Diet rules and tips are everywhere you turn. Checking out at the grocery store, television commercials, and billiards all think they have the best diet rule to lose the most inches in the shortest amount of time. There is the no-carb diet, the fat-free diet, the liquid diet and more, yet americans are continuing to expand their waste lines. It’s very important for us to take each diet tip or diet rule as a grain of salt and really explore these tips before jumping head first into them.
These next few posts are going to be aimed at diet rules that should be broken.
Diet Rule #1: Don’t ever eat after 7pm
7pm is the magical number. Stop eating after 7pm and you will melt away the fat in no time
. . . FALSE!
Late night eating is a problem that most people face. In fact, a lot of people will double their daily caloric intake during the evening. So, eating late at night is something to be cautious. But 7pm is not a magical number. Research says that one should avoid eating 2-3 hours before bed time. 7pm is the magical number because the typical bedtime is around 10pm. But why? Well research has not proven that avoiding late night snacks will prevent weight gain. This 2-3 hour rule is strictly for personal comfort. Going to bed on a full stomach can cause indigestion, gas, and an upset stomach.
So, can you eat after 7pm? Sure. . . if you have self control.
Most temptations succeed in the evenings when one is exhausted or no one is looking. To prevent a binge fest, create a short list of health snacks to have late at night. Some healthy late night snacks might include air popped popcorn, carrots and celery, a piece of fruit, 60-calorie pudding cup with cool whip, yogurt, or a 1/2 cup of ice cream. Being prepared ahead of time will prevent overeating late at night.
Question: What is your favorite late night snack?
Currently mine is Special K crackers… I’m addicted
{ 20 comments }
I hate that hype of not eating at night! It totally just depends on what you eat and how many calories you have left in your daily allowance!!
My fav nighttime snack as of now is a 100 cal bag of Kettlecorn with a cup of my homemade pumpkin pie ice cream!
Popcorn!
Great tips. I eat past 7, every night, and I’m ok with it. I stick to low fat foods that are light and airy, POPCORN! I also have some yogurt sometimes.
Great post. You are right, it’s all about what and how much you eat late at night. Unfortunately, I have found that I can easily eat way too much at night, so I try not to. But once in a while I’ll have a piece of dark chocolate with almond butter… Soooo good…
Lately I’ve been having green apples and honey.
WebMD’s RD is actually recommending people consume 90% of their calories before 8pm. Some late night eating has been linked to weight gain or inability to lose weight.
http://produceprincess.blogspot.com/2009/09/late-weight.html
http://produceprincess.blogspot.com/2009/10/diabetes-cheerios-and-late-night-eating.html
I love this post, and I can’t wait to see what other diet rules are false! My favorite evening snack is herbal tea…it’s delicious, calming, and relaxing.
I agree with you. I think it is more that people either don’t eat enough during the day & come home too hungry & eat everything in site for the rest of the eve OR mindless eating on the couch watching TV. I often have my snack at 7:30-8pm or defintely less than 2-3 hours before bed BUT it is not a lot & not filled with lots of calories or another “meal”.
I plan for my eve snakcs. I like a crunch so I portion out my Costco animal cookies or something similar to that & NEVER take the package, jar, bag or any other container with me. Taking the container wiht you is a recipe for disater!
I agree with you on this one! 2 nights a week I don’t even get out of class until 7:40, so I end up eating dinner at 8:30. For late evening snacks though, I typically like fruit
Hey let’s be honest here sometimes if you work in shifts (or your hubby does) you can be up till 2am before you sleep – are you supposed to go 7 hours without a meal? I LOVE apples and peanut butter – organic and yummy
I usually eat dinner pretty late, so I’m not usually hungry for a late-night snack. But when I am, I like to have something sweet, like some fruit, or yogurt, or a couple of medjool dates…yum!
I like this idea to dispel the myths!
I love air popped popcorn in the evening, along with a hot mug of tea.
Vitatops! I also like 1/2 cup of Dannon light N fit vanilla yogurt, fresh strawberries mixed with 1/2 cup of fiber one cereal
this is so true! I keep saying to my friends that it doesn’t matter when you eat, it matters only how much you eat!
my favorite late night snack = steamed kabocha!
a minibag of 94% fat-free popcorn and i put a little spray butter and white cheddar seasoning on it. it’s not that bad for me, but it takes a while to eat. i can’t keep ANY trigger foods in my apt (ie cheez-its, chips, ice cream, chips, cheddar cheese quakes, did i mention chips?) or else my late-night eating would be out of control!
Dried fruits are da bombbb!
I never got the whole “not eating at night” thing. Has anyone ever been to europe? they don’t even have dinner till 9pm or so!
ah agreed!! I used to be scared to eat at night and finally came to the realization of how stupid that is! My snack preference? nuts..:)
ice cream is my midnight snack!
so true…if i didnt eat after 7PM, i would never have dinner LOL!!!