How to Defeat Late Night Cravings

How do you hold off late-night cravings? This is a very common question—I struggle with it myself. I'm going to go over some tips to focus on. 

How to Defeat Late Night Cravings

1. Eat Enough Throughout the Day

The first step is to just make sure that you're eating enough throughout the day. This is a mistake that I used to make a lot and I've seen a lot of my clients make. If you have more hunger at night and more cravings at night, we might push more calories towards the end of the day to have more available for that.

I'm not saying that you can't hold some of your calories for the night. But just make sure that you're not continuously pushing them later on because you can actually be doing yourself a disservice and causing more cravings to occur.

2. Eat Enough Protein

Another tip is to make sure you're just eating enough protein throughout the day. Protein is super important to keep us full and satisfied throughout the day. If you're not eating enough protein, you're gonna probably be hungrier later in the day. And that's going to cause you to snack a little bit more. 

Get about 25 to 30 grams minimum at each main meal, and even have protein snacks throughout the day to help keep you satisfied. You'll be surprised how far that goes later on in the day.

3. Eat Dinner Later

Another tip is to just eat dinner a little bit later. If you struggle with late-night cravings, a simple thing to do is just push off dinner. Make sure your dinner has a good amount of protein in it and a good amount of fiber to keep you full for a long period of time. And that's going to help to be less hungry later on at night.

4. Have a Light Snack

The next tip is to just think about having a go-to snack or dessert that you have every night that is kind of on rotation. So for me, I know that I have always been a late-night snack so I plan that snack or dessert out ahead of time. And then I can plan the rest of my day based on that.

I like to have about 200 calories at the end of the day. Not too much, but enough that I'm satisfied. So just plan a snack or dessert that you have on rotation. Something that keeps you full and satisfied—something you look forward to having potentially or probably something that has a good amount of protein in it.

5. Have Low-Calorie Drinks

Another tip to help with late-night cravings is to have no or low-calorie drinks on hand. Seltzer water, tea—things like that. That's going to help fill your belly up, especially seltzer water. The bubbles in the water, that's going to help make you feel a bit full. Maybe you add a few flavored electrolytes in that and that can help to

6. Set Up Your Environment

The next step is to just make sure that you're setting your environment up for success. Get the snacky foods out of the house, and keep your hunger hacks on hand. These are super low-calorie, high-volume snacks that you have on hand when those late-night cravings hit. For me, that's things like electrolyte jello electrolyte gummies, and protein ice cream—those are very high volume foods that are lower in calories and higher in protein.

7. Bonus Tips

- Brush your teeth when you feel cravings coming on.

- Distract yourself with a book or hot bath to stave off some of those late-night cravings.

Want to learn more about battling late-night cravings and developing healthy habits? Check out our other nutritional content on the blog and podcast!