The dreaded evening urge to nibble. What are your ideas for low cal. snacks?

[Laiste]

You know when you just want to EAT SOMETHING in the evening, but are trying to cut back on calories? If i just ignore the urge I often end up pigging on a pile of buttered toast at about 9pm 😣🙄

Better to be prepared! My ideas are:

Frozen grapes
Ice pops
Bowl of rice crispies

but i'm getting bored with them and too many frozen grapes give me the sh*ts. What do you have on standby?

Those tins of mackerel in tomato sauce. Love ‘em. Understand that’s an unusual go to snack though…

You could make sugar free jellies in advance. Those feel almost like eating.

That is one of the saddest things I’ve read!

‘they almost feel like eating’

Blimey. Look, surely you just work out how many calories you’ve ‘spare’ if you’re counting and snack accordingly? A bowl of olives or something?

@HotToddyColdSauvignon hmmm. Healthy! Unusual. Satisfying though i bet.

@ClumpingBambooIsALie lol. ''Almost like eating''. That's how i feel about the ice pops .....

Salt and vinegar rice cakes from Aldi.

Edamame’s quite nice.

@Skinnermarink it's funny though. 'Cos it IS sad!

I'm not literally counting calories. Been there and done that. It works but wasn't healthy for my mind.

Just wanted ideas for stuff you don't have to weigh out or count into a bowl iyswim?

Greek yoghurt, blueberries and a squeeze of honey.

I'm rarely peckish afterwards it really fills you up and tastes like dessert.

Alternatively carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes.

I tend to suffer from this and I've found what can help (sometimes!) is brushing my teeth earlier in the evening. I dont know why but somehow it stops me from "spoiling" them by sullying them with food cos they feel all clean and fresh. As I say it doesn't work every time but it might be worth a try. 😄

Eat a satisfying dinner with protein and some healthy fat. Tidy up the kitchen and “shut it down”. Clear surfaces, tea towels in laundry etc. The kitchen is now closed and no more eating until morning. Clean your teeth and if you can put on your PJs (that was the trick for me but don’t need to do it anymore). Drink hot fruit tea and if you need to find something to do with your hands (manicure/ crochet). I read that advice in a book somewhere once and I used to be a terrible evening snacked but it just doesn’t cross my mind now. Good luck x

Gherkins always work for me. Or other pickles. Raw nuts.

These are my typical snack type things:
Full fat yoghurt
Pack of oatcakes
Small pack of bread sticks and houmous
Piece of cheese
Banana
Small piece of posh chocolate or a small choc bar for about 100 cals
Small bag of crisps for about 100 calories)
A few slices of veggie pastrami type thing

I would probably eat one piece of toast and enjoy it though

often we mistake hunger for thirst.

id would drink some water or maybe hot lemon and honey.

if you start eating you’ll want to continue and honestly most bodies function best when given a sensible fast period

Salt and vinegar rice cakes taste just like crisps. If not those I go for carrots and hummus. It’s often the crunch I miss so those are a good option and take some chewing.

alternatively, and not to give you another thing to do if you need to relax, find a job ie. clear out one drawer or something like that. Something small (ish).

Chewing gum.

A little plate with olives, cheese, cornichons, cherry tomatoes can be good as it feels very satisfying. Only the cheese is super calorie dense and you can try to just have less of that and more of the tomatoes if you want to cut it down.

But tbh my real game changer has been stopping eating at breakfast time and moving that 'meal' to night/supper time. I KNOW I'm going to snack after dinner, it's just the way I am, regardless of what else I've eaten that day. So now I'm just rolling with it and my 3 main meals are early lunch 11.30ish, early dinner with the kids 5.30ish, and after dinner major snacks 8.30pm ish. Often I eat breakfast foods for my evening snacks (eg granola and fruit and yogurt) as I'm no longer having them in the morning, or a savoury plate with bread and butter, cheese, tomatoes, olives etc, followed by some chocolate.

I usually also have some kind of snack in between lunch and dinner around 2.30. Apparently I need to eat every 3 hours... except in the morning when I'm not bothered.

Anyway I'm no longer gaining weight and I feel much better for the change. Just mentioning in case it's a useful idea for anyone else who is an insatiable night-snacker!

I have never had any success with having 'just a little healthy snack' in the evening. It was much easier to just have an absolute blanket 'no eating after 7pm' (I do intermittent fasting, and 7pm-11am is my fast window) - about a week of really wanting something in the evening but then my body got used to it and I now don't think about it. Willpower gets used up and so at the end of the day when you're tired it's so hard to resist temptation when you have 'just a little', so a hard rule is easier.

Salt and vinegar rice cakes taste just like crisps

If only!!! They really don’t. They do the job bit if you’re expecting them to taste like crisps, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Floss and brush your teeth after dinner and make sure your dinner is satisfying. I like low calorie hot chocolate drinks, a freddo or a herbal tea. Pork puffs are high in protein and low carb so better for your teeth than crisps. Frozen berries with yogurt, boiled egg or tuna in light mayo on ryvita or low calorie bread, chopped apple with 2 tsp peanut butter.

Honestly, just don't snack. In the long run it is a million times easier to just eat proper meals that fill you up, then eat nothing until the next proper meal that fills you up. Get used to being hungry by the time the next meal comes round.

Otherwise you're always trying to find low-calorie snacks to eat all the time, you'll never get out of that spiral of blood sugar going up and down and always thinking about the next thing to eat, then it's far too easy for one rice cake to become two, then five, then fuck it I'll just have a proper biscuit etc, and before you know it you've eaten a full meal in snacks every day.

Have you tried intuitive eating / eating 3 meals a day plus snacks? I'm finding eating well in the day means less craving / bingeing at other times.

That’s definitely not true for me. I find it much easier knowing that I’m going to be having something small to eat than trying to eat nothing.

We’re all different.

I second the suggestion to brush your teeth. I have brought foward my whole 'nighttime routine' so now after dinner I do all my cleansing/toning/gua sha stone'ing and teeth cleaning/flossing etc etc (exhausting!!) by the time I'm all done the cravings have worn off

Have your tea later?

Can’t you just eat your dinner later? I’ve barely eaten some evenings at 9!
I have something when I get home from work (today it was a couple of Jaffa cakes and then an apple) and then eat dinner around 8/9ish.