Nighttime cravings

[criley]

I eat really well all day long....then when I get home its like I turn into a gremlin (salty snacks, icecream, snacking in general...). This is the one aspect of my health & fitness routine that I am having a REALLY hard time changing. Any suggestions about what has worked for others?

Typical Day

-Breakfast: water & protein shake

-AM snack=fiber bar, water

-Lunch: protein bar or shake, yogurt, water

-afternoon snack=string cheese, water

-dinner (sometimes healthy-salad, veggies, sandwich, sometimes less healthy-pasta, quesadilla, nachos)

-workout

-recovery shake

-This is where it falls apart....chips, icecream, I just CRAVE a snack before going to bed.

I'm vegetarian, but am getting good amounts of protein, good amounts of water. I take daily vitamins, fiber, calcium. Fitbit tells me that I am hitting or exceeding my daily calories (before I start snacking). I honestly don't know if my body is really hungry vs. its just a bad habit.

[SunsetRunner]

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@criley wrote:

I eat really well all day long....then when I get home its like I turn into a gremlin (salty snacks, icecream, snacking in general...). This is the one aspect of my health & fitness routine that I am having a REALLY hard time changing. Any suggestions about what has worked for others?

Typical Day

-Breakfast: water & protein shake

-AM snack=fiber bar, water

-Lunch: protein bar or shake, yogurt, water

-afternoon snack=string cheese, water

-dinner (sometimes healthy-salad, veggies, sandwich, sometimes less healthy-pasta, quesadilla, nachos)

-workout

-recovery shake

-This is where it falls apart....chips, icecream, I just CRAVE a snack before going to bed.

I'm vegetarian, but am getting good amounts of protein, good amounts of water. I take daily vitamins, fiber, calcium. Fitbit tells me that I am hitting or exceeding my daily calories (before I start snacking). I honestly don't know if my body is really hungry vs. its just a bad habit.

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You are eating a lot of artificial manufactured processed food (shakes, etc.).

Start eating "real" foods (vegetable, grains, tubers, fruit) that your body will recognize as filling

(for breakfast, lunch and dinner),and likely your evening "cravings" will go away, and you will

need to use some will power. It takes about 28 days to develop a new/changed habit.

[Yari]

I have the same problem! Granted, I have this problem because I don't always eat my 3 meals. Most of the time I don't have any breakfast, I have a small lunch, and I pig out for dinner 😞 What I think has been helping me get more knowledgable is to stop & think about my craving... I'm all about sweet foods/treats! Most of the time I crave a sweet drink or ice cream. What I've been doing is just re-search what my body is asking for when I crave certain foods. I just found out that when you crave sweets your body might need Energy (which candy doesn't do a good job at providing, at least not long term energy). So you might want to eat a banana. Tip: put a banana in the freezer. It will get frozen & it will fool your body into thinking you ate ice cream. When I crave salty treats my body probably needs Sodium... so I try to make a meal using sea salt which is healthy sodium; not table salt which is chemically modified. So on and so forth... Just try to tune in to your body; figure out what it trully needs based on the foods you're craving. Unfortunately, our bodies don't have many ways of telling us what nutrients it needs so it makes us crave certain kinds of foods that don't do a good job at meeting these needs.... and so we never feel satisfied. 😞 Best of luck... hope I was able to help a little.

[criley]

Great suggestions! Thank you!!!

[Trooper]

When you start planning out how many calories you are going to eat for that day, allow for the calories for the nighttime snack. For Ice Cream, try the Smart One's Brownie Desert. For Chips, try prepackaged chips or crackers at 100 calories or less. I would try to buy snacks that can be easily counted. Several weeks ago, we mentioned making an Ice Cream Float with the Smart One's Brownie Sundae with a little Diet Ice Cream and Diet Root Beer. Yesterday I went to the store, and bought all of the snacks that I will be eating for the next two weeks. I bought the Fiber One Brownies at 90 calories, Weight Watchers Cakes both the Chocolate and Lemon Flavors.

[Raviv]

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@criley wrote:

protein shake

fiber bar

protein bar or shake, yogurt

string cheese

(sometimes healthy-salad, veggies, sandwich, sometimes less healthy-pasta, quesadilla, nachos)

recovery shake

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There is almost no actual food on that list, other than dinner, which you admit is sometimes pasta or nachos.  And even when you do eat dinner, it's heavy on the carbs, which will make you hungry sooner than a healthy balance of carbs, protein and fats.

It sounds like your body is starving for both nutrients (vitamins don't cut it) as well as something interesting to eat on a regular basis.

Where are the eggs?  Where is the fruit?  Where are the nuts?  And I'm hoping the yogurt is something substantial like Greek yogurt, not the zero fat kind with fruit-like substance on the bottom.

[Trooper]

Absolutely True!!! You gotta have real food for the body to function properly. You have to have some meats, veggies, and carbs, vitamins, to keep the body going. Protein bars, fiber bars, shakes, string cheese, are all good if you can add them into to your total calorie count for the day, but they are not going to give you enough fuel for the body to function for the entire day. If you exercise, you burn more calories, and will be more hungry. I have been able to balance all of my meals with just the right amount of meats, carbs, veggies, and even low calorie snacks.