Should We Really Stop Eating After 6 pm?

If like many people, you work long hours, by the time you get home it may be well past that 6 pm cutoff so famous for being the path to thinness. Celebrities, magazines, and diet books gush over this diet tip of not eating after 6 pm, or if they’re a little less strict, 7 pm. So if you get home at 9 pm and haven’t eaten dinner yet, should you skip it completely or reach for an unsatisfying snack that will leave you hungry instead?

While I don’t advocate eating within 2-3 hours of bedtime, eating according to an arbitrary rule is not always beneficial either.  Like I mentioned in a previous post about six meals a day, the quantity and quality of calories matter more than the time. If you stay within your healthy calorie range and exercise, eating dinner later in the evening is not really going to throw off your diet plans. The biggest problem occurs when you’ve already eaten dinner and cook up another late night high-calorie, high-fat meal before going to sleep. In addition to unnecessary calories that will eventually lead to weight gain, lying down right after eating can disrupt digestion and cause pains and aches.

After eating a huge meal right before going to bed, you may experience an interference with the next day’s eating pattern. If you go to bed extremely full and barely able to breathe, you’re likely to skip breakfast and overeat later in the day and the cycle continues. Some research also suggests that eating a huge meal right before sleeping can lead to greater triglyceride levels.

If you’re an early to bed person or have strong and continuous late-night snacking tendencies, setting a cut-off time may prevent you from that second dinner or needless snacking. If you’re on a later schedule, this “diet technique” may cause you to go to bed hungry. This is is never a good idea either.

If you simply can’t avoid eating within 2-3 hours of bedtime, try having something low-fat that’s easily digestible and without a lot of sugar.

During sleep, growth hormone is secreted which helps metabolize fat. Eating sugar triggers insulin which turns off growth hormone. Eating the majority of your calories throughout the day keeps the body functioning more efficiently and when it needs it the most.

If you’re the type of person that eats a balanced breakfast and lunch but gets home at a late hour, don’t feel like you should skip dinner, but rather be wise about it. Some of my favorite light dinner ideas include:

·         Fish (or other lean protein) with mixed vegetables,  1/3 cup of brown rice or whole-grain pasta

·         Mediterranean spiced couscous

·         Vegetable or broth based soup with half a whole-grain turkey sandwich

·         Salads

·         Sushi

Whether or not you’re trying losing weight or cutting out bad eating habits, I do encourage you to eat the majority of your calories throughout the day and not skip necessary meals or add unnecessary ones either. As long as you’re not binging at night or having cake within minutes of lights out, you can still lose weight and eat dinner at a less conventional time.