26 - Conquering Nighttime Eating

Hello Ladies! On this episode of the Slim & Satisfied Podcast, I focus on the topic of nighttime eating, what it looks like, its causes, and a few simple yet powerful strategies you can implement to help drop this habit. Nighttime eating is a common problem for those with poor blood sugar control or insulin resistance, which is often the case for those with PCOS. This makes women with PCOS more likely to gravitate towards nighttime eating for both physiological and emotional reasons. 

Nighttime eating can quickly feed into unhealthy behaviors and cause a diet to fall apart. The main reason for this is that it can make women feel out of control; it perpetuates the feeling of being incapable and can lead to negative self-talk and feelings of shame and frustration that often lead to women giving up on their weight loss goals. Eating at night also means you are more likely to gain weight, and it can lead to other health problems. To avoid these two major pitfalls, in this episode I offer advice for avoiding this trap of nighttime eating and ways to keep yourself in the right mindset for success.

First, I look at the major causes for nighttime eating, identifying these to be:

1. True Hunger, due to an inability to eat during the day
2. Incorrect Meal Composition, aka, you’re eating too little protein or fat, leading to cravings and intense hunger
3. Eating for Emotional Comfort or Short-Term Gratification

I then recommend several strategies for getting away from nighttime eating, suggesting that you pick one or two to focus on rather than trying to implement everything all at once. These strategies include:

1. Meal Mapping: Plan out your meals one day at a time and stick with your plan
2. Eat your “crave-food” earlier in the day
3. Eat a fat- or protein-based snack as soon as your arrive home
4. If your nighttime eating is largely emotionally based, perform a “Gut Check,” which is a process of raising awareness and self-reflection I expand further upon in the episode. 

If you’d like more information or coaching beyond the advice I offer in this podcast as well as in my other episodes, I am currently taking new clients. So, feel free to reach out through my email, and we can get started on helping you lose weight and get healthier before 2019 ends! 

What You’ll Learn in This Podcast Episode:

1. How the psychological effects of nighttime eating can ruin a weight-loss plan
2. The science behind why eating at night leads to weight-gain
3. Strategies for learning how to meal-map and how this can help your long-term weight loss goals
4. How journaling can make you feel more empowered and serve as an alternative to emotional eating
5. Advice for flipping negative thoughts into self-affirmations and how to practice self-compassion through language

Helpful Links:

Episode 1 - “Can Limiting Beliefs Affect Your Weight?”: https://dafnachazin.com/can-limiting-beliefs-affect-your-weight/

Episode 18 - “Get Your Mindset Right First. Here’s How”: https://dafnachazin.com/getting-your-mindset-right-first/

Questions, or interested in becoming a client? Email me at: [email protected]

Join me on IG: @pcosnutritionistdafna