Late Night Snacks: One-Two Shot to the Gut

Late-night eating means you're on the receiving end.

THE PROBLEM WITH LATE NIGHT EATING is that it starts with a blast of calories that have nowhere to go, then it gets worse: if you’re like me, after you eat late at night, you wake up in the morning not particularly hungry. In fact, not much of anything even sounds good at all. So I skip breakfast and get right to work.

On the surface, this seems like a great idea — by skipping breakfast, I also skip several hundred calories, right? And fewer calories is a good thing.

The problem is the inevitable mid-morning crash.

I’m working, I’m working, I’m working away, and then all of sudden I realize I’m hungry. It’s too late for breakfast, too early for lunch, but I gotta get something down. So what’s available? Doritos. Cookies. Pretzels. Just about anything in a bag or wrapper or box that’s easy access and full of carbs. I start out with good intentions, just a few, right, and then boom, I either take the bag to my desk and scarf down, or eat just a few then start grazing my way through the cupboards and into the refrigerator. Before I realize what’s happened, I’ve downed a 1,000 calories of junk food.

Strawberries with a partner — whatever — but just one slip a week.

And 90 minutes later, I’m hungry again.

The lesson?

Stop eating after 8 p.m.

The Benefits

There’s two. First, you don’t need extra calories at night, so just take them off the table. If you’re a late-night snacker, you can instantly remove a big chunk of calories by changing a habit.

Second, you’ll start your morning off hungry, which means you’re more likely to eat, and more likely to worry less about what “sounds good” and just choose a good morning meal. If I overeat a bit in the morning, I think it’s less worrisome: these are calories that fire up your metabolism and probably result in less of a craving (and need) for a mid-morning snack.

The rule?

No snacks after 8 p.m.

Exceptions?

Sure. Of course. This is life, right? And we want to enjoy it. So what are the exceptions?

I can think of three:

1. Parties, barbecues, poker, strawberries with a partner — whatever — but just one slip a week.
2. Late night work, but eating stops at least two hours before shuteye.
3. Late night workouts, in which case the food is designed to refuel the body and provide the building blocks for muscle growth and recovery.

Tags: Late Night Snacks, Six Pack Abs

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 9:40 pm and is filed under Six Pack Abs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.