You are what you eat

Have you ever heard the saying, "Eat your breakfast like a king, your lunch like a prince, and your dinner like a pauper"? It basically means to eat your biggest meal in the morning, to fuel your day, and your lightest meal at night, before you go to sleep since you'll need less energy then.

While dinner is traditionally the heaviest and heartiest meal of the day, following this tradition may prevent you from losing weight (especially those last few stubborn pounds of fat). Eating a large quantity of food later in the day (and closer to bed time) encourages fat storage and may even lead to gradual weight gain. The primary goal of this “slimmer waistline” plan is to get the majority of your calories in the early, more active part of your day when you have more opportunities to burn them off. More importantly, come the evening time you won’t feel famished and won’t feel the need to overeat. An additional goal of this plan is to keep your blood sugar levels stable and metabolism increased to fight off fat storage and nighttime cravings. Dr. Salge-Blake explains that you can achieve this by eating your last meal (around 350-450 calories) three to four hours before bedtime and by reserving 30% of your dinner calories from protein, 25% from healthy fats, and 45% from carbohydrates.