quick fixes" (e.g. eat or do not eat certain food, and/or eat them at certain times of the day, or with a certain frequency) to "trick" them into doing what you want? I don’t think so. If you could, all doctors and other people with a thorough understanding of the way the human body works would do it and they’d all be super-lean and jacked. Yet, many doctors are overweight, or even obese, because overeating calories will always lead to weight gain, no matter how skillfully you tweak your hormones.

There’s this view that hormones are "bad hombres" that just want to sabotage your efforts to lose weight. Yes, elevated cortisol makes it more difficult to lose weight. Yes, poor insuline sensitivity also makes it more difficult to lose weight. Yet, all hormones (including cortisol and insuline) do serve a useful purpose. For instance, cortisol (stress hormone) is released after a tough workout: its role is to favour recovery and healing from the stress generated by the workout. The problem with cortisol is when you have multiple sources of stress (your boss yelling at you at work, your spouse yelling at you at home, insufficient sleep, stress from the weight loss you just started, stress from your newly increased activity etc.) that result in chronically elevated cortisol. Likewise, we know that carrying a lot of extra fact usually results in poorer insuline sensitivity. So what are the "fixes" to these hormonal problems? Well, reduce stress: maybe get a new, less stressful job, quit your spouse (maybe try to get counseling first!), sleep longer and better (your Fitbit can help), have a more reasonable caloric déficit, don’t try to do too much too soon with exercise, use the relaxation feature of your Fitbit (if supported) etc. For insuline: lose fat, so as to improve your insuline sensitivity. All of these "fixes" take time.

Calories, OTOH, are pretty straightforward: eat at a suitable/sustainable deficit and you will lose weight, no matter what you eat. Just like we became overweight/obese by eating at a surplus for long enough (not because of some weird conspiracy by the "bad hombres" hormones).  If you think calories don’t matter, how can you explain Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition, was able to lose a bunch of weight in two months eating a diet that consisted primarily of Twinkies and other junk food? How about the pizza chef who lost 94 pounds eating pizza everyday? My own rapid fat loss experiment, started at the beginning of the year, is totally calorie-based. It’s almost like clock-work:

I pay zero attention to my hormones, eat plenty of carbs (except on my low-calorie days, when I restrict everything except protein) and I started from a BMI of 22.4.  Let’s face it: calories always prime over macros, hormones, nutrient timing etc.

Now you’re saying that all calories are not equal. What you’re really talking about is food quality. Calories are for gaining or losing weight, and for that a calorie is always a calorie (a unit of energy). Food quality is for health, satiation. Surely some food items are more nutritious (include vitamins, minerals, fibre etc.) than others; some (usually the same) also provide more satiety (for the same amount of calories), which makes it easier to lose weight (reduced hunger). But in the end, you still need a caloric deficit to lose weight, there’s no way around it.

[marfar]

@DominiqueThanks for the detailed answer! That means study and deep knowledge. The importatnt is not only to understand, but that what we know how to use it. You present a stunning result for a short time. If I was gain weight in 34 years I have patience to get results in 7 years! I started in January 2014. With a daily effort feeding and move! And I will present the results in January 2021. As partial results, from September 2014 no longer take pills for arrhythmia, fibrillation and tension (9 pills!) and also no longer necessary treatment for diabetes. I am glad of the results each one!

[RonnVee]

I have found that I dont have sugar cravings as long as I eat enough protein - 60-70gms a day. 

[SHANNON.D]

Sorry if anyone has already mentioned this but I tend to always have a sweet tooth at night too and my alternative is to have one block of dark chocolate (85% cocoa) and a cup of green tea. Not two of the most appealing night snacks every yet I have to admit... you get used to them:)