10 Wheels

Works for me:

Yogi: Kava Stress Relief

https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/e...FSWoPAodoCQAzQ

caloso

I've been thinking about this thread lately because we've had all sorts of goodies in the kitchen lately. The only thing that really works for me is to go to bed.

Machka 

How many calories do you think you need in a day?

Do you eat nothing at all till dinner?

Myosmith

I obviously don't know the OP or his/her caloric needs, but for the vast majority of people a 2,000kCal deficit means you are vastly undereating during the rest of the day (like water and celery for breakfast, lunch and snacks).

As a rough guideline, take your ideal bodyweight in pounds x10 to get a ballpark idea of how many kCals you need in a day. For me, a 6'0" 50-year-old man, that comes out to about 1,800Kcal per day just to maintain with minimal activity (sitting at a desk all day and watching TV at night). Add to that the number of calories burned in cycling or other activities (including any physical labor at work) to maintain current weight or half that to lose weight. For me, a couple of hours of cycling and a moderate amount of physical activity at work averages approximately 1,000kCal a day for a total of 2,800kCal for maintenance or 2,000-2,400cKal per day for weight control.

While everyone is different and you have to find out what works for you, I find that dividing that total amount by four and eating about 1/4 of the total at each meal and dividing the other 1/4 among a few snacks throughout the day keeps me from having cravings. If I had a 2,000kCal deficit at my evening meal and then had only a salad, I'd be having snack attacks all evening too.

rumrunn6

if you are hungry add animal protein such as a chicken cutlet. it's OK to eat just eat the right thing. it will also help you sleep.

garethzbarker

A shot in the dark here but do you possible have a sleep disorder? I got fat as hell and a lot of it was night eating. After I started treating my sleep apnea I just stopped getting hungry at night. It had something to do with hunger cycles.

531Aussie

I don't wanna shoot the messenger, but kava is listed on WebMD as one of "5 risky herbs".
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-su...lements?page=2

"Kava (Piper methysticum) can reduce anxiety, and for some it has worked as well as prescription anti-anxiety drugs. But it may take up to eight weeks to work. In women experiencing anxiety in menopause, kava has worked in as little as one week, according to the National Institutes of Health.

However, the National Institutes of Health and the FDA urge people not to take kava because of the risk of serious illness, liver damage, and death even when taken for only a short time at normal doses. Kava use has led to liver transplants and death in one to three months. "Heavy kava use has been linked to nerve damage and skin changes," Weil tells WebMD.

Kava can worsen depression and is not safe for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Because the herb has effects similar to those of alcohol, the two should not be combined.

A number of prescription drugs should not be combined with kava. The two drugs with the potential for greatest drug interactions are alprazolam (Xanax) and sedatives.

Weil only recommends kava for a maximum of three to four weeks in patients with healthy livers. "I do not recommend kava for people at risk for or who have liver disease, regularly drink alcohol, or take drugs with known adverse effects on the liver, including statins and acetaminophen."

Other experts have completely ruled kava out. "I prefer to use herbs that have a good risk-to-benefit ratio, and for kava that's no longer true," Fugh-Berman says.

531Aussie

I've been sleep eating for probably 15 years. I usually wake up ~45 min after I nod off to get something to eat. Sometimes I'm really hungry when this happens, but most of the time I think it's out of habit. I'm not sure why it started. Some say it's stress/anxiety, and others say it's simply a case of not eating enough early in the day, both of which apply to me.

I usually ride only a few hours after I wake up, and I can't do 100% efforts with a belly full of food. A 'few hours' might sound like a long time to digest a large meal, but I still feel like I wanna puke sometimes.

To answer the original poster's question: it might sound very obvious, but I've found that eating more earlier in the day definitely cuts late night cravings (as others have mentioned), and sometimes cuts my sleep eating.

Rowan

Protein, and especially as soon as possible after you have ridden. Either in meat form or whey protein. Milk has it too, along with the fat.

nkfrench 

One of my former bosses took up crocheting when he quit smoking and was also trying to lose weight.
His hands had to be very clean while he was working with the yarn. And he could still watch television while doing it.
He had a collection of hundreds of crocheted Christmas toys and decorations that he would bring to the office each December. Each year we all enjoyed seeing his latest creations.
He also made sweaters and such for his wife, family, friends, and for charity.

Myself, I have food cravings when watching TV but not when using the computer or when reading a book. Same concept - busy hands.
I do allow myself 1-5 hersheys special dark chocolate kisses when I am hungry at bedtime.

clemsongirl 

Maybe think about moving your dinner time up an hour or so. Having a fiber rich dinner that gives me soluble fiber to keep my blood sugars stable and insoluble fiber to keep me feeling full works for me. I only have healthy food around so if I do feel like a snack it would be things like a cup of tea slowly sipped, raw veggies with hummus or maybe a sliced banana. After brushing my teeth and flossing i usually don't want to eat so I'll do that if I feel like I still want to eat after a couple of snacks. I also make sure I eat healthy, sensibly and enough during the day. I keep busy after dinner by doing post processing on my photography, reading, yoga, talking with friends etc. etc.

Good holidays for all of you!!!!

b2run

Clean out your house. Have nothing in your house that is not healthy. NOTHING.

Cyclebum

Calorie counter here. ~1000/day+ride burn, for slow weight loss. 5 lbs to go.

When the evening munchies hit, I turn to cauliflower with a mustard dip. Jalepeno or bell peppers with a smear of cream cheese. Seasoned sunflower seeds(chew, spit out hull.) Dill pickles, cucumbers. Yeah, it's a bit weird, but works for me. Low cal stuff that is cal neutral, even negative. I will admit to rarely totally pigging out, but that's ok, just move on.

If sleep is being interrupted by hunger, check with your doc about a light sleeping pill. That helps me occasionally.

Staying busy is good too. Puter time is one totally worthless way. Crocheting is much better

Dudelsack 

NNNNNOOOOoOoOOo!

That is the single worst advice I have ever seen on the Internets. Don't do it. You might as well go out into your backyard and randomly grab some mushrooms.

I recommend reading "Why we get fat" at bedtime. Author is Gary Taubes. I'm not saying he's right or wrong, but I tend to lose my appetite when I read his book. Funny how that works.

garethzbarker

I think that what others have mentioned about getting enough calories before dinner may be part of it but it sounds like you are talking about a long term problem not something that just started.

I'm going to probe the sleep disorder angle just once more. It may not apply to you but it may or it may help others that read this post. We get hungry because our brain tells us to be hungry. If your brain is telling you to be so hungry at night it could be a sleep error. You may not even be snoring; it could be a sleep cycle error.

That's exactly when I was night eating, right after I nodded off. That had been going on for 20 years. It caused lots of fights with my wife b/c she couldn't understand why I did it. It was hard to explain how incredibly hungry I was at night. I became obese. I thought it was making sleep harder. It turned out to be the other way around. When I received sleep therapy I instantly stopped being hungry at night. I lost ten lbs in 2 weeks. My doctor said it was very normal as my hormones were informing my body to enter a state of rest and that refueling was not needed. I no longer night eat and I've lost a considerable about of weight since I corrected it. Most importantly I'm not hungry at night anymore even if I'm at a deficit. If I'm working on a deficit diet cycle I simply follow one of the many tips above like eat a carrot or something at 7:30. I'd say my willpower is kind of on the weak side compared to most.

One more thing. If you eat at night it will often amp you up and make deep sleep harder to attain or even normal sleep difficult. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that perhaps night eating isn't so bad but that's the main reason. Food tells you body to get to work.