keep messing diet up after dinner

I have been doing so well thoughout the day but shortly after dinner I crave high calorie foods like peanut butter, wheat thins, cheese etc. Even while I’m walking to the kitchen I know it’s going to mess everything up but i feel possessed. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can overcome this snacking after a healthy dinner,

try to change your routine. Go for a walk, do a hobbie, read a book. Something that uses your hands so it makes it hard to use them to eat. You do it out of habit so if you can get out of the habit it will get easier. I used to as well. When i started logging everything I ate, and new that I only had X amount of calories left at the of the day i would hold myself to it. I liked to eat a handful of yummy grapes. They are sweet, juicy and crunch. Some people suggest brushing your teeth. That never worked for me ;)

I agree with tracking calories and when you have used your daily amount, you need to quit. I do however save calories so that I can have an evening snack. I actually don’t think natural peanut butter or low fat cheese and multi-grain crackers are such a bad choice in moderation. Certainly not every day, but maybe once a week. Try an evening healthy protein rich smoothie, greek yogurt. I think especially if you are weight training a healthy evening snack can be beneficial.

No “diet” should leave you feeling hungry. If you’re hungry and wanting to snack in the evening then I would suggest you are not eating enough throughout the day!

Start logging your food in order to see if you are meeting your daily macros/calories.

Or, better yet, start eating more at dinner. LOts and lots of veggies to fill you up.

this is a really common problem among dieters, that originates from a wrong/imbalanced diet.

i agree with fazzamanda. if you feel hungry at night/evening, that means your body did not get enough during the day, so it is trying to tell you to compensate for all the restrictions. don’t believe in the myths of the tooth brushing, drinking a gallon of water, running etc, they do not work.

if you are really hungry, there is a reason for that: physical hunger is the way your body communicates to you. emotional hunger, when someone is bored or compensating is a whole other issue, and you should be able to distinguish.

you should pay attention to your physical hunger and the types of food you are craving as it is a sign of what you had too little of.
i would not (by any chance) recommend that you try and ignore your hunger or hide it by activities that draw your attention from it, unless you really exceeded your maximum # of calories for that day (which should be around 2000-2500m depending on activity).

if you are craving fatty food at night, you might consider consuming more fat in the early hours of your day and have lighter (lower fat, NOT LITTLE) meals towards the evening.

depending on the amount of max calories, you can try and have healthy snacks every day with the possibility to have a little more unhealthy snack like once every 1-2 weeks. it is really important that you don’t go to bed hungry, or don’t feel super hungry any time. that’s just gonna make you feel miserable and/or upset.

also, you could try some healthy fats, what you have listed are all good, and they won’t mess up your diet unless you eat a whole bunch of them: peanut butter, light cheeses, wheat thins, vegetable sticks with light dip, bananas, avocados, light milk shakes with fruit, light yoghurt…

Feeling hungry is a sign that you are in a caloric deficit which is neccessary to loose weight right? if you feel full or satisfied then odds are that you are not in a big enough caloric deficit for your body to begin using fat stores for energy. I am NOT saying that you should have a 1000 caloric deficit per day but something as small as 300-400 calorie deficit per day can be anough to strike a hungry feeling. What you are describing seems more like emotional eating. You know if you walk into the kitchen you will eat, then stay out of the kitchen if that will help you not eat more than your planned meals and snacks. It takes lots of will power to succeed at loosing weight but knowing your weaknesses and overcoming those weaknesses will assist in your progress. Just my two cents.

I’m sorry Antil0ck but I have to disagree. Being successful at losing weight does not mean you need to feel hungry at all. It’s all about making good balanced food choices that will satisfy you and prevent that feeling of being hungry. It is a common misconception that in order to lose weight you should feel hungry and this just opens the door to all these crazy low calories diets which encourage a bad relationship with food and in my experience can lead to food disorders!

If you’re on a “diet” and hungry you need to figure out the reason for it rather than accepting it as a by product of wanting to losing weight/fat!

i agree with FazzaManda. trying to ignore your body’s signs can definitely lead to bad relationships with food and in worse cases eating disorders. and just admit, feeling hungry is not pleasant, what’s more it is a bad sign, meaning your blood sugar is low, your stomach is empty…
hunger is the #1 reason for most dieters giving up on their (bad) diet. what you have described: “keep messing diet up” is a common thing, and leave people with the feeling of failure, that they are not able to resist hunger and keep to their diet.

the only thing you really need to think about is whether you are really hungry (need food) or you just feel like eating (emotional eating, habits, etc). i know it might sound stupid but you can research the different types of hunger too, it helped people i know.

I agree with what someone said above. Look at what you are eating the rest of the day. Get good protein sources with healthy fats at all meals. Leave off the junk carbs that cause cravings.

Wrote about cravings today on my blog:

www.huntingforhealth.com

I borrowed from Jason Seib’s blog primitivestimulus.com

I wonder if you’re eating enough earlier in the day? I have the same problem. I read an e-book called But I’m Hungry and people who lost weight said in that book that they just flat-out ignored nighttime cravings until the cravings finally went away. If you ignore them, they will go away, but you have to make sure you’re eating enough, too. http://butimhungry.net/

It’s easy for people to say that you should not be hungry at the end of the day, especially those people who have eatten fairly healthy their entire lives. For those people who naturally burn 3k+ calories per day (or more), without exercising (over weight / obese), when you suddenly start only eatting 2k calories per day, regardless of how good or clean it may be, your body is going to notice and its going to send you signals.

When you were used to eatting that bowl of ice cream in the evening well after dinner, or those potato chips start calling your name, your body is shocked when you don’t give it to them! It’s used to having 33% more food that day, regardless of how good or bad it is, your body is going to react, and in these circumstances, its reacting with “hunger”.

It’s funny how i used to mess up my diet during dinner. I choose to drink mixed cocktails and margaritas with my dinner meal. I recently realized that it was very unhealthy in terms of calories. I started to look into low calorie vodka and i found Voli Vodka to be one of the top lowest calorie counts and carbs for vodka. I went ahead to my local Sam’s Club and picked up a Voli Vodka Lyte and it only has48 calories per serving. That matches my range of diet for alcoholic drinks. check it out http://bit.ly/uXtoZe

I just looked up Voli nutrition facts and you are right!! Look the lyte is only 48 cals http://bit.ly/rVuwQF
its nice to have fun but cut down calories at the same time thank you