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How To Stay Healthy With Your Office Job
I’m writing this because I was asked by a dear friend of mine, to contribute to a Blog he is working on. This friend was the Workplace Health and Safety Officer for a company I worked for in London.
A Corporate Company. We both had desk jobs. We both had to work long hours.
And we both were keenly aware of the problems this can cause in terms of health and fitness for anyone who works in this manner.
Added to that we worked for a Catering Company - so we had access to all and any food that was available. This is also at a high-class Exhibition Centre in London - the food was EPIC and plentiful, to say the least.
I worked for this company for 10 years - and in that time I learnt an awful lot about how to balance your health whilst working in an office, at a Corporation and/or at a Desk and in this article I am going to share with you exactly what you can do too - based on my knowledge as an award-winning Personal Trainer as well as a guy who sat staring at a spreadsheet all day long. Added to that, many of my clients in London worked in Corporate Jobs, and at least three-quarters of my time training them was trying to help them manage their stress and their health.
And I hate spreadsheets. And no….they never got more interesting to me the more I looked at them.
I’m also likely to share far too many Memes from the TV Show The Office - because it’s awesome - and it would be remiss of me not to.
To look at what being Healthy really means, and to give this article some real context, I want to draw your attention to the actual definition of health, and it is through this perspective I will offer my best advice on How To Stay Healthy With Your Office Job.
““Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.””
Health is so much more than being fit and not having an illness. And there is an awful lot that the corporate world needs to catch up on with understanding this - and in my time in Corporate England, having worked in Banks, in Hospitality and in Retail I am aware it is getting better.
But there is an awful lot you can control yourself to make sure that whilst your company catches up, you also look after your health, in every sense of the word.
I will take you through a number of things you need to put in place, and then I will spend the last part of this article with things you should probably avoid trying to do as they can also not be helpful for you and your health.
I truly appreciate you being here. Anyone who comes to my site, I regard as a true friend - because it means so much to me that you are willing to read my work.
As my friend, I would like to email you things. Sometimes they will be educational, sometimes they will be inappropriate, sometimes I might just want to know how you are; either way…it would be delightful to connect with you.
Just send me a friend request by filling out the form below…
Oh, and I will also send you some free fitness goodies to help start our new friendship off on the best foot possible.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR: HOW TO STAY HEALTHY WITH YOUR OFFICE JOB:
Let’s Talk About Stress for a Hot Second
Stress Buster 1: Boundaries (respect space and time for others)
Stress Buster 2: Having a purpose
Stress Buster 3: Movement and physical wellbeing in the office
Stress Buster 4: Nutrition - especially Water
Other Ways To Manage Stress
LET’S TALK ABOUT STRESS FOR A HOT SECOND…
This is first on the list for a very good reason.
Stress affects everything we do - and your ability to be healthy in the Office will very much depend on this factor of your life.
In fact everything else in this article will feed into your ability to manage your stress in different ways.
It affects our ability to sleep, our ability to work out, our ability to interact with others, our ability to process emotions, our ability to control our responses and our ability to eat nutritiously.
I am sure they all resonate with you when you think back to times you were stressed.
Stress can be defined [2] as:
“It’s what occurs when the perceived demands of a situation outweigh one’s available resources”
Work in its nature is a stressor. In the same way that working out is a stressor. This does not inherently mean it is a bad thing, without stress we cannot grow. However, too much stress or unmanaged stress can become a problem.
Stress and Anxiety are signs of unmanaged Mental Health and need to be addressed as soon as possible, in a way that strikes a fair and reasonable balance for both your output at work and your own wellbeing.
This is a different range for everyone. We can all manage and process different amounts of stress in different ways. We cannot change the temperament we were born with, and therefore we must respect our own individual limits of this.
The definition of stress quantifies it simply as what you “perceive”. In Fitness, as in life, what you perceive to be true - is true. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between fiction and reality, it just treats everything as reality, and therefore if you believe it to be true that you are stressed, regardless of the opinion of your manager or co-workers - it simply is true.
As I was writing this Blog - two stories stood out to me on the BBC. One of the stories is called “Why millennial managers are burned out” and states the following [9]:
“Middle management can be a tough job, constantly toggling between supervisors above and supervisees below. It can be isolating and taxing; research from Columbia University in 2015 found 18% of middle managers reported symptoms of depression, compared to 12% for blue-collar workers and 11% for owners and executives. Research during the pandemic has shown middle managers are finding it harder than senior leaders to maintain workplaces relationships – and only half feel they can rely on their colleagues.
Middle managers who are millennials are particularly likely to be feeling the squeeze. A MetLife study showed millennial managers are far more likely than managers of any other generation to report burnout. That’s partly due to growing up in a culture that glorifies overwork, plus being a generation saddled with care responsibilities for both parents and children. And with the pandemic nearing the two-year mark, it’s no wonder that millennial middle managers are finding themselves exhausted, demoralised and stressed”
The other story I mention in the section of this article relates to “Boundaries”.
What Denotes Stress In Your Job?
According to the American Psychological Associations 2017 Report, stress has climbed for the first time in a decade, and the key factors that lend to how stressed someone feels are down to “career and money-related issues, both of which tie into work, are two of the leading and most consistent year-to-year causes of stress”. [2]
A 2001 Systematic Review Study which was called “Improving the Health of the NHS Workforce” reviewed the evidence of associations between work factors and ill health and of effective workplace interventions.
They found the key factors leading to stress were:
Long hours worked, work overload and pressure
The effects of these on personal lives
Lack of control over your work and lack of participation in decision making
Poor social support
Unclear management and work role and poor management style.
The Time I Punched A Wall At Work
The wall won.
I was at work, it was about 20:30 at night, and I was responsible for closing up our office with no natural light in it. I was the only one left in the office other than one of my managers, and I still had to calculate every one’s working hours, combined with, signing out staff, and then closing up.
I had an hours commute home.
And the next day started at 06:30 am for me, in the Gym with clients.
My Manager came through to say goodbye, and I personally felt like I just needed a bit of quiet time, to crack on with the work I had to get done - but alas, my Manager had other ideas and gave me a lot more other work to be done.
I could feel my anxiety rise. I could feel how victimised I felt and how overwhelmed I was feeling. There was no way I was going to leave on time, manage other parts of my life, and complete all tasks ahead of me.
But instead of communicating that.
I did an Andy (see above GIF).
At this point in my life, I didn’t have the skill or ability or relationship to communicate my feelings properly in that moment, and I just accepted my place as the guy who had everyone else’s work dumped on me.
I was very lucky in the sense that I could select the sort of shifts and hours I worked at this job and upon reflection, realising how stressed I felt, I made a very brave decision the next time I needed to submit what hours I was able to work - I simply stopped stating I was available to close up and moved on from there.
I never punched a wall again.
This brings me to my next point…
Stress Buster 1: Boundaries (respect space and time for others)
Before writing this article, I reached out to everyone on my Email List (subscribe here) to ask for helpful suggestions and strategies to be healthy in the office that they have experienced.
But one response came through which was the following:
“One more editorial suggestion is to be mindful of coworkers taking personal time during the workday. Respect it. For example, If someone is taking personal time to eat lunch (should be away from their desk/office space) don’t interrupt them with work things. Either join them and engage in conversation about things outside of work or leave them alone to have those precious moments"
I love everyone on my email list so much - they are the most rounded and holistic bunch of people I have ever met - you really should join the party here.
And Boundaries in the Office are so very important.
Boundaries for your co-workers are of course important, but not more important than the boundaries you set yourself.
It is when these boundaries break down and are not respected, that your stress will immediately spike. But here’s the rub, people will only respect you if you respect yourself first.
It all comes from you.
Boundaries you should set in the Workplace
Not being smelt is top of the list - obvs!
Home Time and Start Time: In your job, you have a contract. This contract explicitly will state the time you are scheduled to start your work, and the time you are scheduled to finish your work. You should stick to these times for at least 90% of your time when you are at work - as they will be the marker upon which you balance your home life - and if your home life isn’t compromised then your stress levels will automatically be lowered. I understand the desire to climb the ladder, to work within the unexpected rules of the Corporate Work to climb said ladder and look to be doing that little bit more. But if that little bit more, becomes a lot more, you will be far less productive and effective than you think you will be, because you will be more stressed out. There comes a point when doing more equals doing an awful lot less.
Lunch Time: This one drives me crazy. Stop working through your lunch. Just stop it. Stop thinking you are being a superhero by eating and working at the same time. You aren’t. In fact, by not taking adequate rest, you are hindering your ability to actually be productive. And by being less productive, in the long term, you are going to increase your stress levels.
Don’t believe me?
This study from the University of Illinois [4] took 84 participants, who were set memory tasks for an hour, and the study set out to find out why we have trouble focussing on one task for a very long time, and why our focus on that task begins to diminish.
Thye had two groups - one group who were focussed on the task the whole time, and another who were given two brief breaks during the task. The group that were allowed breaks were focused during the entire experiment.
Added to that, with regards to your ability to spend time with your food, you will greatly decrease the chances of your likelihood to overeat either in the moment or later in the day. By spending time with your food, and treating your body with self-love, feeding it properly, and giving yourself the correct amount of time to enjoy your meal, you feel much more satiated than if you ate distracted.
Communication outside of work hours: Stop letting your boss, or your colleague message you 24-7. This also means you have to stop messaging them 24-7 as well. You are only required to answer work calls, during work hours.
This is another example of where I had to put my foot down with my Corporate Job. I would get calls when I was with clients in the Gym, I would get calls on the way to work, on the way home. I would get calls at lunch when I was on the loo.
It drove me mad. Let a man toilet in peace.
In fact, we had an ongoing job in the Office about communication. The Office I worked in was an operations office, and therefore we needed Radio Comms as well. Now whenever one of my Managers needed something, there was no “one way of communicating”. Or rather there was, as in, every single channel would go berserk.
I would get a landline phone call, a radio call, a mobile call and usually a text message as well asking me to respond - all the while I was dealing with an actual human in front of me.
Everything beeped, crackled and rang - to say it created stress would be an understatement.
Every day we were WUPHED - put the sound on for this video:
Boundaries are hard to implement initially in the office. But when you put them in place, and crucially when YOU start respecting them, others will as well. It all starts with you.
As I was writing this Blog Post a new story hit the BBC which I personally find inspiring and depressing all at the same time. Its called “Portugal bans bosses texting staff after-hours” [10]
Portugal has introduced laws titled “right to rest” and is designed to help improve work-life balance. They have passed them to help improve migration to the country for Digital Workers, and there are a whole host of other rules involved as well. One key one is that employees have a right to work from home without prior notice if they have children under the age of 8.
This is one incredible piece of legislation that Covid has helped bring along. When Covid hit the UK I was more keenly aware with my clients that were used to trekking into the City of London each day and living the office life, how much more balanced they felt initially being able to work from home in a much more flexible manner with the understanding of their employees. It was one thing from the Pandemic that I hoped would take root and grow - and that companies would be more open-minded to the needs of their employees.
But time will tell on that one….
Stress Buster 2: Having a purpose at work
I remember the moment this clicked for me in my Corporate Job. For a long time, it just felt like I was showing up, doing mindless paperwork, and going home. It made me feel numb - and then after a very in-depth conversation with one of my managers, I came to realise that by providing staff for exhibitions and functions, and how food is a very crucial part of bringing people together at events like this, my job wasn’t simply filling in shifts on a planner - it was being a conduit of creating friendships and business relationships.
I know this to be true in my work as a Coach as well.
It’s a much more obvious “purpose” to have - to help people change their lives - but it makes working a joy - and not a stressor at all.
Now, I’m not naive enough to say that even if you do adore your job, like I do, working and helping people get stronger, improve their relationships with food and themselves, and help above all build up their confidence in my Strong and Confident Program, that you won’t get stressed out by it. Of course, you will because work is a stressor.
This study [5] by Washington University surveyed 1109 people and found that: “Having a written personal statement of purpose helped people in various ways, including coping with stress and finding happiness”
Therefore if you are reading this, grab a pen and paper and write down what your higher purpose in your professional life is. It is my personal opinion that it shouldn’t revolve around money - if you can’t think of a greater reason to do your job than to make money, then maybe you need to find a new job.
If you aren’t this excited to get a promotion…how connected to your higher purpose are you really?
Human beings need a purpose from everything we do in life to make us feel productive and to help give our lives meaning. Personally, I have rotted away in a couple of jobs, and it is not a fun way to live - even though I may have been better off financially in them, that is simply not enough.
Stress Buster 3: Movement and Physical Wellbeing in the Office
8 hours sitting in an office is not conducive to physical wellbeing. But I know you already know that.
And me simply sitting here telling you how to move in the Office is going to be futile.
I remember once I pulled out a Foam Roller to help my recovery after a tough game refereeing, and it was on my lunch break, but my Manager looked at me in disgust and told me to never do that again.
I then also asked for a stand-up desk…do you know how expensive they are? Added to that, having the energy to stand up for 8 hours every day whilst at work, is more tiring than it sounds.
And come on - Desk Chair Yoga…I can’t believe that anyone who works in an office actually does that in front of their colleagues and in their suits…
There is a dichotomy here. You must balance your ability to be productive with your physical health and your ability to not lose your job.
My best advice for trying to manage your physical health in the office would be this:
Break up your Lunch Breaks - give yourself 20 minutes to sit and be with your food, to focus on eating and looking after yourself there, and 20mins for a brisk walk outside.
Take regular movement breaks from your work - once an hour if possible, just get up and stretch your legs, a brief walk up and down the stairs, make a cup of tea for others in the office, or just stand and stare out of the window.
Have a physical hobby outside of the office - try and have a hobby you do outside of the office - whether that be swimming, going to the Gym, Stand Up Paddle Boarding, Walking, or getting outside with the children.
Move during your meetings - this one might take a bit of getting used to, but when you have a one-on-one meeting with a colleague, ask if you can do it whilst moving or walking. Or failing that, every time you are on the phone - stand up. This will not only be better for your health but also better for your productivity.
When asking for tips on this Article, one of the email responses I received was:
“You can also get an accountabilabuddy (copyright from SouthPark the tv show) to help you leave the office to get some movement or a workout in at a certain time. Think of it like a human alarm clock coming to find out if you have prioritized your health and/or wellness for that day and gone out and done some moving around, in whatever form you enjoy”
Find some like-minded colleagues, and work together to change the culture in your office. Remember if you want to change you have to initiate it, stick to it, and allow others to respect it by respecting it yourself first.
Personally, I also think an Annual Office Fun Run, Tough Mudder or some other physical activity for the group is always a good idea to bring a collective togetherness and a little more focus to the movement you will be doing.
Stress Buster 4: Nutrition - especially Water
As I mentioned in my introduction - where I worked we had open access to some glorious food. Lunch was laid on for us every day, and although often what I could eat was out of my control in terms of content I was very lucky to not have to think about what to take to work for lunch each day - this naturally lowered my stress.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you how to lose weight in the Office - as that is a very simple answer which I go into detail in another Blog Post which has helped thousands of people lose weight already: What is a Calorie Deficit Diet Plan?
But I am going to outline how looking after your nutrition in all areas of life will help you feel less stressed. Most people have a slight voice in their head that is trying to guide them towards more optimal health or at the very least stay in balance with where they currently are.
Now an Office is an environment in terms of your diet and nutrition that will significantly challenge in your mind what you are working towards. These opposing forces in your life will cause stress. You want to enjoy Jeanette’s Birthday Donuts, but you also want to “keep healthy”.
The best way to manage this is with acceptance and understanding.
You have every right to give yourself permission to enjoy the Birthday Donut, and then get on with the rest of your day. These occurrences in the Office are not stopping you from succeeding - what you do for the majority of your time is stopping you from succeeding.
It’s very easy for us to blame the obvious. In this case, the gooey Krispy Kremes, because we are perpetually told that they are bad or naughty foods. But, they aren’t. They are just food. Food that brings you closely socially to your colleagues, and food that breaks up the monotony of staring at the spreadsheets.
As long as your diet elsewhere in your life is congruent to your Goals, then you should be able to enjoy these moments with your colleagues without it stressing you out, and thinking that one Krispy Kreme has led to weight gain or you feeling unhealthy. I promise you it hasn’t. It’s just the story you tell yourself that will lead to stressing you out the more you respond in that way.
There is an inherent conflict with nutrition that leads to stress and then ultimately failure in line with your Goals. When you constantly “give into temptation” and believe it to be affecting you too much for your goals, you will give up on your goals. The best way to get rid of that conflict is by giving yourself freedom and permission to enjoy these moments in isolation for what they are - rather than feeling like you are in a constant fight with your environment.
The other topic here is that of Water.
This study [6] demonstrates the effect that staying hydrated has on your mental health, cognition and physical health. Far too often in the Office did I forget to drink enough water, because I find that the demands of the work didn’t necessarily make me thirsty - a stark contrast to how much I drink when I used to work on the Gym Floor with clients.
The more dehydrated you are, the more anxious you might feel. You will also feel less fatigued and Water will improve digestion - something that sitting isn’t too helpful for.
I recommend to all of my clients to drink 3 litres a day. If you can make 2 litres of it at least clear water, the other litre you will likely pick up from other drinks and your food intake.
Other Ways To Manage Stress
Stress is a topic that I delve into a lot with clients because of simply how much it interferes with health and fitness. The biggest ingredient with Stress is how it will affect your ability to choose food that will nourish you.
And stress from the Offic e can very much lead to stress at home - and before you know it - you’re constantly stressed over silly things like losing your phone….
And you learn to manage that with your food - as opposed to dealing with why you are choosing those foods in particular.
So here are my other top tips to help you cope with the stressors of the office, whether you are in the office or not.
1. Get Strict on Sleep
I have a whole other Blog Post outlining why sleep is so important for your stress levels right here: Why Does Sleep Affect Your Weight Loss?
Therefore I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of it now, but Sleep is the single most important facet of your ability to cope with stress, and you ignore it at the peril of your health.
If you struggle to switch off at night and/or find yourself waking up in the middle of the night then I would suggest listening to sleep stories to help you get into a deep and wonderful sleep. As children, we used to always settle down with a story, and now we are in the age of technology its iPhones and Netflix before bed - two things that will not help you sleep - just like with your children.
On my YouTube Channel I have some Sleep Stories as well as Sleep Meditations.
My favourite is my Sleep Story about The Ancient Roman Town of Aquae Sulis - give it a go - and remember if you don’t ever finish the Sleep Story I will certainly not be offended…
2. Meditate
I do not meditate anywhere near as much as I should. But then again, I’m not as stressed out now as much as I used to be. In fact, I used to Meditate a lot more when I worked in the Office. I would put my headphones in, be working on a project and away I would go, meditating as I worked. Listening to calming sounds and allowing my focus to fall into free-flow as opposed to working through tension.
And sometimes I would take myself off, and actually do a guided meditation when I really needed to. For some reason, I just can’t make it a habit when I’m in a less stressful situation myself - like now and the job I do.
I have a Free Meditation Course called The Daily Stillness you can enjoy. You get 10-minute meditations, each and every day for 30 days. If you would like to try it out then please click here.
Here is the very first Meditation you get sent if you want to “try before you commit”:
3. Move Frequently
You’ve probably heard that exercise releases positive endorphins. Which it does, because our body is designed to be moved, however, I fully appreciate that these positive endorphins happen once you’ve exercised, and they simply aren’t enough of a reward if you are anxious/worried about exercising, begin with. Added to that, I’ve had many workouts that didn’t make me feel as high as a kite, but just a simple lovely sense of accomplishment. I often feel that the idea of positive endorphins is overhyped and we expect it to feel like snorting a line…which it obviously doesn’t - not that I have ever experienced that feeling either.
Movement helps us process our emotions, especially our negative ones. It gives us a great sense of achievement - provided you enter into a relationship with movement without the goal of losing weight. Always move to feel Strong and Confident.
Added to that, movement helps us sleep better - and anything that helps our superpower against stress we should certainly engage with.
If you need some workouts to get you started then please head here: Free Fitness Goodies
4. Get Into Nature
There are two very important studies that back this point up.
The first was done in the 1980s and they found that giving hospital patients a view of a tree from their hospital bed needed less pain medication and recovered faster than those who only saw brick walls - and this has been backed up by the American Psychological Association [7] in 2016.
The second is a study [8] done in 2001 at the University of Illinois found that people coped better with big life decisions when living in an Inner City Environment if they had nearby trees and grass - compared to those who were just surrounded by concrete.
Personally, I know this to be true as well. I now live on the Gold Coast in Australia, after having lived in South East England my whole life - and the sheer amount of tress, access to Beaches and the ability to walk in the Rainforest here always helps me de-stress, and arguably my living situation is more stressful here, but I don’t feel that stress as much as I did when living in England.
There is something beautifully humbling about nature. It reminds you very simply how big the world is, how magnificent it is and how insignificant as a human you are. It brings you perspective. The human race has a habit of living in its own Soap Opera and nature takes you away from that.
When you see the Pacific Ocean, or a Sea Turtle, or Dolphins Swimming. When you look at Giant Redwoods and see the intricate ecosystem of the forest you understand that if you missed a deadline at work or that little comment that Steve said the other day about your work is insignificant. It's just not important. You learn a different perspective.
We are on this earth, if we are lucky, for 80 years. The earth has existed for 4.53 billion years. The earth spins 1000 miles per hour. So what happened to you yesterday, is now 24,000 miles or 38,624kms away from where you are right now.
It such a spec in time, you wouldn't even be able to see it.
And that’s liberating. It’s humbling. It’s beautiful.
So beautiful, you should be dancing about it!
Did You Find This Useful?
Firstly I want to say a huge thank you for reading my article, and I hope it has given you some food for thought in relation to how better to balance your health and the Office you work in.
Across this website, I have other Articles all about managing your health and movement:
You also have a unique opportunity to grab a Free Month of Coaching from me as a thank you for reading this article. To find out more bout coaching with me, all you need to do is click on the button below - and then apply.
Thank you so much for reading my article - I really hope you found it helpful.
References:
Who.int. 2021. Constitution of the World Health Organization. [online] Available at: <https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution> [Accessed 3 November 2021].
Verywell Mind. 2021. Do You Have a Stress-Prone Personality?. [online] Available at: <https://www.verywellmind.com/why-do-stressors-affect-people-differently-3145061> [Accessed 4 November 2021].
Atsunori Ariga, Alejandro Lleras, Brief and rare mental “breaks” keep you focused: Deactivation and reactivation of task goals preempt vigilance decrements, Cognition, Volume 118, Issue 3,2011, [online] Available at: <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.007>
Anon, 2021. Apa.org. Available at: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2017/state-nation.pdf [Accessed 2021].
Liska D, Mah E, Brisbois T, Barrios PL, Baker LB, Spriet LL. Narrative Review of Hydration and Selected Health Outcomes in the General Population. Nutrients. 2019;11(1):70. Published 2019 Jan 1. doi:10.3390/nu11010070
Anon, 16/10/2016 green is good for you. Available at: http://www.unature.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Green-is-good-for-you.pdf [Accessed November 12, 2021].
Anon, Coping with PPoverty impacts environment ... - csu.edu. Available at: https://www.csu.edu/cerc/researchreports/documents/CopingWithPpovertyImpactsEnvironmentAttentionInTheInnerCity2001.pdf [Accessed November 12, 2021].
Anon, Why millennial managers are burned out. BBC Worklife. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20211109-why-millennial-managers-are-burned-out [Accessed November 13, 2021].
Anon, 2021. Portugal bans bosses texting staff after-hours. BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59263300 [Accessed November 13, 2021].
6 Strategies To Help Stop Late Night Eating and Food Cravings
We have all been there.
it’s dark outside, it’s been a stressful day, and you’re lying in bed listening to one thing.
The rumble in your tum tum.
And as you pay more attention to it, the louder it gets. You then get up and head towards the light.
Like a person possessed. Your brain is screaming: “NO”. But your legs are just walking slowly but surely down the stairs, and towards the light.
You almost try to convince yourself that you will choose something “good” as with each step you justify your legs moving you towards the light.
You get there.
Your arm is on auto-pilot.
The hum is almost soothing, and the light is not too bright….and not too dark. It’s as mesmerising as a flame to a moth.
And before you made a single conscious decision you have already eaten the Milkybar Yoghurt that was just calling your name less than 20 seconds ago.
And as your scrape your tongue on the bottom of the plastic tub, making sure that you do not want to waste a single drop of that Milklybar goodness…the guilt, fear, and worry start to set in:
“Oh my god I’ve totally screwed up”
“Why am I a total failure?”
“I have no self-control”
“I’m never going to conquer this”
“Why am I such a slob?”
“What is wrong with me?”
And the blame game with the self sets in, and then the whole process is repeated.
So here are my top 6 Strategies to help you stop late-night eating and food cravings!
Briefly, before I begin I want to address the issue of “Does Late Night Snacking Lead To Weight Gain?”.
No. It doesn’t from a purely scientific and objective point of view.
The Calories in a Banana do not change between 18:58 and 19:02 on a Wednesday night.
Calories are Calories are Calories.
As this Instagram Post on my Page, points out:
But from a Human Perspective…ask yourself what kind of foods are you eating late at night? I’m pretty sure it’s not Apples and Oranges.
As this Instagram Post explains:
When Calories are controlled, timings of food make no difference to your overall success or not in Weight Loss.
There are arguments to be made for how eating later at night might affect your circadian rhythm, stress resistance and Gut Health. But this doesn’t change the caloric make up of the food and how your body processes the energy from food at night as opposed to during the day, it just influences your ability to stick to a Calorie Deficit over time.
However, late at night, staring into the fridge, you are less likely to be making decisions that are congruent to your Calorie Window and therefore congruent to your goals.
So bear that in mind. Please.
Table of Contents for: “6 Strategies To Help Stop Late Night Eating and Food Cravings”
Eat More Calories
Eat more protein
Eat more Fibre and Drink More Water
Get More Sleep
Lower Stress and Anxiety and Boredom
Stop restricting yourself to lose weight
Eat More Calories
Yup. I said it. You need to eat more.
That might be a little too much….but the image will stick in your head for sure!
According to a paper called The Biology of Binge Eating, 2010, Food Deprivation is a key indicator of Binge Eating Disorder.
The 2010 paper wanted “to examine the literature on binge eating to gain a better understanding of its biological foundations and their role in the eating disorders” [1]
And in the section relating to Food Deprivation it concluded:
“Rats maintained on a restricted feeding schedule, during which they receive 66% of the amount of food that free eating rats consume, increase their caloric intake by 42% compared with sated rats when allowed ad lib access to food. Increased consumption is evident within 2 hours of the return of the food and persists for up to 4 hours (Hagan et al., 2003). This increased consumption over a discrete period of time mirrors behaviors seen in humans who binge eat.” [1]
Ergo, just a 44% reduction in your calories, can lead to a 42% increase in caloric intake.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to renege on my stance of a Calorie Deficit being required to lose weight, but I am going to hammer home the point, your Calorie Deficit must be built on certain foundations to make sure that you can adhere to it in the long term, and not feel overly restricted, leading to a Binge Episode further down the track.
These principles are outlined by my Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life:
And many of these will re-occur in this article. But the most important one is to make sure your Deficit is not too aggressive.
It is far far better to have slow sustainable progress that gives you flexibility and doesn’t lead you on a path to undercutting your psychological progress by falling into a trap of Binge Eating at night than to get aggressive results that you know are not sustainable.
Your Calorie Deficit should at a minimum be set to your Basal Metabolic Rate, and at a maximum at your Goal Bodyweight in LBS multiplied by 12.
To make sure you get that in place - download my Free Calorie Calculator right here.
Yes, by eating more, your weight loss will happen at a reduced rate. But this reduced rate will also allow for:
The flexibility you need as a human being who has emotions.
You to build muscle and improve your Basal Metabolic Rate whilst still in deficit
Greater adherence to actually being in a Calorie Deficit
Late-night snacking so very often comes from a place of restriction throughout the day - and this wouldn’t be so bad if, at night you ate foods congruent to your goals. However quite often late at night…you aren’t snacking on Apples and Broccolli. Due to the restriction throughout the day, you get cravings for foods that are a lot more palatable - and often a lot higher in calories.
This is due to a number of factors, but one obvious one is, come to the end of the day, you are out of energy - and therefore convenience becomes king. Convenient foods are far higher in calories - and far tastier.
Which then puts you into a cycle of craving said foods more the following day…and so it continues.
This study found when they took 20 weight-stable adults and split them into two groups. One group was given an ultra-processed diet and the other an unprocessed diet for 2 weeks. Subjects were told to consume as much or as little as desired. Rather unsurprisingly, the Group that was given the Ultra Processed DIet consumed on average 508kcal/day more with increased consumption of carbohydrates and fat, but not Protein. [2]
This brings me nicely to my next Strategy for you:
2. Eat more Protein
In terms of quelling hunger and regulating appetite, Protein has two main roles.
It makes you feel fuller for longer
It lowers your desire to eat late at night
In this study from 2011, the researchers took 27 overweight or obese men, split them into two groups. Group One was given a Higher Protein (HP) Diet at 25% of energy as Protein, and Group 2 was given a Normal Protein (NP) Diet at 14% of energy as Protein.
The study concluded the following:
“When compared to NP, the HP group experienced lower late-night desire to eat and preoccupation with thoughts of food”
and,
“Collectively, this data supports the consumption of HP intake, but not greater eating frequency, for improved appetite control and satiety in overweight/obese men during energy restriction-induced weight loss” [3]
I often feel that when we discuss eating more protein, you think it has to be the dominant component of your diet. This isn’t true. As you can see from the study above Protein consumption was still only a quarter of dietary intake and garnered great results for halting late-night snacking.
To figure out your Protein Intake I would recommend you download my Calorie and Macro Calculator here: Free Macro Calculator
However, if you want to know the numbers without doing that they are as follows:
Eat 0.8g-1.1g of Protein each day per LB of Lean Body Mass.
However those numbers can be quite hard to achieve, and thus if you start by aiming for just 100g a day if you eat meat, and 80g a day if you don’t then you should be in a pretty good place.
If you would like some more help with your diet and your training then get my Ultimate Guide to your Diet when Working Out:
3. Eat more Fibre and Drink More Water
If you have read a number of my Blogs you will know that I discuss this a lot.
And the prevalence of it is extremely important. Not just if you are wanting to lose weight, but to also curb those late-night snacks.
In terms of Fibre, you want to be keeping this as a key feature of your diet - think of it as the “other Macro-Nutrient”.
Research in Fibre is ever-evolving, and I have it on good authority that what we thought we knew about Fibre may well develop deeper very soon.
Fibre has the ability to do two things that will help curb your hunger:
High Fibre intake stretches the stomach and slows its emptying rate - therefore making you feel fuller for longer
Fibre also ferments in the Bowel, which is thought to increase feelings of fullness as it releases short-chain fatty acids.
Then if we look at this in the context of your goal to lose weight, being fuller for longer throughout the day is an awesome win for you…and if it is going to help you stop eating high-calorie snacks late at night then that too will help you keep your calories down over time.
Added to everything else…
You will be increasing your Vegetable intake - and no bad can come from that can it?
Now onto Water…
Water is filling, and can very much reduce appetite, especially when consumed before you eat.
This study titled: “Association between water consumption and body weight outcomes: a systematic review”
It found:
“Of 4963 retrieved records, 11 original studies and 2 systematic reviews were included. In participants dieting for weight loss or maintenance, a randomized controlled trial, a nonrandomized controlled trial, and an observational longitudinal study showed that increased water consumption, in addition to a program for weight loss or maintenance, reduced body weight after 3-12 mo compared with such a program alone” [4]
Hunger and thirst are interlinked also. When I am working with a friend who I coach online, and their calorie consumption is where it needs to be, but they are still feeling hungry, I will point them towards their water bottle, and remind them of my Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life or the blog post below.
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Back to water…
I will always ask them to aim for 3 liters a day.
And they react like this:
This is a lofty goal.
But I found that setting this goal higher, as it is a behaviour that can be very easily done, means that my clients would be more than likely to hit an amount appropriate for them and their goals.
Thus, lowering their hunger, and therefore their caloric intake.
So, if it’s late at night, and you know that going to the fridge for that snack is an option that isn’t going to make you feel your best, then you should probably think about reaching for the water bottle first.
Establish if you are hungry or thirsty.
And I reckon about 80% of the time, the water will do the trick.
If you have some water, wait 15mins, and still think you are hungry…then consider having some food….but my best advice in this situation would be:
4. Get More Sleep
The Blog Post I published before this one is all about “How Sleep Affects Your Weight”.
But in terms of more sleep leading to less late-night snacking, I think the point is rather obvious. If you are in bed asleep, you’re not in the kitchen eating food.
Then the benefit of being in bed earlier will help reduce your calorie intake the following day. Added to that, improved sleep, helps you regulate your emotional responses the next day, and if emotional eating is a reason for your late-night snacking then a great strategy against that will be getting those extra hours of zzzz’s.
For optimal sleep, you want to plan for about 8 hours of sleep a night. One thing that always perplexes me about the way you manage sleep is this:
You rely on your wake-up time being the marker of your total time sleep.
But your wake-up time is out of your control pretty much. You could be woken up early, which frequently happens, by some traffic, a bird, a child, needing a wee.
Suddenly you have had a bad night’s sleep because you went to bed at 11:00 pm hoping you would get your 7 hours in and suddenly woke up at 5 am.
Plan better.
If you went to bed at 10:00 pm suddenly 5 am isn’t such a bad wake-up time.
Sleep is the foundation that your appetite control is built on. This study found a correlation between lack of sleep in duration and increased Grehlin and lack of sleep in duration and decreased Leptin.
Grehlin is a hormone that is responsible for how hungry you get. Leptin is the hormone responsible for how full you feel.
So yeah. Poor sleep leads to these two hormones very much working against your ability to curb that late-night eating.
Other strategies to improve your sleep are:
Exercise Regularly
Sleep with your Circadian Rhythm
Listen to Sleep Stories (link to my YouTube Sleep Stories)
Listen to Sleep Meditations (link to my YouTube Sleep Meditations)
Stop Drinking Caffeine from 11:00 am
Reduce Alcohol Intake
And Brush Your Teeth…
This is anecdotal evidence, as is in there is ZERO Science to actually back this up, but brushing your teeth has been reported to stop people snacking.
And it makes sense right?
Have you ever had Orange Juice straight after you brushed your teeth?
The combination of tastes, the effort of going to all that trouble to have to brush your teeth again, or if there is some psychological thing about the act of brushing your teeth priming your mind for sleep as opposed to food…but…whatever works.
Maybe try it next time your legs are walking to the fridge and the brain is saying “NOOOOOOOO”. See if it helps.
5. Lower Your Stress, Anxiety and Boredom
I know that this is easier said than done. But if you can at least practice some behaviors that will help you lower these two things, then you are going to put yourself into a better position when it comes to these food cravings, especially late at night.
Of these 7 strategies, there are 2 that most people will ignore.
Get More Sleep and Lower Stress, Anxiety and Boredom (especially Stress and Boredom)
Personally, I believe them to be the most important two on the list, for the exact same reason - they are mostly overlooked.
We seem to be happy to live in the two states of being Stressed and being Bored quite a lot in this day and age. It's almost a Social Norm for us, to just accept that we will be stressed and that boredom is one of those things.
However, when you accept living this way, as opposed to learning to control it, you pay the consequences for it as well.
And the consequences of chronic stress, and Emotional Eating manifesting itself as Boredom Eating are indeed not fun things to be faced with.
So let me show you the link between these emotions and how that is impacting your Fitness Goals.
Does Stress Lead To Increased Food Intake?
This study [6] called “Stress and Eating Behaviours”
“Repeated bouts of minor daily stressors that keep the stress system in a chronically activated state may alter brain reward/motivation pathways involved in wanting and seeking hyper-palatable foods and induce metabolic changes that promote weight and body fat mass”
The part of this that I find correlates majorly to late-night eating is the term “hyper-palatable foods”. When you are stressed you aren’t eating apples and oranges. You’re eating Apple Pies and Terry’s Chocolate Orange.
Does Anxiety Lead To Increased Food Intake?
This study [7] from 2017 is called “Effects of anxiety on caloric intake and satiety-related brain activation in women and men”.
It took twenty-nine twin pairs (58 individuals) and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about their tendency to be anxious. Participants had to answer questions like:
“I worry too much over something that really doesn’t matter”
“I am content; I am a steady person”
and questions like:
“I am tense; I am worried” and “I feel calm; I feel secure”.
All items are rated on a 4-point scale (e.g., from “Almost Never” to “Almost Always”)
Participants were then given an all-you-can-eat buffet, as a thank you for filling out the questionnaire, and were not told their intake was being recorded.
And those that scored a higher rating of anxious feelings on the questionnaire also ate more food at the buffet (Fig A)
As you can see from the graphs. The Twin that scored higher on the Trait Anxiety Scale also ate more food at the Buffet, independent of BMI (Fig B)
The study concluded the following:
“In conclusion, the current findings suggest that anxiety promotes caloric consumption and consumption of high-fat foods in women. We also provide evidence that anxiety alters brain responses to satiety such that the normal reduction in activation by high-calorie food cues induced by a meal does not occur in highly anxious women, suggesting a disruption in neural circuitry that could promote overeating. Anxiety may be a risk factor for obesity, but we show this risk is likely limited to people with a genetic susceptibility to weight gain”
So this gets more complex than just…you’re anxious so you increase your calories.
It also means that if you are anxious, you might show signs of Leptin Resistance which therefore means you won’t know if you are full or not.
Does Boredom Lead To Increased Food Intake?
I think we all know this to be true colloquially.
However, this study from 2012 [8] by the University of Limerick, proves it to be true.
Researchers wanted to establish whether or not Boredom eating is a distinct construct away from other negative emotions by revising the Emotional Eating Scale.
Results found were: “On the open-ended items, participants more often reported eating in response to boredom than the other emotions”
They also stated: “boredom leads to unhealthy eating, as it helps to distract from the unpleasant boredom experience.”
Added to that, a study in 2016 by the University of Central Lancashire ran a couple of tests to measure this also.
The first test asked 52 people to fill out a questionnaire about their food preferences, then complete a task of copying the same group of letters over and over again. They then filled out the questionnaire again.
The second test was 45 participants and they got to watch either a funny video or a boring video. As they watched bowls of snacks were left out for the participants for them to eat ad libitum.
They found that:
“From the first study showed people were more likely to express a preference for unhealthy foods like crisps, sweets and fast food after completing the boring task.
The results from the second study showed that the participants who had watched the boring video ate significantly more unhealthy food.” [9]
How To Lower Stress, Anxiety, and Boredom
You will start to see a pattern emerging in all of these Strategies and the positive behaviors that will help you stop those late-night food cravings.
Some of these will help all three categories, some of them will only help one emotion, however, all of them will go some way to helping you stop those late-night cravings for food:
Exercise Regularly (again)
Improve Your Sleep (again) by not staying up late mindlessly watching tv and playing video games - get to bed earlier and turn off the electronics
Eat more nutritious food
Meditate
Reduce Caffeine intake
Journal Daily
Communicate your feelings
Manage your to-do list to avoid procrastination
Get focused on what you want from life
Pick Up A Hobby
Pick a few from the list, the ones that excite you the most and have the lowest barrier of entry for you, and see if that helps you with those late-night munchies.
6. Stop Restricting Food
I would say that food avoidance is one of the biggest reasons that people crave food.
Pink Elephant syndrome.
You know, if I’m telling you not think of that big, round, funny-looking Pink Elephant…
You’re going to think of it.
Put into the mix that we have a sensual relationship with food, and if I tell you not to eat something….you are going to crave it more and more.
And the cravings ALWAYS WIN.
Because they rear their head, at night, when you are stressed, anxious, and bored.
Are you starting to see a theme here?
This is also a key construct in why Diets Fail - because many Diets require you to give up foods you enjoy. But the cravings will always win because your willpower is finite - and then the feelings of guilt and failure set in, perpetuating the cycle that has led you to look for a solution in the first place.
This study [10] from 2005, is called “The Effect of Deprivation on Food Cravings” and for one week they took 103 Female Undergraduates and deprived them of Chocolate, Vanilla or not deprivation at all.
The result was:
“Chocolate-deprived restrained eaters consumed more chocolate food than did any other group. Restrained eaters experienced more food cravings than did unrestrained eaters and were more likely to eat the craved food”
But for me the most interesting conclusion was this:
“Moreover, restrained eaters deprived of chocolate spent the least time doing an anagram task before a "taste-rating task" in which they expected that chocolate foods might be available”
So if you are deprived, not only will you actually end up eating more, but you will also rush through life at times where you think the food that you are deprived from is on the other side of the task - and as we know from other studies when you are in a state of stress, you will indeed consume more food.
The final conclusion from this study was the following:
“Converging measures of craving indicate that deprivation causes craving and overeating, but primarily in restrained eaters.”
Which draws a direct correlation between deprivation - and overeating especially in those who are abstaining from certain foods.
Ergo, to conquer those cravings, give yourself permission to eat the foods you enjoy the most.
Remember, if it is within your Calorie Window it won’t halt your progress. Added to that…even if it is outside your Calorie Window, having it might still do less damage to your overall goals than not having it at all.
Remember…CRAVINGS ALWAYS WIN because WILLPOWER IS FINITE.
And by giving yourself permission to eat these foods you will eradicate many negative feelings you attach to “indulging”.
Bottom Line
These strategies are here to help you understand why you might be behaving in a certain way. All 6 might work a treat for you, you might only need one or two of them to find success.
As I have been writing this article, someone has reached out to me on Instagram discussing her past trauma and how that effects her eating, especially late at night. Emotional Eating is a whole other topic, and although some of what I have shared in this article might be helpful to you, if you are dealing with something a lot deeper then I urge you to get the proper help needed for that.
In our conversations, this person explained to me that as part of dealing with the trauma it leads her to eat foods that she is craving, foods that she also knows work against her fitness goals.
But in this instance, working on the trauma and resolving what happened is much more important. If eating choclate after a therpay session helps you cope with the therapy and is a part of the process of your healing, then you have to understand that is going to be better for your long term success as a person, as opposed to your short term success for your fitness goals.
To be hungry is normal.
To have cravings is normal.
To have an appetite is normal.
To have reduced willpower in the evenings is normal.
I don’t want you to have read this article and then thought that because you can’t seem to avoid late-night snacking, even when you implement some of the things in this article you are in some way “broken”.
We all need to stop trying to find ways of erasing our human self, in the pursuit of fitness.
You don’t need appetite suppressants, you don’t need bio hacks and you don’t need to just “have more willpower”.
You more than likely need to have more self-empathy and understanding for your own human condition.
And you probably need to:
Exercise some more to reduce your stress
Get to Bed earlier to help reduce your stress
Stop restricting yourself away from foods you love….to reduce your stress.
Your cravings come from too much stress and drained willpower at the end of the day.
Luckily, that’s far easier worked upon than trying to “fix” what isn’t broken in the first place.
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References:
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Leidy HJ, Tang M, Armstrong CL, Martin CB, Campbell WW. The effects of consuming frequent, higher protein meals on appetite and satiety during weight loss in overweight/obese men. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 Apr;19(4):818-24. doi: 10.1038/oby.2010.203. Epub 2010 Sep 16. PMID: 20847729; PMCID: PMC4564867.
Muckelbauer R, Sarganas G, Grüneis A, Müller-Nordhorn J. Association between water consumption and body weight outcomes: a systematic review. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Aug;98(2):282-99. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.055061. Epub 2013 Jun 26. PMID: 23803882.
Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. PLoS Med. 2004 Dec;1(3):e62. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0010062. Epub 2004 Dec 7. PMID: 15602591; PMCID: PMC535701.
Yau, Y. H., & Potenza, M. N. (2013). Stress and eating behaviors. Minerva endocrinologica, 38(3), 255–267.
Mestre, Z. L., Melhorn, S. J., Askren, M. K., Tyagi, V., Gatenby, C., Young, L., Mehta, S., Webb, M. F., Grabowski, T. J., & Schur, E. A. (2016). Effects of Anxiety on Caloric Intake and Satiety-Related Brain Activation in Women and Men. Psychosomatic medicine, 78(4), 454–464. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000299
Koball AM, Meers MR, Storfer-Isser A, Domoff SE, Musher-Eizenman DR. Eating when bored: revision of the emotional eating scale with a focus on boredom. Health Psychol. 2012 Jul;31(4):521-4. doi: 10.1037/a0025893. Epub 2011 Oct 17. PMID: 22004466.
British Psychological Society (BPS). "Bored people reach for the chips." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 April 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160427081756.htm>.