Is There A Bad Time To Eat For Fat Loss?

Actually NO and here is my reason; the time you eat does not really make you to pack on fat…….. It’s what you eat and the quantity that brings on the fat!

Bread does not stop being bread and calorie does not stop being calorie because you ate it in the morning or at night.

Bread is bread and the calorie in it remains the same, no matter the time of day.

Apple is still apple and the calorie in it remains the same, no matter the time of day

If you are a fan of fitness, wellness and fat loss, you probably must have heard “experts” telling you several times that eating at night will transform your body into fat.

That could not be further from the truth.

It’s not the time, it’s…….the what

If you were hungry by 11pm what will you do?

Would you walk into your kitchen and make vegetable and chicken stir fry or would you just go for some Bread and Nutella or a can of soft drink with any available junky treat?

To be honest, the only thing that may keep you from reaching for any available and accessible junk will be if you have been into meal prep for some time and you have everything you need, already precut in individual containers in your fridge, ready for your frying pan.

And you can only bring them out and go through the final prep if hunger does not already have you on your knees and very willing to reach out for anything…anything that will give you immediate satisfaction and relief from the “give me something now” demand from your stomach.

One of the things that fuels the “eat at night gain tons of fat myth” is all the fad diets floating around.

If you are not being asked to juice everything green, you are asked to not eat certain foods at a particular time or to eat certain foods at a particular time.

I once read about someone who said that he tried not eating after 5pm, he went to bed hungry: and he woke up the next morning and Bam! Hello flat tummy.

Sorry to burst your bubble but you have been fasting for 14 hours; of course your abs will look flatter.

According to the National institute for health, one of the leading reasons for the night time fat gain myth is the “old perspective of looking only at shift workers, night eating syndrome patients and epidemiological data that suggest that the consumption of large mixed meal with irregular sleep patterns” leads to obesity.

According to them , recent data from “healthy men has shown that consuming small ~150 kcal protein-rich beverages appears to improve overnight muscle protein synthesis, morning metabolism and satiety”.

What really matters is your general lifestyle.

• What you eat
• The quantity
• How active you are
• Working out according to your body type
• The opportunity you have for rest, creativity and self actualization.

 

It is not what time you eat; it’s more of what you’ve been doing throughout the day!

One major reason people ditch their diet at the slightest opportunity is the restriction.

Asking people not to eat at night is a spoiler. That is when families that have gone to work come back.

That may be the only time you sit down to eat with your family.

Picture this.

You prepare dinner without tasting it and sit down with your family and watch them eat. Your child looks at you with concern asks you:

Your child: Mummy, why aren’t you eating?

You: With a self deprecating smile and an air of martyrdom “Mummy is dieting”

You child: What of the trainer? Doesn’t she eat at night?

You: I don’t know, honey. This not about my trainer. I must follow his rules. That is the only way to burn fat.

Your child looks at you with loving sympathy and digs into her food

You: Resentment starts creeping in and you think “I want to burn fat but this daily 5 pm food curfew doesn’t work for me, I was hungry as petrol that caught a glimpse of fire throughout last night”.

Sighs…… I think I should go take a look in the fridge and see if there’s anything left to eat”.

(The reason you are looking for just anything is because you were not in the picture for dinner in the first place)

If you have the habit of eating junk at nigh it may be a result of your behavior 

• You sit in front of the TV and watch one episode after another of your favorite series with a bottle of your favorite drink and a box of your favorite snacks mixed together.
• You are bored and can’t sleep and you reach for the easiest thing to munch on, not because you are hungry but because you are awake.
• Your spouse annoys you and sleeps off and after contemplating pouring cold water on him and realizing it’s not worth it, you suddenly remember you have a tin of Danish chocolate filled wafer in your fridge

Here are some ideas on healthy night time snacks

• Pop corn: they are actually filled with fiber and are healthy. Just don’t coat them with all the sugar you can get
• Greek yogurt with almonds
• Avocado pear
• Apple
• Water melon
• Moi – Moi
• A handful of mixed nuts

Here is a Sample one day meal with night snack for you

 

Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Dinner	Night snack
Overnight oats with fruits and one hardboiled egg	1/2 Cucumber with nut butter	Mixed vegetable and chicken stir fry	Chicken and vegetable soup	Apple and nut butter

 

You absolutely can eat a healthy, delicious, portion controlled meal at night and you can also throw in some healthy, portion controlled snacks on the way. It won’t make you fat.

Tell me what you eat at night by leaving your comments below.