So, I'm working out as per my news books/videos/motivation and it's working great thus far.

My problem is that supper time, I am sooo hungry and always overeat big time. My tummy gets bloated and my pants too tight. I cannot stop this darn overeating thing at this time of the day.

I eat 4-5meals a day. I put in alot of protein (fish, eggs, etc), grains and carbs (oatmeal, sandwiches,), dairy (yogurt, soy milk), veggies and fruit (berries, spinach salads), and the list goes on. I do not deprive myself during the day but am able to eat moderately and feel good after a meal.

I drink lots of water as well so it's not like I'm thirsty.

Why do I have an uncontrollable urge to binge during suppertime???

Then I feel my workout has been undone with my bad habit and I feel guilty and angry.

Help. Any suggestions? Sandy

I do the exact same thing. But, it's usually only a problem if I work out alot. It's like I can't get my blood sugar back up to being normal, so I eat one thing and still feel sluggish, then eat another to try to feel better, and it just never ends... and I increasingly want to get sweeter stuff.

Not sure if this applies to you, but what I have found is that I can control my cravings much better if I get something sweet after a workout. When I'm done, I'll drink a glass of chocolate milk, which is supposed to be good for recovery anyway. If I wait, or even if I eat soon after but don't have anything sweet after a workout, boy I'll just binge like crazy.

But, luckily, I'm still losing weight regardless of the binging, so I'm not exactly worried about it at all. I just try to not get too crazy and enjoy what I do eat.

How long before supper do you eat a meal? And what does that meal usually consist of?

I eat lunch around 12:30 and it varies in what I have. Today it was one slice of whole grain bread with a can of tuna on it (touch of mayo and onion powder) and a cup of carrot soup and 1/2 a kiwi and a coffee with milk and a spinach salad with raw carrots - no dressing.

For snack, around 3:30 I had a yogurt and a few almonds.

With meals and all afternoon I had alot of H2o.

Any input based on this. (thanks, i appreciate it) Sandy

(oh forgot, supper is around 5:30/6:00 and I"m uncontrollably hungry until around 730...then I feel good until I go to bed. I don't eat after supper at all and my tummy is okay with that provided I stuff it at supper time)

Not sure if this would work for you, but I have found that I have much better luck if I eat an orange at this time. It seems to stick with me much longer. If I eat yogurt, it just doesn't seem to do much and I end up eating too much at night. I had the same results with slim fast shakes. I have had GREAT results by eating Kashi with soy milk for breakfast at 7:30 AM, a banana at 10 AM, lunch at 12:30, an orange stretched out between 3:30 and 4, then dinner at 6 or shortly after. I used to binge all the time, but something about the schedule and items mentioned above helped me get over that, except for on days when I have an extremely hard aerobic workout for like an hour.

I can certainly give that a try. Tonight I drank an 8oz glass of H2o with a teaspoon of metamucil about 1/2 hour before supper and I found my craving was not as bad.....did it really help or did I just not get that bad craving today???

Today was my "rest" day so it could have been a day where I didn't have a craving.

Tomorrow I do strength training so I'll try the metamucil thing again and see what happens.

Any other advice/suggestions are welcome. Thanks, Sandy

it could be phsychological... you know its your last meal of the day.. also you may be eatting good foods during the day, but you'd be surprised how much your body really needs to sustain itself... you don't only burn calories through exercise, you burn calories from breathing, brain activity, sitting upright, or standing, also your organs and body needs calories to sustain and work properly... and when the time comes around for dinner, your body is malnourished for the day, and it wants to make up for all that lost nutrients... this could be a possiblity.. not diagnosing you with this... also what could help is to have a post dinner snack a few hours after dinner... your body doesn't really know the difference between 7am or 7pm.. the only difference is activity levels so if you ate something healthy it wouldn't make a difference... another reason is because when you go to sleep there is a interval of 8 hours where you eat nothing at all... and everyone knows you lose weight when you sleep because its your bodys goal to replace that which your body has used up during the day...

Do you eat anything after supper, before bed?

I would try eating something a little more filling than a yogurt and some nuts for a snack.

I think this site will help you immensely: Dr. John Berardi, Ph.D.

Check out the nutrition area and articles.

That is tuff.....i do the same thing sometimes ......night always seems harder to resists stuff......did u used to eat a lot at night??? could just be a bad habbit! Try to just eat what is on yer plate and walk away if you are still hungary 30min later i would start doin a bigger before supper snack......more fiber or somethin.........old habbits die hard!!!
later STAR

Actually, I've been giving this ALOT of thought....


The "habit" theory might have some clout here.

I used to smoke and I quit when I became pregnant just over 2 years ago.

I didn't smoke all day but right after supper, I had one or two and enjoyed that rush of the nicotine, blah blah. I could not give up this habit tho I tried for years. I did quit during the day but the supper time smoke I could not do...until I became pregnant.

So, I quit the smoking and now I"m realizing that I have definately substituted eating for that habit.

I cannot think straight but I just have this CRAVING and I just stuff the food in. Could this be a craving from the cigarettes???? (I still have dreams about smoking and cravings even tho I haven't touched it in over 2 years)

Maybe I need to eat a larger afternoon snack (as suggested above) and a smaller supper meal with the "awareness" of a possible supper time addiction...this way I can manage/control it better???

What are your thoughts on this?

I wouldnt suggest a larger snack and a smaller supper meal. What do you usually have prepared for dinner? A good meal of something like chicken/broccoli stir fry would be an excellent choice.

However I would try something like a small chicken or beef salad instead of the yogurt. Gets you a nice portion of greens and some protein to boot.

I'll give that a try. I did yesterday and it seemed to help (but the fact that hubby went out and bought fresh apple pie did me not good after supper)

I incorporated more "bulk" into my snacks per se and it's working thus far.

Thanks all!

Remember, dont starve yourself to lose weight. You just have to eat smarter.

a little google search

A 1997 review article summarizing the results of past research
concluded that meal frequency - whether during the day or at night -
had no clear effect on body weight. That is, people who chose to eat
frequently, regardless of the time of day, had no higher rate of
obesity than those who ate fewer large meals.

In a study of more than 2,000 middle-aged men and women, 9% of women
and 7.4% of men described 'getting up at night to eat.' Overall, there
was no difference in weight gain between those who did and those who
did not. A study in 2004 of more than 800 men and women noted that the
more people ate in the morning, the less they tended to eat during the
course of a day, while people who ate more at night tended to eat more
overall. A trial from January 2005 found that eating late at night was
not associated with weight gain even among people with 'night eating
syndrome'...

"Myth: Eating after 8 p.m. causes weight gain.
Fact: It does not matter what time of day you eat. It is what and how
much you eat and how much physical activity you do during the whole
day that determines whether you gain, lose, or maintain your weight.
No matter when you eat, your body will store extra calories as fat."

Here is a breakdown of what I did today:

Breakfast: Yogurt/blueberries/almonds/2coffee with touch cream

Snack: Soy smoothie with yogurt/raspberries/wheatgerm/vanilla extract and 1/2 serving of broiled steak

Lunch: Chicken breast/wild brown rice/peppers/fried onions in olive oil

Snack: Wild rice/beans

Dinner: 1/2 can tuna on flax bread (touch mayo)/tomato herb soup/

(again I was a little hungry but at 8ish I had another snack - which I normally don't snack at night)

8:00ish Snack: Approx 3 cups air popped popcorn

Total Calories: 1931

Workout today: Aerobic activity for approx 30minutes and stretching

* right now I"m a tad hungry but not out of control. According to the calories I should be on par with my intake - if not a little over. My goals are to consume about 1500-1700 a day with moderate exercise. This is to lose a little fat. When I reach my ideal weight I will increas this to approximately 1900.

As a side note, fitday.com is an AWSOME site to track what you are eating and it will give you a breakdown of calories eaten and burned based on your activities.