Breakfast vs. Dinner: How Each Affects Your Blood Sugar

When it comes to looking after your health, the time you eat can play a huge role in how your body deals with food. Having a large meal for breakfast will have an entirely different effect on your body than having the same meal just before you go to bed.

Let’s look at how your breakfast and dinner impact your blood sugar levels throughout the day.

When you first wake up, your body releases hormones to help you wake up and get going. This can cause insulin resistance in your cells.

According to experts at Verywell Health, your blood sugar levels can be high when you first wake up due to a natural rise in your blood sugar levels (called the dawn phenomenon). This means you shouldn’t be having plenty of sugary cereals or white bread first thing in the morning, as you will have a huge energy slump. Having a high-fiber and clean protein-filled breakfast will help balance your numbers.

Why Late Dinners Can Be Hard on Your Body

Your metabolism will slow down as it gets darker outside. This means your muscles won’t be pulling sugar out of your bloodstream as much as they would during the day, as you aren’t doing any physical activity or burning energy.

According to experts at Verywell Health, having a large carbohydrate-filled meal for dinner late at night will mean your body is trying to process food while you sleep. This can cause havoc with your blood sugar levels by the next morning. Sitting down on the couch straight after a large meal will mean the extra sugar has nowhere to go.

You don’t need to starve yourself at night to balance your numbers. Just adjust the amount of food you are eating.

According to experts at Verywell Health, the best thing to do is have a larger, protein-filled breakfast and have a lighter, smaller meal for dinner. Try to finish your last meal at least 3 hours before bed. If you can have a short 10-minute walk around the block after your meal, it will help get rid of the extra sugar.

Your body deals with carbohydrates much better when you are being active throughout the day. Simply adjusting your routine to have a good breakfast and keeping your dinners small and early is the easiest way to avoid blood sugar levels going up and down.

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