But if you have been making solid changes to what you eat and still find it tough to lose weight, the issue might not be the food itself. It could be the time you are eating it, which can make it harder for your body to burn off extra fat in a steady way.
Grabbing snacks or eating a full meal close to bedtime can signal the wrong message to your body. This can cause it to store more fat than it needs and may even leave you feeling hungrier the next day, making it tougher to stay on track with healthier choices.
If you can move past those first evening cravings, your body shifts into a healthier insulin pattern, keeping the hormone at a lower level throughout the night. This helps slow digestion and moves your body into a steady fat-burning rhythm, which supports the better choices you make during the day.
Doing this not only helps with weight loss but also eases bloating. It can make you feel more satisfied during regular meals, which helps you stay away from frequent snacking and build a more consistent eating routine.
Research from Harvard Medical School supports the idea behind the “don’t eat before 7:00 p.m.” guideline. Their findings showed that late-night eating has surprising effects that make people feel even hungrier the following day.
They placed participants into early and late eating groups with strict diet controls. They found that the late eaters experienced “profound effects” on two hormones that control hunger, called leptin and ghrelin.
Harvard Medical School professor Frank Scheer, the study’s senior author, said: “We found that eating four hours later makes a significant difference for our hunger levels, the way we burn calories after we eat, and the way we store fat.”
Late-night eating also means your body is digesting food when you should be winding down, which raises the chance of heartburn and indigestion. It can also push your blood sugar higher, making it more difficult to drift off and get solid rest.
