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Calm Your Fears to Avoid Late-Night Eating
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 12:07 AM on July 10, 2008
Blogger Pamela Slim has a habit of writing during the quiet late-night hours, along with a sense that she can't write unless she's got a fat stack of Oreos next to her. Digging into the dieting tips of Martha Beck, she finds that her compulsive sweet tooth stems from the same place as her deadline anxieties. Her solution is to basically sit down and calmly think through why she's not doing that badly whenever the late-night longings pop up:
The starved and frightened brain drives overeating and low metabolism. The calm and secure brain drives a very different set of biological motivators and consequences. In other words, when your brain is fixed, you eat less and burn off excess as heat, whereas the "famine brain" caused by stress and hunger- including dieting — really does make you consume more and store more as fat.
Not a revolutionary diet plan, but one that makes sense—if you've convinced yourself everything is falling apart, you'll probably start eating like it really will. How do you curb late-night or stress-related snacks? Tell us in the comments.
Tags: deadlines | fix | health | mind hacks | stress reduction
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Rod Sherwin
Posted July 11, 2008 1:16 PM
You could actually address the emotional driver of the cravings and clear them with a simple accupressure technique.
biggunks
Posted 1:17 AM 10/7/08
I always eat a late night snack of 1 cup of no or low fat cottage cheese, 1/2 cup of fruit (like blueberries, strawberries, or pineapple) and a handful (about 34 whole kernals) of almonds. The casein in the cottage cheese is the slow digesting kind of protein. The fruit is there just to add a little sweetness to the cottage cheese and the carbs help to shuttle some of the protein into your muscles. The good fats (omega 3 and 6) in the almonds are beneficial for you body and further slow down the digestion of the protein. This keeps my body from fasting for those 8 hours of sleep and keeps my metabolism rev'd up. I find I have a veracious hunger for breakfast the next day and I lose more body fat when I do this.
With the no fat cc and blueberries, it comes to 345 calories, 33g protein, 16g fat, 24g total carbs, and 5g fiber.
Plus, since I've just eaten, I tend to stay out of the chocolate and sugars.
biggunks
Git Em SteveDave has a new Lego set
Posted 12:41 AM 10/7/08
I find if I'm not involved in something, but rather just watching TV, I snack more. I think the more you move around the house, the more likely you are to move to the food area. If I'm upstairs on my computer or ripping a computer apart, I don't snack.
Does this relate specifically to sweets, i.e. when your stressed, do you turn to sweets more than greasy/oily snacks?
Git Em SteveDave has a new Lego set
johnsmith1234
Posted 2:28 AM 10/7/08
@Git Em SteveDave has a new Lego set: I find I have to be physically active in something, not just using my computer. If I'm physically outside doing something active or what not, I don't "notice" that I'm hungry.
If I'm really craving something I'll try to snack on something healthy. I like apples because it takes a couple minutes to eat one, and by then the worst of the craving has passed.
I'm also bad at snacking when I get home from work before supper, so I try to start supper as soon as I get home.
johnsmith1234
cupcupcup
Posted 1:49 AM 10/7/08
I try to just eat a plain can of tuna or something else dull on the taste buds if I get the late night munchies. If you can get into this habit, you'll feel like snacking less at night (not to mention tuna being a healthier snack than Oreos.)
cupcupcup
joebaby
Posted 5:44 AM 10/7/08
Sometimes when I feel like eating a bowl of ice cream I wonder why Uncle Toot always locked me in the shed before heading off to Galveston for the weekend.
Martha Beck = a stopped clock, right twice a day.
joebaby
dsevil
Posted 6:30 AM 10/7/08
Man, that picture makes me want to eat a whole bag of Doritos.
dsevil
gundry_pwnd
Posted 7:31 AM 10/7/08
Maybe it's because I'm a freak, but late night eating isn't a factor for me. I eat when I want where I want, and I haven't gained a pound in two years.
I'm a freak.
gundry_pwnd
ch3t
Posted 1:44 PM 10/7/08
to be honest i just drink a lot of water to fill me up, or i go to sleep. more often than not i just go to sleep.
then again, i tend to be a sucker for pretzels (or pizza) with a pepsi.
i'm not in college anymore either, and my job doesn't keep me up until 2am with crazy deadlines (just on-call rotation with the always lovable 3am phone calls), so that kind of helps too.
ch3t