That yearning for “something” in the evening after dinner, is one of the most normal and common issues that come up for my clients when making changes to their food behaviours, especially if they are focussed on weight management and good quality sleep. I checked in with a colleague who practices as a nutritionist in the UK and low and behold it’s the single biggest trip hazard for the team she supports over there too! Empirically the overwhelming favourite go to for men is ice-cream and for women its chocolate. It’s a great habit to bust, but not made easy given that we are wired to desire high calorie foods in the evening (more on that piece of research later).
I disclose here that I personally have always had a sweet “tusk” – in fact I openly tell audiences that in my past life before I overhauled my food behaviours, sugar was “my cocaine “. Dinner, lunch and sometimes afternoon tea involved something very sugary as a post note. For me it was both physiological and psychological. There was underlying wiring/thinking and I was addicted to sugar long before I was 5 years old. You can read about my story and journey with food behavioural change if you want to know more.
Here are a number of factors my colleague and I agreed on, that may be the cause of these evening cravings for you and some suggestions on how to curb them:
“Glucose is a key energy source, cells “starved” of glucose will send hunger signals to the brain, creating cravings for high energy foods that are rapidly absorbed”
Physiological Based Reasons
I mentioned earlier that you are wired to crave high energy foods in the evening. It appears that your internal circadian rhythms play a significant part in you feeling hungrier at night. A study (1) in the Harvard “timeless” lab where participants had no concept of the time of day, were monitored over 13 days, and what evolved is that they all demonstrated more appetite in the evening (8pm) for sweet, starchy and salted foods, and less in the morning (8am). “The study concludes that the internal circadian system causes an evening peak in appetite that may promote larger, higher-calorie meals before the fasting period necessitated by sleep”. While this wiring had its place as we evolved, it is yet another example of how our slow physiological evolution is not suited to the environment we now find ourselves living in, coupled with our lifestyle choices. What I take from this research and communicate to my clients is that appreciating this is a normal inherited response, opposed to we are at fault somehow, gives us a stronger platform to make changes.
One of the other possibilities, is that digestion takes a lot of energy and you may be craving something sweet as the brain’s response to the body’s requirement for a spike of energy. Luckily this response does pass relatively quickly.
What, and how often you eat, can drive abnormal hunger signals, at any time of the day. If you are a constant snacker, and if your choices in food are predominantly high sugar & fat “White death” type foods (stripped of fibre, and heavily processed) you can fall into insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when cells in your muscles, fat, and liver don’t respond well to insulin and can’t easily take up glucose from your blood. Glucose is a key energy source, cells “starved” of glucose will send hunger signals to the brain, creating cravings for high energy foods that are rapidly absorbed.
It also appears eating too quickly or “inhaling” your food causes the “desire for more” not necessarily because the brain hasn’t registered the capacity in the stomach, but because there is an intricate hormonal cross talk system that needs time for the brain and stomach to work together – and this includes the release of dopamine – our pleasure hormone – it’s been suggested that when you inhale food quickly you can circumvent this process – do you ever recall yourself or someone else saying “that didn’t even touch the sides”?
“One of the keys to success in breaking habits is to become conscious in the practice of change.”
Psychological based reasons:
Ironically the very foods as parents we don’t want our children to eat much of, can be the ones, we then incentivise them with to finish what is on their plate. Myself and my friends all grew up in an era where dessert was a treat but carried the proviso of a clean plate first. The reward after dinner association can begin in early childhood. There certainly wasn’t the prevalence or abundance of treat foods available after dinner as there are now, so the lack of, and inability to be able to satiate more regularly in some respects assisted in setting up the reward craving. Fast forward to today, if we are using treat foods as rewards for our own children, it also means that they are readily available in the household, which isn’t ideal if you are wanting to break the after-dinner habit.
“Periods of acute stress from work and relationships etc can cause us to self-sooth with food”
All habits have a starting point, and when practiced over and over can become almost ritualistic. Here are some of the possible start points:
Going on holiday, and getting into the swing of having “afters” and then the holiday behaviour continues long after returning home.
Unusual periods of stress in your life such as studying for exams with late nights trying to stay focussed. (Late night exposure to lighting also interrupts your circadian rhythm). I had a client who developed a sugar habit when she was writing her thesis, long nights, looking for energy sources to keep going. Chocolate biscuits washed down with caffeinated drinks became the norm for 4 months! Periods of acute stress from work and relationships etc can see us self-soothing with food, and being on your own in the evening at the end of the day, is when you are probably at your most tired and vulnerable, so it’s very easy to wander to the fridge for liquid or sugar “coping mechanisms”
• Life circumstances – new relationship, perhaps new flatmates. We naturally adapt and moderate our social behaviours as we blend with other people and if you are not really focussed on your own preferences, choices and disciplines i.e. don’t have well established food boundaries you can find yourself adopting another person’s food choices and habits without being aware.
There are also a lot of what we call associative behaviours that can become difficult habits to shake: eg watching TV and wanting to maximise the experience with a treat food.
If you are restricting food or food groups deliberately, including sugar, this deprivation can set you up for intensified cravings that call loudest in the evening.
“For me when I ate and would actively seek sweet foods, I was looking for a big dopamine release – activating the brain’s reward system”
I personally had a strong psychological association with sugar – it became addictive. For me when I ate and would actively seek sweet foods, I was looking for a big dopamine release – activating the brain’s reward system — called the mesolimbic dopamine system. It was highly effective, but short lived and very cyclical. It became very habituated to the point I would look forward to dinner – not so much for the contents of the meal but the post meal sugar.
Here are some ideas on how to address the evening cravings if they are getting in the way of your health goals:
You have heard this no doubt many times, but perhaps think about it in a different light. Take your time eating – allow the brain and the stomach to take the time to talk to each other – not just to register satiety but also to allow for the pleasure of eating to be realised – this may also mean eating more mindfully without distraction – a realised pleasure of food is less likely to cause you to think you need “something more “
Don’t precipitate your meal by what you can have next before you even start eating – take your time enjoy and create a gap to determine are you really hungry or just looking for a hit?
One of the key aspects to breaking habits is to becoming conscious of the practice. It’s about getting a gap between the Stimulus& the Response. If your snacking at night is largely habit based, creating a new behaviour isn’t as hard as it might feel. I don’t recommend the “hammer attack” i.e., punitive based self-talk and relying on will power, because it’s a finite resource. Perhaps try this approach which I have seen works well, short and long term for clients: “Notice” that you are feeling like xxx. Am I really hungry? What are my alternatives? Tell yourself that you choose not to respond to the trigger/stimulus with old behaviours anymore, here are some of the things I have suggested over the years you can utilise:
Sugar can be associated with mood improvement – Believe it or not a bit of exercise straight after dinner will help you release serotonin and dopamine, even a quick walk -that is a great new habit – do 20 press-ups in the lounge if you must.
When it comes to introducing new behaviours I ask clients to name just one thing they will do differently every day for 28 days – perhaps try this “I will wait 10 minutes before acting on any food thoughts” This gives you the gap we are talking about above.
Have a clear end to the evening meal – brush your teeth, take a supplement you might normally take at night.
Watch the booze – alcohol effects your judgement and you are more likely to overeat and to care less in the moment about reaching for sugar when your brain chemistry has been altered.
When you are changing behaviours or habits think about what aspects are likely to trip you up. Quick access to treat foods in the early days of making the change can definitely make it harder. In the early part of the change cycle don’t hesitate to make sure none of your “go to” foods are in the house. Having to get in the car and go and get food creates a significant gap between the stimulus and response.
Once you have cracked the habit, think about what you feel is reasonable, enjoyable and manageable long term as a life style plan for night time treats. It might be that you decide you only eat dessert when you are out, or that you are comfortable with having an add on after dinner, say twice a week. Food needs to be enjoyable and not feared. Having a plan and boundaries keeps us accountable and aware, and more importantly we don’t feel deprived as we have those foods in balance. Sometimes I suggest to keep a record through journalling or a note in your phone of the nights you do partake. Maybe write it on a post it note in the cupboard or fridge to remind yourself as we can be conveniently forgetful when we are tired and hungry.
If you notice old habits are creeping back don’t panic. It’s a great practice to “notice”. Take a breath and remind yourself you have a knowing of how to re-regulate that behaviour as you have done it before. Remind yourself of your health goals, WHY you are wanting a more healthful approach to nutrition. Go back over what you think you need to get going again, you are NOT at the beginning again and move forwards.
Frank A.J.L. Scheer, Christopher J. Morris, Steven A. Shea. The internal circadian clock increases hunger and appetite in the evening independent of food intake and other behaviors. Obesity, 2013; 21 (3): 421 DOI: