The following post is brought to you by our sponsor, Always Eat After 7 PM. All opinions expressed below are solely my own based on my personal experience trying out the eating plan for a four-week period.
I know what you’re thinking…this can’t be true! We’ve been traditionally taught to avoid carbs, eat an early dinner, and never eat immediately before going to sleep. However, the latest scientific research shows this earlier model is not the most ideal. Bestselling author Joel Marion is a Texas-based fitness expert and nutritionist who’s debunking the myths underlying traditional dieting. His book offers a simple, highly effective weight loss program. According to Marion:
Research shows that the average person’s metabolic rate is no different during sleep than during the day. In short, your metabolism doesn’t slow down at night. Nor does your body store fat at the end of the day. Whether it’s 8 am or 8 pm, you use food for energy the same way.
As I discussed in my first AlwaysEat After 7 PM post , the plan consists of three distinct phases, the first of which is a 14-day Acceleration Phase. This initial two-week period is the most restrictive food-wise. However, this phase is meant to kick-start the program and see rapid results. I personally found this phase a bit difficult at first, because it eliminates carbs like bread, pasta, and rice. I am a carb lover, so virtually eliminating them was hard at first. However, this phase does allow two pieces of dark chocolate each evening for dessert, as well as a bedtime snack. My snack of choice was plain Greek yogurt with a packet or two of stevia and some fresh berries. I quickly began to look forward to these two daily indulgences!
My lunches and dinners during the Acceleration Phase included protein, non-starchy vegetables, and a bit of healthy fat. One of my favorite lunches was eggs and non-starchy veggies scrambled in a bit of butter – filling and delicious! For dinner, I kept it simple: lean protein seasoned and seared in olive oil, with two non-starchy vegetables on the side. I’m not going to lie…I really missed having carbs with my meals! However, the nightly dark chocolate and yogurt + berries prevented me from feeling deprived.
Another key component of the Acceleration Phase is incorporating intermittent fasting into the program by phasing out breakfast. The first week, a small high-protein, low-carb Breakfast Smart Snack is included. However, the second week of the Acceleration Phase replaces the Breakfast Smart Snack with a 3-Minute Fat-Burning Morning Ritual Drink like lemon water, green tea, and black coffee. The plan’s intermittent fasting approach recommends incorporating at least a 12-hour fasting window. I determined that 1100 AM to 900 PM – a 14-hour fasting window – works best for me.
I’m not much of a morning eater, so the no-breakfast aspect of the plan normally wouldn’t be hard for me to adhere to. However, I take morning medications that require me to eat protein with each dose. That means morning fasting isn’t completely possible for me. Not a problem...I simply enjoyed a daily Breakfast Smart Snack! At 1100 each morning, I had flavored black coffee with a packet of stevia and a low-carb vanilla protein shake over ice. Thanks to this modification, I’m able to follow the Always Eat After 7 PM plan -- and still take my medications as directed.
Was the 14-day Acceleration Phase fun? Honestly…not really! The first few days, I was a bit hungry between meals, but that subsided during the first week. The end results were good, though. I lost 4.5 pounds during two-week Acceleration Phase, which I’m very happy with! The good news? Now that I’ve completed the Acceleration Phase, I’m can add carbs – pasta, rice, and starchy vegetables – to my lunch and dinner during the Main Phase. I also get to enjoy a Cheat Meal on Sundays. More on the Main Phase is coming next week…so stay tuned!
Q1: What inspired you to write the book?
After authoring 6 best-selling books it was glaringly obvious there were two huge misconceptions about dieting that needed to be exposed. The first is that you can't eat late at night or before bed, which science now shows is NOT true. And second, you can't eat large portions that satisfy your natural instinct. This book solves both these problems by providing an evidence-based, enjoyable approach to dieting that can be used by any person to quickly achieve their weight loss goals.
Q2: How long did it take for you to develop the diet?
It actually took several years of researching for me to discover the real science of eating late night. After a few years of tweaking and refining, I finally came up with a rapid fat loss solution that overcomes all the pitfalls of traditional diets.
Q3: How difficult is the Always Eat After 7 PM plan to follow?
It's not! And that's exactly why I wrote the book. While any diet is never truly easy, it can be more enjoyable and much easier to adhere to when you understand how Always Eat After 7 PM works, because it caters to our body’s natural instincts.
Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion is now available to purchase. Learn more about the book and how to purchase here.
Disclosure: This is a compensated series details my experience following the Always Eat After 7 PM plan for a four-week period. All experiences described and opinions shared will be solely based on my personal experience following this eating plan.
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