[Dog Welder]

I was always told to never eat before you sleep because food gets turned to fat.

I'm using Cytosport Muscle Milk which is a meal replacement that has an extraordinarily high amount of saturated fats though according to Cytosport they are "healthy fats" because they are Medium Chained trigylcerides. They advise you to drink the shake prior to bedtime because and i'm going straight off their label

"Sleep is actually a catabolic period. Remember, breakfast means to "break your fast." During any fast, you break down precious muscle tissue for enery. Muscle Milk will help you wake up more anabolic."

My goal is to grow more muscle and loose some fat. Should I follow these directions?

 

[Toshi]

it is possible to eat too much at night and get fatter than you would if you had eaten during the day. go to scholar.google.com and look up "night eating syndrome". however, it is pretty clearly defined: "morning anorexia, excessive evening eating, evening tension and/or feeling upset, and insomnia." (rand 1996, int j of eating disorders)

if you don't have those symptoms then you're probably just fine eating at night, and although i don't have a citation we were taught in our clinical nutrition class that the folk wisdom that eating before bed leads to fat accumulation is untrue.

 

[jacksonpt]

I think it depends on what you are trying to accomplish - lose weight or bulk up.

I also drink muscle milk, and I think their advice works for people who work out a lot, especially later in the day. If you want to bulk up then have a shake before bed... your body will use that protein to build/repair muscle while you sleep. If you're trying to lose weight, I'd be hesitant to take in many calories after 7pm.

At least that's what has worked for me in the past... every body is different though.

 

[Dog Welder]

Well I'm kinda trying to do both. Building muscle to increase my metabolism and then bring in the cardio to drop some weight.

 

[syadasti]

I don't know about metabolism effects, but according to sleep researchers you should stop eating food or consuming stimulants (coffee, tea, soda, chocolate etc) or depressants (alcohol) at least 3 hours before you go to bed to prevent distribution of your sleep cycles (ie you want to sleep well).

 

[SilentJ]

I don't know about metabolism effects, but according to sleep researchers you should stop eating food or consuming stimulants (coffee, tea, soda, chocolate etc) or depressants (alcohol) at least 3 hours before you go to bed to prevent distribution of your sleep cycles (ie you want to sleep well).

I suck at sleep to begin with. If I eat close to going to bed: buh bye sleep. I might as well stay up and do something.

I've read somewhere that most people (having eaten breakfast or not) eat enough/too many calories during the day once then finish their dinner. Any before bed snack is just additional calories on top of your daily requirement, hence the reason it is said that nightime food turns directly to fat. I guess it would depend on what you were eating (as always).

 

[rockwool]

I was listening to the radio the other day when a leading nutritionist was a guest of the show. A woman called to ask about late evening eating as she usually got hungry inbetween dinner and bedtime.

She was given the advice to swap her porridge for a couple-three eggs. Although, I don't remember the reason to why she was told to swap the carbohydrates for proteines.


Also, I've been told by some body (don't remember who right now..) to not drink proteine shakes before bed as the body has it's own building up period during sleep, and the added artificial proteine might/will in the long term fool the body not to produce enough of its own proteine.

 

[Toshi]

protein has no e at the end, and it will sate the appetite for a longer time than an equivalent amount of carbs.

 

[rockwool]

K, thanks for telling me! I'm amazed it's the first time anybody's corrected my spelling, I must be doing small and big spelling errors every now and then..