To ask for your healthy snacks to eat of an evening (that actually taste nice but will help lose weight )

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I'm at a loss. Baby born last year and I've lost no weight thanks to covid. I've basically been trapped inside with a 3 and 1 yo or toddling at 0.5mph. I'm about to return to work and with spring looming I just can't bear the thought of wearing anything that's not joggers and a jumper. I have a monstrous apron (thanks two c sections) and a terrible habit of snacking when the kids go to bed. I've just about got through the christmas food (EVERYONE brought us chocolate, biscuits etc this year) so I'm determined to not buy any myself and make a new start when I return to work (at home) to exercise where I can and stop the terrible snacking.

Any recipes, or ideas to step away from the packet of biscuits and still feel like I'm living (I'm not going to get excited about celery) please.

How about not snacking by making the evening when you do an exercise video instead? Then you’re busy and moving ... and maybe treat yourself to something nice (but non-alcoholic) to drink afterwards when you collapse on the sofa?

Best avoided . However.. love eve snacks .
I have
Gin and curley whirly . Put the cw in freezer . Takes longer to eat !
Alpen low cal bars.
Fruit.
A caramel snack a jack with nana and natural yogurt is sweet and filling .

I suffered binge eating disorder and found it's best just to not have snacks in the house at all.

Thanks everyone. I've just amended our food shop which is coming on Thursday. All the junk is gone, I'm switching from bread back to cereal for breakfast, lots of fruit and veg, lemons for water. I have added some dried apricots and natural yoghurt for snacking in the day. I've brushed my teeth and I'm feeling pretty OK tonight. I'm going to go for the window approach so no eating after dinner time. We eat as a family so stupidly early at 5pm so that may be the problem but I'm sure I can retrain myself.

I. Can. Do. This.

If I want snacks on a diet I have to earn them either by being extra good at mealtime or by exercising, although exercising definitely leads to wanting more snacks. I'm a calories in/calories out person. A few years back I was very into jelly pots, virtually no cals but you feel like you've had something.

I will have a browse for YouTube videos too... Give my husband a laugh won't it me jiggling about it the living room (and not in any attractive way)

Ps i did slimming world .. this allowed for treats.

Good luck!! Snacking is my kryptonite.. Trying to lose (a lot of ) baby weight, I’m very active during the day but as soon as I land on the sofa after dinner, it’s snack time..
Things that work for me:

• if you don’t buy it, you will not eat it
• brush teeth after dinner
• have a large cup of herbal tea
• if you must snack, have dark chocolate, Greek yogurt or low calorie fruit. Oranges, clementines, pineapple, berries, papaya, melon, pomelo.. Steer clear of nuts (high in calories) and flavoured water like fruit or lemon infused water (very, very bad for your teeth). I second ‘eating window’ and intermittent fasting.

Stop snacking! Seriously. You don't need it and definitely not in the evening.

Just stop snacking. Eat dinner and that's it.

Honestly? Nothing. No snack whatsoever. I say this as someone who has no self control re food. Once I start eating, I don't stop. A few handful of nuts could set you back 400-500 calories. JUST SAY NO!

People saying someone shouldn't snack if they're trying to lose weight are wrong.. it doesn't matter if you do or don't snack, it's just about being in a calorie deficit.

5pm is too early for an evening meal.
Aim for 6:30 to 7pm
and protein you NEED protein and fats to keep you full

Two or three meals a day
NO SNACKING
ever

If you need to snack, the nutrient mix of your meals needs to be adjusted

OP you will never lose the weight if you insist on snacking, cereal is high carb the absolute worst way to start the day and eating dried apricots is the same as eating sugar. The problem is unless you stop the snacking you won't lose weight, then you'll be back saying you eat practically nothing and can't lose weight. If you eat that rubbish you will be eating practically nothing and won't lose weight!

@2021vision that's just not true. To lose weight you just need to be in a calorie deficit, it isn't about if you snack or not, it's about burning more calories than you eat.

If you're used to snacking on chocolate and crisps and you change to fat free yogurt and fruit, you will lose weight. It's not a good idea to drastically change the amount you eat if you're dieting when you're also changing the type of food you eat as you risk not eating enough and that's where many fail.

@Sweet666 but for many of us, it's easier not to start with snacks than to stop. If I have a bag of crisps in the evening it just seems to escalate to 2 bags, 3 bags, some toast, a biscuit, etc etc. So I find zero snacks much easier. It takes up less headspace too to just have a blanket 'no evening snacking' rule. I'd have a snack in the day tho.

Maybe have 4 smaller meals a day rather than 3 slightly bigger, but it's total calories consumed that make you lose or gain weight
(and some of the suggested snacks here are really high in fat & calories !!)

Can you switch to fruit? A mix of sweet tasting ones like grapes, cherries etc. Not too many obvs! I’m often surprised at how sweet they actually taste. I find simple things like having a few ‘jobs’ to do in the evening really helpful. Filing my nails, plucking my eyebrows, etc etc. I even bought a colouring book at one point and became absorbed in it whilst watching tv. Just anything to distract from snacking.

Not read the full thread, but I'm having a similar issue. I used to eat dinner between 7 and 8pm, then could easily cut out the snacks before bed (still liked having them though, ha). Recently we have been eating dinner at 5/5.30pm with 12m DS to have "family dinner time" before bath/bed, and then both DH and I have been inhaling an obscene amount of crisps in the evening to compensate. My son just turned 1 and I actually weigh more now than I did the day before I gave birth which is just...great.

I've started having a bowl of Greek yoghurt with either just honey or some fruit as well, or a slice of toast with peanut butter/banana/berries with a cup of tea at about 7 so I'm not actually HUNGRY.

If I want to snack after that (I have a limit of 8.30pm except fridays) I have:

• grapes (frozen or chilled)
• frozen cherries
• small chunk of cheese
• bit of hummus on a cracker
• rice cake with a scraping of nutella/pb and strawberries or soft cheese and cucumber

Obviously snacks don't help you lose weight, but I love snacks and if I go too long between eating I get really irritable (still breastfeeding, but I was like this before baby too). I also eat higher fat now which helps. The weight isn't falling off by any means but its doing down now rather than up - so, yay.

God reading this just makes me want to have a snack 😂😂

Not snacking is the key to losing weight. Imo.

I am also still breastfeeding which I suspect doesn't help. I won't change our meal times as family meals is important to us. We don't get much time together as it is so I won't spend my evening cooking two meals. OK the apricots are gone from the shopping. I'm going to try cereal for breakfast as I will put jam or peanut butter on toast, which is also carbs but higher sugar/calories. There's no point me kidding myself that I am going to wake up and eat a satsuma and go about my day, I won't last five minutes.

Thanks @pregnantncnc I'm glad I'm not alone

Exercise videos are great, you can do yoga, Pilates, stretch styles ones if you don't want to leap about. It will distract you from snacking and you will sleep much better.