How do night meals affect weight and how we feel?
In the 21st century, we try to approach the problem of excess weight more consciously: we regularly play sports, avoid simple carbohydrates, try to eat more vegetables and fruits. But even those who are very careful about their nutrition, often allow themselves one small weakness - a late dinner. But it is this error in a carefully thought-out menu that can become fatal. It is no coincidence that many Soviet diets promoted one simple truth: do not eat after 18:00. This rule is not universal, but scientists have really proven that it is overeating at night that leads to significant weight gain. ELLE together with the leading nutritionist of the company Just For You (delivery of healthy food to the house), Candidate of Medical Sciences Oleg Iryshkin, understood the mechanisms of the body. We've figured out what happens to your body when you eat at night.
Why do we feel hunger especially acutely at night?
Most breakdowns from the diet happen in the evening. There are three reasons for this:
- Physiological, or, more simply, lack of food during the day.
- Hidden hunger. An unbalanced diet during the day leads to a lack of nutrients in the body.
- Psychological, when we simply eat stress.
How do night meals affect the body?
At night, as a rule, a person sleeps, the body is set to a state of rest, and suddenly a beef steak with fries and a salad poured with red wine get into the stomach. Almost asleep intestine tries its best, but, alas, is not able to cope with such a volume of food. Food is not digested properly, is not absorbed into the walls of the small intestine, and in the thick is exposed to pathogenic microflora, which leads to the formation of toxins. The body suffers, the general state of health leaves much to be desired. Moreover, an excess of carbohydrate products at night leads to a high release of insulin, the process of redistribution of sugar in the liver and fatty tissues is disturbed, and fat deposition in the body occurs.
How to prevent night overeating?
- Eat a balanced diet during the day, about 5 times.
- Diversify the diet and monitor the amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, macro- and microelements.
- Find an alternative way to deal with stress: evening walks, sports, yoga, watching a TV series (without harmful snacks) or lectures on the Internet, etc.
In what cases you can eat at night
Not everyone needs to strictly limit themselves in the evenings. A few years ago, Israeli scientists conducted a study and found out the following: people who eat a hearty dinner after 20 hours often lose extra pounds faster than those who prefer to have a hearty breakfast and not eat after 18 hours. It should be noted that those who dine before bedtime usually skip breakfast and eat not so much during the day. That is, the caloric content of a late dinner does not exceed the energy value of the daily diet. Simply put, if you do not have time to have breakfast, you can move dinner a few hours later without harm to the figure. But it is important to remember that before bedtime it is useful to eat foods rich in easily digestible protein (egg whites, steamed fish with a small amount of green vegetables) to avoid insulin jumps and fall asleep peacefully.
