Eat More Early, Eat Less at Night
It has been suspected that eating hearty meals earlier in the day instead of in
the evening leads to weight loss and better health, even when the same
foods and same calories are eaten.
Now, a recent study published in the scientific journal
Diabetologia confirms that, finding people with
Type 2 Diabetes
eating a large breakfast and lunch and no dinner — as compared with
those eating six small meals with the same calories — lost body fat and
improved insulin sensitivity.
That's not to say you shouldn't be eating dinner, but you can use the
study's conclusions to make positive changes for your health and weight,
as did one of my clients.
"I lost more than 35 pounds and have kept it off for more than two years," he later told me.
Snacking scenarios
Does this sound familiar? You get home from work, stressed and
ravenous. You head straight for the kitchen, grab a bowl of nuts or a
plate of cheese and crackers. You nibble as you're preparing dinner.
After dinner, you settle on the couch, most likely in front of the
television, and zone out with some favorite snacks, such as popcorn,
chips, nuts, ice cream, peanut butter or sweets — whatever is tasty and
easy to grab.
Welcome to the typical American evening! For many people, it's an endless graze that doesn't stop until they go to bed.
Evening overeating is an issue that contributes to many peoples' weight
problems. I've been surprised at just how many people struggle with
this. I used to myself. Even disciplined people who carefully watch
their intake during the day break down at night. I can't count how many
times I've heard these refrains: "I'm fine during the day, my problem's
at night," or "If I could control my eating at night, my weight problem
would probably disappear.... "
This is important because more and more research is confirming the
importance of eating lighter at night and heavier during the day — for
health, not just weight. The study in
Diabetologia confirmed the importance of that approach — calories were the same with both sets of eaters, just distributed differently.
It's become clear to me that evening overeating is not just an isolated
problem but the convergence of a host of lifestyle issues — stress,
exhaustion, loneliness, disorganized eating and hunger.
In today's fast-paced world, many people are constantly hopping from
meeting to meeting or from chore to chore during the day and don't have
time to sit down and eat a decent meal. So we become ravenous. In the
evening, there's more time for eating, so we not only eat larger meals,
but continuous ones. Those who are tired or stressed find that food is
an easy way to reward themselves at the end of the day. Food can provide
a little companionship for the lonely or depressed. Researchers who
have identified "night eating syndrome" — the most severe form of
evening overeating, which affects about five percent of obese people
seeking treatment — say it is stress-related.
"We believe it's a stress disorder which causes people to eat more than
one-third of their calories after the evening meal," says obesity
researcher Albert Stunkard, who has studied nighttime overeaters since
the 1950s.
Evening overeating is an important problem to solve, because Americans
who eat most of their daily intake of food at night eat more overall
calories, according to a study reported in the
Journal of Nutrition — and that makes them more susceptible to weight problems.
"The late-night period was when the highest-density foods were eaten.
Eating a high proportion of daily intake in the late evening, compared
to earlier in the day, was associated with higher overall intake,"
researcher John de Castro concluded in the study, which analyzed food
diaries of about 900 men and women.
De Castro, professor and chair of the department of psychology at the
University of Texas at El Paso, also found that evening eating was less
satisfying for people, which may help explain why they eat more.
"In the evening, you get lower satiety. People tend to eat very large
meals but then eat again shortly afterward," said de Castro.
For those who succumb to nighttime overeating, I recommend you attack
this problem by assessing why this may be happening to you and then
devising specific personalized strategies for eating lighter at night.
Some points to consider:
Breakfast:Study found that a "high
proportional intake in the morning is associated with low overall daily
intake." This finding confirms my experience of 25-plus years: Eating a
bigger breakfast is the single most effective way of curbing evening
overeating. Other studies have confirmed
the importance of breakfast for maintaining weight loss .
I advise my clients to eat one-third of their daily calories in the
morning. For most people, that's at least 600 calories, much more than
they're used to consuming.
While solving other issues such as end-of-day stress, exhaustion and
emotional issues are important, too, I've found that nothing works
unless morning eating is beefed-up first. Eating more in the morning is a
scary proposition for many people who fear that they'll continue their
evening overeating on top of the bigger breakfast. But, my clients who
bite the bullet and give it a try are amazed to find that it reduces
cravings and gives them a sense of control, so that it is easier to eat
more moderately later in the day.
Interestingly, de Castro found that people are more sated with the food
they eat in the morning. "If they eat a large breakfast, they'll wait a
long time before eating again. They get a lot of bang for the buck,"
says de Castro.
Organized eating: Researchers have found that most people with the more severe "night-eating syndrome" don't have regular meal and
snack times
. I have also found this is true for evening overeaters. Most
overeating is due simply to under-eating throughout the day and poor
planning. I hear so many people say "I have no will power," or "I hate
myself because I have no discipline." But, they somehow regain their
"discipline" and "will power" by simply planning and eating regular
daytime meals and snacks.
That's why I advocate cooking in large batches and regular grocery
shopping: that way you will have healthy and delicious foods at your
fingertips when you get home from work in the evenings.
Trigger foods: Many people who overeat in the evenings
have "trigger" foods, specific foods they crave and are more likely to
overeat, such as chips, chocolate or peanut butter. The experts find
that by avoiding trigger foods, you can reduce evening overeating.
Assessing hunger: Your body lets you know what it
needs. One key to lasting weight management is being in touch with your
body and its signals. In the evening, before eating, get rid of
distractions, take a few deep breaths and stop to think if you're
physically hungry. If you're hungry, eat. If you're not, or if you're
not sure, you shouldn't eat.
Stress management: Many people overeat in the evenings
as a way to cope with the stress and exhaustion they may feel or to
reward themselves at the end of a hard day. But this is a self-defeating
response to stress or rewards. When you come home, never head straight
for the kitchen. Instead, hop in the shower or tub to decompress, take a
walk or stretch. Once relaxed, then decide what you'd like for dinner.
Better yet, hopefully you've already planned your dinner.
Of course, these actions are only possible if you've fed yourself properly during the day and you're not ravenous.
Reducing behavioral associations: Like Russian
scientist Ivan Pavlov's famous dogs, we can train ourselves to salivate
and crave food in connection with just about any activity. Playing
cards, eat. Watching a movie, eat. Going to the mall, eat. Talking on
the phone, eat. Reading in bed, eat. Watching TV, eat. The experts
recommend you eat only when seated at your dining or kitchen table,
without distractions, so that you don't develop an association between
eating and any activity, place or person. The only stimulus for eating
should be hunger. Distractions tend to reduce inhibitions to overeating.
When to eat: There is no hard-and-fast rule governing
the timing of your last meal in the evening. I recommend that evening
calories don't exceed lunch or breakfast calories and that you eat at
least two-thirds of your day's calories before dinner. It's important to
go to bed feeling light, not full. This way, you awake hungry for a big
breakfast.
