You’ve already enjoyed tonight’s dinner of baked chicken thighs with jasmine rice and roasted broccoli, followed by dessert of a slice of strawberry shortcake and a scoop or two of cookie dough ice cream. Now it’s late, and it’s about time to lay down for bed. But, you realize, you’re feeling for a bedtime snack. Maybe, another slice of cake or bowl of ice cream will do. Or, maybe you’re in the savory mood and will munch on some potato chips or Doritos. Or, if feeling particularly hungry, you might heat up a Trader Joe’s burrito from your freezer. Many of us have a hard time curbing late-night food cravings and end up eating junk food just before bed. In this article, I will discuss the research on why late-night eating is bad for us and scientific strategies for how to break the habit of eating after dinner.
Why Late Night Eating is Bad for Us
First and foremost, we should confirm that having the habit of eating after dinner is not good for us. One study sums it up well in their conclusion: night eating (eating between 10pm and 4am) “was associated with increased all-cause, cancer and diabetes mortality1“. Regarding the hormonal effects of late eating, one study reports that compared with early eaters, late eaters have lower insulin sensitivity and higher concentration of leptin in the morning. Not surprisingly, this means that late eaters are less likely to have an appetite in the morning than early eaters2. This is a threefold problem: 1) low insulin sensitivity can lead to high insulin concentrations and insulin resistance, which ultimately leads to diabetes, 2) high leptin concentrations is a sign of leptin resistance, which causes one to feel hungry all the time and more likely to crave rapidly-digestable carbohydrates3 4that further increase insulin levels and therefore fat accumulation, and 3) not having an appetite in the morning means breakfast skipping5 and encourages eating later in the day, both of which are associated with obesity.
To wrap it up, yes eating after dinner is generally bad for us. As a rule of thumb, you want to avoid eating within two hours of bedtime and consuming snacks after dinner because of the associations with being overweight and having diabetes and cancer6.
Four Easy Strategies to Break the Habit of Eating After Dinner
#1 PLAN to EAT BREAKFAST
As previously mentioned, there’s a link between skipping breakfast and overweight/obesity. Specifically, “it has been hypothesised that the consumption of calories at breakfast could assist in weight loss due to the efficient metabolising of calories early in the day, leading to prevention of overconsumption later in the day7“. Because late-night eating disrupts appetite in the morning, you want to make sure you build up an appetite for breakfast in the morning by avoiding eating too late at night. It’s a cycle if you eat breakfast in the morning, it may be less likely that you’ll crave snacks at night, and if you do not eat snacks at night, you’ll be hungry in the morning for breakfast. Not just any breakfast will do. You want to plan for a good, hearty breakfast full of satiating fats and protein and some fiber. To keep it simple, strive for bacon and eggs with toast, not muffins and yogurt.
#2 BRUSH YOUR TEETH Soon After Dinner
I don’t know about you but eating is the last thing I want to do after brushing and flossing my teeth. The thought of “dirtying up” my mouth with particles from snacks after going through the effort to remove the food particles from dinner makes the after-dinner snack unattractive. Fortunately for me, the research on oral hygiene habits and overall health seems positive. One study reports a hormonal association between the two, with “regular and proper tooth brushing” being found to “help to reduce appetite and lower the risk of obesity” due to regulation of leptin-linked pathways8. Important to note, though, is that it is generally recommended that you wait at least one hour after eating to brush your teeth to prevent any corrosive effects9.
#3 Have a “Distractor” Activity After Dinner
Boredom is a common reason why people eat10. After dinner, you need to have a non-food-related activity for the hours between post-dinner and bedtime. Go on a walk. Practice your instrument. Go to Bible Study or book club. Play a board game with your family. An hour or so after dinner might be a good time to do a resistance training workout11. Based on the research, when it comes to weight loss, I think it is best to save exercise for AFTER meals, not before. Before you know it, it will be time for you to go to bed and dream about that breakfast you’ll devour in the morning.
#4 SLOW DOWN: Reduce Your Eating Rate
Multiple studies report an association between the speed at which we eat and our weight: slow eaters tend to weigh less, while fast eaters tend to weigh more12. One study put this finding to the test by instructing one group of people to eat a meal quickly, and instructing the other group to eat the same meal slowly. The results were as follows: two hours after the meal, the slow eaters reported feeling more full than the fast eaters and three hours after the meal, the slow eaters ate fewer calories from snacks13. As previously mentioned, it is good to not consume any food for the two hours before you go to bed, so by eating slowly, you increase your level of fullness during this critical time.
There you have it. In order to break the habit of eating after dinner, employ these four simple scientific strategies.
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10899630/ ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33022698/ ↩︎
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10407557/ ↩︎
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4207200/ ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31918985/ ↩︎
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6893547/#sec7-nutrients-11-02624 ↩︎
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6352874/#sec23 ↩︎
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10000970/ ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10529531/#:~:text=Immediately%20thereafter%20the%20volunteers%20brushed,consuming%20erosive%20foodstuffs%20or%20beverages. ↩︎
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9598600/ ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25539939/ ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26100137/#:~:text=The%20mean%20difference%20in%20body,CI%2C%201.84%2D2.51). ↩︎
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30591684/ ↩︎