Is it possible to eat after 6 pm: a list of foods that you can eat at night even when losing weight

April 8, 2011

“Eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to your enemy.” But it’s better to learn how to eat dinner correctly and with health benefits.

“Eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to your enemy” - everyone knows this proverb from childhood. But is it possible not to feed the enemy, but to eat your own dinner without getting hurt? Yulia Chekhonina, Candidate of Medical Sciences, employee of the Clinical Nutrition Clinic of the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, expert nutritionist of the TV project “Give Yourself Life” tells the story.

We follow the regime

Eating immediately before bed spoils both your figure and your health - the calories consumed are stored in fat cells, since you do not have time to spend them. Therefore, the optimal time
for an evening meal is calculated depending on the time you go to bed.

The ABCs of healthy eating

20 simple facts about how to eat right will help you build a balanced diet for health and well-being.

“According to the recommendations of specialists from the Clinic of the Institute of Nutrition, it is generally accepted that the ideal time for dinner is three to four hours before bedtime,” explains Chekhonina.
“That is, three hours before bedtime,
a person should get up from the table, and not experience a feeling of heaviness in the stomach after eating.”

List of foods suitable for late-night snacking

For evening snacks, foods that are light in calories are suitable, giving you a feeling of fullness and not interfering with healthy sleep. What can you eat in the evening so as not only to not gain weight, but also to get the maximum benefit? The basis of the evening diet should primarily be proteins, carbohydrates and fats are allowed in minimal quantities.

1. cottage cheese low-fat or with a small percentage of fat. A good product for a proper night snack. It is a good source of easily digestible protein. You need to eat it a couple of hours before bedtime, preferably without sweeteners. You can add a handful of berries as an improver. A serving of cottage cheese is no more than 100 grams. As a substitute for cottage cheese, you can eat a small (30 grams) piece of cheese.
2. Kefir, natural yogurt, fermented baked milk . Fermented milk products are almost an ideal option for combating night hunger. Kefir contains a large amount of calcium and protein. The amino acid tryptophan, contained in fermented milk products, can improve the quality of sleep.
3. Greens are high in fiber and low in calories, which means they require more energy to digest. You can eat it in its pure form or as an additive to kefir, natural yogurt or cottage cheese.
4. You can eat almost any fruit and berries Even bananas, but with caution and not every day. The ideal snack is an apple, citrus fruits, cherries.
5. Vegetables contain a lot of fiber and few calories. The only thing you should exclude from your evening diet is potatoes. They can be eaten raw or steamed, grilled, baked, or made into a light vegetable soup for dinner.
6. Meat also contains a lot of protein. Here we are talking about lean poultry meat first of all. Pork and beef are suitable for lunch and dinner. Still, meat is a rather heavy product that requires a long time to digest, so you can eat it no later than 4 hours before bedtime. Steam, grill or boil.
7. Fish is a good source of protein, a number of microelements and amino acids. The protein contained in fish is easier to digest than protein from meat. For dinner, choose low-fat fish - hake, cod, pike.
8. Nuts are very high in calories, so you can eat a very small portion to fill up.
9. Eggs , or rather egg whites, are a source of easily digestible protein. Eat them boiled or as an omelet, such as with vegetables.
10. Buckwheat . Nutritionists do not recommend eating porridge for dinner due to its high carbohydrate content. Buckwheat became an exception due to the large amount of protein and fiber in its composition. In addition, it is quickly digested, and slow carbohydrates keep you feeling full for a long time.

We eat after six

The rule that prescribes not eating after six o'clock in the evening for weight control is true only for people who go to bed at nine to ten o'clock. But many people come home from work quite late and go to bed no earlier than midnight. When you try not to eat after six in this mode, there are two types of consequences. Option one
: you try not to eat after six, but you don’t have the willpower to last until midnight.
When the eating schedule is disrupted, a person experiences unnecessary hunger and is more inclined to indulge and fill his belly before bed. The result is overeating
.
It is much better, if necessary, to go to bed around midnight and have dinner at eight in the evening. And right before bed, if you want, eat something low-calorie. For example, drink kefir with one percent fat content. Option two
: stick to the regime, or don’t have dinner, returning home late, and go to bed without any evening food at all.
This is also wrong - a light dinner is necessary, because otherwise the body gets used to irregular nutrition and begins to store all the excess
.

The main aspects of losing weight

It should be noted that losing weight should first of all be healthy. We are not talking about extreme weight loss, when a woman’s body suddenly loses several kilograms. It's a huge stress. Sooner or later the body will make up for the losses. In addition, fat simply shifts and does not take part in building muscle mass.

Therefore, it is initially worth talking about which foods are recommended to be eaten in the evening, and which ones should be avoided. You also need to understand the issue of eating time. Many women and girls are interested in the question: is it necessary to eat strictly before six in the evening? What should your portions be to lose weight? When should your last meal be?

Losing weight should be healthy first of all! Extreme weight loss is extremely stressful. After sudden weight loss, the body will definitely restore the losses.

What do we eat

A balanced diet leads to a healthy, slender body. Going without dinner is no better than eating heavily at night - both of them upset the balance of the daily diet. Carbohydrates, the main source of energy, are actively consumed in the first half of the day. At night, the excess is transformed into fat reserves. Therefore, the bulk of carbohydrates from the daily diet should come from breakfast and lunch. In the evening, it is better to limit yourself to a light protein dish with added fiber
for better digestion.

Common mistakes

Eating in the evening causes controversy among nutritionists and ordinary women. There are three main statements that have been proven wrong.

1. Give dinner to the enemy. According to some girls, it’s not worth having dinner at all. The body absorbs food worse in the evening, so there is a high probability of gaining weight. But you don’t need to starve yourself to lose weight either.
2. Dinner from one glass of kefir. It is believed that dairy products before bed are extremely beneficial not only for the figure, but also for the overall tone of the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. However, the body does not receive enough elements and vitamins.
3. Fast all day, mistaking it for a diet, then attack the refrigerator. Yes, breakfast, when the body needs to be in a cheerful state, and lunch are considered important meals. Often women eat small snacks throughout the day, and in the evening they have a feast for the whole world. The girl overeats, and then notices the extra centimeters.

Choosing food

Heavy, fried, fatty, too rich food is completely unsuitable for dinner. Sometimes it seems that there is no choice - after all, we have dinner in the evening, after work, when we have neither the energy nor the time to prepare any complex dishes. However, you can prepare dinner that is both quick and healthy. "What to do? Go to the shelf with canned fish and choose some type of canned food where the fish is cooked in its own juice, Chekhonin gives an example. “Not in oil, but in its own juice or tomato sauce.” It is not at all necessary to eat only fish. You can add a light side dish of boiled vegetable mixtures, such as cauliflower. The usual side dishes of cereals or potatoes are unnecessary for a person with low energy consumption.

Healthy dinner options

• The ideal option for what to eat for dinner, according to nutritionists, is boiled, baked or stewed chicken breast with vegetables and herbs. Chicken fillet can be replaced with turkey or rabbit fillet. A good way to eat “dry” chicken breast is a meat soufflé, cooked in the oven or steamed.
• In addition, lean fish - boiled, baked - with vegetables and herbs on the side is perfect for dinner.
• You can stew any vegetables. Or eat them raw, perhaps as a salad with a little extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice, yogurt, or just lemon juice.
• An excellent dinner option is buckwheat with kefir or vegetables. Both satisfying and healthy.
• If you want something more substantial - low-fat or low-fat cottage cheese. You can add kefir or natural yogurt, herbs, berries or fruits to it.

If you have already had dinner, but your hunger is not far behind, then the easiest and least energy-consuming way to suppress the cravings is to drink a glass of kefir. This is a good option for a late-night snack to lose weight. For variety, you can add herbs or berries to kefir or any other fermented milk drink. An equally simple way to snack is to eat an apple, orange or grapefruit.

This is a very small list of dishes for dinner or snack.

It is important to remember that the selection of dishes for dinner depends primarily on ourselves. You need to focus on your feelings and remember that everything is individual. Some people will be happy with a light snack, while others need a full dinner. The main criterion is feeling full until the morning.

Specifying the menu

different amounts of energy
during the day , a dinner of different nutritional value is also required.
“If a person has a low degree of activity, if he is an office worker who is mainly engaged in mental work, then the plate must contain a protein dish - either fish, or chicken, or beef, or a dish of cottage cheese,” says the nutritionist. - The main thing is that the protein dish is not fried, so that the food is not heavy at night. And some kind of vegetable side dish. It's the perfect
light dinner."
For those who have spent a lot of energy
doing heavy physical labor, dinner should be more nutritious. “If a person has increased physical activity, part of the plate can be filled with a carbohydrate side dish: potatoes or cereals,” explains the expert. “It could be some kind of porridge: buckwheat, for example, or rice, or pasta.”

What to eat in the evening to lose weight for a man

All those who are losing weight, without exception, are concerned about questions about their evening meals: what time can they eat, what kind of food and in what quantity. First of all, you need to put aside all the templates from the series: “don’t eat after six,” “drink a glass of water at night or don’t drink it at all two hours before bed,” “take a spoonful of lemon juice.” According to statistics, 80 percent of people who refuse to eat after 18-00 begin to actively eat closer to the night, since the human body refuses to go to sleep in a hungry state.

The fat cell is rightfully considered one of the wisest and most cunning cells in the body; it is responsible for physiological processes that date back thousands of years: thermoregulation, nutrition and proper distribution of energy in critical situations.

If the nutritional regime is disrupted, or the supply of necessary resources is interrupted, the fat cell turns on the self-preservation mode and begins to actively accumulate and store reserves. As a result, fasting for 12 hours can lead to gaining an extra 100-120 grams of weight. You will say that the correct calculation of the calorie content of food will prevent this from happening. It really won’t allow it for a week, two, three, as long as you strictly adhere to your diet and limit yourself. Subsequently, the battle will not be won in your favor. No matter how smart and professional your calculations are, the centuries-old evolutionary mind will defeat you.

What and how a man needs to eat in the evening to lose weight. Evening meal times cannot be calculated the same for everyone. Some people go to bed after watching the evening news at 10 p.m. and get up for work at 5 a.m., while others have a date with their pillow only closer to the morning. Accordingly, meal times are calculated individually. There are several basic rules, following which you can fall asleep in a great mood, without tormented by dreams of a juicy steak, and lose weight in your sleep due to correct metabolism.

Rule No. 1. Try not to eat later than an hour and a half before bedtime. This will allow your body to focus on complete relaxation, sleep will be deep, and the regulation of all metabolic processes will be correct.

Rule No. 2. Dinner, even the late one, should contain as much protein as possible. It has a low calorie content, provides a long-lasting feeling of satiety, prevents the appearance of edema, helps reduce subcutaneous fat deposits, and allows you to quickly restore muscles after the training process. Properly processed protein food for dinner can speed up the weight loss process in men by more than three times.

An excellent example of such a late dinner is a protein casserole with grilled vegetables and sesame seeds. The increased protein content in such a dinner improves metabolism and ensures deep and restful sleep. Grilled vegetables will add flavor variety and deliver the necessary portion of fiber to the body. Sesame regulates lipid-fat metabolism and promotes the resorption of fatty deposits on the walls of blood vessels and internal organs.

Rule No. 3. In the process of losing weight, the body is exposed to stress. Try to please yourself with the beautiful design of the dish. This will give you a boost of excellent mood, the opportunity to enjoy your meal and give you the strength not to give up the weight loss process you have begun halfway, but to gradually and persistently approach your desired weight.

Cottage cheese, cheese

This is one of the most successful dinner options for those who are wondering what to eat in the evening while losing weight. It is useful because 100 g of product contains at least 12 g of protein. But at the same time, it contains less fat than even lean meats.

Nutritionists do not recommend cottage cheese with 0% fat content, since lipids are needed for the absorption of calcium and vitamins. Preference should be given to a product containing 1.8-5% fat. In addition, the substance CLA, which prevents obesity, was recently discovered in cottage cheese.

The optimal amount of cottage cheese is 2-3 tablespoons. The best culinary companions for the product will be fresh vegetables, herbs, berries, and bread. But it is best to eat it in its pure form. Additives such as jam and marmalade are especially harmful.

You can also use the product in the form of a casserole. To prepare it take:

• cottage cheese - 200 g;
• semolina - 3 tbsp. l;
• fructose - 1 tsp;
• eggs - 1 pc.;
• a pinch of soda.

The components are mixed. The oven is heated to 180 °C, the curd mass is placed in a mold and baked for 30 minutes.

Brynza and goat's milk cheese are also suitable for the evening.