The Truth Behind Late Night Snacking And Weight Loss

If you're like many people on a weight loss diet, one thing that you do struggle with on a continual basis is late night snacking. When you're at home with not much else to do, it can be quite easy to succumb to watching whatever TV show happens to be on while raiding the pantry for something to munch on at the same time.
For the most part, much of the late night snacking that people do is completely mindless so you may not even be fully aware of how many calories you are really taking in.
Unfortunately, this can start to put a dent in your weight loss progress, so it's important that you come to realize what the full deal is behind this habit.
Let's take a closer look at late night snacking and help you determine its impact on your weight loss progress.
Total Calorie Consumption
The very first thing that you must take into account with late night snacking is the amount of calories you're consuming. Remember that your weight loss progress is essentially going to boil down to how many calories you consume on a daily basis. Take in more than you burn off and you'll gain weight. Take in fewer and you'll lose weight - it really can be that simple.
So, if you can integrate a late night snack into your total daily weight loss calorie intake, you are not going to see nearly the same impact on your progress as if you wouldn't have done so.
Most people however do not account for these calories and that is why they see weight gain because of it.
Types Of Foods Consumed
Second, you also must take a look at the types of foods you're consuming. Usually what's eaten during late night snacking episodes is not lean protein and veggies. Instead, you're snacking on simple carbs or high fat snack foods.
While these may taste good, all they do is prompt you to eat more and more and before you know it, you've consumed 1000 calories over your daily budget.
If you choose your snack wisely, then you shouldn't find it makes you want to keep eating and that will in itself help to prevent weight gain from occurring.
Hunger Versus Psychological Snacking
Finally, you also must look at whether you're snacking for purely hunger reasons or if there is a psychological issue at play.
Emotional eating is something that is serious and must be looked at carefully. This is you feeding your body food when you really don't need it for reasons other than hunger. Unless you can figure out a way to stop that, weight gain is very likely.
On the other hand, if you are actually very hungry before going to bed and give in to a snack, then your body likely needed it. This isn't going to be nearly as bad and chances are you will have done the right thing by having that snack.
You should never be going to bed starving, but at the same time, you really must learn to differentiate psychological hunger with physiological hunger. When you can do that, then you will experience the best rate of weight loss.
So, the moral of the story is that if you are going to snack late at night, be sure you're snacking on something other than simple carbs or high-fat snack foods and make sure you plan those calories into your daily total calorie intake. If you do those two things you will not find that snack hindering your progress.

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