The Problems with Grazing

We’ve all heard about the benefits of eating small amounts of food, regularly – it keeps your metabolism rate high and doesn’t leave you with that bloated feeling. Controlled and well-balanced micro-meals are the key to a healthy lifestyle. By eating regularly, your insulin levels stay steady and you’re far less likely to feel those ‘crashes’.

However, for many, especially when stressed and out of the usual eating pattern, these controlled micro-meals turn into perpetual grazing – especially when under-sleeping.

It’s a common misconception that not getting enough sleep leads to weight loss. For some, yes, possibly this is true (in times of extremely high-stress). However, for most, less sleep simply means more time spent grazing and snacking.

The calories burnt by still being awake rather that asleep do not outweigh those gained by over-eating. It’s a simple matter of science. If your calorie intake is higher than what you are able to burn then you will put on weight. And for those that eat instead of sleep, this is far more likely!

The first step into tackling this is to look at your behavioural patterns. If you’re not sleeping or if you’re feeling painfully hungry in the middle of the night then your body has fallen into an unbalanced eating cycle. This could be due to stressful working days spent doing different tasks and not knowing when you have time for your next meal. For a lot of people, hectic working schedules are the biggest problem when it comes to trying to control their diet. Irregular eating patterns lead to irregular periods of hunger – and before you know it, you’re not sleeping and grazing instead.

Put time aside when you can to prepare your meals. If your days are extremely irregular prepare your meals and carry them with you. That way you’re not hunting for food and eating the wrong things due to your location and lack of choice. With these prepared meals you can then force yourself to set aside time in you schedule to stop and eat.

Do this each day at the same times and your body will start metabolising more regularly and your sleeping patterns will improve – then no more midnight snacking!