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Controlling the Evening Munchies:
Is It “Really” Hunger, or is it Boredom, Stress or Habit?
The "secret" is to first find out which it is and then get the "right" foods or snacks. Depriving your self of a snack if this is part of your lifestyle will only not work. The secret is the find some low calorie, low carb pleasing foods in portion controlled containers.
Clean Up the House is Always the First Step:
Whether this type of eating is due to cravings or actual hunger, the first step is not having any leftovers in the house after dinner. Cook less, or discard whatever you do not eat. If it is not there, you will not eat it.
Avoid the Carbs and Alcohol:
Make sure you are not eating a lot of carbs at dinner. Eating these foods produces hunger a few hours later. Substitute white rice with brown rice or whole wheat pasta for potatoes.
True Hunger, Habit, Anxiety or Boredom: If the first two ideas do not help the next step is to determine the cause of the problem—is it real hunger or is it cravings, habit, anxiety, boredom or stress? It's not so difficult. It you are looking for a snack 30 minutes after eating a large meal, that's not hunger,
it's one of the other feelings being confused as hunger. Usually after you had the snack, you feel guilty, and 20 minutes latter you may seek even more food. The cycle keeps repeat itself. Boredom and anxiety are not relieved by eating a bag of chips.
Here are the different types of evening eating and what you can do about it:
True Hunger
True hunger can not occur within an hour of eating. It usually occurs after a few hours. You probably have hunger when you:
• skip dinner,
• have very small dinner
• have dinner early & go to sleep late
• you will eat just about anything
What to Do?
The first step is recognizing what type of eating you are doing since the treatments are different. If you are really hungry because of the first two issues, get some bulky foods. In the future try to narrow the time between dinner and bed time.
Eat BulkyFoods:
• popcorn
• sugar-free gelatin with extra fruit
• high-protein/low-carb shakes with extra fruit bulky fruits like cantaloupe. watermelon, veggies
Evening Hunger which is NOT Hunger at All: Cravings, Stress, Boredom, Habit:
This is the most common type of eating, it has nothing to do with hunger at all. It's so irrational that it is difficult to solve. So many of the hunger feelings are mixed up with pleasure, calmness, anxiety, boredom and often just
plain habit.
These feelings can occur immediately after eating, or at any time in the evening, independent of how much you eat. You are usually looking for
• salty or sweet
• prefer to “pick” from bags or boxes
Eating in response to feelings which are misinterpreted as hunger only leads to more and more eating. Immediate pleasure soon turns to feelings of guilt, usually not strong enough to stop eating cycle.
Eat: All must be low calorie and have easy portion control
• Frozen bars
• 100 calorie packs of chips, cookies, pretzels, candy, crackers,
• 100 cal. microwave popcorn
You saw the solutions to evening eating for the majority of overweight individuals are to first identify the problem and then find some pleasing, low calorie portion controlled alternatives. I call many of the new products “the look-a-likes” because the look, taste, have the same texture and produce the same pleasing feelings of the high calorie originals.
This is the age of fast foods, inexpensive bags of chips, cookies, candy, crackers and tubs of ice cream. No longer will the older, “traditional diet” snacks, such as carrot or celery sticks, or a piece of fruit , even partially satisfied the obese individual searching for snacks all night long as advocated by older diet plans.
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You Dieting! 
