Post-dinner snacks!

Hey, I've recently been eating loads of snacks after dinner-before bed. Sometimes it gets bad, into a mini-binge, snacking on a bunch of random stuff (crackers, chips, dry cereal, etc). I always hear though that it's bad to eat too close to bed time. How long before sleeping do you guys usually have your nighttime snacks by? And I'd be glad to hear some suggestions of what to have as well :)

(maybe this would control my uncontrolled snacking?)

thanks! xx

Original Post by mashed_tatties:

Original Post by mandyloves:

Original Post by mashed_tatties:

Mandy I have dinner at around 8.00 - 8.30 every night - my family likes to eat late. I used to eat a six pm on my own but haven't done that for a good few years now - it just made food even more of a ritual and it got to a stage where I took an hour to finish a small-ish plate of food. (ED!) 

I eat a night snack every night between nine and ten o' clock - I usually make it a dessert-y type thing (yoghurt with loads of toppings like granola, dried fruit and choc chips etc) or ice cream with toppings, or a plate of dried fruit, cubes of cheese, crackers etc which aren't too dense and can kinda feel like just a pudding rather than a whole separate snack. 

Thanks! Jemima, right? (Sorry! I don't mean to sound creepy-stalkerish but I was lurking around on the weight meal plan thread for high cal ideas and I sorta picked up your name...is it okay if I call you that? I'll go with mashed_tatties if you prefer :P) Wow, nine or ten pm is pretty soon after your dinner. Do you ever actually get hungry by then or do you just have the snack anyway? Also, what time do you sleep usually? Do you ever find your night snack interfering with your sleeping?

Movingup4me - I don't think I can do what you do with shifting most of my dinner calories earlier because I always have dinner with my parents and it's just a little inconvenient, but I'll definitely follow your suggestion whenever I can! Thanks (:

Hehe of course you can call me Jemima :) Umm yeah it is soon after dinner - and no, I'm never usually particularly hungry but I suppose at the moment I can't really listen to my body the way a normal person can, y'know? Like if I waited until I was hungry after eating a 5-700kcal dinner, I'd be eating night snack at about 2AM! 

As for sleeping, I find I actually sleep better if I'm not hungry, but I usually actually go to sleep sleep any time after 11 - more often than not about 1AM, and by that time I'm not stuffed-stuffed but not hungry either, so it works out OK. I'm a bit of a night owl! But I've got messed up sleep patterns anyway - I never get enough. 

Haha I was so scared you were gonna be like "ew. creepy ano-recoverer wannabe stalker" at me XD I noticed that you had quite a tight group on that other thread so I was suprised you posted here actually :P but then again I haven't been here very long/often so who am i to say, lol.

I can totally relate to being a bit of a night owl! It's actually about 1:25 am over here (I live in Hong Kong!) so I should really be getting some sleep - I've got school tomorrow as well! I've messed up my sleeping pattern as well from anxiety/depression/I'm not exactly sure how or what it is. I'm actually not doing so good right now. I'm munching as I write this but it's straight out of a cereal box and I have no idea how many calories I've consumed so I don't even know if I've had enough. I do stupid things like this more recently because of trying to recover. I just think that staying up later is okay because it means I might be able to get more calories in but I'm probably not even having enough to make up for it and I'm just depriving myself of sleep. I really have got to fix this un-structured eating/munching style of mine!! Thanks again Jemima for answering my annoying interrogating questions haha, x. 

n/a

Wow I'm really glad I just saw this thread! I had just posted a topic on the health&support forum about eating late at night because its such an anorexia rule that I can't eat after dinner, so i must stop eating by around 8 or 8:30 at the very latest. So I am trying to fully recover and stop being so obsessive with calories and meal planning by eating an earlier dinner around 6:30 or 7:00, and then eating a late night little snack around 10:00 or 10:30 pm :) Like tonight I just made a small bowl of pumpkin oats with cinnamon milk and vanilla, amazing and helps my brain function for all the late night studying I have to do!

Eating is always a good idea :)

Hehe glad something I asked was useful to someone else too! Sometimes I feel like an idiot asking questions.... :$ But the folks here are so encouraging and helpful :)

Your oats sound amazing btw! x