Are you currently struggling with maintaining your diet and losing weight because you have hunger pangs at night? Are you able to stick to your diet during the day, but find that you have severe cravings for heavy meals at night?
Do you eat at night, only to find yourself wanting something more? Are there times when your hunger becomes almost uncontrollable at night? If yes, then you should know you’re not alone.
A good eating plan can be sabotaged by indulging in a bowl of ice cream or pizza late at night. Even worse is the fact that eating late at night can throw a wrench in your weight loss plans. Unfortunately, when hunger strikes late at night, there’s probably nothing that will keep you from going to grab a bite.
Late night hunger pangs is one of the major reasons why many people can’t seem to shed their belly fat, lose weight as fast as they should even when they are on a diet and consistently workout during the day, and achieve their weight loss or muscle mass goals.
If you currently need to employ all your willpower to stop yourself from getting in the kitchen and making a huge plate of spaghetti at night or ordering pizza, this guide will show you all that you need to do suppress your appetite so it doesn’t happen anymore, and you can be on your way to achieving your weight loss and fitness goals.
In this guide, you will learn
- What causes late night hunger pangs (understanding the root cause of this problem is integral to solving the problem)
- Foods to eat more of in order to eliminate late night hunger
- Lifestyle tips and tricks that will help you prevent or curb nighttime hunger
- The best nighttime appetite suppressant supplements that will help eliminate those late night hunger cravings and keep you full until morning
- Mistakes you need to avoid during the day so you don’t wake up with a hankering for late night snacking
Causes of Late Night Hunger Pangs
It’s very easy to just pop an appetite suppressing supplement to keep the hunger pangs at bay. But, if the root cause of the problem isn’t addressed, you will relapse when you run out of the pills. We’re assuming you don’t want to become dependent on the pills, right? So, let’s explore the causes of this issue. There are seven major causes of late night hunger pangs:
Skipping Meals
Skipping breakfast or lunch (this is particularly important for those who practice intermittent fasting). We know you want to lose weight, and want to do so quickly.
But, if your dieting efforts will result in increased weight gains, then all that dieting will be for naught. So, instead of not eating breakfast or stretching out the period during which you go without food as much as possible, you might want to eat something in the morning.
The fact is that a healthy, decent sized breakfast negates the need for heavy meals in the afternoon and at night. It also takes care of your possible night cravings.
Craving Serotonin
Your body’s craving for higher serotonin, aka happy hormones, in your bloodstream. Serotonin is one of the hormones responsible for your overall feelings of wellbeing.
So, when your bloodstream starts running short, your body sends a signal to your brain to produce some.
This is partly what triggers the hunger pangs –it is your body’s way of saying it needs to feel good, and why those cravings aren’t real hunger cravings- and makes you reach out for those calorie filled foods that you often eat at night.
Bad Habits
Habits like eating while watching late night TV shows. When your body is used to a certain habit, you’ll need to unlearn that habit and replace it with a new one. Watching late night TV creates the perfect condition for this habit.
Most people are used to and prefer watching TV with soda, pizza, popcorn or hotdogs –all foods that help you pack on the pounds. Most would never do this while eating salads or just drinking water. It’s just not the “tradition”, and it feels weird to be honest.
Eating To Fast
Rushing through the dinner you ate earlier. There’s a reason food experts and nutritionists recommend eating slower and for longer periods. Taking the time to eat and properly chew your food typically results in you feeling fuller.
There’s also the tendency to drink more water or fluids. When you rush your meals, it creates a feeling of temporary fullness. So, when the food finally begins to digest, you’ll often find yourself looking for something more to eat.
Night Eating Syndrome
– Yes, there’s really a condition like that. It’s usually experienced by people who, for no obvious reason, have low appetite in the mornings and daytime, but have massive hunger cravings at night.
Stress
Emotional stress, anxiety, staying up late and insomnia. People who are stressed emotionally may indulge in comfort eating to feel a bit better. Combine this with an inability to sleep and you have the perfect condition for binge eating at night.
Not Enough Fluids
Insufficient fluids, resulting in dehydration and false hunger. People who don’t drink water or replenish lost fluids will often experience hunger-like cravings.
Too Much Sugar
Excess sugar consumption. Drinking soda, iced teas and fruit juices typically cause sugar spikes in your body, resulting in a sugar crash that will leave you feeling “hungry” and starved.
This is why sugary drinks, particularly at night aren’t good for your weight loss goals. The effects are a double negative: your body quickly produces insulin to convert excess sugar into stored fat, while the cravings that come after often require food intake that will result in another round of stored fat.
Drinking Alcohol
Alcohol consumption in the evening/night. Drinking excess alcohol is bound to cause dehydration and hunger, which often translates into the need to go grab a bite to eat late at night. This is why people who drink lots of beer tend to develop what is known as beer gut and/or become fat.
Tips for Avoiding Nighttime Hunger Pangs
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Adopt a Healthier Sleep Pattern
Like it or not, the longer you stay awake at night, the higher your odds of looking for something to eat. So, adopt a healthy sleep routine. Ensure that you are in the bed on or before 10pm at night. Any longer, and the risk of eating something becomes higher.
If you have anything to do, you should consider sleeping then and waking up earlier –say around 4/5am- to get the task done. People who sleep earlier tend to get the full benefits from their sleep and avoid late night eating.
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Avoid Sugary and Alcoholic Drinks Late at Night
Most people tend to drink more alcohol in the evening or night. This makes sense because many people unwind with alcohol ingestion. While a bottle or two won’t do you any harm, binge drinking 5-7 bottles or downing half a bottle of scotch or whiskey is bound to trigger your hunger pangs, particularly if you wake up in the middle of the night.
Alcohol often causes dehydration, which can also trigger hunger pangs. The same goes for sugary drinks –it doesn’t matter if it’s diet soda or regular soda. These cause sugar spikes which result in food cravings once they crash.
This is why you’ll often find that you’re hungry after drinking a bottle of pepsi or coca-cola. Instead, drink more water. If you can’t stand the taste of normal water, try buying flavored water. That helps too.
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Have Some Healthy Snacks
If for whatever reason, you have to stay up late, you should do the smart thing and stock up on healthy snacks. Some good examples include protein or fiber bars. You should also keep some fruits around. For instance, eat one or two apples alongside a glass of wine.
The combination of these two items not only make for a great way to prevent those food cravings, they are also effective at eliminating free radicals in your body. Nuts are also a great alternative to pizza. Start eating healthy.
This includes drinking green tea, eating more veggies and fruits, particularly after dinner. Green tea in particular is effective at quenching late night food cravings. Some people also swear by cottage cheese. This makes sense seeing as it digests slowly and can help you feel full at night.
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Look for Ways to Eliminate the Stress
Stress at work and in your personal life are both triggers for late night eating. This is because stress leads to anxiety which in turn, leads to sleep deprivation or insomnia. In fact, stress is one of the biggest reasons why many people binge eat at night.
Also known as stress eating, people who do this, do it to feel better and get some sort of consolation. Unfortunately, the foods they choose to eat at that time are often high calorie foods that are both dangerous to their immediate and future health.
For instance, most would take huge bowls of ice cream or drink jugs of fruit juice loaded with sugars, eat chicken, or even pizza. Combine all these, and you have a recipe for effective weight gain.
You need to find ways to eliminate the source of your stress. Look for ways to relax and de-stress. Learn deep breathing techniques, go workout in the gym, take up yoga… whatever it is you have to do to reduce the dumping of the stress hormone, cortisol in your body, do it.
Effective Appetite Suppressant Supplements for Your Hunger Cravings at Night
Now that we’ve talked about lifestyle approaches and tips that will help you curb your night time cravings, it’s also time to check out available appetite suppressants designed for night time hunger. This is different from the regular dieting supplements designed to help curb appetites during the day, but not at night.
Liporidex PM
One of the more popular ad potent appetite suppressants, this stimulant-free supplement is effective for keeping your hunger pangs at bay. Some folks use it during the day, but we recommend its usage at night because that’s the longest you’ll go without eating.
This makes it effective for rapid weight loss –a suppressed appetite means less food consumption and no food intake for at least 8-10 hours. Many users swear by its appetite suppressing and excellent fat burning properties, while a few said they also enjoyed the added benefit of feeling relaxed after taking it.
Please note that the supplement has no sedative properties. With over 400 raving reviews on Amazon from satisfied customers, this is one of the rare supplements that does exactly what it advertises.
Atrafen Thermogenic Weight Loss Aid from Nutratech
Another one of the best weight loss supplements in the market, one of its major properties is the ability to help suppress your appetite during the day and night time.
With a 4.4 rating from almost 800 customers on Amazon, Atrafen is also an extremely potent natural fat burner that also gives you incredible energy during the day and helps you sleep better at night; all without the side effects that typically accompany similar supplements.
This is one of the best supplements to use for curbing your appetite whenever you want.
Phen24
This is a dual purpose supplement that works both during the day and at night. During the day, Phen24 increases your energy levels, accelerates your metabolism and torches calories, making it an effective supplement for weight loss.
At night however, it acts as an effective appetite suppressant, whilst still burning up those calories and improving your sleep. This is different from the average appetite suppressing supplement or diet pill that leaves you feeling hungry and craving foods late at night.
This will work with your body to help you get the best results, while keeping your hunger pangs at bay. One thing though, it contains some caffeine, so if you’re highly sensitive to caffeine, you may not be able to sleep.
But if you regularly take caffeine based drinks and stimulants, you’ll find the caffeine effects minimal. Bottom line, you would still be able to sleep when you take it at night.
Honorable mentions: These appetite suppressing supplements, while somewhat popular, have mixed results for different users. We only mention them here because we feel they could do some good for those who may not be allergic to some of their ingredients.
- Glucomannan Plus
- Green Tea Extract
- PES Alphamine
Now that you know the best appetite suppressing supplements that you can take at night without any side effects as well as other tips to help curb your binge eating at night, use this information to your benefit and kick that bad habit, starting today.
