Why do you want to eat so much at night and how to protect yourself from evening snacks

Many people say and write that you can’t eat after six, as it will affect your figure. In this article, we will figure out together whether it is possible to eat in the evening while losing weight? And if so, WHAT can you eat in the evening?

First of all, my advice to you: don’t listen to those who say that you can’t eat after six, that’s nonsense! You can eat, and even need to, unless you go to bed at 9 pm. This rule works for them. In general, the last meal should be no later than 3 hours before bedtime. Then your body will have time to digest the food you eat, and you will sleep soundly and sweetly all night. So, if you are losing weight, then you can eat in the evening, but the main thing is to know WHAT you can eat in the evening when losing weight, and why it is better to refuse or postpone it until the morning without harming your figure.

Why do you want to eat at night?

Here we should highlight the physical and domestic reasons. They can be hidden both in disruption of the body’s functioning and in simply incorrect composition of the diet. It is likely that a person skips breakfast, eats low-calorie foods for lunch, and makes dinner completely light. In this case, at night the body will demand to eat, since the sleep of a hungry person is not as strong and deep as that of a well-fed person. Over time, this often develops into a habit that is very difficult to overcome.

Let's look at all the reasons in more detail:

• Emotional stress
  . This problem often worries those who work a lot, hold a responsible position, and spend hours on end with children. Under such circumstances, there is a desire to eat stress. The difficulty here is that negative thoughts most often bother you in the evening and at night.
• Fear of the dark
  . Fatty foods help suppress it. It is also important that it helps you fall asleep faster, causing drowsiness. Thus, anxiety goes away and does not bother you until the next evening.
• Gastritis
  . Diseases with both high and low acidity can increase appetite. The hydrochloric acid produced in the stomach irritates its mucous membrane and increases the feeling of hunger. In most cases, the situation worsens at night, when food is not consumed for more than 6-8 hours. With this problem, nausea, heartburn and abdominal pain are usually bothered.
• Biliary dyskinesia
  . With this disease, bile stagnates, and sometimes it refluxes into the stomach; it is also an appetite stimulant. In this case, sour belching, pain in the right hypochondrium and yellowing of the sclera of the eyes may appear.

If the reasons for night snacks lie in disruption of the body’s functioning, then you should immediately contact a gastroenterologist or family doctor.

The harm of snacking at night

The main danger lies in the fact that at night a person is motionless.
This means that the calories eaten are not consumed. Therefore, eating foods rich in carbohydrates can lead to weight gain and, as a result, the appearance of fat under the skin. This is especially worth remembering for those who are naturally inclined to be overweight and already suffer from excess weight. The second reason why it is not recommended to eat in the dark is the compression of other internal organs by an overfilled stomach while lying down. In this state of affairs, the body experiences a deficiency of oxygen, which is extremely harmful to health. This leads to a slowdown in the process of cell renewal and a deterioration in overall health - dizziness, nausea, weakness. Also, as a result, the quality of sleep decreases, it becomes less deep and is often interrupted.

It is also harmful to eat food at night because at this time of day the digestive system slows down. As a result, food is not digested as quickly as it should, and active processes begin only in the morning. During 6-9 hours of sleep, toxins enter the bloodstream, polluting the entire body. This increases the likelihood of developing neoplasms, atherosclerosis, heart attack, migraines, and colitis.

It is also important here that a night snack at a time when the body should be resting inhibits the production and reduces the amount of sleep hormone melatonin in the blood. As a result, I suffer from insomnia, sleep is constantly interrupted and in the morning I have very little strength, I don’t want to get out of bed. All this exhausts the body and leads to premature aging.

How to avoid late-night snacking

To solve the problem, you need an integrated approach - a combination of proper, healthy nutrition and an active lifestyle.
The first will help saturate the body with the necessary micro-, macroelements and vitamins, and the second will allow you to fall asleep faster, thereby avoiding attacks of nighttime gluttony. It is equally important to monitor the amount of calories consumed so that their volume is not lower than required for your age, gender and weight. To prevent the desire to empty the refrigerator at night, it is recommended to do the following:

1. Stick to the drinking regime
   . You need to drink at least 1 liter of water per day, which perfectly dulls the feeling of hunger. Before going to bed, drink it warm, in a volume of no more than one glass.
2. Place different drinks next to you
   . Cranberry juice, low-fat kefir, milk, green iced tea, of which 100 ml will be enough, will help you not to fall into gluttony.
3. Walk before bed
   . An evening promenade improves your mood and saturates your cells with oxygen, allows you to fall asleep faster and suppresses the feeling of hunger. It is advisable to come from outside 1-2 hours before going to bed.
4. Ventilate the room
   . This must be done every evening, even in the cold season. In this way, the microbes living in the house are killed, breathing becomes easier and sleep becomes deeper. In this case, the risk of a binge eating disorder will be minimized.
5. Eat properly
   . You need to have a breakfast with a predominance of fats, a lunch with predominantly carbohydrates, and a dinner with proteins. Between main meals, additional so-called snacks should be provided. You can use fresh vegetables and fruits, dairy products. In the evening, under no circumstances should you overuse flour products.
6. Brush your teeth before going to bed
   . After this, it will not only be a pity to spoil your fresh breath (this is at the level of reflexes), but also the feeling of hunger will stop tormenting you.
7. Do not keep harmful products in a visible place
   . When going to bed, you should hide away everything that stimulates your appetite - fried potatoes, juices, various sweets.
8. Go to bed on time
   . You should not sit at the computer or watch TV before this. It is advisable to finish all tasks 1-2 hours before going to bed. Instead, it is better to read a book; reading relaxes and helps you fall asleep faster. To avoid feeling hungry at night, you need to have dinner around 19:30, 2-3 hours before bedtime. During this time, all food will be calmly digested, there will be no heaviness in the stomach and the body will not receive stress. In this case, the food taken will be enough until the morning.

Note! In order to avoid late-night snacking, it is very important to create a calm environment around and psychologically adjust. If necessary, chewing gum can be used to satisfy hunger.

Proper dinner

To make you want to eat less at night, you need to have proper dinner in the evening. Fast carbohydrates: refined rice, pasta, potatoes are the most inappropriate food for dinner. After it, you will want to eat again within an hour or an hour and a half, and it’s still far from bedtime. In addition, if you overeat even a little, all the extra calories will be stored until the morning as reserves, since there is simply nothing to spend them on at night.

It is much better to have a dinner with proteins and/or vegetables. Plant foods contain a lot of fiber, which gives you a feeling of fullness for a long time. It will also contribute to better cleansing of the intestines in the morning. Protein is the most difficult to break down into the necessary components, so it takes longer to digest, and you will want to eat again no earlier than after 2-2.5 hours.

Those who go to workouts after work often overeat in the evenings. You can’t eat an hour or an hour and a half before active physical activity, and when returning home, many experience brutal hunger, which is why they eat a large portion of food.

Here it is important not to forget the rule that within half an hour after intense exercise you need to make a carbohydrate snack: a protein bar, a banana, a special sports shake. Then you can get by with a light dinner at home.

Nutritionists recommend having dinner about 2-3 hours before going to bed. That is, those who go to bed at 23.00 can easily have dinner at 19.00-19.30. But things don’t always work out the way we plan. If you didn’t manage to go to bed on time, and hunger continues to increase, then it’s better to go and have a snack. But it must be done correctly.

What to eat at night to avoid gaining weight

These can be both first and second courses, various side dishes, desserts and salads.
All food should not be very fatty and preferably not floury. It is recommended to avoid products with a lot of sugar and a high percentage of calories, as they can quickly make you gain weight. Dairy products, fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables deserve attention. Don’t ignore drinking, which effectively satisfies hunger. Here are some foods that are good to eat before bed:

• Fermented milk products
  . The leader among them is low-fat kefir, followed by homemade milk, to which it is useful to add a spoonful of honey, cottage cheese and yogurt with berries. But it is better not to eat salty cheese for dinner, as it provokes the production of hydrochloric acid. The listed products improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and normalize the flow of bile.
• Nuts
  . Almonds, pistachios and peanuts are very rich in protein, so they quickly suppress the desire to pounce on junk food. The same can be said about walnuts and hazelnuts. But this is only true if they are not salted or fried.
• Vegetables
  . Raw white cabbage and Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers will be useful here. All this is quickly digested and excreted without being transformed into fat. Such products even promote passive weight loss. They can be used individually or in combination to make salads.
• Fruits
  . A hearty banana, pear, or melon are perfect for eating before bed. They are not heavy on the stomach, are quickly digested and absorbed, without causing discomfort in the stomach. If you have diabetes, you should eat fruits at night carefully, as they can increase blood glucose levels.
• Drinking
  . Herbal or green tea, which has tonic and soothing properties, helps greatly. It slows down the production of gastric juice, thereby preventing the desire to snack in the middle of the night.
• Fish
  . Under no circumstances should you fry it; it is best to boil or bake it in the oven. Salted salmon, steamed hake or cod cutlets, and tuna fillet are ideal for a late dinner. Dried fish is not a very good option.
• Meat
  . The best choice is boiled veal, turkey or chicken breast. They can be salted and peppered. You can make meatballs or cutlets from these products, which should be served with some porridge that is not heavy on the stomach - oatmeal, buckwheat or wheat.
• Groceries
  . As a last resort, you can eat pasta at night, but only from whole grain flour and in small quantities. This is due to the fact that they contain a lot of gluten, which “clogs” the intestines and leads to bloating, which disrupts sleep.
• Eggs
  . This is a great dinner option! To satisfy your hunger, it is enough to eat 2-3 of them. in the form of an omelette or hard-boiled.
• Bread
  . It is advisable to replace the white loaf with a bun with bran or buckwheat flour. In order not to harm your health, you should not consume more than 2-3 slices in the evening.
• Sweets
  . If you want something tasty, you can eat a few spoons of jam or honey, a little marmalade, marshmallows or marshmallows. Among flour products, you should pay attention to biscuits.

Food should not be too hot and not too cold, otherwise the stomach will take a long time to digest it.
If you want some first courses, you can stick to milk noodle soup, chicken broth without potatoes, or borscht. But all this does not eliminate the need for water. Just one glass of it can give you a feeling of fullness! Neither tea, nor juice, nor other drinks will give this feeling.

The main rule, if you want to eat at night, is not to get carried away with strong tea, coffee, flour and sweet, fatty, too spicy and salty. It is not recommended to combine too many foods at one time - just eat one fruit, vegetable or nut.

Types of snacks

It's more convenient to have a late-night snack at hand. If you do go to the refrigerator, there is a high probability that your hand will also grab something extra. Few people who lose weight, especially at the beginning of their journey, are able to resist temptations. What can you snack on at night and how much can you eat before bed?

Ready-made snacks

New products appear on the market for weight loss products almost every year. One of the latest is snacks, which are called “Night”. They are cute balls packed in a blister and have a completely natural composition, which includes: plant fibers, dried apples, fennel and poppy seeds, Jerusalem artichoke, cinnamon and ginger.

With regular use, the manufacturer promises:

• complete absence of hunger when falling asleep;
• easy bowel cleansing in the morning;
• elimination of swelling and removal of excess fluid;
• increasing immunity;
• neutralization and removal of waste and toxins;
• stabilization of blood glucose levels;
• saturating the body with vitamins C, PP, B and E;
• improving sleep quality;
• stable weight loss.

The composition of the snacks makes this possible. But you should not exceed the recommended dosage. One ball is enough to satisfy your nighttime hunger in the morning. The snacks are quite large and many people wonder how they can be swallowed. There is no need to do this. On the contrary, the snack must be chewed thoroughly and washed down with water.

Home options

But ready-made night snacks are not cheap, so many people ask about what they can eat at night from regular foods so that it does not slow down, but accelerates the weight loss process. There are plenty of options for a harmless snack:

• low-fat dairy products: kefir, cottage cheese, natural yogurt without sugar;
• a small piece of hard cheese with a fat content of up to 45%;
• hummus (mashed chickpeas with a little vegetable oil and spices);
• fish soufflé or grilled fillet;
• berry mousse or puree;
• dried dates, bananas or dried apricots;
• a small portion of muesli with a teaspoon of honey;
• steamed egg white omelette;
• banana milkshake;
• a small portion of a mixture of dried fruits and nuts.

Those who tolerate milk well can drink it slightly warmed with the addition of a teaspoon of honey. Milk contains a special substance – tryptophan, which helps you fall asleep quickly. In addition, it is an excellent source of calcium, necessary for the strength of bones, nails and teeth.

Prohibited options

Nutritionists say that the speed of weight loss depends not only on what we eat, but also on the time of consumption of certain foods. That is why they advise giving up all fast carbohydrates, including alcoholic beverages, after six in the evening. Food, which is undesirable for those who want to lose weight during the day, becomes a real enemy of a slim figure in the evening.

Everyone who is losing weight knows about the list of prohibited foods, which includes:

• baked goods and sweets;
• packaged juices;
• chips, packaged nuts;
• canned and smoked foods;
• any semi-finished products;
• cakes, pastries and confectionery;
• fatty and fried foods.

But in the evening, this list is replenished with those products that are allowed during the day. It is very advisable to give up chocolate, cocoa, whole grain bars and diet breads, appetite-stimulating seasonings and spices in the evening.

It’s not worth drinking sweet tea and especially coffee in the evening. But a teaspoon of honey is acceptable - it will speed up falling asleep, improve digestion and give the body an additional portion of nutrients.

What foods should you not eat at night?

If the body still requires food, then you should not ignore it.
You can eat at night without harm to your health; to do this you just need to exclude high-calorie and fatty foods. It is not allowed to include in the menu anything that is difficult to digest and takes a long time to digest (fried, fatty, spicy, too salty and a lot of sweets). You should be especially careful with flour products, from which you can quickly gain weight. The list of unwanted products looks like this:

1. Greenery
   . It increases the amount of hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach, which negatively affects its mucous membrane and can cause nausea. It has been proven that it invigorates and keeps you awake for a long time. We are talking about dill, parsley, lettuce, sorrel, spinach, arugula, etc.
2. Coffee
   . This drink has active substances that stimulate the nervous system. Therefore, drinking it before bed increases the likelihood of insomnia. It also poses a danger because it increases appetite. It is also important here that under its influence the pressure jumps sharply, and this causes headaches and the inability to sleep.
3. Apples
   . They are harmful only for gastritis with high acidity. In this case, after eating them in the evening, it is likely that abdominal cramps, heartburn and nausea will begin to bother you.
4. Pies
   . They are too heavy on the stomach and take a long time to digest, regardless of the type of filling. They should especially not be eaten by patients with colitis, gastritis, or ulcers.
5. Spices
   . Red pepper, garlic, and basil stimulate the central nervous system and keep you awake for a long time.
6. Alcoholic drinks
   . Beer, wine, vodka, cognac should be drunk no later than 3-4 hours before going to bed. Otherwise, they will not allow you to relax properly and will exacerbate the feeling of hunger.
7. Carbonated drinks
   . We are talking not only about “Pinocchio” and other “fizzy drinks”, but also about cider, kvass and everything that has already been fermented.
8. Fast food
   . Eating French fries, burgers, cheeseburgers and hamburgers before bed can lead to excess weight and metabolic disorders.
9. Mayonnaise
   . It is too fatty and difficult to digest in the stomach. After using it, you may experience pain in the right hypochondrium, nausea, and heartburn. It is also dangerous that it contains a lot of harmful additives.

How to avoid late-night snacking - watch the video: If you still doubt whether you can eat at night, then the answer is yes! But you shouldn’t always resort to this practice, otherwise your body will quickly get used to it, and it will be very difficult to wean yourself from emptying the refrigerator when you need to sleep.

Optimal evening diet

1. Low calorie foods. The main energy consumption occurs between 9.00-16.00, so the most high-calorie food is consumed before 15.00. For dinner we leave about 25% of the daily diet, which equates to 350-400 kcal.

1. Low-fat. Digestion of fats leads to increased blood flow to the stomach, causing a feeling of fullness and heaviness.
2. Promoting sleep. This group includes foods high in magnesium, a macronutrient that promotes muscle relaxation, as well as calcium. The latter is responsible for the full functioning of the brain. Greens, green peas, cruciferous vegetables, baked fish, and grains are suitable. Tryptophan will help improve sleep. Dates, figs, turkey, tuna, and bananas are rich in valuable amino acids for the body. They should be eaten no later than 2-2.5 hours before bedtime.

1. Lungs. During the period of night rest, metabolism slows down, so “heavy” dishes do not have time to be digested. A bad choice for an evening meal is “long-lasting” food: mushrooms, legumes, liver, smoked meats, fried meat. Containing high concentrations of difficult-to-digest protein, it leads to restless sleep, headaches, and pasty (swelling) face. “High-speed”, which leaves the stomach after just one hour (broth, yogurt), is also not suitable. The optimal choice is food that takes about three hours to digest: seafood, fish, baked poultry fillet, vegetables, sweet fruits.