Are late night snacks keeping you from losing weight?  Some studies have shown that healthy and overweight individuals tend to eat the same number of calories during the day.  At night, however, overweight individuals tend to eat a lot more calories.  Eating at night is just easier to do; we feel less inhibited because we tend to be alone.  We are also less busy than other times of day.  If you want to lose weight, you need to find ways to curb late night hunger.  Here are a few suggestions.

Do something else.  Unless you’re starving, you probably eat at night because you’re bored.  If you feel the need to snack, try doing something else to occupy your mind.  Go for a walk or read a book; you’ll soon forget that you were ever hungry

Eat more calories during the day.  Even if you’re trying to cut calories, eating too little during the day will make you more likely to binge at night.  Eating 1500 calories during the day and being satisfied at night is better than eating 1300 calories during the day and munching down on a 500 calorie snack at night.  Try to eat the bulk of your calories earlier in the day and have a light dinner and maybe a fruit for an evening snack.

Go to bed.  If you get the urge to eat shortly before you go to bed, just go to bed early.  Not only will this keep you from snacking; people who get enough sleep at night tend to eat less calories during the day. 

Eat at a table.  No matter what you eat during the day, treat all eating events like meals.  We tend to eat while we’re doing other things like watching TV or sitting at the computer.  Eat all your food sitting at your kitchen or dining room table and don’t distract yourself.  You’ll likely eat less.

Snack healthy.  If you must snack late at night, think about what you eat.  Instead of grabbing a bag of chips, get out some carrots or yogurt.  Go for high fiber and protein which take longer to digest and keep you feeling full longer.  It’s also important to eat portioned snacks.  This way you probably won’t eat several portions at a time.

These are just a few tips to get you started.  Just remember if you make a decision to eat less at night and stick to it you will see results.

There are a lot of fad exercise programs out there.  They show up, get really popular, and then you never hear about them again.  But one plan that keeps showing up over and over again is walking.  The reason?  It’s easy to do and it actually works.  The key is knowing how to do it right.

The first step is to walk long enough; about an hour a day, 5 to 6 days a week.  If this is too much for you, start walking less and work your way up.  If you can only make it 15 minutes, then walk 15 minutes.  If you stick with it, you’ll soon find that you can walk 30 or 40 minutes.  Just walk every day and you’ll reach that hour mark in no time  

The second step to getting a good workout from walking is to get walk fast enough to keep your heart rate up.  Once you’ve hit your goal of walking an hour, try increasing how far you walk.  Aim to walk a little farther than you did the day before, while still walking for only an hour.  Another great way to keep up your heart rate is to alter how fast you go within your walk.  For example, start at a normal pace for a minute or two; then walk as fast as you can for a minute.  After that minute just repeat the process for your whole walk.  This will maintain a good heart rate without wearing you out.

The last step is to build muscle mass so you keep burning calories even when you’re not working out.  If you’re just starting out, you will probably build muscles just by walking.  Once you’re more accomplished, you can do this by adding hills or steep slopes to your route.  You can also build muscles by having a proper walking posture, holding in your stomach, and flexing your leg muscles as you walk.  If you’re a serious walker, you can learn to race walk to further build muscle mass.

Now that you’ve gotten started on your walking workout, remember to keep going.  If you start to get bored, listen to your favorite tunes on an ipod or invite a friend to come along.  Try altering your route and explore a new area.  Just don’t give up and you’ll do great!