There’s sure a lot of information out there on “the best times to eat.”
“Eat breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day.”
“Don’t eat breakfast! You don’t need it!”
“Have a nice, filling dinner, because heaven forbid you go to bed on an empty stomach.”
Starting right now, you can tune all that other stuff out, because I’m gonna make this incredibly simple for you, by telling you the two times NOT to eat when you want to lose weight.
#1 – Don’t eat when you’re not hungry.
Seems obvious, doesn’t it? Yet how many times have you eaten when you’re not hungry?
It could be you were bored, or it could be because it was “meal time” and that’s just when you think you’re supposed to eat.
It could also be that you believe you HAVE to eat in order to “keep up your metabolism,” or because not eating your first meal of the day first thing in the morning is somehow bad for you. (I talked about that in yesterday’s email.)
The simple truth is, eating when you’re not hungry is a great way to get fat.
Start listening to your body’s natural hunger, and let that guide your meal times.
“Cristy, what if I always feel hungry?”
“Cristy, what if I NEVER feel hungry?”
In either case the problem is the same: Your hormones are out of whack from eating crappy food. Eating the way we eat on Code Red will help balance them and return your appetite to normal.
Constant, ravenous hunger can also be caused by lack of sleep or low electrolyte levels.
#2 – Don’t eat late.
Here’s why eating late is a problem.
It takes two-thirds of your body’s energy to digest food.
Also, your body does its best healing when you’re asleep. Your liver detoxes, inflammation goes down, and your body repairs and rejuvenates itself.
But if you go to bed with a full stomach, your body has no choice but to devote two-thirds of its energy to digesting all that food, instead of to repairing you.
That means it’s gonna store more of what you eat as fat.
Going to sleep right after a big meal is one reason Japanese sumo wrestlers get so fat. They eat a huge, carb-heavy meal, then go right to sleep. It packs the pounds on really quickly.
Do your body and your weight loss a favor, by listening to your body and eating only when you’re hungry; and by avoiding those big, late dinners.