Today at work, my friend told me its a myth that eating right before bed greaters your chance of putting on weight. I said bullshit…eating before bed puts more calories in your body with no chance to burn them off since you will be going right to bed.
I told him more calories consumed than calories exerted would lead to weight gain; therefore, eating right before bed would better your chance of putting on weight because you would not have the chance to burn those calories…
He countered with a google search that shut me up. See one below…Am I wrong? I couldve bet the farm on my logic, but apparently im wrong? haha…If you guys have any other reasearch please advise…Thanks.
OK man… the whole article really didnt even say anything. Did yall read it? I always eat before bedtime,it helps me sleep. ALso man, think of it this way… why does ronnie coleman wake up every 2hrs and eat? think of it like that.
But it’s probably a myth that eating before bed has a unique ability to promote weight gain compared with eating at other times of the day. Although scientific studies someday may prove that calories ingested before bed are handled differently than calories ingested at other times, evidence for this commonly held belief is lacking.
For now, it’s safe to assume that one’s weight reflects the balance between calories burned and calories consumed over time, regardless of when you choose to eat.
This statement right here proves that your friend is an idiot. The article specifically says that they have no real evidence either way, its all hear say. SO make your own decisions on it, and think like a T-MAN. Leave the bullshit ideas and ways to the Muscle and Fitness crowd. Bes
Wow, I can’t believe this is even a post. You body heals, repairs and GROWS when you sleep. Why the hell wouldn’t you give it fuel and supplies before you take a 7-8 hour break from frequent feedings?! Not eating before you go to sleep will totally impair your gains.
eat P+F before sleep. 0 carbs. You want a steady stream of amino acids during the night. But if you have carbs then yeah, it’s not a time when you metabolize them well.
Why would eating before bed make you gain weight any more than eating breakfast and not working out until the evening would? If you’re not eating enough and your metabolism has slowed to a crawl, then I guess that an “extra” meal before bed would be bad, but if you’re spreading your meals out, the pre-bed meal is just a part of the plan.
To put it another way, let’s say someone eats a 1200 calorie dinner (pretty easy with pasta & crap food). I eat 1200 calories over 3 meals @ 5, 8, and 11 pm. Is my bed time meal still evil?
You should go read all the nutrition articles you can find on this site.
lying there for 8-9 hours with no food/protein coming in is extremely catabolic. Eat protein and some good fats before you go to bed to is probably one of the most important times to eat to preserve your muscle.
of course you’ll gain weight. in muscle. and bone. and connective tissue.
but you might lose lose so much more fat that it seems like you lost weight.
funny, ain’t it? you were both wrong because you did not put it in context enough. what type of meal, what does the rest of the intake look like? we can skew the results anyway you want until you define eat better.
It depends on the conditions. Someone who is sedentary should not eat right before bed.
If you lift with good intensity, eating before bed will help prevent loss. EPOC is a very big factor in resting metabolic rate. After a good round of heavy deads or squats, I’m lucky if I can sleep with all of the heat that I put off.
Also-When it comes to dietary habits and their effects, I wouldn’t bet the farm on anything. A new study will be out next week to prove it wrong.
It is definitely a myth. If fat loss is your concern, maybe you are better off not eating carbs before bed because your body doesn’t deal with insulin as well at night. But you are actually better off eating a meal of protein and fat right before bed than nothing.
Keep in mind we’re talking minutia here. The whole 8hr fast being catabolic is true, but you may lose 1/100th of 1 ounce in those 8 hours if you have an empty stomach. Maybe. You may lose nothing.
As long as your daily protein intake and calorie intake are where they need to be the whole overnight feeding thing for most people is not an issue. Ronnie Coleman? Maybe. How many people here have that kind of mass to maintain though?
[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
Keep in mind we’re talking minutia here. The whole 8hr fast being catabolic is true, but you may lose 1/100th of 1 ounce in those 8 hours if you have an empty stomach. Maybe. You may lose nothing.
As long as your daily protein intake and calorie intake are where they need to be the whole overnight feeding thing for most people is not an issue. Ronnie Coleman? Maybe. How many people here have that kind of mass to maintain though?[/quote]
Unpopular advice, but true in my opinion.
Most people are very afraid of intermittent fasting.
Here’s how I see it: 1lb of fat is 3500 calories. And pretty much everyone has an extra pound of fat on them. Are you going to burn 3500 calories while asleep? That’d be nice for some, but not likely.
Seems like we have plenty of extra fuel to get through the night. If you eat a lot more fat than carbohydrate, then your body is hopefully use fat for fuel and not need to worry too much about proteolysis. And while protein breakdown is happening, the amino acids are recycled, in a way.
Do what you like, there have been many great physiques built eating before bed. I prefer to go to sleep hungry (unless I have a game or lifting session very late in the evening).
I have my mind made up already and do eat before I go to bed to get me through the night with food in my tummy.
I wasnt asking for advice because what I have been doing has been working (30lbs in 6 months).
All I was asking for was evidence and logic behind…eating at nite increasing your chances of putting on weight…and I am purposely not distinguishing between fat and lean body mass…