What do we need to eat food? I know hunger is the answer but not the right answer. When you are eating food, you need to check the time. Everything runs according to the time. We report work at on time, attend party on time but delaying meals. This delay starts from the very first meal if am not wrong. Isn’t it?
Eating at night time save your time but not your health. Majority of the times, we take control on your diet as we want. But this has long term effects that are not good in any way for your health.
Eating late in night triggers many health issues. Before your healthy warning you, you must become alert. Eating and sleeping are such basic things that your body needs. But still tending to skip these basics.
Causes Of Eating Late Night
When you are unaware of the causes of night time eating, it confuses you. The risk raises until you identify and take the measures to stop or start something.
So, when you are looking for a good change, you must first know the cause factor. Here are the causes that are triggering hunger at night time.
1. Skipping breakfast
This is a major cause for your late night eating. As you are not getting enough of proteins and energy that you are supposed to get during day, you are covering it up at night. Even a study observed that, skipping breakfast is the main reason for eating late night.
2. Night eating syndrome
People with night eating syndrome feel the urge to eat even after dinner. They crave for food in the gap of dinner and sleeping.
The other symptoms of this condition are- they feel loss of appetite in the morning. These people make sure to eat in between sleep and then go back to sleep. If you are suffering with this problem, then you will see mood swings in evening time. This is a serious health problem that you must get checked with doctor as soon as possible.
In a study, it is seen that NES is linked to poor diet control, improper glucose monitoring and obesity.
3. Depression
Depression is another cause that makes people eat even when they are not hungry. People who are mentally disturbed eat food to fight their uncontrollable emotions. This is a not a solution anyways instead worsens the condition.
The constant mental illness results in overeating and further people will notice developing health problems like obesity.
How To Stop Night Time Eating?
As the cause is from the start of the day, you must change your routine in simple words. Every point that we are going to mention here is interlinked to closely to your start of the day. A good start is a key for happy end of the day. So, here we are mentioning the ways to find that key right from the bed.
1. Physical activities
This is wondering! How physical activities can stop from eating at night time?
Yes! There is a link between your delaying meals with physical activities. There is lack of body movements from start of your day itself. You think that you are straining your body to complete the tasks at work place. But you are more straining your brain and locking your body in the chair. There is least physical movement in your body.
When there is lack physical movement in your body, it causes indigestion and eventually weak appetite too. So, you must make a habit of exercising. Any kind of exercising- walking, running, cycling, yoga or cardio.
To be convinced with this, you can try it for few days. Nothing bad but everything is good to do.
2. Plan your meals
Planning your meals is not where to eat. It is when to eat and what to eat. You are keeping your stomach empty for long and then feel hungry at odd times. Many of them relate to it.
If you have a plan of what to eat and when to eat, then you can stop eating night.
What happens when you don’t plan your meals?
When you don’t plan your meals, you take time to decide what to cook. Till the time you cook, you starve. As you are starving all the day or skipping your meals just because you dint decide what to eat, wakes up your hunger at night time.
I guess, many people do this and several times!
3. Have meals in installments
This is the best solution to do when you want to stop night tie eating. Thinking how?
If you are eating in installments, then you will be able to maintain healthy diet. You can easily divide your day into 5 meals. A pre breakfast diet, breakfast, lunch, pre dinner diet and dinner. So, you are giving very less gap between each meal with this 5 meal diet plan. You can even make a healthy diet plan this way.
As you are not giving too much of gap, you can avoid starving or overeating in a day. This is called balanced diet. You are balancing your diet with light and heavy foods.
4. Prepare your food early
If you are someone who stay home, then you must prepare your food early. If you want to have your dinner by 8, then you must keep your food ready by then.
You may forget to cook managing the household chores, shopping and other activities. You later realize that you are yet to cook. This late realization delays your dinner. So, try to prepare the meals early to avoid night time eating.
5. Don’t take it for granted
Everyone takes diet for granted. Doing this too many times or everyday can lead to health risks. When you are taking your diet for granted, you keep committing the biggest diet mistakes.
First, you must prepare your mind not to neglect your diet. Be it work, task or anything, do not starve for long hours. Delay of few minutes is fine but for longer hours can disturb your whole day diet.
6. Cut off that junk food
Filling your tummy with junk is makes you feel full for longer time. The excess sugar, salt, fat added foods are hard to digest. When the digestion is delaying, even your diet gets disturbed.
For example, you are eating cheese flowing yummy burger for lunch, you feel full for long hours. Hunger doesn’t strike you till evening but it can disturb your sleep with hunger in late or midnight.
Some people wake up from sleep in the night and search fridge for fruits. It could be that, you had something heavy during mid of the day and skipped dinner. This makes you feel hungry in mid of the night. Recollect this to agree with this point.
So, restrict yourself from eating junk to stop night time eating.
7. Follow a routine
Some simple changes in your lifestyle can avoid late eating. A lifestyle that is routine and healthy for you. If you don’t have routine, then you don’t fix to anything.
You don’t follow anything that is good for you. You go with the flow and end of the day it is affect your diet, sleep and body.
When you have routine, you will have a structure of eat healthy, during right time and also get enough sleep. You also can control your calories in take and balance your diet according if you a routine.
8. Wrong food at wrong time
When you health conscious, you check if the food is healthy or not. But also need to be mindful about what calorie, fats, cholesterol intake.This is applicable to your breakfast, lunch and snack time.
So, you must eat healthy and light snacks which avoid from skipping your dinner. If snacks is must for you, then healthy and light snacks. The best snack foods are nuts, seeds, whole grains.
9. Don’t be stressed
If you have noticed that you are eating even when you are not hungry, then it can be due to mental stress. So, you must find other relaxing ways to fight your depression.
People who are depressed also search for food when they are anxious and stressed.
A study says that relaxing activities can avoid night time eating. The best way to de-stress is meditation, yoga and hot showers.
10. Count your protein intake
The most important thing we stressing on is to distribute your food intake in a day. Doing that you must also check your protein intake. If you are taking fewer protein food in the morning and afternoon time, then you would need more of it during night time.
If you are keep protein intake balanced, this can makes it easy for you to avoid night time eating.
11. Gap between dinner and sleep
You must remember this is the most important for your health. If you are sleeping soon after your dinner, then your digestive system finds it difficult to digest the food.
Make sure that you give at least 2 hours of gap between dinner and bedtime.
Suppose you are eating food at 8 and carrying your work in between bedtime, you are allowing the food digest.This helps you reduce health problems. So, make sure you follow this healthy schedule.
Effects Of Eating Late In Night
The effects of eating late at night seem common. But gradually it affects you in future. Some serious health issues are shocking to find out. We wonder when and how it is affected. But the fact is, it developed with small continuous mistake which was neglected as a common thing.
These effects are a must read and know how dangerous eating late is for your health.
1. Disturbs sleep
You must have experienced this- eating late at night disturbs your sleep cycle. The gastric discomfort, acid reflux can cause disturbance of your sleep.
You have observed, you feel heavy and uneasy when you overeat and go to sleep. That is why you are asked to eat early and avoid night time eating. Having light food before bedtime is another tip for good sleep.
This kind of disturbance of sleep makes you feel tired quickly. This affects your mental health and makes it difficult to handle.
2. Develops digestive problems
We made clear that night time eating causes health risks in long term. If you are noticing that you are affected with acid reflux and digestive problems, then you must change your diet timings.
For food to digest easily, you need to make body movement. Whereas, you are eating late at night sleeping in bed. This is how you develop digestive problems. Your late night eating is creating an obstacle for your system to digest that food you are eating.
3. Over weight
We think that what we are eating is more important than when we eating. But there is an indirect connection in between late night eating and obesity or weight gain.
If you are eating high calorie loaded food, then it settles in your body in the form of fat. When digestion becomes tougher, then it turn out to fat. Even if you are eating late in night, it is suggested to avoid heavy foods. A study says heavy food consumption at night time leads to obesity.
Foods like boiled eggs, whole grains, seeds and nuts are the best to fill your stomach in night time.
4. Raise in blood pressure
A study found that eating late night increases the risk of blood pressure three times more.
Now, you must know how blood pressure is related to late night eating-
Generally, blood pressure keeps fluctuating from through the day. When we sleep, this blood pressure comes down and stays stable. Again it gradually raises a few hours before you wake up.
5. Mental illness
It is an obvious effect by eating late. As you are not getting restful sleep, this puts your mood off. You also experience mood swings and dullness.
If late eating is continued, then it will lead to depression and anxiety. Not for everyone as it depends on individuals. Some people lose appetite with depression and some overeat with when they are mentally ill.
As mentally disturbed people develop a habit of overeating, they also cant stop their craving in night time. In fact, they will feel the need to eat to feel normal or go back to sleep after eating only.
You have number of simple ways to stop your cravings from eating at night. Again in conclusion, I stress on it saying- you must take care of it from your first meal itself to stop night time eating.
Hope all the ways work for you to stop eating at night and save your health for a happy life.
