Eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to your enemy - we have heard this folk wisdom since childhood and quickly get used to the idea that evening fasting is the norm. The problem is that the body, deprived of its last snack of the day, begins to get used to the lack of nutrients and stores calories - and we know where they end up after. Of course, if you go to bed at 8-9 o'clock, you shouldn't go into the refrigerator after 6 - don't forget that the last meal of the day is acceptable only 2-2.5 hours before bedtime. At the same time, we remember that there will be dinner! However, only useful and easy. We’ll tell you how to make it right and tasty in this article.
What to eat for dinner when losing weight: black list
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We cannot categorically refuse to eat in the evening - our meals should be regular and nutritious. The only prohibition applies to those who like to eat too much just before bed. This habit will not bring anything good to them - only indigestion and heartburn, slowdown of metabolic processes, disruption of the gastrointestinal tract and lack of proper rest.
What should your evening snack be? How do you see him? Cutlets with mashed potatoes, fatty pilaf and fish - do you think these are harmonious and light combinations? Alas, such tandems are not absorbed by your body at all and remain “overnight” in your stomach until the next morning. As a result, food that has turned into slow-acting poison will ruin your health and add an unwanted kilogram or two to your figure.
Why do experts advise eating two to two and a half hours before bedtime? During this time, food - provided that we have eaten something that will not harm us, but will only benefit the body - will be successfully digested in the stomach, and all the necessary nutrients will be absorbed. The choice of products and dishes included in the menu for dinner should be approached especially carefully: the conditions for their “processing” are not at all the same as they were during the day. The activity of the digestive system in the evening is reduced, the pancreas and gall bladder work more slowly. Considering these factors, it is necessary to abandon those “unprofitable” foods that will inhibit the activity of the gastrointestinal tract. Invalid:
- high-calorie, fatty and spicy foods;
- sources of “simple” carbohydrates;
- foods containing excess glucose.
You should be careful when including fresh or dried fruits in your dinner menu. We’ll talk about what you can eat for dinner while losing weight a little later, but for now let’s look at the list of foods that are undesirable to eat:
- White flour buns are a real storehouse of easily digestible carbohydrates, which are harmful to our figure and slow down digestion. In addition, such a snack has one more disadvantage - sweet and rich pastries affect blood sugar levels, namely, they increase it. We want to eat even more - our appetite flares up and it’s difficult to control ourselves. In addition, all refined foods are prime candidates for a place in the “fat depot”. The benefit from them is zero, and the harm from concentrated glucose and starch is colossal.
- Fatty red meat - baked, fried, boiled - is undesirable for dinner in any form. It is better to replace it with dietary food - chicken breast - or baked low-fat fish.
- Sausages and smoked meats - sausages, wieners, cervelat - many of us are accustomed to eating them for dinner and can no longer imagine an evening snack without this unhealthy food. Why is it absolutely contraindicated, especially for dinner? A variety of smoked meats contain not only fats, but also teramine, an amino acid that stimulates the production of norepinephrine. It is this hormone that is responsible for the production of nerve impulses. You will not be able to fall asleep after such a snack - your brain will be excited and will not be able to fully rest. Not to mention that the thrifty body will stock up on new calories.
- Rice is a source of starches and simple carbohydrates that are deposited on the sides so quickly. We refuse it in the afternoon, like other cereals - it will simply be difficult for the stomach to digest them.
- Nuts are an incredibly high-calorie snack for dinner, almost half of the diet (if you don’t forget that a handful of walnuts contains as much as 696 kcal). In addition, they contain too much fat for the final meal - it is unlikely that this product will be completely digested and benefit your body.
- Sweet fruits and vegetables - these must be eaten before 16:00. Otherwise, they will turn into new kilograms and become a source of grief, not health. If you really want to find a light dessert for the evening, choose healthy and light - pomegranate, tangerine or grapefruit.
- Pickles - such homemade preparations are too heavy for the stomach and will not be fully digested. Often, pickled cucumbers or tomatoes from a jar cause heartburn, which occurs not immediately after a snack, but just before bed.
- Hot sauces - horseradish and mustard-based dressings, ketchups - after them you are unlikely to be able to sleep. In addition, the activity of the gastrointestinal tract noticeably decreases in the second half of the day - your body, which is in the mood for rest, cannot cope with heavy and spicy food.
- Fast food - Big Macs, French fries and other “joys of life” offered to us in fast food restaurants irritate the digestive system and have excess calorie content. You will sleep with a heavy stomach, get up without resting, and after a day or two you will notice weight gain. Fatty, salty, heavily flavored with preservatives, flavor enhancers and harmful additives - these “unprofitable” products should leave our diet once and for all.
- Chocolate is a sweet that should be excluded from the menu - both evening and daytime - these are milk bars that do not bring any benefit to our body. You can eat dark chocolate, but not in the afternoon - only before 16:00.
How to eat healthy for breakfast, lunch and dinner
A product that is healthy in itself and eaten at the wrong time will, at best, simply not bring any benefit. The regime is also important because irregular meals are stressful for the body, due to which it begins to store fat in reserve. In addition, there are fasting days, therapeutic fasting and other extreme methods of losing weight.
When to get up?
Scientists have proven the connection between sleep patterns and body fat percentage. If a person goes to bed and gets up at the same time every day, this not only has a good effect on his psychological state, but also has a positive effect on his figure. In addition, the duration of sleep is also important. Those who sleep about 8 hours a day have the lowest percentage of body fat. So, we conclude: for good health and appearance, it is important to always get up at the same time and get enough sleep.
What's for breakfast?
Many have already heard about the importance of breakfast. It is essential for a successful active day. If breakfast is not high enough in calories, then you simply will not have the energy to work, study, exercise, or anything else that you have planned for the first half of the day. And if it is excessive, then the body will devote all its energy to digesting food and then you will be in a sleepy state for half a day.
That is why experts recommend eating foods with so-called long-term carbohydrates and proteins for breakfast. Simply put, I porridge with milk. Or bread and cheese. But here, of course, the quality of the products is of great importance. Do not take one-minute oatmeal: after the processing it has undergone, it can no longer be called a complex carbohydrate. The bread must be whole grain. Low-fat hard cheese is suitable for breakfast; it is easily digestible.
Some people say that they simply cannot eat in the morning. In this case, it is recommended to have dinner 4 hours before bedtime. This will make you sleep better, and you will be more likely to want to eat in the morning. In addition, you can get up a little earlier than usual to prepare breakfast, if not for yourself, then for your household. It is quite possible that the aroma and pleasant appearance of food will awaken your appetite too.
Snacking is allowed!
You had a hearty breakfast, but it’s far from lunch and you’re hungry? In this case, a snack is necessary. There is an opinion that snacking is harmful because it interrupts the appetite, and then a person does not eat nutritious food. But the opposite is also true: without a snack, you are so hungry that you overeat during the main meal. There is little good in this either.
The golden mean is in the right snack. Firstly, it should not be plentiful: 10% of the daily requirement of kilocalories. For a healthy person, this is approximately 200 kilocalories (2000 per day, respectively). Secondly, the snack should be quite filling and not sweet. What could it be - small and satisfying? 30 grams of nuts, 50 grams of Parmesan, 300 grams of unsweetened yogurt with 3.2% fat, fresh vegetables with a little olive oil. And of course, it is very important to drink water. A small snack, a glass of water - and you can calmly wait for lunch.
It's time to have lunch
Lunch should be the busiest meal of the day. It accounts for approximately 45% of the total daily calorie intake. Just like breakfast, it should be satisfying so that you can successfully complete your work day. But at the same time, there is no need to overdo it, because not every office has the now fashionable sleep capsules.
Mandatory components of a proper lunch: soup, meat (poultry or fish) and a side dish in the form of vegetables or healthy carbohydrates (buckwheat, wild rice). Soup improves peristalsis and helps you feel full, meat gives you strength, vegetables help digest meat, complex carbohydrates will help you last until dinner. At the same time, of course, we must not forget about the taste of the food, because lunch should delight, and not just be a boring meal.
Proper dinner
Good news: the “don’t eat after six” rule applies only to those who go to bed at 10. As we have already said, it is best to have dinner 4 hours before bedtime, and just before bed you can drink a glass of kefir. For dinner, it is best to eat a light protein dish, such as turkey, and cooked vegetables. Such food is easily digested and does not interfere with restful sleep.
Another correct option is cottage cheese. Moreover, it does not have to be eaten with something sweet like jam. You can cut some greens or some fruits into it.
What is the best thing to eat for dinner when losing weight?
We have exclusively healthy and tasty products at our disposal:
- poultry (white, dietary) or rabbit meat;
- seafood;
- red fish;
- stewed or fresh vegetables;
- eggs;
- fruits must be unsweetened.
Find the perfect combination of these ingredients for yourself and get a low-calorie and healthy dinner for weight loss - without the negative consequences of new pounds, heartburn and digestive disorders.
At the same time, do not forget - nutrition should be varied and balanced, without unexpected and poorly digestible combinations or monotony. If we eat lean meat, don’t forget about the side dish - cucumbers, tomatoes, any greens (dill, parsley, cilantro, lettuce), spinach, eggplant, all types of cabbage (Brussels sprouts, broccoli, etc.), zucchini, etc. are suitable for it. “Owls” cannot skip the evening meal - they must have dinner. You can save more calories for your last snack of the day. At the same time, a meal containing more than 650 kcal for women and 950 for men is not recommended - for the sake of your own slimness.
The right dinner for weight loss
For quite a long time it was believed that eating at night is very harmful.
Many nutritionists, who were not guided by objective research assessments, recommended that their patients avoid eating after 6 pm.
However, all this has been debunked with the help of recent research and experiments. Important! The last meal should be taken 1.5-2 hours before bedtime.
At the same time, dinner should be made as light and simple as possible. Extra pounds will only appear if a person chooses the wrong foods for dinner.
The fact is that each food is digested in its own way, and if you eat the wrong dish in the evening, it may not have time to be digested and will spend the entire morning in the stomach.
The release of gastric juice at night can lead to hormonal imbalance. Very often, people who like to eat heavily before bed have an imbalance of the hormones of hunger and satiety.
Kefir as a proper dinner for weight loss - is it possible or not?
If you really want to eat before bed (for example, at 9 pm), your salvation will be a glass of kefir - a drink that will satiate you for a long time and will not allow the feeling of hunger to “cut through” at the most inopportune moment. However, you should not replace the entire dinner with it - the body will not appreciate it.
The best option is:
- Snack at 19:30 – navy pasta (made from durum wheat).
- A glass of 1% kefir at 21:30 and biscuits is a great way to “kill the worm” before bed without putting a strain on your stomach. The structure of the drink will allow you to feel full much faster than after milk or juice, and the low glycemic index of this product will not allow your blood sugar levels to rise.
What can you eat for dinner when losing weight: healthy and satisfying cottage cheese
This product is good both on its own and as an ingredient in complex dishes. We advise you to stick to the golden mean: our option is 1.8-5% fat, but no more. By not forgetting about moderation in everything, you will not only help yourself achieve the desired slimness, but also provide your body with the calcium it needs.
How to make dinner incredibly healthy using cottage cheese as the main component of a healthy, balanced diet? Add this product to salads - for example, from lettuce leaves, tomatoes (you can take cherry tomatoes), cucumbers, sweet peppers.
Interesting fact: this amazing milk concentrate can be consumed in different forms so that you don't get bored with the monotony. If you are tired of the specific taste of curd mass, make a smoothie out of it. We offer you two delicious options:
- To prepare the first one, you will need currants, some strawberries, cottage cheese itself and a third of a glass of bio-yogurt. First, grind the strawberries in a blender, and then everything else. Pour the resulting cocktail into tall glasses and serve.
- A similar option is with cranberries instead of currants. Combine and beat bright berries, strawberries or wild strawberries, low-fat yogurt. Add curd balls to the resulting mixture.
These recipes are further proof that a healthy protein dinner for weight loss can be low in calories. True, you shouldn’t think that the smoothies you prepare are the only and main dish for the whole evening. Next, we will tell you what food will satiate us without harming our figure.
Foods you can eat at night without harming your figure
If you feel hungry closer to night, you shouldn’t endure and torment your body. However, do not rush to make sandwiches or reheat the cutlet left over from lunch - these products will not only ruin your diet, but will also cause heaviness in the stomach or other unpleasant phenomena.
Give preference to light products that will not harm your figure even at a later time.
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Top 10 foods to eat at night
The first on the list of light foods that can satisfy your hunger in the evening will be fermented milk products.
Kefir, low-fat cottage cheese, natural yogurt - these products coat the walls of the stomach, satisfying hunger almost immediately. Fermented milk products are quickly absorbed and do not overload it, but only on condition that the portion does not exceed 250 g.
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Stewed or steamed vegetables. Firstly, they are low-calorie, secondly, they perfectly satisfy hunger, and thirdly, when cooked, vegetable fiber is better and faster absorbed by the body, and also perfectly cleanses the intestines.
Eggs - if your body is used to eating at late times, train yourself to keep a few boiled eggs in the refrigerator for such cases. 1-2 boiled eggs eaten at night will not only satisfy your hunger, but also speed up your metabolism, which will help speed up the process of losing weight.
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Grapefruit is the number 1 fruit for weight loss. Its bitter taste reduces appetite, and the beneficial properties of grapefruit speed up metabolism and remove toxins.
Avocado - despite the fact that avocado is a source of fat, you should not be afraid of it. Avocado eaten even late will not leave fat deposits on the body, but it will perfectly satisfy hunger. A pleasant bonus will be the magnesium contained in avocado, which helps in the fight against insomnia.
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Baked apples are a very healthy snack. Fresh apples eaten at night can irritate the walls of the stomach and cause even greater appetite, but baked ones will help satisfy hunger and will not cause discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract. Baked apples can be prepared in advance with a filling of cottage cheese and nuts and you will get not only benefits, but also pleasure before bed.
Nuts: A handful of nuts is a great late-night snack. They will help dull the feeling of hunger and give the body the necessary vitamins.
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Low-fat porridge will be useful not only in the morning, but also in the evening - in reasonable quantities, of course. In the evening, we recommend preparing the porridge with water or low-fat milk without added sugar or with a small amount of honey.
Light cheese will quickly cope with the annoying feeling of hunger and calm your appetite. You can eat a few pieces of cheese with warm tea - then your body will quickly feel full and be ready for sleep.
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Banana - if you choose from fruits, banana is a suitable option for a late-night snack. One banana will be enough to quickly satisfy your hunger. If you eat more, you risk feeling an unpleasant heaviness in your stomach at night.
Foods you shouldn't eat at night
At night, the human body must rest and the stomach needs rest no less than the brain and all other organs. If you eat heavy foods at night, your stomach will do the same thing all night long as it does during the day - process what you eat. That is why it is recommended to refrain from late meals, and if this cannot be avoided, you should give preference to the above-mentioned products.
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And here is a list of foods that should not be consumed at night: they will put an end to your weight loss and disable the functioning of your gastrointestinal tract.
- Fast food
- Pasta and bread
- Sweet
- Soups
- Fatty and fried
- Canned food
- Bakery
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What can be prepared: looking for the best options
We don’t think it’s worth reminding people about what is and isn’t allowed for dinner. But let us repeat: the last meal should be light, and going beyond the established calorie limits is prohibited.
If the food is too rich and high in calories, you will not only not lose weight, but also not sleep. Remember what we said earlier - you should not fill your stomach with all sorts of things just before bed. Instead, eat your cooked meals early and then relax 2 hours later.
Do not forget that the following “light” foods will leave our stomach the fastest:
- sour milk (yogurt, kefir, fermented baked milk);
- low-fat broths;
- scrambled eggs.
And here’s what takes about 4 hours to digest:
- stewed or boiled fish;
- lean meat (turkey, chicken, rabbit);
- salads.
If you are planning a healthy dinner and adhere to proper nutrition for weight loss, in which daily caloric intake is required, you do not need to be reminded that all foods must be weighed and their energy value should be recorded in a diary.
Here are some more tips for those who want to lose weight:
- It is useful to take a walk after eating, rather than sitting on the sofa in front of the TV, having barely finished your plate.
- If you want to eat right before bed, allow yourself a glass of kefir or light yogurt.
- Exclude both simple and complex carbohydrates from the evening menu so as not to overload your stomach and accumulate extra calories.
Next, we will give recipes for a healthy and healthy dinner that promotes weight loss. Despite the low energy value of the portion, they are quite filling and tasty - you are unlikely to want to eat after such a meal. Try to make a light and healthy evening meal the norm, not the exception to the rule. Remember that fasting reduces the body's defenses and slows down metabolism. Don’t test yourself - eat fully, and most importantly, on time.
What should be your last meal when losing weight?
When adhering to the rules of proper nutrition, it is imperative to know what you can have for dinner when losing weight. It is necessary to exclude fried, fatty and salty foods. Base: healthy ingredients containing many vitamins and microelements. A suitable dish should contain:
- Lightness is the task of relieving the stomach from the feeling of heaviness and eliminating the appearance of fermentation.
- Benefit - useful substances should accumulate, and the likelihood of fat deposition should decrease.
- Minimum calories.
- Balance – indicator for fats, proteins and carbohydrates 40-20-40.
- Volume – small (children's portion).
At the same time, you need to remember that to eat for dinner in order to lose weight you should eat dishes that have nutritional properties. This will avoid the desire to eat at night.
