Did you know that there’s an obesity crisis in the United States?
According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), about 1 in 13 adults have extreme obesity. That’s a concerning statistic as it has a great implication to the country’s state of healthiness.
The cause of obesity often varies, and most of the time it’s a combination of different factors. There are times when you can’t stop obsessing over food even when you’re not hungry. This leads you to start late night snacking.
Nighttime eating can cause you to gain more weight due to the fact that you end up eating more calories than you need. Read on if you want to know how to stop yourself from indulging in a midnight snack.
1. Identify the Cause
There are some people that eat their food in the evening or during the course of the night. If you’re one of these people, changing the habit requires you to identify the reason behind it. After all, eating late at night might be the result of restrictive eating habit during the day, making you hungrier at night.
There are some eating disorders that cause you to eat at night more, like binge eating disorders or the night eating syndrome. Alternatively, you might be trying to comfort yourself with food to stop being sad or angry.
2. Identify the Triggers
Aside from the main cause, you need to look into the specific events that set off night eating. If you’re not hungry but find yourself eating at night, retrace your steps and find out the cause of what led you to eat.
In most cases, you’ll find yourself fulfilling a need that isn’t related to hunger at all. A good way to track your nighttime eating triggers is to keep a journal that relates your mood while eating.
3. Develop a Routine
If you’re not eating enough during the day, it’s better to get into a habit. Using structured eating and sleeping times often helps spread your appetite as the day passes since it helps you lessen your hunger when the night comes.
You also need to get some good sleep since your calorie intake and lack of sleep have a link, with the latter causing you to have poor diet quality. Poor sleep quality can increase your obesity risk and lead you to develop more diseases.
4. Develop a Meal Plan
You can learn how to stop eating at night by making a meal plan as part of your daily activities. Plan your meals and start eating healthy late night snacks if you can’t stop. At the very least, having healthy food reduces the chances of you eating on impulse and make poor meal choices.
It reduces your food anxiety and helps distribute meals as the day progresses.
5. Find Professional Support
If you feel that your nighttime eating is a result of mental disorders, don’t hesitate and ask for experts to help you. These people can aid you in identifying your eating triggers and formulate a plan. Some of these can help by implementing a ChiroThin weight loss program, depending on your situation.
6. Stop Stress
The two most common reasons people overeat even without hunger is anxiety and stress. Using food to relieve yourself of these feelings is a bad solution. As soon as you notice that you eat more when you feel these, stop and try different means of relaxing and letting go of your negative emotions.
You can try relaxation techniques like breathing exercises or meditation. Try some gentle exercises or stretching and see what works for you.
7. Have on a Regular Basis Through the Day
Erratic eating patterns often result in overeating late at night. Eating in line with the normal eating patterns can keep your blood sugar levels more stable. It can suppress hunger, perceived lack of food intake, and irritability.
In a general sense, eating less than the prescribed three times a day makes it harder for you to control your food choices and urge to eat.
8. Have a Protein-filled Meal
Your appetite gets affected by the type of food you eat. Eating out of hunger is best satisfied when you include protein in your meal. It helps you become more or less satisfied during the day and stop you from thinking about food and late night snacking.
Frequent meals rich in protein reduce your craving by more than half. It cuts your desire to eat at night by 50%.
9. Get Rid of Junk Food
If you have the tendency to eat high-fat junk food at night, get rid of it. You’re less likely to eat them when you can’t reach them in the first place. Fill your house with the best late night snacks so that you have something healthy at least when you do eat at night.
Get some fruits, berries, yogurt, and other healthy options. These are filling and prevent you from eating a lot at night.
10. Distract Yourself from Hunger
Often, you overeat due to the fact that you have nothing else to do, find something else to enjoy during the evening. Occupy your mind with thoughts other than food. The best way to do this is through finding new hobbies or other late evening activities that take you away from the mindless eating to relieve boredom.
Prevent Late Night Snacking Today!
There are a lot of things you can do to have a healthier eating pattern. Late night snacking isn’t something you can prevent in its entirety. Even so, you can at least have healthier options to ensure that you don’t gain ungodly amounts of weight when you do it on a regular basis.
But if you want to shave off some pounds due to your unhealthy eating habits, you might want to try the ChiroThin weight loss program. It’s a safe procedure that can give you results. When you’re ready to start, find a ChiroThin doctor in your area with our locator.