Do you consume 50% or more of your food after 6pm? Do you also struggle with stress and weight loss?
Night Eating Syndrome (NES) is a pattern of eating behavior that is quite common for people with demanding work who struggle with weight. It may surprise you to know that NES is actually a field of study. There is quite a bit of research on this pattern of eating and its effects. Fortunately, there are a few easy adjustments you can make that will substantially help the problem.
NES is typically characterized by a lack of hunger in the morning, difficulty sleeping, and frequent high stress during the day and consuming a disproportionately large number of calories in the evening.
The effects of NES are difficulty with weight loss, depression, reduced daytime hunger, strong nighttime cravings for carbs and even low self-esteem.
In short, NES is a distinct pattern you get into that makes weight loss very difficult. In fact, it is not uncommon for people seeking weight loss to have NES as the underlying reason for weight gain.
Recently we reported on the relationship between stress and carbs in the evening. Intake of carbs during the evening promotes increased serotonin, which serves acts as an opiate. Frequent evening binging on carbs is a component of NES, but in order to adequately address the problem we have to expand our scope beyond what happens in the evening to really address your entire day.
You can break the pattern of night eating syndrome and you can do it quite easily if you will commit to a 2-day period of specific actions.
Breaking Night Eating Syndrome
NES is a weight gain pattern. The trick in breaking it is to get into a weight loss pattern. Here is the protocol.
Day 1:
Our goal is for you to wake up hungry the following day. Hunger is tied to your waking fasting glucose. To do this, we have to knock out carb consumption in the evening.
At 3pm take 1-2 large scoops of Whey Concentrate with a liquid fat.
I suggest our Lean Complex with Eicosoid70 because we've jiggered the amino ratios in Lean Complex to promote dopamine so it nukes hunger and it uses WPC80 (80% Whey). If you don't use ours, whatever you do, don't go for a cheap brand. They tend to use WPC30 (30% Whey) in the cheap brands.
At 6p repeat this.
For dinner, eat a 5-ounce portion of turkey with a salad - NO OTHER CARBS!
If you get the munchies beyond dinner repeat the Lean Complex Eicosoid70 pattern instead of carbs. The fats will help you sleep and keep your blood sugar low.
Our goal is for you to wake up hungry, so don't overeat at night.
Day 2:
You should wake up hungry. The following morning eat a huge breakfast. Eat 1 cup of oatmeal with honey, 2 whole eggs and 3 egg whites and 1 piece of whole grain and 1/2 cup cottage cheese.
It's essential that you eat a huge breakfast. We need to get you full at breakfast. This will carry you the rest of the day and greatly influence your evening meal.
Repeat the routine at 3pm of whey concentrate and repeat the dinner routine and breakfast the following morning.
If you follow this exactly, what you will do is put your body in a pattern of waking up hungry. This is the key.
Continue to eat a larger breakfast and use whey concentrate with liquid fat in the afternoon. Avoid sugary carbs at night. Following this routine, you will weight loss will kick in, primarily because you are not eating most of your calories at night.
