The Late Afternoon Hunger Trap: How to Stop Overeating Before Dinner & Take Back Control

between eating. We got a lot of really positive feedback about listeners finding that really helpful. Our goal with the podcast is to really make sure that people have practical nutrition information, because there's always nutrition headlines, but so rarely are they written by dieticians who can put it into practice and really work with people each day to know

what the issues are. And indeed, what I want to talk about today is the late afternoon binges because I have so many of my women, whether they're home from work late afternoon after a really long day, or even at home with the kids and they're picking them up from daycare or just getting back from the park, and they just find themselves so hungry, and despite the best of intentions, they're often binging before dinner, and it may be just the kids leftovers or the kids food because

they might be cooking one earlier meal for kids, or including more child friendly foods like sort of pastas or hot chips or chicken nuggets or foods that tend to be quite popular with small children. And then by the time they get to their own dinner, they're not even hungry because they've eaten so much and then they really feel terrible about it. And you know, you and I are no diet purists. You know, we enjoy good quality food. I too, at times find myself eating overeating in the afternoon.

We certainly are not judging, but our goal is to really talk about a very common problem for women, why it happens, but more importantly, how you can take control, because there's no good And I said to this to your client last night on her text, I said, there's no good beating yourself up about it. It's happened. Let's

just make a plan to move forward. And so hopefully at the end of this segment you've got some really practical strategies to take control so you don't find yourself vulnerable to overeating at that time and basically displacing your meal calories and then overeating, which makes weight, fat loss, or even weight control quite difficult.

feeling low blood glue coast, really hungry. That might be exacerbated if you exercise or even go for a walk or to the park with the kids, and you sort of are practicing that cognitive restraint, I'm not going to eat, I'm not gonna eat, not going to eat. Then all of a sudden you're so hungry and there's food around and you just demolish it. So it's normal for that reason.

And I've got sort of several strategies in order of what I think you can manage it, because ultimately it is a bit of a problem in terms of calorie intake overall. So the first and most important thing that will help prevent it in general is having a really substantial afternoon snack. But I still find that, even though we've spoken about it many times on the potty, I still find my clients are just grabbing something quick and easy, a good old cheese and crackers, a nutbar, a protein bar,

and I want to stress that is not enough. If you're a busy, active female, you need at least a couple of hundred calories at that time, and you need at least twenty grams of carbohydrate, and you need at least twenty grams of protein. But what happens is if you grab half of that and have saved cheese and crackers, which we all love, one hundred and fifty cow, you're only getting five ten grams of carbohydrate, You're getting five grams of protein, and that's only going to satisfy you

for an hour at most. So you've got to complete that meal. And I want you to think at times when you go out for a big lunch and then you find you're not even hungry for dinner, and what a freeing feeling that is because you're actually not hungry.

So rather than thinking it's better to restrict, restrict, restrict, and than binging, you're much better to have something decent at three four o'clock, a wrap, a slice of toast with some cheese and tomato or cottage cheese, a protein shake with some fruits, some high protein yogat with a bit of granola and nuts, something substantial but also That is nice because the other thing that happens is if you feed yourself food that you think you should having

or you should have it's healthy, and you don't actually enjoy it, You'll keep eating until you find that satisfaction. So I would really encourage you to be thinking of an afternoon snack that you actually enjoy and look forward to having. And if you are on the run, sure and you need to grab something like a cheese and crackers or a bar, no problem, but you have to complete it as a meal. It's not just a bar

on its own. You need to have some fresh fruit with it or some cut up veggies to really bulk it up and give you something that will then feel you for at least another couple of hours till dinner time.

popping a few. You've got no idea how much you're having, And the issue with that is that's that mindless over consumption of calor is you're not consuming a whole meal, you haven't notice you've had it, and as such you don't compensate with fewer calories in the next meal. So put something in your mouth so that you're less likely to put something else in when you know you don't really want it and it's not coming from hunger. That's

probably my next thing. The third tip I would say is when you're feeding small children, try not to give foods that you really love. If you love potato chips or hot chips and serve them at home, it's going to be really difficult to not pick on them. Whereas if you're choosing things that are a bit plainer, sticking veggies out, putting a tray of veggies or veggie to snack on the bench, at least then you've got something in your mouth so you're less likely to grab that

type of food. Or the other thing is get the kids to actually put any leftovers from the lunch box in the bin, because you may find that you open the lunch box, you see it and you grab, whereas if someone else is actually putting it in the bin, so you don't come in contact with it, it'll be less likely to do it. Because I think ideally we would have a rulerer that is, don't eat it, don't eat it, create the don't do it. But it's when you're tired, distracted, fatigue, that is when you will just

mindlessly over consume. So there are a few of my best tips. It is have a substantial afternoon tea so you're not hungry, have something in your mouth, probably something minty, gum mint, so that you're not tempted to put something else in, and keep as far away from the tempting food as you can, knowing that if food is in front of you, as a human being, you will probably eat it. That's just You're not weak, You're just human.

So I think acknowledging it as a risky time and probably the best answer is if you can eat dinner, eat it. You know, if I'm home at the kids five thirty six, I'll try and eat But for a number of reasons that can be tricky and can sort of require a little bit of a change to the food provision in the house, but ultimately and I find seven eight o'clock dinner's just a bit too late, and we really ideally need to eat earlier when you can.

quite late. And then having the kids when they were really little, you know, really until they started solars, they didn't take in much, so our dinner time was still you know, we'd put me in a bed at like, you know what, sixty six thirty, then we'd come out, we'd start cooking dinner. We still wouldn't eat till seven thirty eight. Now that both of the girls are eating a lot more, we do dinner time at five thirty. So whatever happens in my workday, my clients know, I

just don't do calls between five and six. I'll do them earlier, I'll do them later, but that five to six times, I start cooking dinner at five basically we all eat as a family at five thirty. And some days, yeah, I get hungry and I need a little something extra, particularly if I'm working later, you know, eight o'clock, nine o'clock, I might have a little snack to keep me going. And then David will often always have something seven thirty eight,

eight thirty because he gets quite hungry. But we eat as a family at five thirty, and it's one of the best things that we've done because, as you mentioned, Susie, if I was feeding the kids, I'm pretty hungry at five thirty, so I would either need a really substantial snack myself, or like a substantial snack earlier, like four o'clock, or I find I'm picking and I'm great at their dinner, and then you know, you do the dinner, you do the bath, you put them to bed, you come back,

and as you mentioned, you've snacked through their dinner, so you're not actually that hungry. So for our family, I know it's not going to be for every family, but for our family, that earlier dinner time and we all eat together is so it just works really well for us. And then David'll eat more later if he needs to, and the kids get that really powerful modeling behavior of the parents where my girls will be like, what's that?

Can we try that? And then Mia will you know the other day she tried some capsicum and some spinach. She's had it before. She's like, I don't like it. I'm like, no, worries, really, well done. Try Mommy's going to finish the rest of it. So it's that really powerful modeling behavior that we do for us small children, which pays off long term, but in terms of a more substantial afternoon tea snack if you can't bring your

dinner forward, like you mentioned some of my favorites. And I was having this conversation with one of my other clients the other day because she was saying she really just is starving at that sort of three o'clock mark, and also doesn't feel satisfied from the traditional snacks. You know, We've done the boiled eggs of vege sticks, the crackers and cheese. She's like, they're good, but I'm not satisfied. I'm still needing more. And that's where she's like, I

kind of go to the pantra. I might have like a chip or two or a cracker, and then that turns into a few more and a few more and before you know it. Like you mentioned, it's very easy to binge in a high bag of potato chips because really what you've had just doesn't touch the signs. So we talked about almost like a mini meal for her around that three pm mark, and sure she can reduce the portion of dinner later on if she's not hungry. But

really it's such a long stretch. Most people have their lunch at around you know, twelve or one o'clock, and if you're not eating dinner till seven, seven thirty eight o'clock, it's a really really long stretch in between. You almost do need another meal or a mini meal around that you know, three pm mark. So some of my favorites. I love a good cheer pudding, like you've got healthy fat, you've got fiber. It's so filling, but I always like to top it with a bit of higher protein yoga

to get that protein hit in. I like a couple of boiled eggs with some veggie sticks and some grain crackers. That's a really nice, higher protein, higher fiber based snack. The multi grain rice cakes with a tina tuna and some fresh tomatoes or cucumber chopped up. I love a smoothie. It doesn't have to be as well rounded as a breakfast SMOOTHI or as high calorie. It doesn't have to be four five, six hundred calories like you do for

a meal. But it could just be a smoothie with some cold water or some almond milk, a little bit of creatine to support your cognition, your muscle, some protein powder for a bit of sweetness, and just some berries and some spinach. That's a fairly lean SMOOTHI. It's getting in some good nutrients. It's filling because it's a really good cup of liquid. It's high protein, it's got some

fiber from the berries in the spinach. What other options a slice of good quality toasts with some cottage cheese and some cinnamon on top, or some cottage cheese, tomato, fresh basil, or just a smaller portion of breakfast like often my clients will make, say like overnight oats or something, just a smaller portion of that in the afternoon. It's sweet, it's filling. If you're getting some good protein powder or some high protein yogurt in there, it's quite high protein

as well. And then The other option my client used the other day. She'd had a lunch, she'd gone off to run some errands, and she was at the local Westfield and she was like, oh my gosh, I'm starving, Like what can I do? I can run into coals, but she's like, can I have like a like a tuna sushi roll? And I was like, yeah, that's a great option. So I think she ended up having one

or two tuna and avocado sushi rolls. She nipped into coals and got those little snackable those mini cucumbers, and she's like, that can be going all afternoon and into like a later dinner later on. She got home, she saw the kids out, she put them to bed, and then she started cooking her dinner later on, and she wasn't tempted at all to snack because she was so

satisfied from the sushi. Had had a bit of tuna in there for some protein, and it had some healthy fats in there from the avocado, and then she had that crunch factor from the little mini cucumbers as well. So you can be quite creative in the afternoon. But what I find, Susie, is that so many of my clients fear the calories, like they're like, oh, I don't want to have, you know, a two three hundred calorie afternoon tea snack, because you know, I really want to lose

some weight. But the reality is, if you're not fueling yourself properly in the afternoon, you'll end up over eating later. So a lot of us fear having, say children fifty calories as an afternoon tea snack, and then we'll go on eat five hundred calories later because we're oversnacking and we're overdoing it on some of those ultra process foods. So don't fear fueling your body properly when you're genuinely hungry.

A lot of times what happens is you don't do that, and then the floodgates open and you end up overeating way more calories later on later at night, which is an ideal from like a sleep perspective either. So I think the bottom line here is to really lean into that in the afternoon, if you are hungry, choose something with a bit of protein, a bit of healthy fats, and just more substantial than a usually but or more substantial than a cup of green tea. And you know,

one boiled egg. It has to be quite filling in order to actually touch the sides and get you through it at nighttime, all dinner time.

they are much more processed than bread. But for busy people, I find you can put some leftover chicken or tuna or egg, some leaves, some cheese, make it the night before, wrap it up. It keeps pretty well on the go because most of us are out and about, or at least if you are going to grab a bar, you are going to grab a packet of roasted faber beans, take your cut up veggies with you to give you

that bulk that will fill you up. Because in general, we want to put an end to that mindless munching, of just grabbing bits and pieces all the time and really just commit to meals, not just snacking. So hopefully that gives you a few little strategies to take control because so many people feel guilty and gross because they

don't then have overeaten in the afternoon. They don't know where that to have dinner, you know, so really it's sometimes deciding are you actually better to have the dinner earlier or have more at lunch and afternoon tea so dinner can be that lighter top up, knowing it's a risky period for many people that late afternoon hunger.

Amiga three fats. The other one is EPA, and these are the very special fats that you really only find in large amounts concentrated amounts in seafood and in particular oily fish because it's the type of fat. It's found in higher amounts in oily fish like our salmon in particular.

And we know that about ten percent of austrains get the optimal or recommended amounts of these very important fats, and that's really low because we've known for a long time that Amega three fats are particularly beneficial when it comes to reducing disease risk. But I think this was on my mind and I really triaked my interests because so many people I guarantee you you know someone who has Olzheimer's disease, ors family has our Cheimer's disease or

early onset dementia. So as we're living longer lives and we want to have long, healthy, functionally fit lives, we also need our cognition to be working as well, there's no good to be lived to one hundred if your brain's not working very well.

original study. So basically it's a long term observational study about a large group of people, the Fromingham Offspring Study, and specifically this data was looking at almost fifteen hundred participants who were older than sixty five, so certainly looking at aging well and older populations, and at the time they first assessed them, there was fifteen hundred of these patients who were dementia free. So it's a big study,

there's lots of people in it. But this was a cohort of people in that older age bracket and they take bloods regularly. It's not specifically looking at a diet study.

It's just observing these people over time, and basically that the data showed that those who were in the lowest risk of developing dementia compared to those who developed a full Alzheimer's disease when they had high blood levels of this DHA, they had forty nine percent lower risk as I had mentioned, but interestingly they findings were similar to those found in the original research group, which is the original Firmingham Heart Study cohort, and those in the highest

intake of DHA had a forty seven percent reduction in the risk of developing dementia. So this is very similar data to basically show it's really important to pay attention to the types of fats in your diet and basically eat a lot more fish. Because the current recommendations in Australia from the Heart Foundation are for austrains to have two fish meals per week. I think it should be double that, and I should declare I do consult to

Tassel and have done for a long time. But that's the reason because I know as a dietician how important oily fish and fish in general is for us. Now, all seafood will have small amounts of this DHA and EPA,

but particularly it is the oily fish. So the salmon, unfortunately tin tunea doesn't have a huge amount, but things like sardines macro does, and even whitefish like barramundi, shellfish like prawns, you do get some, but I would be encouraging all of us really to increase our intake of fish if you like it, and that can be as simple as having some tin salmon in the salad and then a fish meal once or twice a week. You can really spread it out with different types. And talked

earlier about wraps. You know, smoked salmon can be a great addition if you like it with a bit of avol and a wrap. Very high in getting those doses because you actually land don't need a lot to get your daily intake of dhaapa. And when I was back studying at the University of Wollongong over twenty five years ago, the experts then in a Mega three and their particular interest was in blood pressure, would say that you need

a gram of dha epa combined per day minimum. So for those and we're talk in a minute fit if you don't like seafood, because that's a very common question. If you're supplementing it, which is certainly an option and looking for different varieties, it's usually about three regular fish or capsules to get to that gram of epa dha per day, or it might just be one or two of the super strength ones that double those concentrations. But in food terms, it's only about one hundred grams of salmon.

Because it's so concentrated, you get a lot in quite a small amount. So like many foods, you better to have small amounts regularly than a massive two hundred gram fill it. You better just split it over two days to give yourselves opportunity for maximum assimilation. So, yeah, I thought it was just really powerful data to show how important it is over our life to have these dietary

patterns which skew towards these key foods. And if you like seafood and fish, and I know it's quite expensive at the moment, mixing it up with tin varieties is a great way to really bump up your intake of those essential fats, particularly if you have a family history of dementia or early on set Alzheimer's. It's just a no brainer. Pardon the pardon for me, But let's talk about lean for those who don't like seafood, because we know that can be a real issue. What would your recommendations be.

lot in that area. My mum, being of Malaysian background, I've grown up and she's always had fish and salmon like it was something that I think for her culture, like fish and salmon was always a very popular part of the cuisine. But my dad's grandparents very Caucasian. They would just meet treuvech always just mean three beach, and even as they got a bit older, if their chewing wasn't so great, they went to more like a bit of soft chicken or a little bit of sort of

like turkey or ham or something. They never really fell back on like fish or salmon. So I just never really saw them eat it. And they both developed, i'd say at quite a younger age, like at some stage in their seventies the first signs of it, and then essentially both passed away from the side effects of that one, you know, passed away from a fall and one had another fall and had a stroke associated with that, and you know that would big fools risks because of the

Alzheimer's as well. So I think it is really important that we start these habits now. We don't wait till we get to our sixty seventies eighties and go, oh, I need to increase my salmon intake. It's really important, particularly if you have children, to get them into the regular habit of having fish and salmon. I've given my two girls salmon since basically they started solids. And one of my friends the other day was like, oh, how

do you get your kids to eat salmon? My kids won't touch it, And again it's something that's just been so familiar. David and I eat it two three times a week. We always just put it on the girl's plates. If they don't eat it, I don't make a fuss about it. But as they've gotten a bit older and they can have a little bit more salt. Babies don't really have you shouldn't give them much salt, but David always does a ton of salt on the skin of the salmon, makes it really crispy. Both of them just

love that. I think probably just because it's salty, but peck, I'll take the wind. They don't really eat much salt, so they're having a bit of salted salmon skin with the salt on. And the skin in particular has the highest amount of Amiga trees as well, So a lot of my clients will say, oh, do I need to buy it with the skin on? Can I have it with the skin off? If you like it, if you're

tolerate it, put some salt on, crispin it up. The skin of the salmon is the highest amount of Amiga three, so definitely don't throw that away.

threes in. But if you're someone that's like, look, I don't really love salmon, but like, I'll eat it, I say to my clients that's where if you're sitting on the fence, I'm going to kick up the button. I'm going to make you have it because I know how powerful and Mega three's are in terms of the inflammation pathways in our body and also reducing our risk of diseases and that sort of thing. So if you're not don't totally hate it, but you're kind of like, oh,

I can tolerated. I'll eat it if I have to absolutely make sure you're having it a few times a week because it is so powerful and you don't just have to have a salmon fill it. You can crush it up, mix it with a bit of you know, potato dill, and make it into like salmon patties if you want, or you can mix it through like a

beautiful risotto. You don't just have a plain salmon philip, because it is quite a strong taste, I would say, so mix it in with things and make sure that you can kind of mask that strong flavor if that's the sort of thing that turns you off a little bit.

But where possible, try and eat the skin. And even when my kids are really little, I would, you know, chop up the skin as well, mix it all and then make it into some sort of like salmon patty or put it into a risotto, but chop the skin up as well, so again they're getting that really high dose of AMGA three as well. Onto your next question

about plant based sauces. Of course, if you're not just a fan of the flavor, go to like AMGA three capsules, And like Susie said, there are many brands that do high doses of that, and most Amega three capsules are like horse tablets. They're enormous. They're so massive. So the less capsules you can take, in my opinion, the better.

So i'd always get a client to recommend a higher strength one if you don't, if you have an allergy, if you're you know, plant based vegan, the next best thing you can do is actually algae oil, and that's got a quite high amount of plant based Amega three's, which is the AJ isn't al Yeah, you're right, heard of mind like needs more caffeine in today? So yeah, and through diet a salmon, oilyfish, mackerel, sardines, what else.

And then your plant based sauces, your cheer seeds, your walnut, your flax seeds, you know, your burg and soil in. Any of those nuts and seeds are really really bad to get your plant based sources in, but unfortunately they're just nowhere near as powerful as something like a piece

of salmon is. So again, if you're sitting on the fence and you're like, I don't really love it, but I can need it if I need to, you're just going to get ten times more bang for your buck than having to add consistently multiple spoons of these nuts and seeds throughout the day. It's just a lot easier to get salmon in, but for those who can't, you will need to get your healthy nuts and seeds in alongside very likely something like an algae oil as well.

a look at it. So per serve three forty calories. It's got almost thirty five grams of protein lam, which is high.

which is actually pretty low for a meal. When I look at the ingredients, it's a thirty two percent vegetable mixes the base, which is actually nice to see with cabbage, capsicum, carrot, spring onion, followed by twenty six percent chicken, which is very high, and then fourteen percent tariarchy sauce which has a few little additives in it, but overall this is one of the best frozen meals I've seen at that price point, which I can't tell you what it is,

but it won't be high. Ping Audi and at those macros.

dinner and aren't cooking. So yeah, big fan, and I will take myself off to Audi and see which other ranges they've got in that it does say on the front packet for limited time only, which makes me upset, but yeah, we'll see. But I yeah, this top marks for me. In I'd say that's probably one of the best frozen meals I've seen at that calorie level nutritionally.

fifteen grams of carbs, that's too low. So if it was me with majority of my clients, I'd be serving that with a bit of brown rice or a couple of pieces of fruit or something like that, just to bump up the overall calorie load and carb load, because we do know that a lot of times if you underdo it in your main meals, you kind of open the floodgates for that, you know, later on snacking. So it is something that is great calorie and macro wise, but if you are living in a larger body, you're

quite active, you are genuinely quite hungry. This isn't a

large portion. So although it might be low calorie, low carb, high protein, it might tick all the boxes, just have it and sit with it, and if you realize that you're still quite hungry, you're far better off to add a little something too that a good quality slice of bread, you know, half a cup of brown rice, a nice piece of fruit afterwards, a banana or something, just to bump that up that little bit more, rather than sort of eating it, not feeling satisfied and then going and

having six timntams after dinner. So I just wanted to make people aware of that it is quite low calorie. So depending on your requirements, you may be somebody who needs to add a little something to that meal just to kind of round it off that little bit more.

two to three grams of water. That's very normal, it's science. So when people cut carb out of their diet, they remove all the breads and the pastas and the biscuits, they feel leaner for the first couple of days, the first week or two, the scales do a big drop and people think, oh my goodness, this is amazing. But long term, you're not getting in really any fiber. When we know that fiber is like magic for your body and improves your gut health. It helps things work properly

digestion wise. You know, your gut health is linked to your immunity, your mental health. It's so important for so many reasons within your body so you're getting a huge lack of fibers, so I imagine that a lot of people may feel quite constipated. Also, there is very strong research that too much red meat and too much process meat definitely aren't good for you in the diets. So for me, I would never recommend this. You could do perhaps a modified version, where again I would just consider

that healthy eating. If you wanted to prioritize more red meats and proteins and have a very you know, limited amount of carbohydrates, but fill up on all your fruits and veggies, you can still get a decent amount. I wouldn't be recommending it, but you can. I think a modified version of this for some people may work well, but for me it's more just like a diet. It's just it's severely restrictive. You're lacking in a lot of

essential nutrients. Your carbs, the good whole grain varieties can provide things like B vitamins like I would just struggle to see how you wouldn't have to take multiple, multiple supplements on a diet like that and then probably still

be quite constipated at the end of the day. So for me, as dieticians, it's all about balance, and I just don't see any reason to cut out all of your fruits and veggies and some of your good quality hole grains, which again we know there's very strong research that not only do too much process red meats, and red meats contribute to worse off health that comes then when you're not getting enough good quality whole grains, you're not getting some of the benefits of that either, because

we certainly have research on the flip side of that to show that your good quality hole grains also help prevent a lot of different types of diseases as well. So it's all about balance at the end of the day. But I think people just like to do these super restrictive things. See the scale go down and go, oh, I feel amazing, But you also forget that following something like this, you probably cut out the heavy pastas and the biscuits and the snacks and the ultra processed foods

and all the alcohol. That's probably why you feel so much better, not the fact that you cut out the majority of the fruits and veggies and the good quality types of carbs in your diet.

So yeah, I think that there's better diets out there, knowing and particularly when it comes to red meat, knowing that the recommendations to reduce the risk of digestive cancers is it four fifty grams a week or three fifty grams a week total, So it's a pretty hard diet to do when you are eating that way. So certainly for women in digestive comfort, it's certainly not a diet I either use recommend or have really ever seen any decent results from either.