Dinner - 5 Top Tips

Dinner for me was my biggest meal of the day for years. And it makes sense - the mornings are busy, lunch is often on the go. For many dinner feels like the easiest time to sit down and have a nice (large) meal.

The more I started learning about how leptin, insulin and cortisol work (see previous blog article if you have no idea what I'm talking about). The more I realized I had a lot of habits that were sabotaging the proper functioning of my healing/sleep/metabolism cycles.

Here are the top 5 things I wish I had known 5 years ago for eating dinner best practices:

1. No carbs or relatively low (preferably in-season) carbs

   1. Carbohydrates will spike cortisol and insulin the most and create havoc on your natural leptin cycle

2. Don't eat after dark

   1. After the sun goes down is when leptin wants to show up and if you eat during that time there is a hormone clash in your body that leaves your brain feeling confused about how much energy it actually has

3. 25 g of protein

   1. A good helping of protein will keep you full for the long run and will have less of a insulin/cortisol spike than carbohydrates

4. Eat 4-5 hours before bedtime

   1. Ideally you can make this happen to give your insulin/cortisol time to regulate before you leptin starts fully kicking in

5. If you are fasting - skip dinner

   1. With many people doing intermittent fasting - skipping dinner is the most in rhythm by far with your natural hormone cycle throughout the day.

Once I made these changes, I started waking up with more energy, I actually felt satiated after meals, and my brain fog cleared up! If you want more info, check out the full length video here!