Starving after Dinner

First let me give a typical day:

• Breakfast 5:15 Granola bar or a small bowl of cereal, and coffee
• Exercise Full body weight lifting, aerobics 600-800 Cal (6 workouts per week rotating type)
• Snack piece of fruit
• Lunch Chef Salad or Lean Cuisine or sandwich
• Snack piece of fruit or few crackers
• Dinner, varies lots of fish, chicken or some lean beef
• Calories before dinner 800-1,000 total for the day 2,000-2,200
• Weight 163

The problem is I am hungry as hell moments after I eat dinner. Since I'm still trying to loose until I reach 155 I think my intake with calorie level is correct. But to often I binge after dinner and blow it by 800 to as much as 1500 calories. How can I deal with the cravings?! What does anyone suggest?

I'm confused. What's your target? if I'm reading your schedule right, you're eating a huge dinner.. you have to be in order to get to the correct calorie level since the rest of your day is so light.

If you're hungry "moments" after you eat dinner then that means you are eating dinner too fast. It takes 15 minutes to feel full even after eating a large amount of food. But I would suggest skimming a couple hundred calories from the rest of your day to plan in an evening snack.. or even eat half your current dinner at dinner time and save the rest for a couple hours later. 

Eat a better lunch, with more filling foods; otherwise you will feel really hungry later. I try to make lunch my biggest meal (which never happens)but just having that mindset helps me to eat a better lunch and keep my dinners in check as well, without feeling hungry.

I've gotten used to drinking coffee after dinner. I don't know why but this really helps me, it's like my signal to my body that I'm done eating. I do use cream and spleada but it's worth it to me. If you don't like coffee, tea would work too. Just an idea.

Also you will fill up twice as fast if you drink a large cup of water before dinner (or a cup of hot tea works as well) and then drink sips throughout the meal.

I think you need to eat a LOT more food that is low calorie but high volume.  I eat loads of broccoli, carrots, red bell peppers, I get really full.  And I aim to eat only 1400 cals/day.

Also, I feel your breakfast is way too light.  Cereal is great (I eat 1 cup of Kashi GOLEAN crunch with 1/2 c. 1% milk), but add an egg (I scramble one with some vegetables in a non-stick pan with a little olive oil), blueberries (I keep a bag of frozen ones in my freezer all the time) with some yogurt on top, and a big glass of water.

I once met a dietician who gave me the advice that we should eat more than 1/2 of our day's food BEFORE noon.  If I do that, then I don't get hungry AFTER dinner.  I don't know why it works, but it does (at least for me.)

Can you switch what you eat for dinner with what you each for lunch?  A lot of cultures have their biggest meal of the day at noon.  That's when we need our energy, not so much at night.

When I make dinner at night, I have a small portion of everything for dinner, and leave the larger portions of everything to take to work for lunch the next day.  This keeps me from having to dream up big lunches or to fix a different meal entirely for lunch.  It keeps me eating well and saves time.

I don't know what will work for you, but if you give something along these lines a try, you might find some element in it that works for you. ~~

I'm almost worse if I eat a big lunch... it sets me up to want more later. I am a typical man (likes lots of meat and potatoes for dinner) The one thing I have done is eat better food, Its just making it after dinner. I'll try a cup of coffee, heck even with a little cream we are only talking 25 Cal.

I think you should concentrate your large meals earlier in the day and try making large amounts of light foods like spinach or zucchini. They fill you up. The best way to lose weight is to eat everything before 6 pm, or even 4 pm, if you go to sleep early. This makes your blood sugar go down before sleeping whereby you lose weight as you snooze and also, don't have to feel guilty about a big breakfast. Good luck!

I think part of the problem may be that you are not eating enough food to recover directly after your workouts.  The first hour after a big workout your body is still burning up calories, and you need to replenish with easily accessible energy.  A piece of fruit is great, but I would add some protein maybe some fat, like peanut butter or cheese.  I tend to do long (2-3 hour workouts on the weekends and my brother (who is a triathlete) told me that I should always make sure to eat something within 45 minutes after finishing a big workout.  Give that a try and see if it makes any difference. 

You make a good point as I am asking my body to carry over dinner untill the morning. Also, I do eat alot of vegatables and try to especially limit carbs at dinner. I have always eaten my big meal at 6:00 to 7:00. Old habits are hard to break especially when they resist so hard.;-)

Original Post by feanor:

Also you will fill up twice as fast if you drink a large cup of water before dinner (or a cup of hot tea works as well) and then drink sips throughout the meal

the tea works for me also. I drink a cup of Wu lang Tea right after dinner and it stops me from wanting anything else. I dont know why, I just know it works.

How tall are you?  It seems that 163 is a good weight for someone who works out as much as you do, especially if you have a lot of muscle mass.  Maybe you should focus on maintaining your weight instead of losing more, allowing you to add some extra calories during your dinner.  Just keep the amount of additional food under control.

Just my two cents :)  Good Luck!

!! I've been having the exact same problem and I feel like my eating/exercise schedule is pretty right on. I'd like some advice too guys = )

Here's my typical day:

I'm 5'6", Currently 135lb (down 10lb) trying to get to 125lb by summer. I have a sedentary job and my BMR is 1700 and I drink a minimum of 60ox of water throughout the day

4:30am - Wake and Run 30min/burn around 400 cal.

5:00am - small cup of coffee with a dash of milk with milk only, cup of low cal/low fat yogart with strawberries and blueberries.

 8:30am - 1 Serving of Total Raisin Bran cereal w/ 1/2c skim milk and a cup of tea with a dash of milk

 12:00pm - 1.5c whole wheat pasta, 1 serving spinach, 1/2c kidney beans a bit of olive oil and a bit of parmasean cheese

3:00pm - a banana

5:00pm - dinner is typically 1-1.5 servings of lean protein (chicken, turkey, beans etc), 1 serving of carbs (potatoe, rice, cous cous) and two veggie servings

5:30 - 6:30 - I run for another 30min burning another 400cal, i also will throw on an aerobic tape for 15min   every other day and burn around 110cal. on the days I do not do the tape I do 30min of pilates and burn the same 110cal. i also do 3 sets if 10 reps ea w/ 10lb weights of several upper body weight exercises and 100 crunches per day but I'm not sure of the calories burned on these.

7:30pm - in my perfect world, I would eat either an apple baked with a bit of spice or an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter.

My calories average anywhere from 1500-1800 on a normal day (sometimes i decide to run for longer in the evening the 30min was just an average)  following the above eating plan. unfortuantly i find myself having low cal pb and js after dinner a lot of the time. i do eat slow and think my food is well sized and spaced.

Any suggestions?? I've been staying at 135 for the last 3 weeks although according to my numbers I have had a deficit of anywhere from 500-1000 daily.

Thanks, B

Original Post by baylward:

4:30am - Wake and Run 30min/burn around 400 cal.

 Your problem is that you exercise before you eat. You are not actually burning 400 calories when you do this. Your blood sugar is low before you run, so you do not burn sugar. Instead, you burn ketone bodies and fatty acids. I know that sounds good, but ketone bodies are not the preferred fuel of the body, glucose is. You burn more fat by doing this, but less calories overall.