Skipping Breakfast, Lunch Creates Insatiable Appetite

Have you ever arrived home from work feeling like no amount of food will satisfy your hunger?

Our Pentium-paced lifestyles sometimes make it difficult to properly fuel our bodies during the day. This results in consuming most of our day’s calories after work. I call it the “evening binge.”

Evening binges usually begin after work and can last for hours as we forage through the refrigerator and cupboards for the food that will satisfy our appetite. After starving your body during the day, it’s difficult to ever feel like you’ve had enough to eat at night.

Evening binges promote body fat formation because those late calories don’t have the entire day to be used for energy and metabolism. Overeating at night puts excess food in your stomach and intestines, reducing the quality of sleep because of the extra digestion load at a time when your body should be resting.

Going to bed after a binge may also cause stomach acid to travel up your esophagus, called gastric reflux (or, more commonly, heartburn). To make matters worse, your morning appetite will be zilch - and beginning the day without any food causes overeating later on. It’s a vicious cycle.

Our bodies sense fullness and satisfaction from our stomachs having a certain amount of distention (expansion) from food. Distention signals us to stop eating. A day of skipping meals and snacks causes your stomach to need extra distention to feel full and satisfied in the evening.

People who eat breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack don’t need as much food in the evening to feel satisfied. They already have some food and fluid in their stomach and their bodies aren’t calorically depleted.

Breaking the evening binge habit can be challenging. It involves lifestyle changes that people don’t like to make. But the trade-off is worth it - better energy levels throughout the day, improved sleep quality and less propensity to gain body fat and weight.

The first step to breaking evening binges is consuming some breakfast calories. I see many people lined up at espresso stands, eagerly reaching for their morning mochas. Mochas and lattes taste great but they don’t provide a necessary steady stream of energy and nutrients; they make a better snack than a meal replacement. Try something more dense and complex like a bowl of cooked oatmeal (better now that the weather is colder) or a smoothie.

A smoothie is a great way to get nutrient-dense early-morning calories. It can be made in less time than waiting in line for espresso, provides plenty of nutrients, and helps to offset evening bingeing. The smoothie recipe at the end of this column comes from Stacey O’Sullivan, a client of mine who has reduced her body fat from 28 percent to 17 percent and uses balanced nutrition to fuel her active lifestyle.

The second binge-averting tactic is eating a substantial lunch. The amount you eat should correspond to your appetite, frame size, activity level and metabolism.

Make sure you include a protein source, such as 2-4 ounces chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef or tofu; or 1/2 to 1 cup cottage cheese or beans. Add some complex carbohydrates for quick energy, such as 1/2 to 1-1/2 cups rice or pasta, 2 slices bread, 1 tortilla, 1 bagel or a small to large potato. To help slow the release of energy from your food and provide fiber, vitamins and minerals, add 1/2-1-1/2 cups fresh or cooked vegetables.

For long-term energy, include some fat, such as 1-2 tablespoons low-fat salad dressing, 2 tablespoons nuts, 1 ounce low-fat cheese, 2 tablespoons avocado or 1-2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise or peanut butter. Choose vegetable fats if you have high cholesterol, and include more of all sources of calories if you’re hungry less than 3-4 hours after eating lunch.

The third binge stopper is a mid-afternoon snack. Handy desk and glove-box snacks include dried fruit (without added sugar) mixed with almonds or soy nuts (roasted soybeans with half the fat and twice the protein of nuts). Soy nuts can be found at Fred Meyer or Huckleberry’s in the bulk bin section. I also keep a variety of energy bars in my glovebox, like PowerBar, PR Ironman, NutriGrain Cereal Bar, Balance Bar, Tiger’s Milk and granola bars.

Thwarting the evening binge requires eating balanced meals and including handy snacks during the day. Best of eating, and here’s O’Sullivan’s nutrient-dense smoothie recipe.

Stacey’s Smoothie

In a blender, combine 1 cup skim milk or lite soy milk (for those avoiding dairy), 1/4 cup orange juice, 1/4 cup frozen mixed berries, 4 ounces low-fat, fruit-flavored yogurt, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. Blend until smooth.

Yield: 2-1/2 cups.

Nutrition information per smoothie: 282 calories, 3 grams fat (10 percent fat calories), 12 milligrams cholesterol, 48 grams carbohydrate, 15 grams protein, 3 grams fiber, 250 milligrams sodium.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Craig T. Hunt The Spokesman-Review