You may have heard you should stop eating after 6pm or some other arbitrary time like 8 pm and wondered why. There are some good reasons you should do it. Some of the reasons are based in truth and some are founded in fiction. One of the most popular myths is that everything you eat after 6 pm turns to fat. That’s simply not true. A calorie is a calorie no matter what time you eat it, whether it’s six in the morning or six in the evening. However, newer studies indicate the later you eat, the more food it takes to make you feel full.
There is a link to eating later and gaining weight.
When you stop eating at 6 pm, or right after your evening meal, you’ll be less apt to snack. Reducing the window of time when you eat can help you keep calorie consumption under control. Intermittent fasting is based on limiting your eating to a certain window of time, such as an 8 hour window, and fasting the rest of the time, in this case, 16 hours. If you quit eating at 6 pm, and waited until 10 am to break the fast, it’s what you would be doing. Studies show you eat less when you do this.
Ceasing food consumption after 6 pm means eating fewer snacks.
If you’re like most people who eat after 6 pm, or at least after their last meal, you consume mostly snacks. These are often higher in calories and lower in nutrition, providing only empty calories to the body. You may be one of those people that eat only healthy snacks, but that’s not normally the case. In fact, most people crave food that’s higher in carbohydrates and snack foods. It’s the way our body is programmed. If you don’t have enough calories, the instinct is to stay awake and look for food. Unlike cavemen, we simply open the fridge or the cupboards.
You won’t be doing your body any favors by eating later.
Do you have digestive issues, frequent sinus infections, chest pain without heart issues or dental carries, regardless of oral hygiene? It might be from eating late at night. Acid reflux can cause all those issues and can be caused for a number of reasons. Eating right before bed is one of those. The stomach acid during digestion splashes back into the esophagus if you’re laying down and gravity doesn’t play a role. It can go as high as the sinuses, leading to chronic sinus infection, and even be a factor in dental carries and esophageal cancer. Obesity also plays a role in acid reflux and late night eating can make it worse.
- If you’re one of those people who have to eat something later at night in order to sleep, have healthy snacks that can aid in sleeping ready, like almonds, eggs or pistachios for the melatonin or salmon for the omega 3 fatty acids.
- Your digestion slows down when you sleep, and the body focuses on repairing tissue. Food lingers in your digestive tract longer and tissue repair isn’t as effective.
- New studies show that late night eating increases the risk of obesity by reducing the satiety hormone leptin and increasing hunger. Calories were also burned at a slower rate and there were hormones increased that promote the growth of fat.
- Eating later at night can also affect the quality of your sleep, especially if the food is high in saturated fat. It can cause an interruption in NREM sleep, the first stage of sleep.
For more information, contact us today at Rising Fitness Gym