It’s nine o’clock at night. Your stomach is rumbling. Food is calling your name. But you’re on a diet, and that means eating now is against the rules, right?
Ever felt this way? Ever wondered, if you broke the rules, could you still lose weight? I’m sure you have. Nighttime hunger happens to just about everyone. Even so, for years we’ve been told that if we want to lose weight, we have to avoid carbs and eat a “sensible” dinner. Then we’re forced to starve ourselves until bedtime—which is when our most intense cravings hit.
So . . . should you tough it out and follow the popular rule of avoiding food each night for fear of putting on pounds? Or should you answer the call of the fridge?
Let me answer that for you: you should head to the fridge.
Okay, you probably think I’m crazy. We’ve all heard that we should avoid nighttime eating because if we eat food late in the evening—when we’re physically inactive—we’ll pack away those calories as fat rather than burning them for energy. But truth be told, there’s just not much proof to definitively support this advice. (In fact, recent scientific research shows the exact opposite is true.)
For example, when nutritional scientists scrutinized the diet habits and body weights of more than 7,400 men and women for 10 years, they found that the calories that their research subjects ate after 5 PM had no effect on their weight. In short, they did not put on any weight because they ate in the evening. This study was published in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolism Disorders.
This finding and the other research that I’ll share in this book provide compelling evidence that you can, in fact, eat at night—and you will not put on pounds.
It’s time for a late-night eating rethink.
And that’s where this book comes in.
HOW I DISCOVERED THAT DIETING RULES WERE MADE TO BE BROKEN
I’ve always been a bit of a maverick. I don’t like rules. Sure, there are lots of rules we should follow in life. If you see a sign that says “Do Not Enter” or “Do Not Feed the Alligators,” there’s usually a pretty good reason for it. However, some warnings based on eating and dieting from decades ago simply don’t apply today.
It took me a long time to find this out. As much as I hate to admit it, I wasn’t always the fit and healthy guy I am today. Though I started my fitness career more than 15 years ago, during that time I had my own struggles with weight gain and dieting.
It all began after I launched my nutritional supplement company, BioTrust Nutrition, and I started working 12- to 16-hour days and pulling all-nighters building the brand. In just the first 16 months, we got to over $100 million in sales, but I was pushing myself hard. As a result, I experienced some pretty intense, even uncontrollable cravings for unhealthy food—particularly at night. Now, at first I resisted the urge to eat late in the evening because I was misinformed like most people. Well, as the old Star Trek saying goes, “Resistance is futile.” I eventually caved into my cravings for junk food.
Slowly but surely, over the course of the next few years, my body packed on 10 pounds, then 20, then eventually 50 pounds. As a certified sports nutritionist (CISSN), I knew that any time you’re hauling around an extra 50 pounds, you’re going to develop some significant health problems.
Around that same time, I met my future bride, Lisa, got married, and started a family. Next thing you know, we had not one, but two little girls, Lily and Gabby. Between work and family obligations, making healthy food choices plunged even farther down my priority list.
My poor food choices took their toll on me mentally too. Every day when I looked at myself in the mirror, I was ashamed. My self-esteem was at an all-time low, and I felt guilty because I was letting my family down day after day after day. These were terrible feelings, to say the least.
I eventually realized that I was slowly digging my own grave by not taking time to prioritize my own health. Even though I had helped people around the world get fit with my articles and books, and BioTrust had built a reputation as one of the largest and highest-quality supplement companies in the country, I wasn’t walking the talk when it came to my own body. How embarrassing for someone who had such a successful track record helping the world get healthy and fit!
I had hit an all-time low with my health, but it was that low that made me say, “Enough is enough.” I needed to get in the driver’s seat of my own life again. So I dusted off an old plan from more than 10 years earlier: the same diet plan that had landed me first place in the world’s largest body transformation contest when I was 20 years old.
It was a traditional low-fat approach to weight loss, and yes, it worked. But like many diets—especially back then—it wasn’t fun, it wasn’t easy enough, and it certainly wasn’t tasty enough. Eating bland broccoli and chicken day after day made me feel like I was going to choke on my food.
Around the same time, I was hearing one big complaint from my clients who were dieting. They were constantly hungry and not feeling full after their meals, especially at dinnertime and late at night—challenges that were difficult to overcome, challenges I understood because I had personally dealt with them. Deep down, I knew that if my clients couldn’t get a grip on their late-night hunger and cravings, they’d have a hard time adhering to any diet.
All of this brought me to the turning point. I knew I had to give my own approach to diet and nutrition a complete overhaul. I had to find a new, innovative method that could stop cravings at night, help people feel full and satisfied at each meal, and let them enjoy lots of their favorite, delicious foods without severely limiting food groups—while still burning fat fast.
But was such a plan even possible? Nutritional science offers a wealth of research on eating right, but it can also confuse you with its contradictory findings. I decided to play devil’s advocate and question every “rule” I’d ever heard or read about dieting and weight loss. I’m talking about the messages you often hear from the medical establishment and diet industry, such as “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” “Avoid carbs—especially at night,” and “Whatever you do, never eat before bedtime.”
What if it was okay to eat late at night? What if it was okay to skip breakfast? What if it was okay to snack on carbs at night? I wanted answers.
I’m a science geek, so I dug through peer-reviewed journals and databases. I took a deep dive into the research to learn what really happens in our bodies if we eat late at night. I reached out to my circle of contacts in the natural health field—the doctors, scientists, and innovative experts I’ve built relationships with over the years, people who stay on top of the latest research studies and cutting-edge information. I even talked to my bodybuilder friends, who tend to be pretty lean. Even they were eating late at night, they told me, because it helps develop muscle!
What I was discovering blew my mind. The research was crystal clear: eating your largest meals at night can actually be the hidden key to losing fat quickly and safely and won’t necessarily make you gain weight.
Before
After
I had to experiment on myself first to see if it would work. Well, the results were nothing short of remarkable. I dropped 12 pounds in under two weeks. My abs were significantly flatter. My cravings for unhealthy food vanished. After 16 weeks on my new plan, I had lost a total of 46 pounds. At my next medical checkup, my doctor was shocked at how good my blood work had gotten so quickly.
And let’s not forget the most important part: for the first time in months, I had the energy to keep up with my little girls. I would jump out of bed extra early every morning, excited to get them ready for school. They were finally getting the best version of their daddy. My confidence was back because I felt like a new man!
From there, I went on to use this plan with my clients, and they experienced similar results: amazing fat loss, improved health markers, great energy, and more. And now, I’m sharing this plan with you.
HOW ALWAYS EAT AFTER 7 PM WILL WORK FOR YOU
The wonderful thing about Always Eat After 7 PM is that it lets you eat at night, burn fat at night, and end junk food cravings at night. Along the way, it moves you to a healthier, leaner body and more energy—and it does so quickly.
So stop declaring the kitchen off-limits after 7 PM, and stop feeling guilty about sitting down to a sensible, huge dinner or stressing out if you don’t get around to it until 8 or 9 PM. In this program, I’m going to recommend the following: let’s break the rules about dieting and late-night eating and start transforming your body with new facts, new strategies, and new science.
Inside this book I’ve given you everything you need to succeed. First, I’ll debunk common myths about eating and weight loss and explain the science behind the program so you can understand how to eat to achieve your weight loss goals. Every strategy is simple to follow, is based on solid science, and produces rapid results. What’s more, all the strategies are safe to use even long term as a lifestyle diet that can help you live long and fight off many of today’s most deadly diseases. Then, I’ll share an easy-to-follow daily meal schedule, as well as six weekly menu plans and 70 delicious recipes from my great friend and top chef Diana Keuilian, aka “The Recipe Hacker.”
And so I say all this to motivate you. To challenge you. To inspire you. If I can do this, with my insane work schedule, travel schedule, and family life, anyone can do it. Anyone. And that means you. You can change, just like I did.
Joel Marion