Why shouldn’t you give up dinner for your figure?

nutrition expert, founder of the GetVegetable nutrition delivery service

Is it possible to lose weight by refusing dinner? What is the harm of refusing to eat in the evening?

Deciding to lose weight, many people first of all refuse dinner. At first glance, the decision is correct. After all, eating at night, we often regret it in the morning, because we feel overloaded. Especially if dinner was accompanied by a sweet dessert or something unhealthy. But have you noticed how often an attempt to eliminate dinner ends in complete failure and breakdown? It’s easy to start, but how many days is enough for a physically healthy person to deprive himself of one of the main needs – food? Maybe it’s not about willpower, but something else?

Those who refuse dinner for a long time, will confirm that at night there may be a feeling of discomfort, and dreams are not always pleasant. The morning a person feels not sleepy, but tired. This is due to the stress caused by the feeling of hunger. Among other things, because tryptophan – an amino acid released after eating into the bloodstream – contributes to the production of the hormone of happiness. It is he who helps you sleep better, favorably affects the nervous system and contributes to better sleep.

In addition, at night the body uses about the same amount of energy as during the day: it needs the brain, heart, lungs and other organs. If you refuse to eat dinner, the metabolism slows down, changing the hormonal background and insulin levels in the blood. In addition, if during sleep you experience a feeling of hunger, which you intentionally created, the brain gives the command not to spend fat reserves, but to accumulate it. This ends in the fact that instead of losing weight, you quickly gain weight.

So, you should not neglect dinner. It is better to give preference to low-calorie products and replace harmful dishes with useful ones. For example, replace rice or potatoes with steamed yams, ketchup with tomato paste, sausage with turkey meat, mashed potatoes can be made from broccoli, and if you can’t live without bread, take whole-grain bread.

Reducing calories by not eating dinner is not the most sensible solution. It is better to eat less at all three meals than to eliminate one of them. This way you will control the number of calories consumed and build a balanced and proper diet. Abandoning dinner abruptly will lead to:

• a sudden increase in hunger;
• a bad mood;
• feeling worse;
• subsequent weight gain.

It is not at all difficult to eat properly three times a day. One of the main meals is lunch. A quality lunch should include a variety of healthy and nourishing ingredients, including vitamins and proteins.