Diet at night: what to eat during the day so that you don’t want to eat at night.

The so-called “night diet,” the author of which is not a nutritionist, but a famous American psychiatrist, helps people not only wean themselves from gluttony at night, but also... increase their self-esteem! And this amazing diet works much more effectively than a barn lock that locks the refrigerator at night from attacks by weak-willed eaters.

Diet at night: what is the point?

The term “night diet” was coined by American psychiatrist Albert Stankard in the mid-20th century. He became the first scientist to study the phenomenon of night gluttony and tried to find ways to solve this problem.

According to Stankard, people who eat little during the day and consume most of their daily diet at night, all suffer from low self-esteem, metabolic disorders, and, as a result, excess weight, as well as a persistent dependence on flour and sweets.

Psychological problems in these people are closely intertwined with disturbances in sleep and wakefulness, which ultimately affects their nutritional system and weight.

Stankard argued that nighttime gluttony is not caused by a lack of willpower in people, but primarily by a sharp hormonal imbalance. In night eaters, the level of the sleep hormone melatonin and the level of the hormone responsible for the feeling of fullness (leptin), which should increase at night, on the contrary, sharply decrease. This is why people cannot sleep at night and experience a feeling of insatiable hunger.

Professor Stankard proposed correcting hormonal imbalances and normalizing the diet using the “wedge by wedge” method, namely, with the help of a special diet for the night, which he independently developed.

Basic rules of the overnight diet

The main principle of the diet at night is proper nutrition during the day. The main method is fractional consumption of food (no more than 200 g at a time), with an interval of 2-3 hours. The exception is breakfast - it should be hearty and satisfying, even if in the morning “nothing fits into your mouth.” Breakfast food should be high in protein and fiber: cottage cheese, cheese, cheese or chicken, eggs, vegetable salads.

You can add bananas, nuts, and dried fruits to the cottage cheese. The closer it gets to night, the lighter and lower-calorie food should be. Three hours before bedtime - no more than a glass of low-fat kefir. You should abstain from sweets and fatty foods.

It turns out that fractional meals, rich in protein and fiber, have a beneficial effect on restoring the production of hormones in accordance with natural biorhythms. In addition, most of the listed products contain high amounts of tryptophan, a substance that stimulates the production of serotonin, the hormone of pleasure, as well as melatonin, the sleep hormone, in the human body. By night, the level of these hormones is normalized, and instead of sitting in a robe by the refrigerator, absorbing everything in it indiscriminately, a person will want to go to bed and fall asleep.

• Melatonin: how the sleep hormone affects health, figure and excess weight

Naturally, pangs of acute hunger, even after several days of practicing the diet at night, can still wake you up in the middle of the night. In this case, always keep a glass of still water, fruit drink or slightly sweetened tea on your night table. Liquid, filling the stomach, will help to deceive the craving for unauthorized gluttony and hold out until breakfast.

Diet at night: what to avoid

The overnight diet should become the main diet for at least six months to a year. And then - it will most likely remain so, except that the list of prohibited products will become shorter. But while you are only on the way to getting rid of nightly encroachments on the refrigerator, this list includes: cakes and pastries, pies, cookies, white flour products, any semi-finished meat products, junk food and fast food, alcohol (with the exception of dry red wine, which when dieting at night it is even considered useful), sweet carbonated drinks and fruits with a high sugar content (grapes, mango, melon, tangerines).

Since almost every night glutton suffers from excess weight, a diet at night can be called both healthy and for weight loss. As a rule, excess weight does not go away quickly, but reliably and without return. On average, the technique helps to get rid of 2-6 extra kg per month without any hunger strikes or severe food restrictions.

Poll How often do you catch yourself indulging in nighttime gluttony?

• Almost every night. It's already a habit to get up in the middle of the night and eat pieces straight from the refrigerator.%
• Quite rare. As a rule, this happens during periods of stress and insomnia.%
• I never eat at night.%
• I don’t eat not only at night, but also after six.%

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