He's Fit

Click here for the Lead Stories

The Perfect Pre-bed Meal

Posted December 1, 2007 at 06:00 PM by Mark Scott

Section: In The News, His Nutrition, Healthy Eating

One of the questions many men ask themselves, whether their current goal is to lose weight or build muscle, is what they should eat before bed - if anything. Some believe that by eating at night they are only encouraging their bodies to store fat while others think that if they don’t eat, they will start starving and muscle loss will result.

The truth is somewhere in the middle ground. With regards to the first statement, it really does not matter at what time you eat during the day, so long as the total number of calories you are consuming is in guidance with what your goals are.  If you save some of the calories you normally would eat during the day to have as a late night snack, this is perfectly acceptable.

The second statement is not entirely correct either because your body is not going to start losing massive amounts of muscle if you go a few extended hours without eating.  While it definitely would not be a good idea to fast for days, going 12-16 hours without eating is not going to cause you to drop muscle overnight.  The one thing you might find is that you wake up hungry, especially if the last meal you had contained carbohydrates - since these will cause a greater drop in blood sugar and hence rebound hunger, but it shouldn’t be anything too serious.

It is still important to consider what you are eating before bed however.  Ideally you want to provide your body with some type of slow digesting protein to give your muscles amino acids during the night to use to rebuild the tissues along with some fat to slow the digestion process even further.

The best protein choice to go with here is a form of casein protein, as it tends to digest slowest by the body. Cottage cheese is a popular option for this reason.

Some like to combine it with peanut butter to get the healthy fats in there, plus, if you add a little artificial sweetener it can make for quite a tasty snack.

Meat is another good choice. It will not have the casein protein as much but will be slower digesting than say some egg whites would be. While egg whites are definitely a terrific source of protein, they are not the best to be having right before bed.

If you are currently trying to gain some muscle weight, you can most definitely include carbohydrates if you wish and if it fits along with the rest of your diet (assuming you are not trying to do some type of keto diet or something). You should however make these a slower digesting form of carbohydrates because as discussed above, if you don’t you might experience a blood sugar crash halfway through the night, leaving you waking up hungry.

One of the nice things about choosing to eat carbohydrates before bed also, if you have issues with blood sugar and find eating them throughout the day bothers you, having them right before bed means that you will not have to deal with this problem (since you will be sleeping), however you will also be sure you are able to fill your muscle glycogen levels so you are prepared for your workout the next day.

So give some thought to your current pre-bed snack and make sure it fits along the lines of what you are trying to achieve.  It is definitely not something that you must avoid when losing fat and can actually help you accomplish your goals easier.  If you know that you have an ‘allowed’ snack before bed, you might be less likely to cave and give into the other cravings you could be experiencing.

7 comments, add yours | Permalink | Share this article

Tags: cottage cheese, eating before sleeping, egg whites, fitness, health, men, muscle starving, muscles, night eating, pre-bed meal

Like what you see? Subscribe to our feed!

7 Responses to “The Perfect Pre-bed Meal” (Leave a reply)