Extreme hunger at the end of the day, how to treat?

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Good morning sir,

I have read the BM articles about dieting, portion control and environmental factors playing a role in losing weight. I understand it, and am eating a meal every 3-5 hours, each meal around 500-600 calories, aiming for a goal of 2200 calories a day. I currently weigh 203lbs, but I am pretty lean (visible and defined abs, vascularity, etc), and very active (average at least 8000 steps a day not including cardio). This is all great but…

When the evening comes, and I’ve already ate my allotted calories for the day, I get an intense hunger, for the worst kinds of foods. I understand what you said about willpower not being everything for dieting, but it takes everything I have to resist the hunger, and sometimes I just give in. The struggle is indeed, very real. And it’s not all physical either, it’s mental and physical! So I was just wondering what your take on this would be? Why is it that I am able to rigidly stick to my diet with no issues throughout the day, only to face such extreme hunger at night? Am I not eating enough; portions are too small? The hunger cravings are for strictly carbs, so maybe I need to increase carb intake throughout the day? Thanks in advance!

2

Jtetra,

Thanks for the post. A few questions come to mind when trying to figure out solutions here. What has your weight done over the last few months? Are you always hungry every evening without exception? Also, what are you “giving into”?

I think these types of questions are best addressed via 1-on-1 coaching, but I do think we can dig into some of this stuff here.

-Jordan

3

Thanks for the prompt response! At the start of 2022 I weighed about the same weight as now. Starting in March I began cutting, until July when I was weighing around 185lbs. I was very proud of myself and was frankly the best I ever looked (using BM templates of course!). The weight loss at this point began to stall, so I really started to cut calories similarly to how I am now, and this is when those evening cravings started.

I “give into” Stroopwafel cookies and nothing else. In fact, if my local grocery store is out of them, I don’t get anything else, and just go home! And yes, it seems like when I really started restricting calories/portions harder that the extreme hunger has been happening nightly. When I was cutting from 200ish to 185lbs, my daily calorie intake was nearly 3000 per day, oddly enough.