How to overcome late night snacking habit | Healthy lifestyle

How to overcome late night snacking habit

If you have problems with eating during night, read this article. While we feel in control during the day, in many cases we stop after the sun goes down. The way to overcome this is to get to the root cause of our hunger. And trust me, it's not the hunger itself - it's our head.

How to stop eating at night: it's in our minds
How to stop eating at night: it's in our minds

Realize it's not about hunger

The evening is in many cases time when we are physically or emotionally exhausted. Sometimes it's even the first time we have a chance to think, as we stop running and calming down.

Unfortunately, if we do not feel good about ourselves or we have a problem with wife/husband, girlfriend/boyfriend, kids etc. we don't want to think too much about this. That's how our night eating comes to us and says: "Hey, let's do something to stop thinking - food maybe?".

Night eating is not about hunger, it's about our heads.

Ok, we know the problem is in our psyche. Next step should be to ask ourselves a few questions. It will help us to realize better what the problem of our hunger is and will start to change our perspective.

  • What are my emotions when I think about a nighttime?
  • Am I lonely? Do I need a lover?
  • Do I have problems with family or friends?
  • Am I afraid of the next day at work?
  • Am I overwhelmed by something? Physically, intellectually?
  • Are there too many things going on around me?
  • Am I bored?
  • Am I satisfied with my life? Do I have fun?

These are only a few questions, you can ask yourself more of it. The point is to find the problems that can make you need to eat and it's, of course, individual thing. Resolving these problems might help you with your late night snacking habit.

Healthy food: Salad
Healthy food: Salad

Eat enough (and mindfully) during the day

Sometimes you need to eat a late snack because of very simple reason: you just didn't eat enough during a day. I know it sounds simple, but you should also consider this idea. Understanding you hunger source and your body need is the priority.

I don't know what' your problem because there can be so many of them. No one knows that, only you. But I can write a few words about my personal battle with eating night snacks, maybe it will help you too. 

Watch your body reactions and needs.

The first thing to learn is to watch your body needs and its reaction when they will be satisfied. Also, stop counting food, as we may need a certain amount of food depends on a lot of things. This means that if you think you need to eat a big breakfast, just do it, and if not, just don't. If you fill heavy after big dinner, it probably means you must eat a little bit less. Watch, learn, change. One day you will see you eat enough to not feel hungry, but not too much to feel overweight.

Change your habits

Remember that you do not need to feel full (like "I cannot eat anymore") after every meal. You eat to not feel hungry anymore, not to fill every free place inside your belly. This habit might be hard to change, but it's doable.

Do not eat in front of the computer or mobile phone.

If you have a habit to eat in front of the computer, tablet or mobile phone, you will probably think (even subconsciously) about eating when you watch a movie, Instagram, Facebook etc. during evenings. It's better to eat a dinner with you family or a boyfriend/girlfriend and talk with them.

You will see that changing habits into rituals you enjoy will be much helpful with your late night eating.

Night triggers can make you eat at night
Night triggers can make you eat at night

Take away triggers (like late night Facebook etc.)

I have a little test for you. Try to watch any website about food near 11 or 12 pm and see if you will not start to be hungry. The fact is that you just don't need to be extra hungry, but if you will be just a little bit and start thinking (and watching) food, you will want to eat.

When you sit at night and scroll Facebook or Instagram, you will do something fun but, well, not super fun. In that case, your mind might say "Hey, I need to do something more to feel fun" and then you go to your fridge. Instead of that try to relax or just go earlier to sleep - without a barrage of triggers, you won't fill like you're missing out.

Conclusion

Making big life changes may be terrifying, but it's worth an effort. If you cannot change any of you habits, try to make the best of it. For example, if you eat chocolate at nights, start to eat something healthier. I wish you luck, hope this article was helpful. If you have any questions or just want to leave some feedback, leave me a comment below.

Wojciech Kuźma

My name is Wojtek and I am very happy that you came to my healthy lifestyle blog. In human life, health is probably the most important factor needed for happiness, so I thought I will make a contribution to this and try to promote healthy eating and sport.

If you liked this article, be sure to leave a comment and read some more!


3.67 | 3 votes
Comments: 2
  •   31th March 2017, 10:33

    If it only would be that easy to just stop late snacking. I usually dont eat at night, but there are evenings I dream about good chips or similar..

    •   5th April 2017, 16:28

      I never wrote its easy (I have same problem a few years ago) but its really possible, just we need to have a bit of strong will and try, try and try.. Good luck!

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