Slimming, have you had dinner yet? How did you eat it?
Dinner determines the speed at which you lose weight the next day. Many novices think that skipping dinner can help with weight loss, but you should know that after a day of work and study, emotions tend to be low. At this time, forcing yourself not to eat anything will make your body react by secreting stress hormones like cortisol, triggering the desire to eat, and making your appetite more difficult to control.
Therefore, many people who skip dinner end up feeling hungry, leading to late-night overeating. Once you indulge in midnight snacks, weight loss turns into weight gain.
Even if you have enough willpower to control your cravings and sleep on an empty stomach, you will find that strong hunger pangs affect sleep quality.
Continuing this habit can put your body into starvation mode, reducing metabolic rate, decreasing calorie expenditure, and making you prone to gaining weight easily, which leads to rebound weight after weight loss.
The editor believes that of the three meals a day, dinner is also very important. Weight loss does not mean skipping dinner; eating the right dinner is crucial for healthy weight loss and preventing rebound weight gain.
Here are a few points to note for dinner to continue losing weight the next day:
1. Eat earlier, preferably before 6 p.m., to give your body enough time to digest. Going to bed slightly hungry helps the body efficiently burn stored fat during sleep.
2. Keep dinner light, not heavy on meats. Focus on fiber-rich vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, and heart of vegetables, supplemented with some high-protein foods that provide proteins for muscle synthesis, long-lasting satiety.
Finally, have a small portion of staple foods, mainly whole grains, to balance nutrition and control calorie intake for continuous weight loss.
3. Avoid eating fruits for dinner as high sugar intake can stimulate insulin secretion, promoting fat accumulation. Therefore, it’s best to consume fruits before meals during the day, preferably not at night.
4. About an hour after dinner, engage in some light exercise like brisk walking, jogging, or fitness exercises to boost metabolism and help you lose weight faster.
If you’re unsure how to have dinner, here are some low-calorie, low-fat, high-protein nutritious meal suggestions:
1. 100g steamed Chinese yam + a bowl of radish egg soup + 200g boiled lettuce
2. Small steamed potato + one cucumber + 150g blanched prawns
3. 100g brown rice + 300g stir-fried broccoli and carrots with shrimp (or chicken breast)
4. Boiled corn + a poached egg + a bowl of cabbage tofu soup
