By skyforbes Title: These Daily Habits Can Help You Curb Late-Night Cravings
These Daily Habits Can Help Curb Late-Night Cravings
So, you’ve navigated through an entire day. And now well into your evening — even after dinner — is when the cravings begin to emerge. It could be something to appease a sweet tooth or satisfy a crunchy desire.
While indulging in snacks and desserts isn’t inherently problematic, it’s often the timing and a lack of mindfulness that transform this habit into one worth reconsidering. Eating late at night is not only associated with poorer metabolic health metrics, but it might also indicate that something is misaligned or lacking during your daytime routine. The battle against late-night snacking actually begins as soon as you wake up.
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1.Maintain consistent meals (& snacks) throughout the day
“The primary piece of advice I frequently give to mitigate evening cravings is to maintain consistency with your meals during the day,” she says. “Ensuring you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner (or even a midday snack) can help prevent heightened cravings later at night.”
Days can fill up swiftly, making it tough to carve out time for a meal (let alone a balanced one). When stressful situations arise, those hormones might suppress your hunger. However, your appetite could spike again once you’ve had a chance to unwind in the evening, potentially leading you to reach for convenient, calorie-dense options.
“When meals are skipped earlier, some individuals may feel an instinctual need to ‘compensate for’ nutrients or calories they’ve skipped, leading to an unbalanced increase in nighttime cravings.
2.Be mindful of your portion sizes — especially when it comes to protein
Not only is the consistency of meals crucial, but so is the composition of those dishes. “Often, we find ourselves overeating at night simply because we’re not eating adequately earlier in the day,” points out Lauren Hubert, M.S., R.D. “This means enjoying balanced meals rich in protein and colorful foods on your plate.”
The minimum protein guideline for healthy adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight each day. For someone who weighs 150 pounds, that would be approximately 55 grams daily.
However, for optimal health and particularly for muscle development, that recommendation increases to about 1.4 to 2.0 grams per kilogram of body weight each day (an approximate range of 109 to 150 grams of protein for that 150-pound individual).
To simplify the calculations, Hubert suggests aiming for at least 20 grams of protein per meal, with some individuals possibly needing closer to 30 to 40 grams depending on their exercise levels.
Among her favorite, easily accessible protein sources are chicken breast, ground turkey, fish, Greek yogurt, tofu/soy products, and eggs (including additional egg whites).
3.Increase your fiber intake
Continuing with foods that maintain satiety and help stave off hunger throughout the day is fiber. *
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Fiber is another satiating ingredient that approximately 95% of people aren’t meeting the daily benchmark of 19 to 38 grams (varying by age and gender).
Fiber is the non-digestible component of carbohydrate-rich foods (like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables). It contributes bulk to the gut, which can help you feel full. And while we don’t digest fibers, our gut bacteria do. Soluble, prebiotic fibers nourish the beneficial bacteria in the gut microbiome, which then produce advantageous short-chain fatty acids (SCFA).
The fermentation of guar bean fiber specifically results in a higher production of the SCFA butyrate, which plays a significant role in the synthesis of satiety hormones compared to other types of fiber. *
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Whether consumed fresh or as a supplement powder — like mbg’s organic fiber+ with prebiotic support — guar beans are an excellent source of soluble fiber to promote healthy butyrate levels and regulate appetite. *
4.Don’t skimp on carbohydrates
At times, cravings may signal that your body is trying to communicate a need for specific nutrients.
“Regrettably, these signals can sometimes be misunderstood, with the body indicating a desire for more glucose [sugar] manifesting as a craving for candy rather than opting for fruit or whole grain toast and other wholesome foods that satisfy glucose demands of the body,”
Carbohydrate options often receive negative perceptions for inciting cravings or contributing to weight gain, but that’s far from the truth — especially regarding complex, fiber-loaded carbohydrates.