Eating at night is a bad habit to have, as it doesn't give you enough time to digest well before bed. In addition, we often tend to choose junk foods and eat them in large quantities, ruining sleep moreover. If you are looking for a way to stop eating overnight, try the following tips.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Identify the Cause
Step 1. Learn to recognize the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger
Sometimes we eat at night because we are really hungry, especially if we don't eat a lot of calories during the day. Others, we do it because of emotional hunger. Therefore, to address the problem, it is important to establish whether nighttime snacks are due to physical or emotional reasons.
- Does hunger turn you on suddenly or gradually? Emotional hunger is more likely to manifest itself in the form of a sudden desire. Physical hunger, on the other hand, occurs gradually.
- What kind of foods do you want? When it comes to emotional hunger, you are much more likely to crave comforting foods, sweet or salty, rather than something nutritious.
- Not getting enough calories during the day? If you follow a low-calorie diet or skip meals, the hunger you will feel during the night is certainly physical. However, if you've had a full meal, emotional factors make you hungry.
Step 2. Analyze your daily routine
To understand where and why you overeat at night, keep track of your day and night routine. In this way, you will be able to identify the factors that push you to eat at night.
- Are you limiting your calorie intake or skipping meals? In these cases, you will find yourself thinking about food all day. This behavior leads you to irrationally give in to nighttime snacks. It is wrong to skip breakfast mainly because it promotes hunger during the night.
- Do you make plans for dinner? Sometimes in the evening people prepare something to eat in a hurry and regardless of the quality, later feeling a languor in the stomach. Other times, they nibble while preparing dinner, eventually eating smaller portions of what they have cooked and filling up on low-nutritious foods. All of this results in subsequent hunger attacks.
- What's your after dinner routine? Often, people put on their pajamas and throw themselves on the sofa with their laptop or watching TV before going to sleep. While there is no harm in rest and relaxation after a long day, it is often during these times that you eat senselessly. You tend to have a few snacks while watching TV or surfing the Internet without paying much attention to what you eat.
Step 3. Understand how to control the hormones that regulate hunger
Generally, there are four hormones responsible for nocturnal hunger. Excess or lack of insulin, leptin, ghrelin, YY peptide, or cortisol can lead to a desire to eat at night. Know what behaviors can affect hormone levels and how to help your body properly regulate the hormones that cause appetite.
- Insulin helps the body process sugars. It tends to increase dramatically in response to the intake of empty calories from the processing of refined sugars and carbohydrates. The spike is temporary and the fall that occurs afterwards leaves you hungry. Therefore, avoid sugary foods, breads and pastas made with white flours, particularly around dinner time, to keep insulin levels regular and ward off unwanted hunger.
- Leptin is a hormone whose main function is to communicate the sense of satiety to the brain. However, the increased intake of sugars, starchy foods, and processed foods interfere with leptin's ability to make you feel full. Again, avoiding the consumption of calories from sugars and processed foods throughout the day will allow leptin to adequately protect you from overeating.
- Ghrelin is the hunger hormone that helps regulate appetite. It allows us to know when we need to eat and, as in the case of the previously described hormones, its action can be inhibited by irregular eating habits and the consumption of poor quality foods. Eat regularly, getting enough calories each day in the form of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins.
- Peptide YY is a hormone produced by the intestine which, like leptin, helps to tell the body if you have eaten enough. When the gut does not have healthy calories available, the YY peptide signals that the body needs more food, even if it has ingested a lot of calories. Fill up on nutritious foods instead of empty carbohydrates and sweet foods.
- Cortisol is the stress hormone. Although it has a less direct correlation with hunger than the aforementioned hormones, an increase in cortisol causes an increase in insulin and blood sugar levels. This phenomenon causes appetite. In other words, stress can lead to overeating. Look for ways to reduce stress, such as physical activity and meditation - they keep cortisol in check and hunger at bay.
Part 2 of 3: Changing Your Eating Habits
Step 1. Have breakfast
Breakfast is perhaps the most important meal to defeat nocturnal hunger pangs. A healthy breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day and can keep you full overnight.
- By shifting your calorie intake to the morning, you can feel full throughout the day. If you take in most of your daily calories at breakfast and lunch, you will have less space during and after dinner to indulge in food.
- Consume lean proteins, whole grains, and fruit for breakfast. In theory, you should aim for around 350 calories. If you train a lot, though, or do a physically demanding job, consider increasing your calorie intake.
- There is a good reason why eggs are the ideal breakfast food. They are a great source of protein, which helps balance your blood sugar level throughout the day. However, be sure to prepare them healthily. Cook them in olive or canola oil over butter or margarine and don't add too much salt.
- If you don't particularly like them, other protein sources for a healthy breakfast include muesli, nuts, cheeses, and low-fat milk.
Step 2. Eliminate junk foods from your pantry
If you have your favorite snack on hand, you will keep thinking about it. Even if you are not hungry, you will probably desperately want to taste it. Removing junk foods means eliminating the temptation.
- Identify what foods you indulge in at night. Often, especially if we are dealing with emotional hunger, we indulge in sweet or salty foods. Maybe it would be best to throw away your favorite cookie pack or bag of microwave popcorn, otherwise you'll find yourself snacking on junk foods overnight.
- If you really feel like you deserve a bedtime snack, consider making some adjustments to your junk food supplies rather than completely eliminating them. Buy bags of chips or packs of 100-calorie cookies. You can also mix healthy foods with less healthy ones to indulge in a low-calorie nighttime snack. Drown a few pieces of fruit in a chocolate cream, like Nutella, for example, or mix a small amount of brown sugar in a bowl of oatmeal.
- If, when you invite someone home, you want to satisfy some whim, like chips and dips, you can keep something in the pantry, but limit your personal consumption. Put junk foods on the top shelves so that they are not easily accessible. Freeze sweets and cookies so that you will have to defrost them before you can eat them. When you want to indulge in something irresistible, the time you have to add to prepare it will force you to consider what you are doing and you may even have an afterthought.
Step 3. Choose foods that contain a low glycemic index
The glycemic index is a definition used to classify carbohydrates: it measures the ability possessed by a certain food to raise blood glucose levels. Foods with a low glycemic index prolong the feeling of satiety and, consequently, reduce the likelihood of eating at night.
- A sudden rise in blood sugar, often caused by industrially produced foods and refined sugars, leads to a rapid rise in insulin, which, in turn, lowers blood sugar levels to return them to normal. The zigzagging trend of glycemic rise and fall leads to a more rapid onset of hunger. If you consume foods with a high glycemic index throughout the day, you will be hungry for longer. This can lead you to eat at night.
- Basically, a low-glycemic diet involves getting most of your daily carbohydrates from consuming whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy proteins. Products containing added sugar or refined grains are not recommended.
- Foods with a low glycemic index range from 55 down on the glycemic index scale and include beans, bran cereals, carrots, celery, lentils, wholemeal pasta, brown rice, low-fat yogurt and various fruits and vegetables.
- Foods with a high glycemic index range from 70 and up. They include sugary cereals, white bread and rice, potatoes, pretzels, and most sweets.
Step 4. Eat and drink all day
Depriving calories during the day leads to overeating at night. Make sure you eat well in the hours leading up to the evening to stop eating at night.
- Do not consume calorie drinks. Often, we fill ourselves with sugary sodas, fruit juices, and sports drinks. Added sugars change the blood sugar level, leading to late night hunger. If you are thirsty, drink water or low-calorie beverages, such as coffee and tea.
- Eat healthy snacks. If you're hungry between meals, don't ignore this urge. If it arises gradually, it is probably physical hunger and, therefore, it means that the body needs more energy. Try eating a handful of nuts or a small plate full of fruit or vegetables. By filling yourself with healthy snacks throughout the day, you will curb the desire to eat at night.
- Eat in a balanced way. Balanced meals consist of large amounts of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins like fish and white meats, and heart-healthy fats, such as those in olive and canola oil.
Step 5. Prepare healthy snacks when you are hungry at night
If overeating at night has become a habit, you won't be able to stop at any moment. You can ease the task by forgoing the consumption of junk foods at night in favor of healthier solutions.
- Cut the fruit and vegetables and store them in the Tupperware containers inside the refrigerator. This way, it will be easy to grab it when you have the desire to eat after dinner.
- Try buying pre-sliced fruit and vegetables at the supermarket. This could be a great solution if you are generally the disorganized type and can't remember to make some nighttime snacks.
- If you love fries, you may be tempted to replace regular bag fries with other seemingly healthier options, like those baked in the oven or those made with ingredients that seem healthier, like sweet potatoes and quinoa. Be wary of such solutions. Often, the nutritional profile of these "healthy" options is similar to that of any potato chip. They essentially contain empty carbohydrates. For your nighttime snacks, you'd better ditch the bag fries altogether.
Part 3 of 3: Modify your Routine
Step 1. Find a new hobby
Night hunger is often irrational, a consequence of the boredom that arises when one is busy with activities such as watching television. If you keep busy with other hobbies, you will be less likely to overeat.
- Choose activities that keep your hands busy. Start knitting or sewing. Try starting a 1000 piece puzzle. Get used to cuddling a cat. Buy a sketchbook and learn to draw. Anything will do as long as you keep your hands busy with something other than eating.
- Use your mind. Sometimes nighttime hunger can be caused by emotional stress, so if you focus your mental energies elsewhere, you'll be less likely to indulge in food at night. Buy a periodical of crossword puzzles or sudoku. On the Internet you can find several quizzes to which you can challenge other players. If you live with your partner or roommate, consider proposing a card game or board game as a night ritual.
Step 2. Have fun all day
Often, for people, the most anticipated time of day is when they relax over a snack. If it's the same for you, try to indulge in enjoyable activities throughout the day. In this way, you will less and less consider nighttime snacks as the main form of emotional release.
- Try to make room for small pleasures. What do you like? What are your interests? If you drive or use public transport to get to work, try listening to some podcasts about topics that interest you and that relate to the commute. If you enjoy reading, read a book when you wait for the bus or train to arrive. Find time during your lunch break to take a leisurely stroll. Stop by one of your favorite stores after work a few nights during the week, even if just to check out.
- Be part of a community. By meeting new people and getting involved in activities organized in some community, you can increase the sense of general happiness in your life. This solution can cause you to pay less attention to nighttime snacks as a form of release and relaxation. Websites like Meetup can help you make meetings that are useful for your interests. Alternatively, you could go to an association in your city and see what kind of courses and activities are organized.
- Try to find and integrate nighttime gratification into your daily routine that has nothing to do with food. You like walking? Go for a walk half an hour before bedtime. Do you like playing on the computer? Find an interesting video game and give yourself an hour of play before bed.
Step 3. Brush your teeth after dinner
Brushing your teeth can be a great way to curb the desire to eat at night for a variety of reasons.
- Many people like the feeling of a clean mouth and reject the idea of spoiling it by eating. If you brush your teeth right after dinner rather than before bed, you'll be less likely to eat at night.
- Toothpaste and a clean mouth change the taste of food. It won't seem so appetizing to indulge in late night snacks, whether sweet or savory, after brushing your teeth with mint-flavored products.
- Purchase sugar-free mint-flavored mints or chewing gum at the grocery store. If you are assailed by the urge to eat once the clean mouth feel has worn off, you can reactivate it by using some mints or chewing gum.
Step 4. Get enough sleep
Often, irregular sleep can lead to abnormal eating times. By changing your sleep-wake times, you can curb your desire to eat at night.
- If you sleep at inadequate schedules, this habit can easily lead you to skip meals, especially breakfast. To illustrate, let's say you need to be at work by 09:00, but stay awake until 02:00. You certainly won't get up early enough to have breakfast and, as mentioned, if you skip breakfast, you will be led to eat at night.
- Also, staying up late causes boredom. Hardly anyone is around and few facilities are open. Many people find themselves having a snack because they have very little to do.
- Stick to set times for sleep and wakefulness. It means going to bed and waking up at about the same time every day, trying to sleep for 7 to 9 hours. Your body and mind will get used to it and every day you will begin to feel sleepy around the same time.
Step 5. Seek support
If eating at night has become an ingrained habit, don't assume it's easy to break. It will be difficult at first, so try asking friends and family for help to deal with the problem.
- If you live with other people, ask your roommates, partner, or family members not to keep around junk foods that might tempt you. Also, you can ask to join your efforts to break the habit of eating at night.
- If you live alone, find friends to text or talk to on the phone. Social interaction can combat boredom and stress, triggers of nocturnal hunger.
- Online communities often offer support, advice and suggestions. Find a forum or virtual bulletin board to talk about your difficulties with nighttime hunger and try to follow the advice of someone who has experienced a similar situation.
Advice
- Try to have social interactions all day. A healthy social life can make you feel happier and less nervous, decreasing the likelihood of nighttime hunger from stress.
- For some it is helpful to keep track of calories. If you can see exactly how much your calorie intake is related to nighttime snacks, you have a good reason to stop this habit.
- Focus on quality rather than quantity when you are at the mercy of the nocturnal craving for food. Give preference to fresh fruit and vegetables over empty carbohydrates and sugars.
