Late night eating is a terrible problem for most people trying to eat healthy! Many people maintain good diets during the day only to blow it late at night. So I’ve put together some helpful tips to curb late night eating.
First of all, be sure to eat 3 good meals during the day, with 1 or 2 snacks between meal times. A common fault amongst healthy eaters is trying to eat too few calories during the day, which only ends up resulting in bingeing late at night. I’ve often found that a good insurance policy is to eat most of your calories before 7:00 p.m., whenever you can.
But what about when you still feel the urge to eat late at night? Instead, try drinking 2 or more cups of water. You can also make a cup of herbal tea or something warm, as hot liquids have a soothing effect on both emotions and appetite. The truth is, thirst or dehydration often manifests itself as a restless, hungry feeling. So before you nosh on food, go for a drink.
Constantly remind yourself that it’s normal to feel hungry late at night due to habitually eating late. Breaking this habit can feel like learning to quit smoking! Remind yourself of your goal to maintain your lean body mass, and that the key to maintaining this healthy weight is to STOP mindless late night eating!
It sounds easy enough, but much of late night eating after dinner can be avoided by hiding the not-so-healthy food. Put foods that you’re prone to crave late at night out of sight. Better yet? Don’t buy junk food at all! I know this may be more difficult if you have kids, but the whole family will benefit if you simply don’t bring it into the home.
For those of you who are more motivated by visuals, keep a written copy of your eating plan in view. This will help keep your goal of a healthy weight firmly fixed in your mind. The temptation to snack late at night will not be as great if you don’t give in to the urge for several weeks. Once these healthy habits become routine, your body will adjust and some of the cravings will dissipate.
Believe it or not, some people (like ME!) have great success by simply brushing their teeth late at night. This method has been known to curb late night eating for many people. For myself, once I’ve brushed my teeth it signals to me that bedtime is approaching and the time for eating has passed. Plus I’m too lazy to want to brush them again if I slip up and eat! 😛
Stats say that the most vulnerable time for eating late is 1 hour after dinner right up til bedtime. Keep your life interesting by working on a favorite hobby in the evenings and NOT watching TV. (Ok, so that’s not terribly realistic…) But just remember that the ads on TV can subconsciously trigger the impulse to eat. And boredom is your biggest danger to late night eating!
Most importantly? Psych yourself up for the daily battle. You know that you WILL feel tempted to snack late at night. But be reminded that it’s an artificial feeling that will go away when you go to bed. The next morning, you probably won’t be hungry …. But eat breakfast anyway …. Because as I’ve said a dozen times, it’s the most important meal of the day!
Today’s Workout
Buy-in: 3 rounds of – 10 double crunch, 10 pushups, 10 kettlebell swings
WOD:Â BunchoStuff
1. Overhead Squat – 4 x 6 (8 min countdown timer, be quick!)
2. Deadlift – 5 x 3,1,3,1,3
- Perform a moderate set of 3 reps, then add weight and do a single rep (rest in between)
- Aim for between 75-85% 1RM for the 3’s and 85-90%1RM for the 1’s
- If new to the deadlift, perform 5 x 5 with moderate weight
- 10 min running clock
3. “HalfTab”
- Perform 4 tabata intervals of burpees followed immediately by 4 tabata intervals of situps and double unders
- Low score for each is your score for the day (i.e. 7 burpees, 7 situps, 8 doubles = 22)
Cash-Out:Â Foam roll and lacrosse ball
reading this as I eat my 10pm bowl of yogurt, fruit and granola… oops!
Eating before bedtime is great. It just has to have protein IE Milk, Protein shake, Cottage Cheese, deli turkey etc. Sleep is an 8 hour fast and you grow/repair while you sleep. Not eating before you sleep just adds to the time you starved yourself. Of course, this is for people who want to add/maintain muscle as opposed to avoiding calories to keep that model figure.
I have read that eating very close to sleeping can have a detrimental effect on the quality and “depth” of one’s sleep.
Supposedly, the digestion of protein increases the presence of amino acids in the blood, which act as blockers and make it difficult for “sleep hormones” (melatonin?) to cross the blood-brain barrier.
This may be detrimental to the deep sleep cycles that are so crucial for release of HGH. –> recovery
Not sure where I read that, or if it makes sense…
Also, I believe digestion is aided slightly by gravity, and greatly by moving around. If you have any stomach issues, lying down for hours right after a meal may promote acid reflux. Heartburn definitely isn’t conducive to restorative sleep.
Anecdotally, I find that if I don’t eat at night I get really hungry around 4-5 a.m. and can’t sleep.
So, depending on your goals and your intestinal fortitude, I would suggest adding/eliminating a late night snack and see what works.
And of course, to paraphrase Bonesy, EAT YOUR DANG BREAKFAST. You need energy all day. You probably don’t need energy at night.
nice write up Bones!! I have just recently curbed this terrible habit and i truly believe that this is the reason why i have been able to shed more than a few pounds in only two weeks. I make a rule no eating after 8pm (cause I’m a night owl, and 7pm is sometimes when i eat dinner). Seems to be working really well for me.
But I NEVER miss breakfast either….. maybe thats it too! lol
Good convo on here though!!
Great discussion, guys!
Some really important points there, Lucas. Food right before bed isn’t always helpful to your body and your all important sleep cycle, and can create other issues we haven’t thought about. And, as you said, it is important to know your OWN body, and test what works best for you. I’m a big believer in this.
And to Paul, I agree with the main point of what you said: a pre-bedtime snack can be important. As a big time follower of the Zone eating plan, I myself have followed their prescription of eating a snack after dinner at some point to give myself some fat burning fuel for the night. However, in getting to know my body and my eating schedule, I have also learned that my late night snack has been causing ME more problems than not. I do want to reiterate that the idea with this post wasn’t to encourage people to deny themselves calories in order to achieve a thin, wispy figure. As Amber has related to, it was to help curb the likelihood of that evening snacking being more about boredom and the wrong types of indulgent foods, than for nutritional purposes.
It can take a lot of learning and practice for those interested in fitness to live out the idea that food is FUEL, rather than just for pleasure. That is what the spirit of this post was addressing.
Keep up the good work, guys!
I have also read and found that eating before bed makes you restless and affects your quality of sleep. But it was all anecdotal, I’ve never seen a study to this effect. And I have heard Paul’s argument to put on mass, but I found I was still too full to eat breakfast when I snack at night, but that’s just me… and I am about half Paul’s size, so maybe he’s on to something.
Great posts everyone! Of course everyone`s body is different, so do what works for you. Try out new things and measure the results and see what works best.
I have an app for my phone (thanks Krez)that measures your sleep cycle, it shows the peaks between awake, sleeping and deep sleep. It is pretty awesome!
Last night was interesting, I had dinner quite late, steak and veggies and finished probably about 8:30pm and I looked at my sleep cylce and it was quite different from other nights when I don`t eat late. I had lots of peaks and valleys between sleeping (almost awake) and a deep sleep. I will be interested in seeing if this is a trend.
Oh yeah, the app is called Sleep Cycle
Wow, so your iPhone has access to your brainwaves? That is really freaky. I wouldn’t trust it…
I don’t understand this app…please explain!
When you go to sleep you put your phone face down on your bed and it measures how much movement is in the bed. If you are moving around a lot, you are not in a deep sleep (according to the app, I am not a sleep expert 😉 ).
This is not a totally accurate app, but it is really cool to see. You can see a line graph with time on one axis and awake, asleep and deep sleep on the other. I am going to keep monitoring and if I notice any other interesting patterns, I will let you know.
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to say hi. It happens to be 3am and my new partying neighbours woke me at 1am and are still going strong. I just ate 2 carrots cause I thought I was hungry and that’s about all that looked remotely appetizing at 3am, LOL. Hope you are all well and loving life. Going to attempt to sleep now, wonder if it will be the carrots or the boys next door that keep me awake?
HBomb