I know just where you are coming from. The late night eating has been my biggest problem for several years until recently. For some reason my appetite just sky rockets after 8pm and that might take a while to change. But until it does, I stock up on sugar free popsicles (15 calories a piece). That way I can "binge" on those and only take in 45-60 calories! Also low-fat yogurt satisfies my late-night cravings. The best tip I can give you it to just not have high-fat/calorie foods available to binge on at night...cuz in my case, if it's there I will devour it!

I've definitely been there. For some reason I feel the need to eat a lot late at night, and now I do it out of habit. I guess avoiding the kitchen is a big thing, or wherever you keep your food. Also I've started to have a biig glass of water with ice (i love ice) before bed which fills me up. You can add the flavored packets to it and that way you're getting something sweet. Also, herbal tea is good and will help put you to sleep depending on the type.

Watermelon and real fruit popsicles. The cold somehow helps, as well as with watermelon it's really sweet and takes up a lot of space in the tummy.

BUT you have to have the dedication to slice a ton of it before hand into chunks to have on hand. This is no problem for me because I usually buy it in quarters and would rather cut it up ASAP than to have it get sticky in my fridge. =)

Also, I put everything I know will tempt me somewhere I don't see it and try to keep peaches or apples or something good out in the open where I will.

I don't stop eating in the p.m. hours...  LOL  I have a 3 month old so most nights I'm up till midnight or later.  Quite often I have my last "snack" of the day at 10:30 or 11:00pm!  The whole "don't eat after 7" thing is a myth.  A calorie is a calorie no matter what time of the day it's eaten.  The only reason a lot of people do that is if they have trouble making smart choices at night (they end up in the ice cream and a box of cookies).  Personally I find that I don't need a snack between breakfast and lunch since there are only a few hours between them (so I save that snack for after dinner), and I'm not usually hungry after lunch until about 5pm.  So, I try to eat breakfast at 8am, lunch around 12-1pm, a snack (100-150 cals) at 5pm and then I'm not so ravenous when dinner rolls around at 7.  Plus, I schedule a 100 calorie snack for after dinner, and if I don't eat my morning snack I get to have that one too!  Just make better choices in the evening or eat pre-portioned snacks.  I love the 100 calorie packs for desert, they have brownies or blueberry muffins, or even a big old bag of popcorn!  And 3 muskateers makes a dark chocolate mint bar that comes in 2 pieces with each piece totaling 75 calories (for when you just have to be BAD)!  Heh.

That sounds perfect for me!  Thanks for the help!!

About the eating at night thing, I'm pretty sure it's bad if you're trying to lose weight or eat healthier. Yeah, calories are calories, but if you eat those calories in the morning, you have all day to burn them off before they're stored as fat. 

Let's say you go to bed at 10pm. If you eat a big snack or dinner at 8:30 or 9pm, you only have 1 to 1 1/2 hours to burn all of those calories off before bed. If you go to sleep on a full stomach, you don't burn those calories since you're sleeping, and so your body stores them as fat to use later...

So if you do eat later at night, make it something healthy and low calorie but that will still fill you up. Popsicles are great, they fill you up, they're sweet, AND low calorie, so that way if you go to bed immediately after a popsicle, your body is only storing 15 of those calories as fat. I really like the all natural popsicles that are made from real fruit, that way you can sneak in an extra fruit serving, which is perfect for me because I hardly eat any fruit during the day.

I eat my last 'meal' (more like snack - I eat 5-6 meals a day) at 7-7:30 pm, no later. If I am super hungry and can't make it without eating something after that, I eat a cup of either sugar snap peas, baby carrots or sweet peppers. Then I am not adding anything that will ruin my diet all day. That's only between 20-40 calories!  That tides me over so I can go to sleep without eating anything more. My last meal - the one at 7 or 7:30 -  is usually 1 cup of kashi go lean cereal with 1 cup soymilk. That is very satisfying. It's a good feeling waking up and knowing I didn't spoil it the night before! 

Hope this helps!

Oh, and FYI, it's much better to eat veggies rather than fruits before bed because of the sugar content and watermelon is high on the glycemic index, so not a good choice before bed.  : )

Original Post by toastyocie:

About the eating at night thing, I'm pretty sure it's bad if you're trying to lose weight or eat healthier. Yeah, calories are calories, but if you eat those calories in the morning, you have all day to burn them off before they're stored as fat. 

Let's say you go to bed at 10pm. If you eat a big snack or dinner at 8:30 or 9pm, you only have 1 to 1 1/2 hours to burn all of those calories off before bed. If you go to sleep on a full stomach, you don't burn those calories since you're sleeping, and so your body stores them as fat to use later...

 BUT if you have a snack later on, you're not eating earlier in the day - which means you're burning fat earlier in the day.  It all works out the same.  Plus, your metabolism doesn't stop while you're asleep so there's no deadline to get your day's calories burned.  Your organs still need energy while you're asleep - your heart's still pumping blood, your lungs are still breathing, your brain's still working, etc.  The difference between your BMR and RMR is typically only a couple of hundred calories for a whole day, so you maybe burn 10-20% less calories per hour while asleep than while awake and not doing much.

The majority of my excess calories were consumed after 7:00pm.   When I started my new eating plan, I decided that I would not eat anything after dinner.  It was easier to not eat anything than to stop once I got started. When things got really hard I drank water.  If it really really got bad I would go to bed.  After a few weeks it got much easier.   Breaking the after dinner grazing is key to my maintenance now.  I have now created a 8:00pm routine which I eat no more than 150cal.  Most times it a serving of cereal with yogurt.   I know know that this is the most important change that I need to stick to if I want to achieve long term success.   Go luck