Always Eat After 7 PM

I’m excited that you picked up this book because the information it contains will change the way you’ve dieted and tackled weight loss in the past. You will eat large, delicious meals. You will enjoy foods you love. You will not feel deprived. You will enjoy meals and snacks at night. And you will lose weight quickly and safely in the process. No matter what a person’s diet history, this is a plan that anyone—and I mean anyone—can have success with.

Before we get into the specifics of the diet, it’s critical that you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, starting with the science that supports late-night eating for faster weight loss and explains why it is a much more effective solution for fat burning compared to other programs. It’s fascinating research that will lay the groundwork for your success. Let’s begin with some myth-busting facts and then talk about what distinguishes Always Eat After 7 PM from other diets.

MYTH #1: EATING FOOD AFTER 7 PM MAKES YOU FAT.

It’s probably been drilled into your head that eating late at night leads to obesity and excess belly fat. Myths like this one are strangely persistent, even though there’s little research to back them up. Randomized scientific trials, however, definitely contradict the notion that late-night eating inevitably leads to weight gain or interferes with weight loss.

For example, in a study published in the journal Nutrition, Brazilian researchers randomly assigned obese women to a very low-calorie diet under three separate conditions:

1.Five meals were spread throughout the day.

2.All the meals were consumed between 9 AM and 11 AM.

3.All the meals were consumed between 6 PM and 8 PM (late-night eating).

The study lasted 18 days and was conducted in a hospital. The women ate the same number of calories in each of the conditions. The women in all three groups lost weight. After completion, there were no differences in weight loss, body composition, or resting metabolic rate between the groups. This provides evidence that, in a highly controlled setting, when food choices and portion sizes are consistent, eating at night doesn’t negatively affect weight loss.

There’s also value in eating a large dinner in the evening: Researchers from Israel wanted to test whether eating more at night makes you gain weight. In their six-month study, they randomized people (men and women aged 25 to 55) to one of two groups: the experimental group and a control group. The experimental group was prescribed a standard low-calorie diet (20 percent protein, 30–35 percent fat, 45–50 percent carbohydrates, 1,300–1,500 kcal), including a large dinner with mostly carbs, while the control group received a standard low-calorie diet (20 percent protein, 30–35 percent fat, 45–50 percent carbohydrates, 1,300–1,500 kcal), including carbohydrates throughout the day and a lighter dinner. The experimental group ate a small breakfast, while the control group had a large breakfast. The study was reported in Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases in 2013.

The huge-dinner eaters not only lost more fat but also felt more full throughout the entire six-month period and had more favorable changes to their hunger hormones. Compared to the control group, the huge-dinner eaters experienced these specific results:

•They had fewer hunger cravings and were more satisfied with their meals.

•They lost 11 percent more weight.

•They trimmed 10 percent from their waistlines.

•They lost 10.5 percent more body fat.

This study is encouraging because it supports late-night eating as a significant weight loss strategy—one that clearly helps people burn more fat.

MYTH #2: LATE-NIGHT EATING SLOWS DOWN YOUR METABOLISM.

Your metabolism is what enables your cells, tissues, and organs to perform the digestion, respiration, circulation, and other functions that turn food into fuel and keep you alive. Though it seems intuitive that your metabolism might be slowest when you are sleeping, it does not come to a screeching halt, leaving everything you’ve eaten destined to become unsightly body fat. In fact, research shows that the average person’s metabolic rate is no different during sleep than during the day. In short, your metabolism doesn’t slow down at night. Nor does your body store fat at the end of the day. Whether it’s 8 AM or 8 PM, you use food for energy the same way.

Then there’s this amazing physiological reaction called the “thermic effect of food,” or TEF for short. No matter when you do it, eating a meal causes the body to burn calories to digest, absorb, and transport the nutrients in that meal. This is the TEF, and it leads to an increased metabolic rate and calorie burn.

Different categories of food have different TEFs. The thermic effect of carbohydrates, for example, is between 5 percent and 15 percent; this means it takes 5 to 15 calories to burn off 100 calories of foods containing carbs. Fat is also between 5 percent and 15 percent. Protein has the highest TEF, around 20 percent (which is why, on this program, you’ll eat protein at every meal, including your late-night snack).

Knowing all this, how can anyone argue that a late-night meal or snack slows your metabolism? When you have any meal, especially one with protein, your metabolism increases, thanks to the TEF!

I do need to add that there are other factors influencing TEF, according to a review published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 2019. The authors pointed out that TEF tends to decrease with age and increase with physical activity, higher-calorie meals, and high-carbohydrate and high-protein meals, as opposed to high-fat meals. In addition, eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and high-fiber-content meals also seems to have a positive effect on TEF.

MYTH #3: LATE-NIGHT EATING INTERFERES WITH DIGESTION.

A common misconception is that food eaten prior to bedtime is not adequately digested. You’ve probably heard some outdated saying such as “At bedtime, your stomach is closed for business” or “Food eaten at night mostly sits there.”

Not true. Recent research clearly demonstrates that the digestive tract is fully functional during sleep; some studies have particularly looked at casein, a protein in milk and cheese, and found that it is quickly digested, absorbed, and put to work to help you build lean muscle when eaten before bed. A study published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2017 found that a 40-gram serving of casein protein eaten at night prior to sleep increased overnight muscle protein synthesis in both younger and older men. In essence, late-night feeding helped increase body-contouring muscle overnight!

What’s more, researchers have found that nutrients administered during sleep (via nasal infusion) are digested and absorbed just as they would be under normal waking circumstances.

You’ve also probably heard that optimum digestion requires comfort and relaxation. That’s true. What better time to experience those conditions than while you’re sleeping?

MYTH #4: EATING CARBS AFTER 7 PM PACKS ON POUNDS.

Almost everyone assumes that you should avoid eating large meals with higher-carb foods at dinnertime because they promote weight gain. However, a study in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases in 2013 put this “carb curfew” to rest. Researchers assigned 78 Israeli police officers to one of two diets for six months. Both groups consumed the same number of meals and foods throughout the day. One group followed a “normal” diet with calories and carbohydrates spread out through the day. The other group was assigned to an “experimental” diet in which they consumed a larger percentage of their calories (and carbohydrates) in the evening. Both groups lost weight, body fat, and inches from their waistlines. But here’s the kicker: the “experimental” group, which ate most of their carbs in the evening (presumably after 6 PM), experienced significantly greater improvements in all three areas. What was particularly intriguing was that this strategy of eating more carbs later in the day led to improved profiles of hormones related to hunger, satiety, and metabolism such as leptin and ghrelin.

Late-night eating also curbs calorie intake the next day. In a four-week study, dieters added a snack to their daily regimen 90 minutes after dinner every night, and check this out: late-night eaters ate an average of 397 fewer calories per day. This study was published in 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

What’s more, eating carbs at night induces deeper sleep. A research paper published in Sports Medicine in 2014 showed that people who eat the majority of their carbs at dinner actually sleep better. Carb-induced, quality sleep decreases cortisol (a fat-storing hormone) and ramps up the production of your sleep hormones, serotonin and melatonin. Restorative sleep increases fat-burning hormones—the main one being growth hormone—overnight.

It’s important to note that not all carbs are created equal, and on this program we’ll prioritize what I call “Super Carbs.” These are natural, wholesome plant foods such as rice, potatoes, yams, and squash that support metabolism and fat burning.

Yes, one of the best dinner carbs is white rice. Are you surprised? Most people have no clue that this Super Carb is a gluten-free starch from nature that is rich in glucose, which triggers deeper sleep, fuels your activities for the next day, and prevents your metabolism from slowing down. So even though we’ve all been advised to cut back on white rice, or never eat it at all, if we want to avoid fat storage and disease, it’s really a nutritionally power-packed dinnertime Super Carb that can help you burn more fat.

The Okinawans of Japan are living proof of this science. They generally get 69 percent of their calories from evening Super Carbs, frequently eating high-carb dinners with rice as late as 10 PM. We often think of rice as “fattening,” and yet, older Okinawans have a typical body mass index (BMI) of 18 to 22, compared to a typical BMI of 26 or 27 for adults over the age of 60 in the U.S. In fact, not only are they lean, but they are also more likely to reach 100 years of age than anyone else in the world.

Kitavan Islanders are another perfect example of folks who defy this diet myth. Their diet consists of more than 50 percent Super Carbs, most of which are fruits like berries and starchy sweet potatoes. Yet, despite their unusually high-carb diet, they have great blood sugar control and amazing blood lipid profiles, have a low incidence of metabolic syndrome (a precursor to diabetes), and are completely free of cardiovascular disease (a precursor to stroke, congestive heart failure, dementia, and high blood pressure). They thrive on eating mostly Super Carbs without becoming obese.

Specific higher-carbohydrate foods (including berries and cherries) support your fat-burning metabolism while you sleep, providing your body with a steady stream of fuel throughout the night. The trick is knowing how to combine them with other evening and pre-bedtime fat-burning foods to fuel your metabolism as you sleep. As an example, a high-protein and/or high-fat snack combined with berries, such as Greek yogurt with walnuts and blueberries, is ideal to fight cravings and burn fat. You’ll learn more about how to do this in chapter four.

By now, you know that there’s just not a lot of truth behind some of the most common dieting rules. With Always Eat After 7 PM, you’ll get a whole new approach to eating that is completely unlike any other diet.

WHY OTHER DIETS MAY HAVE FAILED YOU

If you’re like a lot of people I’ve met and worked with, you’ve probably spent tons of time, energy, and money buying special foods, purchasing diet programs, or joining diet clubs—but with zero results. I’ve heard from people who are shattered because conventional diets have utterly failed to bring them any lasting weight loss. I know one woman who tried to subsist on one meal a day, another woman who ate only lettuce and cottage cheese, and a guy who worked out three hours a day to burn off calories (and ended up with swollen joints in the process). I remember a woman who got so hungry late at night that she regularly raided her fridge for anything that tamed her cravings.

People everywhere subject themselves to lives of starvation dieting and exercising hell, and none of it is working. They crave food, walk around hungry all day, and miss out on one of life’s great pleasures—eating good food. And when they fail, as most dieters will, they feel guilty and full of self-hatred. But they haven’t failed. Those diets have failed them.

Typical “dieting” is perhaps one of the most frustrating practices that just about everyone has attempted at one point or another. It’s not fun, it gets old, and it rarely works. There are a few reasons for that.

Traditional diets are boring and lack variety.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not into eating dried-out chicken breast and bland veggies day after day, week after week, month after mind-numbing month.

But that’s dieting! Fact is, most diets are extremely narrow with regard to food choices and variety, and many even limit entire macronutrients altogether over the course of the entire program (think low-carb and low-fat diets).

Three months with no carbs? No thanks. Such practices not only are entirely unnecessary, but make for a miserable, unsustainable experience.

Traditional diets require that you give up your favorite foods, and that’s simply unrealistic.

Virtually all traditional diets can be summarized by one word: restriction. They’re all about what you can’t have, and very little about what you can have (and most of the time, the “allowed” choices are unappetizing).

To make matters worse, they forbid you to eat your favorite foods. No pizza or chocolate chip cookies for months while you try to shed those 30 pounds! That’s never going to work in real life. When the inevitable does happen and you cheat, you end up feeling terrible, guilty, and like a failure.

Traditional diets yield results that aren’t substantial enough to warrant the sacrifice.

Who wants to work hard with no reward? Not me! If you’re busting your butt day in and day out and then hop on the scale at week’s end only to find nothing’s changed, that’s extremely disheartening and discouraging—and believe me, I feel your pain.

You know what hard work with no reward brings? Quitting, that’s what. And I don’t blame you (or me, because I did it plenty of times myself). It’s not that you “just don’t have what it takes”; it’s that no one is going to continue to work hard without some payoff. Always Eat After 7 PM is different. With this program, you won’t have to completely give up your favorite foods, and you’ll see amazing results that will keep you motivated.

EXPERIENCE YOUR FASTEST FAT LOSS EVER USING THREE SIMPLE PHASES

Always Eat After 7 PM is a three-phase program that teaches you how to lose big by strategically eating big when you are naturally hungriest—in the evening. This may sound too good to be true, but let me assure you it is no gimmick. It’s all about making strategic and smart food swaps, and you can still eat your favorite foods.

Here’s a brief summary of how the three phases work:

Phase 1: The Acceleration Phase. This phase is designed to give you rapid results in weight loss in the first 14 days. You’ll transition from eating a big meal at breakfast to my 3-Minute Fat-Burning Morning Ritual, and lunches and dinners will be based primarily on proteins and non-starchy vegetables. Think of this as a short, dedicated “sprint” to get things going quickly; it’s not meant to be sustained, but a sprint will burn more energy per second than a moderate jog. The faster results you’ll see in the first two weeks really kick-start the program. Some of my clients have lost as much as a pound a day during this phase.

Phase 2: The Main Phase. This phase allows for larger portions and calorie intake compared to the Acceleration Phase. During this phase, you continue with the 3-Minute Fat-Burning Ritual in the mornings, filling lunches and dinners with lean proteins and lots of fruits and vegetables, and evening meals with Super Carbs. (You also get to cheat once a week!) It is meant to be sustainable for an extended period of time, for weeks or even months, until you reach your goal weight. Your weight loss will slow down a bit during this phase, but don’t be surprised if you drop two to five pounds a week.

Phase 3: The Lifestyle Phase. This is a more laid-back version of the Main Phase with more liberties, more food, and even fewer restrictions, to let you transition into a healthy long-term lifestyle that follows the Always Eat After 7 PM principles. If Phase 1 is a sprint and Phase 2 is a moderate jog, Phase 3 is a leisurely walk in the park grounded in the habits formed in the other stages of the program.

NOT JUST ANOTHER DIET

If it looks like I’m handing you another restrictive diet, let me be clear: Always Eat After 7 PM is totally unlike other programs. It defies the most common dietary rules (like “no snacking” and “no carbs”) and is specifically designed to work with your body’s natural hormonal systems, instead of working against them (you’ll learn more about this in chapter two).

Take a look at the chart on the following page to see how Always Eat After 7 PM differs from popular diets you may have tried to follow.

To wind up, Always Eat After 7 PM is a much more enjoyable, realistic way to lose weight and achieve your goals compared to today’s most popular diets. You eat the most when you are naturally hungry, you don’t go to bed hungry, and you can even indulge your sweet and salty cravings before bedtime.

As you begin this plan and go through its three phases, you’ll experience firsthand what a truly effective diet it is in your quest to lose weight and get healthier. The next chapters outline the fundamentals of how to time your meals and snacks to achieve your weight loss goals. This now brings us to something you’ve probably never been told before: the real truth about breakfast.