Light Dinners to Lose Weight Without Going Hungry
If you want to lose weight without going too hungry, and also without making huge sacrifices, it’s important to have light dinners.
Dinners are the meal of the day that can cause the most weight gain. Therefore, eating less at night can be very effective in helping you reach your weight loss goals.
Thus, we’re going to share a few recipes for light dinners that are simple to make. You’ll go to bed without going hungry and slowly lose weight.
Does dinner cause weight gain?
Remember that, what you eat at night, especially if it’s late and you’re not going to exercise, won’t be burned. Moreover, it will probably form part of your energy reserves.
If these reserves are excessive, they convert into accumulated fat, especially if the foods consumed weren’t the best in quality. These are the ones that leave you satiated but aren’t easily digested.
The importance of time
Just as important as what you eat, is the time at which you chose to eat. Dinner is early in some European countries, before 6 pm, and then later they eat something light.
It’s just the opposite in other countries, where a snack is eaten in the afternoon, and then dinner isn’t eaten until 9 or 10 at night. The best is to eat before 8 pm.
This will give yourself enough time to completely digest. Of course, this also has to do with what time you usually go to sleep.
If you go to bed early and you are hungry once again, you could always eat fruit or drink an infusion.
Dinner balance
Light dinners don’t mean lettuce with tomato. On the contrary, your dinner needs to contain carbohydrates (vegetables, fruit or grains) and protein. That’s why these recipes contain the exact amount that you need.
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Light Dinners to Lose Weight Without Going Hungry
Vegetable creams
Vegetable creams are very digestive, satiating and easy to prepare, as well as nourishing. You can vary the vegetables that you use according to the season. You can find different combinations to make original light dinners:
- Pumpkin and cinnamon
- Zucchini, garlic, and oatmeal
- Leeks, onion, and pepper
- Carrots and ginger
You could also add a bit of legume to add a portion of protein, and other foods will make it even healthier:
- Brewer’s yeast: gives in a delicious toasted flavor
- Wheat germ: a very nutritious supplement
- Seaweeds: help remineralize the body
- Linseed oil: provides essential fatty acids
Gazpacho
Traditional gazpacho or a vegetable smoothie is perfect for light dinners in hot weather. They’re very healthy because they provide a large number of raw vegetables.
Blend the following ingredients:
- Tomato
- Cucumber
- Red pepper
- Garlic
- Olive oil
- Sea salt
- Vinegar
If you chose to eat gazpacho for dinner, you should also eat some sort of protein, like a handful of dry fruit, a piece of queso fresco, white fish, etc.
Apple and pear preserves
If you’re not quite as hungry one day or you’ve eaten too much at lunchtime, you can choose something sweet for dinner.
Prepare an apple and pear preserve by cooking them with a bit of water or baking them. Then, add powdered cinnamon, a bit of honey, and a few walnuts.
Vegetables with mushrooms
Vegetables contain a lot of fiber and they have relaxing effects on the body. They also have a lot of other benefits and are digested much easier, which is why they are perfect for dinner.
Choose whichever ones you like best for different light dinners: artichokes, green beans, Swiss chard, spinach, etc. Additionally, in order to add protein. Choose beans, because they really are a legume. Mushrooms are also rich in protein and they will taste delicious if sauteed in the frying pan with garlic, parsley and a bit of smoked pepper.
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Onion and egg soup
Lastly, one traditional and very therapeutic recipes for cold days or those moments when you’re starting to feel a cold.
Fry one onion and once it’s soft, add broth (homemade or precooked), minced garlic, thyme, cumin, a little something spicy (pepper, cayenne, etc.). Then, at the very last moment, one raw egg.
Finally, stir well and your soup will be ready in two minutes. You can serve it with a slice of whole grain toast.
Photos courtesy of looseends, HarlanH and lablascovegmenu.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Kanikowska, D., Sato, M., & Witowski, J. (2014, Jul 18). Contribution of daily and seasonal biorhythms to obesity in humans. International Journal of Biometeorology, 59(4), 377-384
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4427629/ - Spivey, A. (2010, January). Lose Sleep, Gain Weight: Another Piece of the Obesity Puzzle. Environmental Health Perspectives, 118(1), A28-A33
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831987/ - Sofer, S., Eliraz, A., Kaplan, S., Voet, H., Fink, G., Kima, T., & Madar, Z. (2011). Greater weight loss and hormonal changes after 6 months diet with carbohydrates eaten mostly at dinner. Obesity, 19(10), 2006–2014.
https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2011.48 -
Markwald, R. R., Melanson, E. L., Smith, M. R., Higgins, J., Perreault, L., Eckel, R. H., & Wright, K. P. (2013). Impact of insufficient sleep on total daily energy expenditure, food intake, and weight gain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(14), 5695–700.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1216951110
