How To Stop Snacking At Night
Have an insatiable hunger that seems to only strike at night? Instead of just looking at WHAT to eat, try focusing on WHY you feel hungry when you do. Here are five popular reasons why I see people feeling hungry in the evening and my advice on how to stop snacking at night, today!
It’s the end of the day, you sit on the couch and out of nowhere you are hit with an insatiable hunger. This can lead to binge eating at night and can open the door to thoughts like this:
“Why can’t I control myself at night?”
“I just ruined my entire day of healthy eating.”
“This is why I can’t keep these kinds of foods in the house. I have no self-control.”
Sound familiar? Maybe this doesn’t happen in the evening for you, but you have these same thoughts sneak in throughout the day. Nevertheless, you have the thought “how should I stop snacking?” Let me help you stop snacking at night by focusing on WHY you’re wanting to snack at night. While one strategy is to build up balanced and nutritious snacks when you feel hungry at night, it is also important to get to the root of the hunger to help stop the snacking before it starts!
When I was working with my weight loss clients, nighttime binge eating or grazing in the evening was one of the most common sources of frustration. They felt like they worked so hard to eat healthy during the day, but then blew their calories and efforts at night.
Whether you are on a weight loss journey, trying to eat a more balanced diet, or going OPPOSITE way and removing long ago set food rules, it’s always important to get in tune with your body and evaluate WHY you are feeling hungry WHEN you feel hungry to ensure you approach that feeling in a way that will truly satisfy
While there are reasons beyond this list, here are the 5 main reasons why I see people snacking at night and how to stop night time hunger, today!
1) You didn’t eat enough calories during the day.
A deep dive:
Repeat after me- “people who undereat during the day WILL overeat at night.” The MOST common reason why I see people eating at night is because they underate during the day.
Think about it like this, you’re busy all day at work or chasing kids, you skipped lunch to go to a meeting or grazed off the crust of your kids leftover PB & J, you found time to exercise but didn’t find time to have a snack after that workout, and now it’s dinner time. You eat your dinner, yes, but then one hour later you are feeling hungry again and frustrated with yourself.
My first piece of advice to stop snacking at night is to look back at what you ate during the day and assess if you ate enough. Did you skip some of your meals? Did you not have enough snacks? Did you exercise or have extra movement?
These reasons, and more, can create a HUGE calorie deficit during the day which explains why you’re feeling hungry at night… you’re body doesn’t want to be in too large of a calorie deficit and it will push you to food. This nighttime hunger is not a lack of self-control, it’s a true physical hunger that we expect from our body. More often than not, people who under eat during the day will overeat at night (or people who under eat during the week will overeat on the weekend... it can look different ways).
How to fix it
Undereating during the day is the number one reason why my clients felt hungry at night so how do you fix it? By solving the problem before it becomes a problem and eat enough calories during the day. Do not skip meals. Do not skip snacks. Create time for yourself during the day to feed yourself!
For those trying to lose weight, make sure you are not in too large of a calorie deficit. Despite what common weight loss programs will tell you, less is not always more for weight loss. If you find that you are snacking at night, really evaluate your calorie deficit. I recommend being in a minor calorie deficit of 250-500 calories per day, but make an effort to not create a larger calorie deficit than that.
2) You ate enough calories, but didn’t eat balanced calories
A deep dive:
Maybe you looked back at your day, and you ate 2,000 calories of your 2,000 calorie budget. You were right on target, calorically speaking, so why are you feeling hungry at night?
Once you look at HOW MUCH you ate, now we want to look at WHAT you ate. What did that 2,000 calories consist of? Was it satiating meals and snacks with protein, fiber, and high volume colorful foods or was it unbalanced meals and snacks?
Different nutrients fill us up for longer, keeping us full and satisfied throughout the day and into the evening. If you look back at your meals and snacks and realize you were missing out on protein and didn’t choose high fiber carbs, that could be another explanation for why you feel hungry at night.
Another thing I will add here is that it is completely natural for hunger levels to vary throughout the day… this is one fact that makes strict calorie allotments difficult to stick to. Hormones, exercise, stress, sleep, and general life activity all change hunger levels.
How to fix it:
We don’t just want enough calories, we want balanced calories too. To ensure you are eating meals and snacks that are satisfying I recommend:
For snacks: pair a base and a protein. I have entire blog posts dedicated to how to build a balanced snack for you to read including:
For meals: I recommend following the plate method as often as you can. The plate method that I recommend is is ¼ plate protein, ¼ plate high fiber carbohydrate, and ½ plate color (like fruits and vegetables). This plate is a nutrient dense, calorie controlled plate that features foods groups and nutrients that will leave you feeling satisfied.
3) The emotions of the day are hitting you
A deep dive:
For this deep dive, we are going to walk through a day together.
You start by waking up on the wrong side of the bed. Your kids were late to school because siblings like to fight at 7:45am. You spilled your coffee AND you forgot that you had a work assignment due that day. You scramble to finish the work assignment and get it done just in time. You head home and seem to hit every light red. You forgot an ingredient for dinner, so have to head back to the store. You make the dinner but no one likes it. You finally get the kids to bed after a toothbrush battle. You finally sit on the couch and suddenly you feel hungry. You already walked through the first two causes of nighttime hunger and you know that you ate enough calories from balanced food groups. So what gives?
I would argue here that the stress of the day, stress you never had time to address, is hitting you. You have finally slowed down and given yourself TIME to feel the emotions of the day… and those emotions are stress, anger, frustration. These emotions are pushing you towards feelings of comfort and that comfort can often be sought after with food.
How to fix it:
This is an INCREDIBLY common cause of nighttime snacking and I find that this specific cause is the most frustrating for people because emotions can be hard to identify and difficult to address. This is a fantastic example of focusing on WHY you feel hungry when you do, and you’re WHY here is emotion.
So, I recommend you respond to that emotion in a way that will truly satisfy and calm the feeling. While food is not 100% off limits here, it is incredibly important to gain emotional awareness here so that you can give your body what it is truly craving. Sometimes food can give a cozy comfort, but there are other strategies that can truly get at the root of an emotion! A great example here would be exercise releasing mood boosting endorphins in the body.
Here are a few specific emotions that push people towards food and suggestions that could help address the emotion:
Emotional hunger can be incredibly difficult and complex to manage, and the suggestions in the table above are just that… suggestions. There are many emotional eating therapists and registered dietitians who specialize in emotional eating who could be fantastic resources to connect with if you feel that this is your category.
4) Habitual hunger
A deep dive:
Most of us humans are creatures of habits. We eat the same breakfast every day. We drive the same route to work. We go to the same restaurants. We know what we like, we create a habit of it, and we stick to it. This can be seen in some hunger cues as well.
I’ll be honest with you, this was MY main reason for snacking at night. I created a habit of eating a snack every time I sat on the couch… somehow, those two things had become inextricably linked in my head. For other people, this habitual hunger comes out when you get home from work and head straight to the pantry without a second thought.
How to fix it:
Please do not hear me say that you can never have a snack when you sit on the couch… you can! However, the purpose of this blog is to help you recognize the WHY behind your actions or your hunger and sometimes, it’s a habit.
There are a few ways that you can address this nighttime snacking but it all begins with recognizing that it is a habit to begin with. Like picking at your nails or bouncing your leg, you cannot address a habit until you recognize its existence. I realized that I wasn’t even really hungry at night… that a lot of my “hunger” was actually because my couch time didn’t feel complete without a bowl of popcorn, ice cream bar, or even a glass of wine.
One way to address this habit is by changing up your scenery. If you recognize that you have the couch connected with snacks, try spending more time in other areas of your home like doing a puzzle at the counter, reading a book in the bath, or even watching the show in your bed.
Another way to address the habit is to eat night time snacks in places that are designated for eating like the dining table or a bar top. Not only does this break the connection between the couch and a snack, but this approach also helps you eat more mindfully and pay attention to the snack you have chosen.
5) You’re tired
A deep dive:
Finally, the last primary root of nighttime hunger that I have seen with my clients is that they are overtired. People severely underestimate the role that sleep plays in their health but is goes all the way down to a biochemical level.
Sleep deprivation affects our physical state and hunger cues in a few ways. First, sleep deprivation can alter glucose metabolism (the way your body processes carbs and energy) which in turn changes our hunger and fullness cues.
Second, some people confuse tiredness or an afternoon “slump” with hunger and will use food to pick up their energy levels… especially during the day. While food will definitely give you energy, this is actually not the refuel that an overtired person is needing.
Finally, lack of sleep directly impacts our hunger and fullness hormones: grehlin and leptin. In fact, some research shows that even just one night of sleeplessness can increase grehlin (our hunger hormone) and decrease leptin (our fullness hormone).
How to fix it:
Focus on your sleep health! Turn off your electronics early, take an early night in, sip on some relaxing tea and get some rest. This will give your body the fuel it craves and help you better enjoy your food throughout the day.
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Disclaimer: please note that I am a registered dietitian but I am not YOUR registered dietitian. This information is meant to be educational and should not be used as personalized medical or nutrition advice.
Hey! I’m Lauren
I’m a registered dietitian and my goal is to give you tips and tricks to make healthy eating fun, easy, and even delicious!