Fruit is among the best diet indulgences because of it is relatively low in calories and naturally sweet. According to the Mayo Clinic website, most fruits are high in water and fiber and low in fat and calories, making them ideal for weight loss. Although eating fruit can't make you lose weight all by itself, it can be part of a healthy, balanced eating plan. If you tend to get hungry at night or have a habit of looking for something sweet after dinner, try having fruit to satisfy your cravings instead of a higher-calorie snack.
Step 1
Check with your doctor before you start any weight-loss plan, especially if you want to replace full meals with fruit. You could suffer nutrient deficiencies if you eat too much fruit at the expense of other food groups, so remember to balance your meals and include a variety of components.
Step 2
Begin tracking your daily calorie totals. To make the process simple, use an online calorie counter. Your goal with eating fruit at night should be to lower your daily calorie intake. If you're eating fruit on top of what you normally eat in a day and not taking any measures to cut your calories, you won't lose weight and may even end up gaining.
Step 3
Replace part of your dinner and all of your dessert, if you normally have it, with fruit. If you're eating other healthy foods throughout the day, you can even replace your entire nightly meal with a fruit salad and low-fat yogurt or a fruit smoothie, as long as it has an adequate number of calories. To fill you up but still keep your daily calorie count low, a meal replacement should have no fewer than 250 calories and no more than about 500.
Step 4
Choose fruits with especially low calorie counts if you're eating them as dessert or a partial meal replacement. A large apple and banana each have about 100 calories, but a cup of watermelon has only about 45 calories. Eat your fruit plain, without add-ons such as whipped cream, melted chocolate or honey.
Step 5
Eat fruits with relatively low sugar content as bedtime snacks. Even though the sugar present in fruit is natural, eating a lot of it may cause your blood sugar to spike or make it difficult to fall asleep. Try raspberries, blackberries, apples, cherries, apricots, pears, figs or grapefruit.
Tips and Warnings
- Track your progress by weighing yourself and taking body measurements and a photo of yourself before you begin your diet. Every few weeks after you start, take the same measurements and compare.
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