There’s no shortage of nutrition experts who believe that late night snacking is bad for your health and causes weight gain. According to them, all late night snacks are a complete no-no, even healthy ones.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, some experts believe that late night snacking increases your metabolism and helps burn calories. To them, a calorie is a calorie no matter when you eat it. So, who\u2019s right?<\/p>\n
Bad News for Late Night Snackers<\/strong><\/p>\n Multiple nutrition studies have proven that eating at night causes weight gain as well as negative hormonal and metabolic changes. This applies for healthy eaters as well.<\/p>\n Your body has an internal clock, which typically wants you to be awake during the day and asleep at night. For this reason, the food that you eat during \u201cnormal waking hours\u201d is metabolized much faster than food eaten at 3:00 am when your body clock is in sleep mode. Your liver also absorbs fats much faster during the day, so when you eat at night most of that fat gets stored causing weight gain.<\/p>\n What Time Of The Night Should You Stop Eating?<\/strong><\/p>\n Consider having your main meal before 3:00 pm; so go ahead and have a hearty lunch. After 3:00 pm, most of the hormones that follow your natural circadian rhythm, your body clock, begin decreasing as your body prepares for the end of the day. Additionally, most experts do not recommend eating after 7:00 pm because most late-night munching has more to do with cravings than hunger. This doesn\u2019t mean you should starve yourself if you\u2019re legitimately hungry and didn\u2019t have a chance to eat before 7:00 pm.<\/p>\n But, If You Do Have a Late Night Snack . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n Obviously, all late night snacks are not created equal. If you can\u2019t fall asleep because you\u2019re hungry and have a bad case of the munchies, eat something that isn\u2019t too sweet, salty or rich and has fewere than 150 calories. Have a piece of fruit, a glass of low fat milk or low fat yogurt (make sure it isn\u2019t loaded with sugar), one or two squares of dark chocolate or a high fiber snack bar (again, check its sugar content).<\/p>\n Late night snacks to avoid include cereal, ice cream, fries, burgers, soda – basically anything that is high in sugar and fat. And stick to foods that don\u2019t trigger overeating, like chips and cookies – anything you know you can’t stop eating once you\u2019ve opened the floodgates! Even better, don\u2019t keep junk food in the house to avoid late night temptations altogether.<\/p>\n If you must eat late at night, have a small, healthy snack. You\u2019ll sleep better and your body (especially your waistline) will thank you for it!<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s no shortage of nutrition experts who believe that late night snacking is bad for your health and causes weight gain. According to them, all late night snacks are a complete no-no, even healthy ones. On the flip side, some experts believe that late night snacking increases your metabolism and helps burn calories. To them,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1520,1023,1515,473,58,1548],"aware":[1754],"class_list":["post-6266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","tag-body-clock","tag-circadian-rhythm","tag-dieting","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-nutrition","tag-snacking","aware-activity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n