This Is Why You Cant Stop Stuffing Your Face at Night  

You had a balanced breakfast and a low-cal lunch and kept up your healthy eating habits all day long. Now it's 8 p.m., and you can't stop yourself from tearing into everything in sight. Basically, you totally wrecked any progress you were making toward your weight-loss goals.

It may be because you were too “good”—or too restrictive, rather—during the day. “Not eating enough throughout the day makes your mind and body much more vulnerable to overeating at night,” says nutritionist Stephanie Clarke, R.D., of C&J Nutrition in New York.

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While collaborating with the indoor-cycling and barre chain FlyWheel on a 14-day healthy-eating and exercise challenge, Clarke and her colleague, Willow Jarosh, R.D., blogged about why being a strict eater during the day can have serious consequences at night.

How You're Setting Yourself Up for Overeating
If you don't eat enough during the day, your body won't get enough calories and/or nutrients to feel satisfied and stabilize your energy levels. That means you're bound to feel deprived and hangry.

And if you're freaking starving, you're more likely to grab the first thing you see—like a bag of chips or a few cookies—and eat quickly. When that happens, your body won't realize it's full until you're already overly stuffed, says Clarke.

At the same time, if you're constantly trying to avoid certain foods during the day, your mind gets wrapped up in thinking about everything you can’t eat. That leaves you feeling unsatisfied and deprived all day long. And while you might be able to fight your way through this crappy feeling during the workday, come nighttime, when you’re decompressing from your job or relationship stresses, those emotionally charged food cravings start to kick in, says Clarke. It’s easy to say, “I was so good today; I can eat one cookie.” Then, before you know it, the whole box is empty, she says.

Obviously, you’re not the only one falling into the diet-by-day, binge-by-night trap. Research shows that many women take in nearly half of their daily calories during or after dinner. Studies also suggest that one-third of people eat 15 percent of their daily calories after 11 p.m. We’re just guessing here, but those calories probably aren’t all from baby carrots and Greek yogurt.

RELATED: How Your Morning Routine Might Be Stalling Your Weight Loss

“There's a common misconception that in order to lose weight, you have to feel deprived and hungry,” says Jarosh. But successful weight loss is actually about finding the right types and portions of food to keep you feeling satisfied and energized from the time you wake up until you go to bed, she says.

How to Prevent Nighttime Bingeing
So what is the right amount of food to eat throughout the day? It depends on your height and weight, but, in general, Clarke and Jarosh recommend having a meal or snack every three to four hours. But feel free to tweak that depending on how hungry or tired you are.

“You should never feel like, ‘I'm so hungry, I'll eat anything,’ or, ‘I'm so full, I need to lie down,'” says Jarosh. “Eat when you just start to feel your stomach rumble, and stop when you're satisfied but not stuffed.”

RELATED: 11 Super Simple Dinner Swaps That'll Help You Lose Weight

Likewise, if you’re seriously dragging *ss between meals and snacks, you might need to eat more frequently or have more well-rounded meals to keep your blood sugar stable. You can do that by including protein (like lean meats, eggs, and low-fat dairy), high-fiber carbohydrates (like whole grains, fruits, and veggies), and healthy fats (like nuts, seeds, and avocados) in each meal and snack.

“Keeping your blood sugar stable makes you feel more energized, which keeps you emotionally balanced—since your energy levels aren't spiking and crashing,” says Clarke. So when you put on your PJs and pop on some reality TV, you'll be much less tempted to overdo your favorite dessert or bedtime snack.

All gifs courtesy of giphy.com.

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