Worried about late-night snacking...

larousse_37

Broccolini and hommus or tzatziki dip... low fat of course. Yum! I also find having some sugarfree cranberry juice or something sweet wards off urges for late night snacking. Good luck!

Christine1110

When I'm not really hungry at night, but can't help but feel I need something..... I chew gum.
There are lots of yummy ones out now. Keylime pie, strawberry shortcake, and a chocolate mint ice cream.
Sometime I just have mint & drink water...seems refreshing : )
I hope this might help you.

KaiaBlackthorne

Thank you everyone for your helpful suggestions and tips!

@Brunette_Babe
I usually stay up this late for a couple of reasons; most nights I take night classes and sometimes I don't even get home until 10:30pm. Other times it's because I do a little bit of freelance work on the side and this time of the night is the quietest and I get the most work done.

I thought about having some of those light, mini-bags of popcorn... I don't think I would have to worry about fat sitting in my stomach with a snack like that.

Thanks again for all the tips! I'm sure this will help me

TrainingWithTonya

I just read about a study that done on late-night eating. It found that late-night eating doesn't affect the metabolism and that it's totally fine to eat at night as long as you don't overeat.

I've seen these same studies. I've also seen some that show that waking up in the middle of the night to eat will help reduce the production of cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that tells the body to breakdown muscle and store fat. It's been shown that cortisol production increases in the body after 4-6 hours of fasting (like during sleep) because the body's liver glycogen stores are low and unable to continue providing fuel for the brain and red blood cell production so the cortisol is needed to break down muscle to release the protein to convert it to glucose/glycogen so that the brain can maintain function. Body builders have the greatest benefit to eating in the middle of the night to prevent this cortisol production because it spares muscle. But for people who are concerned with belly fat, be it for looks or because it is the highest risk spot to have fat, cutting cortisol production can be good too, since cortisol also tells the body to store fat in the abdomen.

So, what do I do when I get hungry at night. I eat. I just make sure I'm within my calorie ranges.

TrainingWithTonya

Also, eating late at night is not good for your metabolism.

You're body slows down when you are asleep and if you've been snacking or eat your evening meal within a couple of hours of going to bed, it will just sit in your stomach and obsorb all the nasty fatty bits rather then burning them off (albeit slowly) while you are awake and stationary on the sofa.

Most nutritionalists will stay that if you go to be around 10pm, you should eat no later than 7:30-8:00.

A small, healthy snack between then and bedtime will not do any harm. But don't kid yourself - this healthy snack should be veggies or fruit!

For every time a nutritionist says something like that, a nutritional scientist should get to slap them. :laugh:

The body repairs itself during sleep. This is the time that the body is using any extra carbs to store as glycogen to be able to fuel exercise later, to maintain brain function, and to produce red blood cells. The body is also using protein to repair any cellular damage to the muscle cells from workouts. The body is even using fat at this point to repair cell walls. Extra calories that you don't need for all that repair after your exercise will be stored as fat, but that would happen regardless of when you ate the extra calories.