8 Healthy Snacks Before Bed to Help You Lose Weight and Sleep Better
If you’re feeling hungry before bed, your body might be telling you that you need a snack. A healthy, low-calorie snack before bed will help keep your blood sugar levels stable so you don’t wake up hungry (or irritated) in the morning. But eating the incorrect meals before bed might make it hard to sleep and make you gain weight. Most people have a problem with bedtime snacks because they eat the incorrect foods without even being hungry. That’s why we’ve put up a list of 8 healthy snacks that can help you lose weight and sleep better.
Do snacks before bed make you gain weight?
It all depends on the snack. If you’re hungry after dinner, there’s nothing wrong with having a light, healthy snack. The issue is that people eat at night for reasons other than hunger. People sometimes eat a lot of high-calorie foods like chips, chocolate, or candy at night to fulfill their sweet tooth or deal with stress or boredom.
When you eat this way, you usually don’t think about it and do it while watching TV or scrolling through social media. Before you know it, you’ve eaten a whole bag of M&Ms. This can lead to too many calories, stomach troubles, and trouble sleeping.
1. Don’t eat too much
A lot of the time, nibbling before bed is something you do without thinking, which makes you consume too much. To avoid bingeing, focus on your food while you eat, don’t eat in front of the TV or your phone, and regulate how much you eat. If you don’t pay attention and don’t regulate how much you eat, you’re more likely to eat too much.
2. Eat small, light meals
If you need a snack before bed, choose tiny, light ones that will help you sleep better and ease your hunger. You don’t want to go to bed hungry since you’ll probably wake up and eat too much at breakfast. Bananas and nut butter, as well as small quantities of popcorn or fruit, are acceptable choices.
3. Stay away from heavy foods
If you want to lose weight and sleep well, don’t eat greasy, fatty foods before bed. French fries and pizza are examples of fatty foods that take a long time to digest in your body. They also stop your body from burning off fat as you sleep. Also, as your body is trying to digest the meal, you can feel sick to your stomach and have stomach cramps, which can keep you awake and make you feel bad.
4. Count the calories in your bedtime snack every day.
If you’re anxious that your evening snack will get in the way of your weight loss goals, an easy way to deal with it is to include it in your daily calorie count. Instead of eating your usual amount of calories and then adding a snack, try to make your other meals a little lower in calories so you can make up for the extra calories before bed.
8 Snacks Before Bed to Help You Lose Weight and Sleep Better
1. Almond Butter with Banana
- Almond Butter
- Banana
Almond butter has magnesium in it, while bananas have both magnesium and potassium in them. Both of them are natural muscle relaxants that help you sleep. Potassium controls your heartbeat, which helps you sleep better, while magnesium lowers cortisol, the “stress hormone” that can keep you up at night.
2. Popcorn
- Popcorn
Without butter or toppings, popcorn is a fantastic low-calorie snack to munch before bed. It helps transfer tryptophan from your blood to your brain, which raises your serotonin levels. Serotonin is a hormone that affects our circadian cycles and is connected to better sleep.
3. 2% cottage cheese with tart cherries with pits
- 2% cottage cheese
- Tart cherries with pits
Cottage cheese is a great source of protein, and eating protein before bed helps your muscles heal and speeds up your metabolism. Tart cherries will provide some sweetness and also have melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy.
4. Chickpeas that have been roasted
- Roasted chickpeas
Instead of chips or crackers, try roasted chickpeas if you want something crispy after supper. They have a lot of protein, are easy to digest, and can help you feel full so you don’t wake up really hungry the next day.
5. Blueberries and plain Greek yogurt
- Plain Greek yogurt
- Blueberries
Plain Greek yogurt is a good source of calcium, which your body requires to turn the amino acid tryptophan into melatonin. It also provides a lot of protein, especially casein, which has been shown to make you less hungry the next morning, which means you’re less likely to eat too much at breakfast. Blueberries are full of fiber and antioxidants, which calm your body and mind and make you feel less stressed overall.
6. Toasted whole wheat bread with hummus
- Toasted whole wheat bread
- Hummus
Magnesium is helpful for adults’ sleep, especially those who have trouble sleeping. Wheat flour is a good source of magnesium. Chickpeas, which are abundant of B vitamins, are used to make hummus. B vitamins assist your body break down fats, proteins, and carbs.
7. Oatmeal with cinnamon
- Oatmeal (modest amount)
- Cinnamon (a little)
Oats are a natural source of melatonin, a hormone that helps you sleep and keeps your circadian rhythms in sync. They are a healthy whole food that has vitamins, minerals, and fiber, but they have more calories than some of the other selections, so if you want to lose weight, only eat a modest amount of oatmeal. Add a little cinnamon on top because it helps keep blood sugar levels stable, which controls hunger, weight, and mood.
8. A handful of nuts
- Almonds
- Walnuts
Almonds and walnuts are good for you because they include melatonin, protein, and magnesium, which can help you sleep. Make sure the nuts don’t contain a lot of additional sodium, because that can mess up your sleep cycle. Also, maintain track of your calories by just eating 1 ounce before bed.
Snacking before bed can help you wake up ready to take on the day if you eat the correct meals.
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