Diet - why cant i control late night carb/junkfood cravings???
I workout twice daily. Once for cardio, once for weights. (Lunchtime and 6ish, after work.
Throughout the day (I think this has something to do with it, I eat VERY well. (fruit and veggies for lunch, plus a small salad maybe, and a granola bar). For breakfast usually no more than a bowl of cereal, maybe a banana as well. Nothing in between. From then on, I generally have nothing (work keeps me busy) until I leave work to go to the gym when I sometimes will grab another piece of fruit and maybe another granola bar. When I get home from the gym around 8, I had a good-sized dinner, with all the groups, meat, veggies, potatoes, etc. After that I'm nice and fulll.....for about an hour or 2. Then, about 1 hour before bed, I become very very hungry, but mainly just for junk! I have a piece of cake, 2 bowls of cereal, some cookies, etc....I know it's keeping me on a schedule of being able to eat all this JUST because I workout so much, but I can't seem to stop myself! it's almost like a disorder...(I should add I'm 6'6", 200lbs.)
Is it because of my diet throughout the earlier parts of the day? I know what you eat in the last few hours before bedtime has the biggest impact, but I CANNOT control it! Suggestions please!
Re: Diet - why cant i control late night carb/junkfood cravings???
I personally don't subscribe to the theory that "you shouldn't eat X hours before you go to sleep"... I usually have my last "meal" about an hour before I doze off on the couch. But like you, I also like to have something "sweet" late at night. I solved this by making this last meal of the day a protein bar (EAS Advantage Carb Control) and a small serving of yogurt. Good balance of protein and carbs, and it tastes like a "snack treat" with the chocolate-y coating and the fruit flavors from the yogurt. Works for me...
Re: Diet - why cant i control late night carb/junkfood cravings???
So you mean for your entire dinner you only have the bar and yogurt? That just wouldn't work for me unfortunately
I'm just over 6'6", 200lbs...workout twice a day, and I have a HUGE apetite.
Re: Diet - why cant i control late night carb/junkfood cravings???
You can control it and you'll have to in order to break the cycle. But you need to get OUT of the habit of binging before bed. Trust me, I understand this feeling, but the only way to stop the cravings is to stop the activity. You can make better choices, like sugarfree Jello or protein pancakes with sugarfree syrup, but you're still prone to junk so long as you give in to the craving. You might try a short term low carb stint. I'm not a fan of the whole Atkins fad, but getting away from sweets and sugars for a while actually diminishes the body's craving for them. Pick one whole week and avoid sugar altogether. Do not buy cereal or cake or cookies. If they're not in the house you won't eat them (if you go buy more, you're willfully sabbotaging your plan). You have to be very disciplined the first day or two and have an alternate food for when you're genuinely hungry. The goal is to stop the fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin. Once you get it more consistently evened out, you wont crave sweets so much, I promise. But that also means that cheating is going to throw the whole process off. Just give it a try. Either way, it's truly a matter of will. Hope that helps.
__________________
Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins
Re: Diet - why cant i control late night carb/junkfood cravings???
Hi BecksA
Thanks for your posting. I know a lot of us have problems with the late night carb cravings. I have no secrets to help you controlling your late night binging but I do have a few tips that may help you.
I'm not sure if you have heard of the Zone diet but the philosophy behind the zone diet is that it is important to balance your fats, proteins, and carbs at each meal. If you have too many carbs and not enough proteins at one meal than your blood sugars will suddenly increase and then soon after drop again, leaving with the feeling of hunger. The key is to increase your protein at each meal which will leave you feeling more full for a longer period of time. You can check out the Zone Diet website for details but basically the plan involves eating 5-6 small meals each day, each meal consisting of 40%Protein, 30% Fat, and 30% carbs. I found this diet really helped me to control my cravings throughout the entire day. By the time it reached my bedtime, I had eaten so much food that day that I wasn't even thinking about food!
The reason I thought this might be useful to you is because when you break down your average daily diet which you said consisted of a banana and cereal for breakfast, and fruit, salad and granola bar for lunch, you can see that you consume a lot of sugar. Cereal, fruits, granola bars are filled with sugar which make you feel good immediately after you eat them but as the day goes on they leave you feeling depleted of energy and sugar, which leads you to crave sugary snacks, especially late at night.
I hope some of this helps you BecksA. Best of luck with trying to control your late night snacking. Another way to control this late night snacking is to promise yourself that dinner is the last time you will eat each day and after dinner, the kitchen is CLOSED!
Re: Diet - why cant i control late night carb/junkfood cravings???
ahhh, that would work perfectly for me, but i'm 22, still in college, working full-time at the same time, so I live at home....I also have 2 younger siblings so there's all types of junkfood lying around. Very difficult. If I had my own place, and did my own food shopping, it wouldn't be a problem.
Re: Diet - why cant i control late night carb/junkfood cravings???
Similar to you, I am a full time university student, I work and I am 24. I'll admit that it can be hard to live at home and follow this diet. It can also be expensive because of the cost of groceries like chicken and nuts. I know it may be difficult for you to create perfectly balanced meals with 40%/30%/30% food ratios. But if you try to include a protein, fat, and carb in each meal you will see similar results and you will not have the huge sweet cravings that you've been getting. They also sell Zone pefect bars (at GNC) that are SOOOOO good and these are easy for when you're on the run.
Best of luck with whatever you chose to do. It is possible for someone with a busy schedule like yourself to follow this diet if you want it badly enough
Last edited by LifelongLearner; 11-03-2004 at 07:23 PM.
