By Overeating at night has consequences for your health. Here are some tips to help you overcome this.
You’ve had dinner a few hours ago and you’re ready to go to sleep, but suddenly you’re hungry. So, you open the fridge and grab the first thing you find: a piece of cake, chocolate or any leftover food. Does this happen to you often?
Eating something else before going to sleep despite having had dinner has consequences , from a swollen belly to weight gain or cardiovascular risks, as well as an explanation.
Possible causes of night feeding
Snacking and binge eating after dinner has a reason for being. Identifying it will help you not only to eliminate this habit, but also to find a solution. Below, we show you the most common causes:
1. Not eating well during the day
Your body is likely to crave more food at night if you don’t eat well during the day . This is because the body needs resources to carry out the nightly tasks of rest and regeneration, since the brain will begin to demand more nutrients during the night. Hence, you have that need to eat any food that comes your way, because it will perceive the situation as a physical emergency.
2. The circadian rhythm
Researchers at Harvard University conducted a study that explains how biology influences nocturnal eating habits. In this research, they found that the endogenous circadian rhythm causes an increase in appetite at night .
The authors speculate that overeating late at night may have helped our ancestors store energy to survive longer, especially when food was scarce. However, in the current era, this biological tendency has promoted unhealthy eating habits.
The researchers also suggest that endogenous circadian regulation of our appetite leaves us with “a natural tendency to skip breakfast in favor of larger meals at night ,” which has become an increasingly common eating routine today.
That said, skipping breakfast and overeating at night represents a vicious habit , which can easily turn into an eating disorder such as night eating syndrome.
3. Insomnia
Frequent insomnia is also closely related to the habit of eating more at night. If you can’t sleep, you probably feel like cooking and devouring the first thing your insatiable stomach finds .
Plus, if you start encouraging this habit, you’re likely to find it harder to fall asleep at night, fueling a vicious cycle of insomnia and nighttime hunger.
4. Emotional discomfort
Stress, anxiety, boredom , sadness or anger are some of the emotions and situations that prompt a person to eat compulsively, as an attempt to eliminate, calm or modify the emotional discomfort experienced .
In these cases, nighttime eating may be a consequence of mood and an attempt at emotional regulation.
How to stop overeating at night
Now, if you want to stop overeating at night, you can put the following tips into practice:
1. Include more protein in your meals
One technique that has proven effective in combating nighttime binges is to include more protein in your daily diet. In this regard, the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends consuming between 20 and 25 grams of protein during the day .
To achieve this goal, specialists recommend reducing portions of animal meat and increasing vegetable-based intake. Some of the products with vegetable proteins that they recommend are peanut butter (without added sugar), pinto beans or oats.
2. Dinner later
If hunger strikes late at night, a good option to alleviate it is to delay dinner time. You can even add an earlier breakfast to this habit. This reduces the time gap between meals and makes the urge to eat more manageable.
It is important to keep in mind that dinner time should not be too late , otherwise you will have problems wanting to eat breakfast in the morning. Ideally, you should customize your meal schedule according to your individual needs.
3. Eat healthy during the day
Another aspect to consider is the satisfaction that food causes during the day, because overeating at night can also be the result of an excessively restricted daytime food intake .
If you are too cautious about the type and amount of food you eat during the day you may feel like you are giving up on the satisfaction of food altogether.
In the long run, it will end up affecting your eating habits negatively, because when we eat without satisfaction during the day, the idea of overeating after dinner becomes more attractive .
4. Ask yourself why you want to snack
As we have already said, emotions play an important role in food intake. Nighttime hunger is probably not due to a nutrient deficiency, but to an emotional state that you do not know how to manage .
Based on the above, before opening the refrigerator at night, ask yourself: “Am I really hungry? Am I thirsty? Am I tired? Am I bored? Am I sad? Am I stressed?” Answering these questions can help you reconsider your choice to snack at night.
5. Change your after-dinner habits
It’s likely that the after-dinner craving has become a habit and your mind associates a certain habitual activity with the action of eating something specific. For example, if you usually eat a snack while watching a series before going to sleep, you will probably find it difficult to do this activity if you don’t eat something.
If this is your case, replace these habits with healthier or more relaxing ones, such as taking a walk, reading, listening to music or practicing yoga . If you still have the urge to eat, it is best to opt for a small portion of healthy foods.
The American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests the following: Greek yogurt, fruit, nuts, vegetables with hummus or unbuttered popcorn.
6. Avoid skipping breakfast
One study found that overeating late at night was associated with eating fewer calories at breakfast or skipping breakfast. They also observed that a cycle developed that included skipping breakfast, overeating at dinner, and late-night snacking, creating a stubborn tendency in individuals’ eating schedules.
7. Eat consciously
We spend a lot of time on digital screens, letting life pass us by without realizing it and without paying attention to what is necessary; we even eat our meals unconsciously while we are on our phones or watching television. In these cases, it is very common to engage in excessive consumption.
When we eat in front of a screen or other stimuli, the body ignores the signals that inform it of its intake , causing us to overeat during or between meals.