Very often we suddenly find ourselves at the refrigerator late at night, although we do not feel much hunger. These nighttime expeditions invariably end up with excess calories and weight gain. Stop eating at night means the beginning of a new life literally. We arm ourselves with knowledge and give up this addiction forever.
Determine the reason
It is essential to understand why it is at this time of day that there is a desire to eat something here and now. At the same time, many people eat almost nothing during the day, and before bedtime, they begin to intensively make up for the time lost. To change this, you need to understand the cause of the problem.
You may not eat enough food during the day, so the appetite gets stronger in the evening, which is quite logical. Other reasons are less objective: the force of habit or boredom.
Of course, nighttime overeating may have more severe causes associated with eating disorders – and in this case, you cannot do without the help of a specialist.
Define triggers
In addition to a common cause, it is helpful to try to find a specific chain of events that will drive eating behavior and habits. If you are not hungry objectively, but you are still drawn to food, it is worth understanding why this happens and food becomes important, even though you are full.
You can try to keep a special diary where you record the connection between food and your mood. This method will allow you to identify a pattern. After that, you will only have to break the negative chains associated with emotional overeating.
There is social overeating when you eat just for the company with family members, although you do not feel like eating. You need to practice mindful eating – we have already written about this.
Develop a specific daily routine
If it seems that meals according to the hour and schedule are exclusively the prerogative of young kids and schoolchildren, this is a grave misjudgment. In fact, a familiar daily routine will help adults too.
If you keep to a diet, you can easily distribute food throughout the day so that you definitely do not feel hungry by the evening. Adequate sleep at night is also important.
By the way, athletes and bodybuilders eat just like that – according to a strict schedule, for example, every 3 hours.
Plan the menu for the day
Yes, this part of the schedule will also be beneficial and will prevent you from spontaneous snacks, which are often not very healthy but just high in calories.
