Lose Weight at Night
Edited by Donna, Eng, Alma
Losing weight at night is largely a matter of getting more rest, and good quality sleep. It works because:
- If you are sleeping, you are not eating, which may result in calorie loss for some individuals, especially those who tend to snack at night
- Getting enough sleep reduces fatigue and because tired people tend to snack more during the day to get their energy up and the result is a high followed by a crash and more cravings for carbs, which in turn leads to more weight gain
- People who sleep longer by an hour or two just seem to lose more weight than people who don't possibly because their metabolism is working in a way that allows it to reset itself naturally every night
- The more you sleep, the more you produce leptin, a hormone that helps control cravings and appetite throughout the day
- The more you sleep, the less you produce of the hormone ghrelin, which helps reduce body fat and cravings
- A long uninterrupted sleep puts your body in a dream state that assists with the release of weight loss hormones and also psychological stress that might be causing weight gain
Steps To Lose Weight at Night
There are some lifestyle and eating habits that you can adopt, which will help you lose weight at night.
- 1That will assist your body with converting the carbs you eat into serotonin. Good food sources of serotonin include organic oatmeal, whole grain bread or crackers and wild, red, black or pink rice. Other great sources of fiber are chia seeds, nuts, apples, bananas and kiwi fruits.Start your day early by eating fiber and be sure to eat at least 20 grams of it a day.
- 2If you eat complex carbohydrates at lunchtime, your body will stoke with serotonin. Serotonin converts to melatonin while you sleep. Serotonin keeps you in dreamland longer and you experience the benefits of recovery and repair associated with Stage 3 REM sleep.Eat whole grains at lunch and that will help your body convert serotonin from carbohydrates.
- 3If you are stuffed before you fall asleep, your body will work long into the night to digest it and keep you up. This means getting less sleep and less time in the evening hours for your metabolism to set itself.Avoid eating a huge meal before bed.
- 4This may not apply if you are still awake by 11 pm in which case, you might want to eat a sleep inducing food such as a handful of nuts or a glass of hot milk with a bit of honey and turmeric.Do not eat anything after seven pm.
- 5Tryptophan is an amino acid found in some foods that makes you feel sleepy. Foods that contain Tryptophan include nuts, chicken fish, lentils, turkey, lentils and eggs.Eat foods that contain Tryptophan for dinner.
- 6Teas that contain a mild sedative and that will not leave you feeling groggy in the morning are chamomile, peppermint, lavender, and rooibos. If those milder teas do not work for you, you can try Valerian tea, however be aware that Valerian can cause you to feel a bit dozy the next day.Drink an herbal tea that induces sleep just before bed.
- 7Do not salt your food and stick to eating a high quality lean protein like fish, chicken or steak and steamed vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli and spinach.To lose water weight at night and make your abdomen look flatter, eat a low-sodium dinner.
- 8This approach puts you on a very strict schedule that might have you banning food at 8 pm and not eating your next meal until noon the next day. If you do not have to get up to eat, you may sleep longer. Knowing that you are not allowed to have a bedtime snack also might encourage you to go to bed earlier. The result of sleeping as long as you can like this and basically skipping breakfast every day does amount to at least a pound is worth of weight loss in one week.Try intermittent fasting, which bans food for a period of16 hours and allows it for eight hours of the day.
- 9Cottage cheese is rich in casein protein, which makes you feel full and content and promotes sleep. It is also rich in the amino acid Tryptophan.Consider of breaking the rule of no eating before bed and have some cottage cheese just before bed.
- 10A cup of yogurt or milk will add almost exactly 30 grams of yogurt to any smoothie you are making. A good smoothie to make with melatonin is 1 cup of Greek yogurt, a tablespoon of whole flaked oats. a half cup of pineapple, a half cup of oranges and one small banana. The yogurt and the oatmeal contains protein and the pineapple, oranges and banana encourage the production of melatonin, which is a hormone that causes weight loss.Consider breaking the no eating for bed rule and have a smoothie that contains at least thirty grams of protein before you go to bed at night.
- 11When these two minerals are combined together they help to relax your muscles, which helps relax you and promote a long restful sleep. You can take the vitamins separately but be aware that there are also a combination calcium-magnesium supplements available on the market pre-fabricated in the two to one o ratio of dosage that you can take. A recommended brand of calcium magnesium supplement is NowTake 600 grams of calcium and 400 grams of magnesium before you go to bed.
- 12This little ritual could be anything from a ten-minute meditation, to giving yourself a bit of acupressure to writing your thoughts down in a journal. Whatever this routine is, it is meant to be a sign to your mind and body that you are about to go to sleep.Do one thing every night that is a psychological trigger for going to bed.
- 13Focusing on let stress, anxiety and negative situations go helps lower cortisol levels, which in turn lowers your blood sugar levels and keeps you calmSpend about ten minutes meditating at night to help prepare you for sleep.
- 14Most other types of exercises tend to keep you up at night, but working out for ten minutes, doing resistance exercises with a resistance band helps some people get a deeper sleep.Work out at night with resistance exercises.
- 15Turn your temperature down or air conditioner up so that your bedroom is between 60 and 66 degrees. This not only forces your body to burn more calories while you are asleep, it also promotes sleeping for a longer period of time. Make sure that you are not wearing heavy pajamas or sleeping beneath a lot of covers at night or this tact to lose weight will not work.Sleep in a cooler room at night.
- 16The darker your room is the more your pituitary gland will be encouraged to produce melatonin. Melatonin is responsible for causing deep sleep but because an organ produces it in the endocrine system, it is also of some assistance when it comes to weight loss.Turn the lights off and turn off the television.
- 17Alcohol causes you to wake up and have a fitful sleep that is not very restorative physically. It also causes water retention and bloating that makes you look much fatter than you actually are.Avoid drinking alcohol before you go to bed.
- 18These electronic devices emit short wave-length blue light, which interferes with the pituitary gland's production of melatonin. This leads to more fat in the blood stream because the wave-length blue light causes you to produce less adiponectin, a protein involved in regulating your metabolism.Do not bring the cell phone or laptop to bed.
- 19
- 20This is calculated by noting the time that you tend to wake up every night and then count back 7.5 hours. For instance if you regularly get up at 7 a.m. then try to be in bed by 11:30 pm the next night.Calculate your optimal bed time and go to bed at that time every night.
- 21Natural sunlight strengthens circadian rhythms and helps your body to produce this important hormone that not only encourages deep rest, it is also promotes the regulation of the metabolism and weight lossImprove your body's ability to produce it's own melatonin by getting some sunshine in the early daylight hours.
- 22It is believed that morning exercise regulates both your circadian rhythms and your melatonin production.Exercising early in the morning may help improve sleep and weight loss by encouraging the production of melatonin.
- 23If you are sleepless and suspect that a lack of exercise, sunlight and melatonin in your diet is the culprit then taking a supplement is in order. Taking more than this amount could result in nightmares and fogginess the next morning.Take 1 mg supplemental melatonin every night to improve your sleep.
- 24These include tart cherries, sweet cherries, goji berries, tomatoes, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, almonds, raspberries, oatmeal, banana, kiwi, red peppers and pineapple.If you don't want to take supplemental melatonin it is available in certain foods that you can add to your daily diet.
Tips and Tricks
A bowl of pasta may make you sleepy, but it will cause weight gain, especially if you eat it late at night.
- Although you may believe that bowl of pasta is putting you asleep at night, it is only for a short while as pasta is a starchy glycemic food that plays havoc with your body chemistry and if anything, you will gain weight after eating carbs at night.
- Sleeping for eight hours burns an average of 500 calories in most people, which is why extending your sleeping works to help you burn off a bit more per hour, between 70 and 80 calories
- The best time to measure your weight loss is after a good night's sleep and an emptying of the bowels and kindles as this will give you the most accurate measure of your progress
- Melatonin is not appropriate for you to take if your weight gain is due to depression, anxiety or a chronic illness like cancer
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
Comments
Article Info
Categories : Weight Loss
Recent edits by: Eng, Donna
