Make sure you’re eating enough satisfying food early in the day. You don’t have to force yourself to eat breakfast if you’re not hungry in the morning. You might want to eat a decent sized lunch and a small snack in the afternoon and then your usual dinner. My point is that many people who are trying to lose weight put themselves on rations in the morning and midday, and then are excessively hungry in the evening. That means a reasonable sized dinner isn’t satisfying, so they keep eating into the late evening. It’s best to be hungry at dinner time but not absolutely ravenous.

Slow down when eating your meals and try to avoid distractions. If you’re not really paying attention to your meal when eating it, you won’t feel as satisfied afterwards and can go searching for something else to eat.

Ensure you’re eating enough protein and fat at each meal. Protein rich foods such as meat, seafood, poultry and eggs are satiating foods. I recommend a palm and a half sized portion at each meal, or 4 to 5 eggs if having them as a meal. Combining animal protein with fat further promotes satiety. Fat could be the fat on meat or olive oil, avocado, coconut oil or using animal fat for cooking, such as ghee or tallow. Be generous with salt because it also improves meal palatability and satiation. People who don’t eat enough salt at meals are more likely to crave salty snacks. Whey protein concentrate is an excellent source of first class protein and can be used to make a satisfying smoothie.

Check in with your emotional state. Maybe you are craving snacks because you are stressed about something that happened today, or dreading something that will happen tomorrow. A lot of people use eating in the evening as a relaxation technique. Once the house is quiet and the busyness is over, you are left with your own thoughts, which may be unpleasant. Eating may provide a temporary distraction.

Perhaps you are very tired in the evening and would benefit from an earlier bedtime. Sometimes people eat due to fatigue rather than hunger. They eat to give themselves some energy to get through the jobs they need to do. Maybe you are tired from inadequate sleep, chronic stress or nutrient deficiencies. Magnesium is a mineral that helps the body cope better with stress and may improve sleep quality.

Maybe you’ve developed some bad habits and you are just accustomed to snacking after dinner whether you’re hungry or not because you’ve been doing it for so long. If that’s the case, once dinner is over and you’ve cleaned up, go and do something entirely different than usual. An activity that’s incompatible with eating. Perhaps tidy up the house and have an earlier shower and brush your teeth.