Q: I can’t stop eating at night – what can I do??

The age-old night-time eating problem. If there’s one thing that many dieters struggle with, late-night eating is it.

You’re sitting at home with not much else to do but watch TV or browse the Internet and what goes perfect with both of those activities? That’s right – a snack.

But, you don’t just want a chicken breast or a can of tuna. No, you want popcorn, chips, candy, cookies – all the goodies that will tempt your taste buds.

Unfortunately, this will pose a problem to your overall fat loss progress.

To help stop night time eating, here are three tips:

1.   Evaluate your food consumption during the day
Often if you’re not eating enough during the day, this may prompt you to eat more later on the evening as hunger could feel out of control. Spread your calories out more evenly throughout the day and see if that doesn’t solve the problem.

2.   Get out of the house
One of the simplest ways to curb late-night eating is to get out of the house. If you aren’t near your fridge or pantry, you won’t be eating food that’s found in it. Join an activity group, meet up for coffee with a friend, or go for a walk around the neighbourhood. Keeping yourself busy will keep your thoughts away from food.

3.   Plan a healthy snack
Finally, if all else fails, then it’s time to just work a late night snack into your meal plans. First, make sure you plan for it so you dedicate a certain portion of your daily calories to it. If you still stay within your target daily calorie intake, that snack won’t cause fat gain.

Then, choose the snack wisely. Focus on protein rich foods rather than high-carb, sugary foods and you’ll cure your hunger and go to bed with food that will actually help weight loss and proper muscle recovery rather than causing a blood sugar low and making you wake up hungrier in the middle of the night.

So there you have some ideas on how to cure late-night eating. Don’t feel bad, it definitely is a problem many dieters deal with but it is a problem that you can get control over if you work at it.