To ask how you stop yourself snacking/overeating?

[PukkaLovetea]

I am not really overweight - I've a petite frame - but I'm perimenopausal and I'm finding it much harder than ever to keep off the pounds.

I exercise a fair bit, I'm really active and for 5 days a week I really try to be super careful with food and I'm very aware of what to eat etc etc. I don't drink,

But come a Saturday or Sunday and I find myself far less slack and I snack more and eat more and generally feel ugh by the end of the weekend.

Any tips? It's become a pattern

I keep a net of oranges by the fridge. If I go for a snack, I make myself grab an orange instead. I also decide what I'm having for all 3 meals each day and stick to it. It's taking a lot of effort but I'm gradually breaking the cycle.

I have about 250 cals each for breakfast and lunch, and allow about 500 for snacks, because I love snacking. Then between 500 and 700 for dinner, which might include alcohol. In the week my snack calories might be apples, carrots and houmous, salads, and smallish amounts of crisps and chocolate: at the weekend it might be the same or might be a big fat almond croissant.

I don’t eat after dinner at 6.

Are you me.? I could have written this tonight.

Don’t buy lots of snacky food - if you have it at home, you will eat it.

yeah, i agree with @tiredtomybones - have some really lean 'snack' food to hand & eat that. in situations where i don't have that i'll often resort to nonsense like chocolate biscuits etc.

Don’t buy it. No crisps, chocolate, biscuits etc. If it’s not there, I can’t eat it.

Try and have some protein with your food as this will make you feel fuller for longer.

Disrupt your patterns. One example of this is a woman who used to find that she snacked between reaching home and having her dinner. Her new routine was to arrive home, drop her bag, pick up the dog's lead and go for a walk. Disrupting her pattern stopped the snacking.

Gillian Riley and Josie Spinardi are writers about behavioural patterns and eating and what they say will either suit you or it won't. I've adopted helpful ideas from both of them. I think Spinardi has some talks up on YouTube (again, Marmite).

I have a real sweet tooth and always crave something sweet after a meal.

I have a supply of tip tops in the freezer, a couple of those really help with the sweet craving.

Sheer bloody-minded willpower is the only thing that works for me. And rice cakes if I feel like a snack.

Protein and healthy fats and plenty of fruit and veg and limited simple carbs and sugar. I really rarely got hungry that way and even when I did it was easy to avoid the junk. I didn’t do it to ‘diet’ (mostly it was to improve my energy levels) but I lost weight without even trying.

Understand your snacking and prepare for it. It's 1000% easier if you have an action plan for when you want to snack.

For me, I try to prevent snacking by planning decent meals with plenty of fiber to keep me full for longer. Where possible, I make those ahead so I don't go for an easier, less filling option.

Boredom is a temptation too, so I find activities for my snacking times. I always want a snack around 7.30pm watching TV, so that's now when I water the plants and tend the garden or meditate.

Sometimes I do need to snack, so I have healthy options like plain greek yogurt, nuts and fruit at home.

I have a terrible snacking habit too. I don't like much fruit, not in a fussy toddler type way just in a I find most fruit far too sweet and really don't enjoy eating it! Not buying it doesn't work because if I could do that I wouldn't have a snacking problem!

I'm out and about every day with DS, it's so easy to walk past a shop and just nip in when we're getting milk or fruit for him or whatever.

I really crave savoury flavours, I just want to eat crisps! If I could just stick my finger in a pot of salt and vinegar flavouring I'd be happy!

Thanks all, I'll check the YouTube out.

I think you're right. Sheer bloody willpower is the only way. I dont want to start replacing meal calories with snacks. It doesn't work