When to Eat the Pre-Bed Meal?

Diet and Nutrition
1

For example cottage cheese, we all know it’s an excellent pre-bed meal to prevent catabolism during the night and help muscle growth. But is it best/OK to eat it literally 5-10 minutes before you hit the sack, or is this just going to lead to indigestion etc? So many times I’ve heard nutritionists recommending leaving 2+ hours between food and bed.

Thanks in advance!

2

try it 10 mins before bed, if it upsets you increase the time.

3

I’d take it before bed, as in, right before bed. You’ve heard nutritionist recommend that because people eat pizza and fall asleep right after.

If you’re trying to cut, ideally you’d have some cottage cheese or a casein containing protein shake but I know some of the hard-gainers out there will down half a gallon of milk and other stuff right before bed trying to put on muscle.

Of the questions you’ve been asking lately it always seems you get the answer of “it depends.” This is because, it depends. You have to try stuff and learn what works best for your body, someone can give you guidelines to try but you gotta toy around with it and figure out what’s best for you.

4

I’ve found this to be very individualized. For me I like at least 30 mins prior to bed, Chad Waterbury has recommended minutes before bed, CT eats his last 1 hour prior, Dr. Bowden has indicated at least 1 hour…do what works best for you…monitor the results and tweak as necessary.

5

I take ZMA ~60 minutes before bed. I consume my pre bed meal ~30 minutes later. Then I brush my teeth and go to bed.

Sample shake/meal as follows.

16 ounces of skim milk
1/4 cup of walnuts
1/2 cup of cottage cheese
Two scoops of MD

Christopher

6

Like Monkey_space, I take ZMA an hour before bed. Then 30 - 45 mins later I have 2-3 scoops of Metabolic Drive, some fish oil and peanut butter. As soon as I’m done with the meal, I wash out my shaker cup and go to sleep.

7

I suppose it depends on your goals…

I eat when I’m hungry…

8

I often find myself swallowing food as I’m turning down the sheets. I sleep about 9 hours a night and am ravenously hungry in the morning so I try to eat as late as possible.

9

I’ve noticed that no advice is solid on this matter, it completely differs from person to person.

I have to eat my ‘bed meal’ a minimum of an hour away so I can digest, and sleep accordingly.

My friends have stated they have ate complete garbage (ie: Fast Food), Mountain Dew, Apple Turnovers the works, and go right to sleep afterwards.

For me, this is not possible.

You’ll have to experiment.