When we wake up in the middle of the night with an overwhelming desire for late-night snacks, weight gain guilt can be our biggest partner in crime. So, in this article, we have gathered our favorite ten healthy late-night snacks you can eat without feeling guilty of weight gain.
Late-night snacks can be problematic if you’re trying to weight loss or eat the right things. Even though it’s tempting to grab whatever is in the fridge. It can not only lead to a set of love handles you weren’t expecting, but you may be making poor food choices that are detrimental to your health and weight gain.
Cracking the refrigerator door open at midnight is well known to be bad for the waistline, but if you just can’t resist there is hope; because there are many healthy late-night snacks out there which is helpful for the body.
Best Healthy Late-Night Snacks:
1. Cereal
Don’t get too excited; we’re not talking cereal like those sugar bombs your tongue is always begging for. High fiber cereals such as Fiber One or Grape-Nut flakes are the way to go if you want the best food to eat at late night to lose weight.
The whole grains will fill you up, and the fiber may actually help you to get better sleep. Since it digests slowly, you may even wake up in the morning feeling less hungry than you would ordinarily.
2. Fruit
If you need a sweet treat, fruit can be a fantastic option as a healthy late-night snack. Not only is it lower in calories than other sugary foods, but it also comes with plenty of vitamins, regardless of which fruit happens to be your favorite.
What are the best fruits to eat at night for weight loss? Well, keep fresh fruit handy or a bag of frozen. Canned fruit contains too much sugar, and dried fruit may be more calorie-dense than you realize. That’s not good, as portion control may be a bit harder for you when you’re still in a sleepy daze.
3. Cheese stick
A cheese stick is packed with proteins and has enough fat to keep you feeling satisfied for hours. As long as you keep it to just one, you can go back to bed feeling full and happy, with the satiation provided by fats and protein.
From a sleep view, mixing a carb-rich food like crackers with a good tryptophan source like cheese helps make tryptophan more available to our brain. This indicates that the compound can be used to make serotonin and melatonin, which aid the sleep.
If you don’t have cheese sticks handy, you can get yourself a slice of cheese, but keep it to just one slice—cheese has a lot of calories, and you may end up getting more calories than you realize if you binge late at night.
4. Yogurt
The idea of this late-night snack is great for your gut, as well as satiating, yogurt can fill you up and get you comfortably back to sleep.
Yogurt is high in protein, vitamin A and zinc which is a great food for boosting the immune system. Additionally, yogurt considers as a natural anti-aging food and home remedies for weight loss naturally.
Try Greek yogurt as a late-night snack, so you’re not unintentionally adding lots of sugar and fat to your diet, and add fruit if you need a little sweetness.
5. Air-popped popcorn
If you just need sheer volume, air-popped popcorn is an excellent choice as a healthy late-night snack without gaining weight. 3 cups of this stuff have only 93 calories, which are considered as the useful low carb food for the weight loss.
That means you can munch away pretty much guilt-free, as long as you aren’t throwing on lots of butter, oil, or sugar to pack on those calories.
Air-popped corn is also remarkably healthy for you, with more flavonoids than a glass of red wine. Although we don’t typically think of it that way, popcorn is, in fact, a whole grain, and has all the fiber and nutrition of one.
It’s just fluffy and tasty. Eat it without guilt, and if you need seasoning, try throwing on curry powder or cinnamon for a less sugary kick.
6. Egg
Eggs are often referred to as nature’s perfect protein. With B vitamins, selenium, zinc, and iron along for the ride too, it makes a great choice.
Best of all, a single hard-boiled egg can leave you filled up and satisfied for a long time. For this reason, a hard-boiled egg considered one of the best food for weight loss.
If you can, make sure you grab pasture-raised eggs to keep in the fridge. Chickens that have access to grass and the bugs found in their natural diet are not only healthier and happier, but they lay more nutrient-dense eggs. You may pay a little more for the carton, but you’ll get a lot more in health benefits.
7. Fresh veggies and dip
This is a great healthy late-night snack idea regardless of what time of day it is. You can always benefit from low calorie, fiber dense, vitamin-packed vegetables.
Vegetables like broccoli, carrots, celery, and snap peas have lots of fiber to help you get back to sleep and fill you up, but without a lot of calories.
Oils and fats help us unlock more of the vitamins in the vegetables, so having a dip with it is good for you. Just don’t go overboard on the dip—the vegetables aren’t a spoon for the ranch, you’re just supposed to flavor the tips with it.
8. Nuts
While most of us have learned to run away screaming from nuts since they contain a lot of fat and calories, but they may make good late-night snacks.
That fat is good fat—omega-3s your body probably doesn’t get enough of, and while they do have many calories eaten in moderation this can be a good thing.
Healthy nuts, such as almonds and walnuts, are not only great for the heart but are also great snacks.
A handful of nuts can benefit your heart, boost your mood, and may even help you sleep better. Keep a can of mixed nuts on hand and eat a handful before attempting to go back to sleep. That fat will stay with you for a long time, making you feel more comfortable and less hungry.
9. Dark chocolate
Dark chocolate can be a good option as a healthy late-night snack without gaining weight. Sometimes, you just need a piece of candy. If you can’t stay away from those delicious sweet snacks, try a piece of dark chocolate.
A piece containing at least 72% cacao is loaded with antioxidants and has less sugar and milk in it than ordinary chocolates. These will give you the benefits of chocolate, without as many of the drawbacks.
Dark chocolate also beneficial food for a healthy heart, boosting the immune system, and even can lower blood pressure naturally.
Just make sure your late-night portion is 2 ounces or less, no binging on the whole bar. If you know you won’t be able to resist, try portioning it out when you are more alert and less hungry.
10. Edamame beans
Edamame beans are whole, immature soybeans sometimes referred to as vegetable-type soybeans. It is high in protein, ability to lower cholesterol, low in carb, rich in vitamins and minerals. A study has shown this amazing bean may reduce the risk of breast cancer. Other studies indicate that soy foods, such as edamame, don’t just benefit women. They might also protect against cancer in men.
For a simple, late-night snack, toss fresh or thawed, shelled edamame with a bit of salt and pepper. You don’t even need to cook them. Alternatively, you can buy dry-roasted edamame, which is similar to fully mature, roasted soybeans (soy nuts). Edamame can be considered as one of the best food to eat at night to lose weight.
In order to defend your health, keep these ten late-night snacks on hand. You’ll be getting the snack you crave whether it is sweet, salty, or even fatty, without compromising on your health. Now that’s a win-win!
