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LEVEL 3 FOOD: BREAKING THE SNACKING CYCLE
LESSON 3

Extending the Window Between Dinner and Breakfast

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Reducing grazing works by giving your body rest periods when it doesn’t have to release insulin to manage blood sugar. This allows the body to catch up on its energy burning (because when it’s too far behind, it will start storing energy as fat).

Now, here’s some very important (and very good) fine print: If you make your rest window long enough, your body will not just catch up, it will move ahead, entering what’s called “fat burning mode.” At this point, because your body’s used up all the available blood sugar, it will actually go into your fat stores and start to burn that for energy too.

Research shows that it takes about 12 hours of taking a break from eating to get to this point (though keep in mind you’ll get benefits even if you don’t reach this point). When you’re asleep, you aren’t eating anyway so it’s not a huge behavioral shift to simply extend your overnight window by a few hours in each direction. 

A bit about getting started

To create an extended overnight fast, you have two options: end evening eating earlier, or delay breakfast. Splitting the difference by doing a bit of both is an excellent strategy that can help you edge toward a longer fasted period.

(Side note: If you don’t keep a standard work schedule, and aren’t getting the majority of your sleep overnight, this can absolutely still apply. Simply reframe it as your last meal before rest—whether that’s dinner, or something else entirely—and your first meal after waking.)

At night, we recommend closing your kitchen after dinner. If you’re in the habit of an after-dinner snack, it can be a tough one to break, but it will give you several hours of overnight fasting from a single behavioral change, so it’s well worth considering. You can sub a cup of (unsweetened) herbal tea or a fizzy water (but avoid those with calories or sweeteners) if you don’t want to let go of the routine and ritual. 

In the morning, eat breakfast a few hours later. It might take a few days for your hunger signals to recalibrate to this change, but once they do, many people find that they enjoy more streamlined mornings without worrying about scarfing food on the way to work. 

If you’re wondering “but isn’t breakfast the most important meal of the day,” the answer is, both yes and no. The idea that we must eat immediately upon awakening was a big part of the 1990s nutrition paradigm, which involved a lot of processed low-fat and fat-free foods, simple carbs, and frequent eating. If you eat like this, then yes, you do need to eat often, because you are living from one insulin spike to the next. But within a balanced diet that prioritizes protein, fiber, and healthy fats, it is perfectly acceptable (and even preferable) to go a few hours before eating in the morning. 

Whenever you do finally break your fast, make sure to pack that first meal of the day with the nutrition your body needs. If you imagine each extended overnight fast as a reset for your insulin levels, breakfast can help set the tone for the rest of your day. Fast-digesting carbs on an empty stomach will trigger those big blood sugar spikes right away, which means you’ll be spending the rest of the day trying to recover.

To create a longer overnight fasting window, consider how early you’re willing to close the kitchen at night, and how late you’re willing to eat your first meal of the day. You may be surprised by how easy and reasonable it is to set up this rhythm (for example, ending dinner by 8 PM, sleeping from 10 PM to 7 AM, then having a brown-bag breakfast at work at 10 AM).

Tips and tactics

The concept of an overnight food break is simple: stop eating earlier, start eating later. Implementing it, however, can be tricky, so work with our tips and tactics to help support your transition into overnight fasting.

  • Close the kitchen at night

Literally close it up: wash the dishes, put everything away, and turn the lights off. If you can clean up as you prepare dinner so you can just pop your plate in the dishwasher after eating, so much the better.

  • Sub a night snack with another ritual

If breaking the little nighttime snack ritual is difficult, try replacing it with another one: a cup of herbal tea, a hot bath, watching a favorite show, taking a walk, or reading a few pages of a fun book.

  • Pack an on-the-go breakfast

As you prepare your dinner, put together a meal prep box with your breakfast/brunch/first meal so that you can just grab and go in the morning. Try one of our make-ahead protein-packed favorites to keep you feeling satisfied longer, like Protein Breakfast Biscuits, Salmon and Feta Egg Bites, or even Cottage Cheese Pancakes.

  • Embrace tea or (in the morning) coffee

Caffeine-free unsweetened herbal tea at night can help you hold onto the nighttime or morning ritual of having a little something, without spiking blood sugar. And while we don’t recommend starting a morning coffee habit, if it’s already part of your morning routine, it can do the same. In both instances, these give you an excuse to sit at the table and still take part even if you’re not eating.

  • Remember water

No matter what your eating pattern, proper hydration is so important for your body (remember your water goal from Level 1?). Since water and other non-caloric fizzy waters don’t contain calories, you can consume as much as you like during your fasted window. (While we love Spindrift and other juice-infused options otherwise, avoid them during your fasted window, as they do have carbs and calories.)

  • Pair an early dinner with an early bedtime

Often, one of the things that prevents going to bed earlier is making, eating, and cleaning up after a late dinner, so join the early bird special club and have dinner sooner. (Bonus: you will never need a reservation.)

  • Do a little at a time

If extending your fasted window by an hour or more on each side feels impossible, just lengthen it by 15 minutes in both directions. Once that feels doable, do it again, until you’ve incrementally increased your window to your goal.

Your goal will be to tap into your hunger cues to minimize any grazing habits you might have fallen into. Key strategies can be moving snacks away from your computer and planning at least a stretch or two without grazing each day.

In addition, if the time window between the last thing you eat at night and the first thing you eat in the morning is currently less than 12 hours, your goal is to add to that time. One simple approach is closing the kitchen at night 1-2 hours earlier and opening it in the morning 1-2 hours later. But if a more lopsided strategy is easier, do that—remember, whatever you can achieve counts (be it hours added, or days you’ve hit the goal). None of this is all or nothing.

At the end of these two weeks, think about how you can incorporate these habits into your long-term approach. It might not be no grazing ever, and it might not be a 12-hour window every single night. Work with your particular habits and rhythms to get as far as you can, keeping in mind that progress over perfection is the path to success. Metabolic health is a lifetime project, so take the wins where you get them—you deserve it.