Snacking After 6 O'clock

by Sarah Arabanian
(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

Visitor Question:

You had mentioned to eat last meal at 6:00 p.m. If I go to bed at 10:30 can I still have an apple? Also what about drinking coffee. Is it ok to have coffee?

Lifetime Fat Loss Answers:

Hi Sarah,

To best manage your weight it's better to eat your biggest meal in the middle of the day. You'll be burning off the calories you eat the rest of the day. Then if you eat lightly by 6:00 p.m. or so, you'll have time to digest your food before bed and you won't be carrying heavy calories into sleep.

Seems to me that an apple is a very light, nutritious snack for night time and a great choice! A medium sized apple is only 70 calories and it is NOT carbohydrate dense. The glycemic index and glycemic load are low. Apples are full of antioxidants and have lots of fiber which are good things for weight management. I think substituting fresh fruit for a high glycemic snack is an excellent idea.

You can read all about the nutrients in apples here.

As far as coffee drinking, that's an interesting story. There are antioxidants in coffee called polyphenols and the most important one is chlorogenic acid. It can lower your blood sugar which is so important for weight control. Coffee can also act as an appetite suppressant. However, be aware that some people are very sensitive to caffeine and it spikes their blood sugar! How do you feel when you drink a cup of coffee? If it seems to suppress your appetite and doesn't set you up with sugar cravings, you can probably tolerate the caffeine and it's fine.

There are studies showing that regular coffee consumption, because of it's antioxidant content (chlorogenic acid) lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes 13% with one cup a day and up to 67% with 12 cups a day! That's because the chlorogenic acid interferes with glucose synthesis and release in the body.* Obviously, it's crazy to drink that much coffee. To get these results without overdosing on coffee you need to drink a coffee that retains more polyphenols in it's roasting process.

As far as I know there is only one coffee that does this. So to be sure that you have a good response to coffee and get the health benefits you could try the one I recommend, Rich Rewards, because you get twice as much antioxidant content. You can order it right on the website. The coffee beans are soaked first and drained prior to being roasted. After the roasting the beans go back into the liquid they were soaked in which returns substantial polyphenol (antioxidant) content to the beans.

Thanks for your questions! Hope this helps.

* Zhang Y, Lee ET, Cowan LD, Fabsitz RR, Howard BV. Coffee consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in men and women with normal glucose tolerance: The Strong Heart Study. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2011 Jun;21(6):418-23.