Dinner Time Calories

I've been counting calories for approx. 1 wk now and I appreciate all the helpful tips -- but I do have one more question, I am trying to prevent overeating at dinner time...seems like I do pretty good by keeping busy all day (usually can keep it at 600 cal until 6pm) but when it comes to dinner time, I am usually starving and can't stop overeating (1 week trend shows that I consume additional 800+ cal just in the evening hours)...being tired in the evening doesn't help either. Thank you in advance for the tips/advice!

I would suggest eating more calories during the day so that you are not so hungry when you get home. Also, after a sensible dinner, try to drink more water. MOst of the time you aren't hungry, but thirsty. OR if you feel you must eat, try something low in cals like grapes or fruit. Or a salad with fat-free italian dressing.

As a rule to loose weight I try to never eat after 7:30pm. If you have the evening overeating problem it might help if you eat more for lunch and fill your dinner with "empty foods" (food that has very few calories but you can eat tons) Sugar free jello is the best! You can eat a whole box (2 cups) and it's only 40 calories. I also drink 1-2 glasses of water BEFORE each meal. The water helps to make you feel full and then you won't eat as much!

Something else you can try, either as part of your dinner, or while preparing it...

Vegetables are great! Excellent for you, healthy, low in calories and can help you feel full. What I will do is while I am preparing my dinner, I have a nice tall glass of very cold ice water that I will go through (twice) and I also slice up a nice juicy red beefsteak tomato, slice it up into about 10 wedges and every time I pass by the dinner table, I pick one up and eat one. When I go back to the kitchen preparing area, I take a chug from my water.

Sometimes I'll mix it up with raw carrots, or celery. Foods that can help fill you up, and add little in the way of calories or things that are bad for your body.

Slowly consume that tomato, make those 10 wedges disappear from the table during the whole meal prep. Then sit down and eat a sensible dinner. You probably won't be able to finish your meal, in the least you'll feel very full well into the evening with a lower caloric impact.

The tomato/ raw veggie/fruit idea while preparing dinner is a great idea. I'm goin' to have to try that, as I get pretty hungry after dinner sometimes, but refuse to eat anything within 3 hours of bedtime. Thanks for the tip.

I am a terrible evening over-indulger! My usual shifts at work are either 6pm-1am or 12am-9am, but even before I found the evening job, I would always pack away the most food in the evening. I have to tell you that the best thing that I've ever done is start eating 6 small meals a day. If I do it this way, I don't feel like I'm punishing myself and I actually eat less throughout the day, since I keep myself fairly full of scrumptious healthy fare. I also try to remember to eat slow and only eat until I'm not hungry anymore. It's very tricky for me to figure out if I'm hungry or just craving the taste of more food. If I still feel hungry after a sensible sized dinner, I reach for either about a cups worth of yummy baby green salad with some fresh snow peas, mushrooms, tomatoes and cucumbers or some steamed carrots, zucchini or broccoli I always try to keep around. Veggies never fail to fill me up and they are healthy, tasty, and very low-cal.

I agree with Janine27, you may not be eating enough throughout the day and are too hungry by dinner time. At the same time, I do eat about half my daily calories before dinner. In order to keep my dinner time calories to a managable level, I try to carefully measure my dinner portions based on how many calories I have left to eat. If I've had more calories than normal that day, I'll try to eat mostly veggies, but if I was really good, I can treat myself to something more substantial.

Sue,

I tend to want to nibble after supper a lot of times because it is down time for me..... what I discovered I could do when I really want to snack is to make a bag of microwave popcorn. Most of the standard bags are 3 cups of popped popcorn and the whole bag is only about 120 calories. You can lower this even further if you use a hot air popper versus the microwave ready bags, but it's not quite as convienent (sp?). The thing to remember with the air popper is that you can't add all the butter and salt that you might want.... but the butter salt isn't too bad and doesn't actually have any calories. It is however LOADED with sodium so keep an eye on that.
Kerry

sue,

Try eating a snack prior to dinner like celery with tuna,then workout, drinks lots of h2o (40 oz if you cna get it) I found this assists in overeating. I have ben vey good until today, stressed at work and home,,,ate a salad with turkey, then...junked out onsoe tortia chips. the work out helps curb food cravings. also a little oatmeal with protein powder goes a long way.

Gip

hey ps, try this formula

divide your caloric intake by two, morning and snack and then do the same for dinner and snack. dont eat late!!

example 1500 /2=750 for breakfast and snack that is 375.00 for each eating episode. for dinner I tend to to 1/3 to 2/3of calories so 750/1/3 250 for snack and 500 for dinner. when commited to caloric intake I find I need to be creative so I will feel full. 1/2 can tuna with tlbs mayo, 1/2 pickle and celery sticks at lunch isvery filling and aproximately 300 calories, this leaves 75 to spend elseware. Dinner is always my choice or a goodie (dibetic muffan fro the health food store, high in proteing low in carbs and fat). really breaking it down to simple numbers assisted me inreching a comfortable feeling durning the day (I'm no starvin and my wame is not all wambley)
Gip

In order to prevent overating, I sip a cup of lemon tea or hot water with lemon (no calories) and that fills me up before having dinner. Everytime I'm hungry before dinner, instead of snacking a cup of tea does the trick for me.

600 calories during the day just isn't enough for anyone fully-grown. Of course you're starving at dinner time. Add in a HEALTHY afternoon snack or eat more for lunch so you won't be so desperately hungry at dinnertime.

I have the same problem.  I am a night owl and I think I eat partially because I am bored.

I'm a night owl too, but I find that it's easiest to keep my calories low if I eat about 1000 pre-dinner.  (I'm typically aiming for 1600; if you're aiming lower than that, you may need to lower that to 800 or 900 pre-dinner.)  Then I can have 400 for dinner and still have 200 left for an evening snack.  If I go much higher than 1100 pre-dinner, I'm just as hungry so that doesn't help.  If I go much lower than 900 pre-dinner, I'm starving and am more likely to indulge in less-good food at dinner.

To keep from snacking too much in the evening, I'll drink water, Crystal Light or herbal tea.  I find the tea most filling - probably because it's warm.  If I'm at my calories for the day and still hungry and drinking doesn't help, I'll snack on a  tomato or some carrots or something.  Going over my daily goal by 20 or 30 cals isn't going to hurt me.

Original Post by kajikit:

600 calories during the day just isn't enough for anyone fully-grown. Of course you're starving at dinner time. Add in a HEALTHY afternoon snack or eat more for lunch so you won't be so desperately hungry at dinnertime.

Yup. :)

Original Post by brokeirishlady:

Sue,

I tend to want to nibble after supper a lot of times because it is down time for me..... what I discovered I could do when I really want to snack is to make a bag of microwave popcorn. Most of the standard bags are 3 cups of popped popcorn and the whole bag is only about 120 calories. You can lower this even further if you use a hot air popper versus the microwave ready bags, but it's not quite as convienent (sp?). The thing to remember with the air popper is that you can't add all the butter and salt that you might want.... but the butter salt isn't too bad and doesn't actually have any calories. It is however LOADED with sodium so keep an eye on that.
Kerry

Be careful about microwave popcorn. All the bags I've ever seen have more than 2 servings per bag... and clock in at around 200 cal per serving... so a whole bag is more like 400-500 calories.