Late Night Snacks for Weight Loss in Menopause

IDo you find yourself awake late at night and stuck between a bag of chips and wanting to eat better? You know the drill. You eat pretty well early in the day, but willpower decreases in the afternoon. By the end of the day, you're just standing alone in the darkness of your kitchen and looking into the pantry, the fridge or the freezer, hoping to find a snack, the right snack. Today, I'm excited to share a few of the reasons why those nighttime cravings happen and also what you can do to beat them so that you can stand in your power once again to stay on track with your brain and body smart eating plan so that you can lose weight permanently. And if you're not quite ready to give up late night snacking, that's okay. I'm including some great options for late night snacks, for weight loss and menopause at the end of this video, so be sure you stick around for those ideas. 

Hi, I’m Kristen Tinker, Food Addiction & Weight Loss Expert

I I've helped hundreds of corporate successful midlife women lose weight by getting to the bottom of why they overeat instead of going on yet another diet. My client, Ruby, participated in my five day sugar detox and she shared this has been a great week. I loved learning more about healthful eating and how to deal with my emotional eating. I always value Kristen's positivity and knowledge. Thank you, Kristen, and thank you to the group. If you want to get my latest videos designed to help you overcome food addiction and lose weight permanently at midlife, all while you have a busy demanding corporate job, be sure to hit the subscribe button so you can get access to more tools and more help for weight loss. It's what we all want. I hope you're ready to dive in today because late night snacking is a complex and powerful sabotage to permanent weight loss and especially for successful midlife women in menopause or even perimenopause. 

Reasons We Reach for Late Night Snacks

You know what I'm talking about when you're watching TV at night and then you feel the ice cream or the chips in your kitchen just calling your name. The first thing I want you to know about late night snacking is that these cravings are super common, and it's not just a personal issue of not having enough willpower or not enough motivation. We spend way too much time giving our power, time, energy and emotional wellbeing to food cravings and especially late night snacking. Yet it doesn't have to be that way. We're just making snacking and late night snacking way too complex because we get lost in the distraction of what our snacking might mean.

Now, cravings can be caused by a lot of things. There are a lot of reasons that you crave food, and some of them might include things like maybe I'm hungry or I might be thirsty, since dehydration can mask itself and hunger pains. Now, it also could be I'm totally stressed, lonely, and bored, or I've got to break this late night habit of snacking. It's just a habit for me. Or maybe you think my hunger hormones are out of whack because I couldn't sleep last night and so I have to snack because it's that time of month and it just helps me to sleep better. Or maybe you just think you have a nutritional deficiency.

The myriad reasons for late night snacking makes my head spin with overwhelm, and I'm guessing it does the same for you too. Please recognize that most women give way too much power, energy, and time getting lost in those distracting excuses for their late night cravings mistakenly thinking that those cravings are assigned to eat. Let's be clear though. Cravings and overeating are less about the food, the hunger, the stress, dehydration, willpower, motivation, and other distractions. Instead, late night snacking is more deeply rooted in your relationship to yourself, food and others. So stop beating yourself up over late night snacking. No amount of being hard on yourself is going to improve your relationship with yourself, and you also cannot berate yourself into having less stress or even better hunger cues. 

I've never met anybody who has lost weight permanently gained long-term health or created a lifetime of happiness by negative self-talk or beating themselves up. So secret tip number one is that for lasting weight loss, you have to do the hard work, which is from the inside out, using more self-compassion and by getting curious about how late night snacking is solving a problem for you and then doing the real work to find out what that problem is and how to solve it in your life. And yes, it also means you have to look at the quality of the foods you eat and even how in tune you are with those true hunger cues.

That leads me to the next and the second tip, but first I want to mention my Free Crush Your Cravings program. This is a great one. If you notice that you're struggling with late night snacking and you want more than just this video to help you reach permanent lasting weight loss even at midlife, just click on the link below to join my Free Crush Your Cravings program. 

In this program, you'll get a free five day video series to help you crush any craving, including late night snacking that pops up, plus you get access to me personally with a free private coaching session.

Mid Life Women: Get Free Access!

  • Discover the secret to stop food cravings.

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What Happens When You Eat Sugar & Other Addictive Foods

Now, moving on to the next thing, the second step to keep in mind to stop Yoyo dieting and to lose weight for good, and that is that the more sugar you eat, the more sugar that you crave. It truly is an up and down yo-yo effect. Mastering this has helped me keep 35 pounds off for decades.

I mentioned how iced coffee pretzels, and especially Diet Coke were addictive habits in my life. You need to know that certain foods are absolutely addictive. That might be hard to believe because food is necessary to our lives, and yet when used in the wrong ways, any behavior can be addictive, including just the act of eating. But nobody has an addiction for eating kale, and that was true for me too. See, I was addicted to Diet Coke in particular because it gave me pleasure. It made me happy, so I craved it all day long. It made me feel in control with freedom, and each time I drank it, I got more short-term pleasure. Yet it came with long-term consequences, like terrible cramps in my belly. I ran slower during training and while running marathons also. But really I felt lots of brain fog and I was constantly distracted with thoughts about how I could have an excuse to go out and buy more diet Coke. My brain was just occupied. Now, that was part of the addiction cycle for me. I never bought Diet Coke and brought it into the house.

I tried to keep it hidden and secret because I looked healthy to everyone and I didn't want to ruin their image of me. So drinking Diet Coke also came with lots of shame as food addictions always do because I was drinking a lot of Diet Coke in secret. So I started to think of myself as a bad person and an imposter in life, especially as a health coach. With my experience now as a food addiction and weight loss expert, I now understand why I stayed in that addictive pattern for so long that just kept me yo-yo dieting and not reaching my weight loss or fitness goals, and I certainly didn't run faster. We don't think of food as being addictive, but it certainly can be, and especially the ones that contain raw processed sugar, fake chemically produced sugar and white processed flour, iced coffee pretzels, and Diet Coke, just as I described above, are perfect examples of all of this.

These foods contain concentrated, refined, and processed sugar, so they trigger your insulin to be released in your body, making you crave and want more sugar in this addictive pattern while the parts of your brain that put the brakes on poor choices and the part of your brain that obsesses about food is totally unsupported. Food addiction might look a bit different for you, but the imprint on your body and your brain are exactly the same. Maybe it's that morning vente vanilla latte at Starbucks followed by a morning bagel with cream cheese in the break room, or maybe it's that afternoon snack or candy that you just roam around the office visiting with friends to find. They might give you short-term pleasure, but each of these foods and drink examples also increase your cravings, making you minimize or ignore the long-term consequences just like I did, and then unable to stop eating or drinking each and every one, the chemicals and sugars and flavored coffee and the white processed flour in the bagel hijack your insulin and create a huge hit of pleasure hormones in your brain, including dopamine and serotonin.

Now, these hormones cause you to think that you cannot live without the foods that boost your happiness, that calm in your brain and stimulate you to get focused on work, but your brain takes note and it holds onto that thought that you can't live without them. You can't live without the white processed sugar and the flour as well as fake, chemically produced foods, including artificial sweeteners, and then your brain is just going to ask you for the more sugar you eat, the more sugar you crave. Now your thoughts and your belief system are altered with this, which we'll talk about next. So watch until the end because I'm going to be sharing the most powerful and lasting weight loss step that will allow you to stop yo-yo dieting for good. By letting go of the idea that you have to find more motivation or willpower, you don't.

When Late Night Snacking is Really Emotional Eating

Now, the next thing I want you to know about late night snacking is that your mind will offer all kinds of thoughts that sound legitimate about why you need to have a late night snack. Now, the key is it sounds legitimate, and that sounds something like this. I was good all day and I didn't really eat much today, so I can afford to have a bowl of ice cream, or it might be even more subtle and wrapped around a disguised healthy approach such as I'm hungry and I just don't sleep well unless I have a snack before bed, so I need to eat something. Maybe your mind offers the thought that your hormones are off and eating a certain food late at night helps to calm your stress or calm your brain. 

Each of these might just be legitimate, but your late night snacking is not necessarily about the nutrients, calories, hormones, or any other legitimate sounding reason for needing to eat food late at night. We tell ourselves the story that late night cravings are justified because it sounds legitimate. This is especially true for my successful corporate clients at midlife who have incredibly busy days and are also battling perimenopause and menopause hormone changes. Here's why this happens. When you kick off your day with a grande or venti flavored coffee or maybe even a banana, and then you eat a small grab and go snacky lunch and an energy drink followed by an afternoon protein bar and then take out, or a pre-made dinner like a frozen or a boxed entree, you've actually set yourself up for late night snacking because your mind is consumed by thoughts that you deserve food.

All it takes is one gateway thought that you deserve something, and then your cingulate gyrus that part of your brain that just ruminates. It starts to take over with more thoughts that you deserve. A little snack before bed. It sounds like this, my hormones are off. I had a hard day. My body must need a certain nutrient. I have lots of stress. Then you justify your snacking with an indulgence that you deserve or you justify with a healthier snack, a food substitution that looks healthy, such as frozen blueberries topped with frozen coconut whipped cream, but late night snacking is late night snacking, and this snack is loaded with sugar from the coconut whipped cream. Even though it's not ice cream eating at any time of the day in the absence of true hunger cues is still emotional eating. It does not matter how healthy or unhealthy the food or even how deserving you are, and the truth of the matter is that when you're tired late at night, the executive functioning that prefrontal cortex of your brain, the functioning decreases, so you're more likely to make impulsive decisions that don't match your goals. 

This is especially true if you didn't eat much that day or if you didn't eat much real food earlier in the day. That has a lot of nutrients for your brain and body to function properly, to feel true hunger cues, and especially to make thoughtful, well-planned decisions that align with your goals of permanent weight loss during menopause. You have to eat real nutrient dense food throughout the day, otherwise your mind will offer all kinds of excuses about why you deserve a late night snack. Let's sum up secret tip number two. Your mind is powerful. Your mind will create all kinds of excuses and justifications about deserving food from stress, from not eating enough or even because your hormones are off, but those are just your thoughts. Now, please comment in the video with your favorite late night snack. If you've ever been stuck in this cycle of thinking you to eat before bed, and yes, I've caught myself doing it too, it's very common for successful corporate midlife women, including myself. 

Check this out. According to recent research, 93% of adults have a snack after dinner at least once a week according to a 2023 study by sleep doctor, and on average adults snack after dinner about four nights a week, the most popular snacks at night, chips, crackers, and pretzels. So if you enjoy an occasional nighttime snack, you are not alone. Now it's your turn. Please share below. Do you keep ice cream crackers, popcorn, or candy on hand for a late night snack after your family has gone to bed? Let me know in the comments of the video by sharing your favorite late night snack, and I've shared mine too and it's down below. So just check that out and I want you to know you are not alone, so just share yours too. Finally, and this is one of the top overlooked reasons for cravings and overeating. You already know that emotionally eating food helps to stop feeling all the bad feelings. 

That's why we call it emotional eating. In essence, you are using food or drinks to numb out and to hide the feelings you don't want to feel, or maybe you already feel numb and disassociated in your body. So you use food and drinks to help yourself feel alive and happy, pleasurable, excited about life. Either way, eating is your survival response to manage, to access or to tolerate feelings that you cannot feel such as happiness and pleasure or feelings that you do not want to feel like anger, frustration, rage, or feelings that you're unable to access, like feelings of calm. Each of these situations are the result of previous experiences, life circumstances, or even relationships that have caused you to disconnect from yourself, your mind, and your body. And so snacks and especially late night snacks become your friend. You're especially susceptible to late night snacking when your family has gone to bed and you might be zoned out alone with social media or tv, and your willpower is depleted from the day's demands in your career, family, and more so. 

The Deeper Reasons for Late Night Snacking.

Secret tip number three for overcoming cravings is that food is not your friend, and late night snacks cannot make you happy nor can late night snacks bury the fear, resentment, anger, rage, or stress that you felt all day long. If you've listened to any of my previous videos, you already know that your thoughts create your feelings and your feelings cause you to take actions in life. It is this alignment of thoughts, feelings, and actions, your think, feel do that allows you to be confident, healthy, and empowered to thrive successfully. It is also this alignment of how you think, feel, and act or do that allows you to consistently stay on track because you stay within the boundaries of who you want to be, which is a healthy, happy person who maintains weight loss despite dealing with perimenopause or going through menopause, while you're also juggling your successful career at midlife and probably a family too, but you have to be willing to feel your feelings. 

Otherwise, your mind will offer all kinds of lies and stories that allow you to stay disassociated, disassociated from your true and authentic feelings. It all goes down in your mind first. If you only act from a place of feelings, both good and bad feelings, but with no regard to common sense and effective thinking patterns, you will also sabotage the actions you take in life. Taking the time to work with me as a brain and body coach allows you to repair past emotional wounds so you don't keep sabotaging your healthy eating plan with ongoing cravings and late night snacking. Don't get me wrong, eating a special treat every once in a while is fine and even encouraged using decisions ahead of time, but on a regular basis, cravings can get in the way of your weight loss results, not to mention your health and your happiness too. 

Even with a crazy demanding busy life and a successful corporate job with midlife hormones, you really can lose weight permanently and manage late night snacking for now.

Snacks to Reach For to Help With Weight Loss in Menopause

If you like to snack at night and you're not quite ready to tackle the underlying issues that drive your cravings and snacks before bed, it's important that you choose the right snacks even though most people grab something salty, sugary, or crunchy. The research also says that people who choose more nutrient dense snacks like nuts, seeds, and fruits, sleep about 30 more minutes a night than people who eat less nutritious foods. So here's a quick list of snacks to stay away from at night if you want better sleep. So these are on the no list, plus a few healthier options that you want to keep on hand when those cravings do hit. So here's what to skip first, avoid high calorie snacks with a lot of added sugar, sodium, or refined grains. 

Also, spicy and heavy foods before bed can lead to heartburn or acid reflux as can eating big portions. Now, some chocolate snacks contain hidden caffeine, so that's another no because those make it harder to sleep. And finally, soda, coffee and alcohol can interfere with a good night's sleep. So those are all on the no list.

Now, here are some of the snacks that might actually help you sleep like a banana with almond butter. See, both of those have magnesium, which works on the cellular level to regulate your body's timekeeping system. Plus, bananas are loaded in potassium, which can boost your sleep quality, especially for women. I suggest only half of a banana on that one. Next one, a protein smoothie. Drinking a protein shake before bed can help boost protein synthesis, which we need for muscle growth and repair. I recommend making a half size serving and use a recipe that uses water or your favorite milk along with fresh berries and greens rather than a juice based smoothie.

Next one is oatmeal. Oatmeal contains magnesium and the sleep hormone melatonin. You can add even more oomph to your oatmeal by stirring a half scoop of protein powder. Alright, next one is fruit. Many fruits contain vitamins, minerals, and amino acids as well as other compounds that help you sleep better. For example, pineapple, oranges, goji berries, cherries. Those can boost your melatonin levels for quality sleep, and a lot of them are also rich in that potassium too.

Alright, next one is nuts and seeds. Unsalted raw nuts and seeds like pistachios, pecans, pepitas, sesame seeds, cashews, walnuts. Those are loaded with sleep friendly compounds like the amino acid, tryptophan, as well as melatonin, potassium, and magnesium, and those are really great to keep in the freezer where they won't go rancid and just snack on a few nuts and seeds so you get all of those important nutrients to help you sleep. 

Now, if you're surprised by some of those snack ideas, do not worry. None of us were taught in this school of snacking. You can experiment with a few and then see how they impact your sleep. See how you feel the next day. It's like a science experiment. If you want to start swapping out less nutrients, dense snack foods with foods that will actually be more nutrient dense to help you lose weight permanently, and maybe you're just done completely and ready to do the work that I described by giving up late night snacks.

I mentioned my Free Crush Your Cravings program earlier in this video, and it's going to be a great start for you. The work we do in this free program gives you a simple two-step system that you can add to your busy corporate life in just seconds, which will help you conquer any craving that you encounter in your day, whether that's the boardroom with the box of donuts or the catered lunch, or even just the temptation to drive through for fast food. 

Click here to learn more about the Free Crush Your Cravings program. If you've learned something new in this video about my different approach to weight loss. If you are sick of the dieting roller coaster like I was, or if you just felt inspired by what I'm sharing today, click on the subscribe button and click to like this video so that I can continue sharing my different approach to weight loss with other professional corporate women at midlife.

And, if you want to learn more about your thoughts and how your thoughts impact your ability to reach permanent weight loss to create that permanent weight loss, check out this next video called Stop Dieting, Think Like a Thin Person.