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The Best Choices For Nighttime Snacks


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Tell me if this sounds familiar? You eat dinner at around 6:30 PM and you’re hungry again only a couple of hours later. You don’t want to sabotage your weight loss efforts but you also don’t want to go to bed starving. What should you eat, or should you eat at all?

I frequently receive questions over what to eat at night and figured it would be helpful to separate fact from fiction with night time eating. Is it true that if you eat past 7:00PM you’ll automatically store body fat? Is it good to go to bed hungry? What are the best foods to eat at night?

Let’s start with the first question on whether or not you’ll store body fat if you eat past 7:00PM. I hear this one all the time. Your body doesn’t magically start storing fat based on the time of the day you eat, if that were true then everyone working third shift tonight would be obese.

Try to look at it this way. It’s energy in vs. energy out over a 24 hour period. There is no cut off time when food is no longer used for energy but is automatically sent for fat storage. The reality is everyone’s metabolism is different and therefore energy requirements will be different. The secret is learning how to best support your metabolism and eating according to your unique body needs.

I just have to laugh because as I’m writing this I’m thinking about my father telling me “that’s too late to eat.” I can’t count how many times he’s told me that when we’ve been on the phone at night and I haven’t eaten dinner. With my schedule a lot of times I’ll be eating dinner at 8:00-8:30 PM during the week. It’s not what I would prefer, but that’s just the way my schedule works.

The thing is I know for a fact that my body requires over 3400 calories just at rest! This is my resting metabolic rate which I found out by doing an RMR test. My metabolism is very high. This is partly genetic and it’s partly because of my lean body mass. The more lean muscle you carry the higher your energy requirements.

With that much energy expenditure from my metabolism, I can eat later and it doesn’t have a negative effect on storing fat. I don’t go to bed until around 11:00PM and since I don’t eat big dinners, this works for me.

The idea is that you want to give your body steady, consistent energy, in accordance to what your individual needs are. Everyone is going to be different and that depends on your metabolism.

My advice is to eat smaller dinners and try to always follow the hormonal stabilizing principals of removing starches (bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc) at dinner. This works best for most people regardless of their rate of metabolism.

Next, let’s address the second question about whether or not it’s good to go to bed hungry? For starters, it’s never a good idea to go to bed starving with very low blood sugar. This is when you’re legitimately hungry and not just having late night cravings.

Hunger from low blood sugar and appetite are two entirely different things. One is physiological and the other is psychological out of habit. People who snack at nights out of routine are normally doing so out of habit and not true hunger. It’s important to know the difference.

The reason I don’t want you going to bed starving with very low blood sugar is because you’re getting ready to go on a seven to eight hour fast. You’re best served by having stable blood sugar levels as you get ready for bed but not “in the tank” levels. Eating something light an hour or two before bed can actually be beneficial if your body needs the energy to stabilize blood sugar levels.

We’ll talk about the best choices here in a second. Here’s my recommendation for a general rule of eating. Let’s say it’s an hour or two after you’ve eaten dinner and you’re hungry, but you’re also going to bed within the hour. Your best bet here is to drink a large glass of water and call it a day.

If on the other hand you’ll be up for another couple of hours and you drink the water and you’re still hungry, go ahead and eat something small. Bottom line is I don’t want anything heavy sitting in your stomach when you lay down to go to bed. Listen to your body and learn the difference between appetite and hunger.

So what are the best foods to eat at night? Make no mistake what you eat at night does make a difference. The hormonal balances in your body fluctuate with circadian rhythms and this does affect what you do with energy. Now excess energy is still excess energy and will always be stored as fat, but as a general rule you want to minimize carbohydrate consumption at night.

If you eat a snack after dinner try to pick something that doesn’t contain carbohydrates. This means you ideally want a protein and or fat. And oh, by the way don’t even think those “sugar-free” snacks like pudding, Popsicles, bars, and the like will be acceptable.

They all use artificial sweeteners and although they may claim to be low carb or sugar free, there’s nothing beneficial about them. Don’t fool yourself into thinking “I’m doing good because I’m having sugar-free pudding pops.” Choose from the options below and you’ll be doing your body a much better favor.

Nuts (all varieties)

Seeds (all varieties)

Peanut butter

Almond butter

Avocado

Guacamole

Tuna fish

Cottage cheese

Deli-meat

Beef jerky

Slice of cheese

Hard boiled egg

Protein shake

When in doubt always choose a natural food over a processed food and protein or fats over starches at night. Your waistline will thank you for it.

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