Eating Before Bed

[SaynotoKlaus]

 What's the deal with eating right before going to bed? Why do people say it's bad , because it makes you fatter? Is it unhealthy though? 

Lately i often wake up in the middle of the night feeling kinda hungry , so i was thinking to always have one of my meals before i go to sleep. If it makes me gain weight , that's good because i'm too skinny anyways , but i don't want to damage my health though , if this is the case.

[Guest]

I also eat before going to bed, since I want to gain weight too. I don't think it will affect your health, just maybe give you a more uncomfortable sleep and bring you dem gaaiinnzzz. I also like how I am satiated throughout the night and when I wake up I feel really good, so I don#t have to eta breakfast right away. Time for some green tea first!

[mandyjw]

It causes problems for some people with weight gain and digestion. But if you have a fast metabolism or have dinner really early you may need to eat eat right before bed in order to sleep well. I'd say as long as you aren't getting acid reflux from eating too late it's probably a good idea.

[Blessed81]

Your body slows down when you sleep, it takes food longer to process.  If you want to gain weight then go ahead and eat as much as you want whenever you want.    Eating before bed is crucial if you want to gin weight.  Also think of this, if you are ever hungry and to the point to where your stomach is growling, you are at that point storing fat and burning lean muscle.   Your body is trying to preserve itself going into a hybernation type state.  So dont let yourself get that hungry.   Eat healthy and have a great life. 

 

[Hunter Arrington]

For gaining muscle a protein shake is recommended, especially with casein protein in it. Casein takes longer to digest, so it spans over the eight or nine hour sleep cycle. In my experience, eating right before bed means less quality sleep. 

[Franz]

In my personal experience, its actually better to eat in the evening / before bed than during the first half of the day.

I went with this whole "eating before bed makes you fat"- thing for a long time (especially carbs), and it did not work well with my body at all.

Now i rarely eat from whenever I go to bed until 2 pm and my body responds very well, huge meals during that time always slowed me down.

Eating quite a bit, be it carbs or whatever, in the evening improved my sleep alot (I literally cant fall asleep on an empty stomach).

For weight gain/loss, the only thing that matters for me is total daily calories.

Note: Iam at a very low body fat percentage. Not trying to gain any fat by doing this or something.

[Hunter Arrington]

It always feels like my body is still working if I have food in my stomach before bed. I try to cut all food out up to 4 hours before bed. Imagine having a car still running even though you want it to be turned off and at rest. I will probably never be fat and that has never been the reason for doing it, but more for the energy levels. Energy gets a huge boost when strictly following this. I am still tailoring this to "how I feel" and every body is different.

[ZenDog]

Meal timing is irrelivant all research suggests.

What matters is your total caloric intake for that day. Takes hours for your body to digest food so its not like that food will immediatly enter your fat storage if you dont use it right after you eat the food.

People keep making fitness and nutrition way more complicated than it actually is.  The only thing that makes u fat is consuming more calories a day than you are burning a day. So if you prefer more of your calories later, it dosent matter, because those calories you ate in the evening you missed the same morning so it balances it self out.

Unless! If you already eat alot during the day and you then add more food at night, then ofc u will get fatter you're adding more calories to your day.

[UDT]

Eating before bed is only relevant as you are digesting while sleeping, which might not be the most restful thing to do for your physiology. 

On the other side, if you deplete glycogen during the night because you didnt eat - your body enters stress mode to release fat stores and your sleep is not restful aswell. 

So eat before bed, but leave 1 hour or two in between dinner and sleeping

[Gregory1]

 

On 14.2.2016 at 7:47 PM, SaynotoKlaus said:

eating right before going to bed?

Don't do it. Reduces sleep quality. Which then results in reduced life quality. 

[Harikrishnan]

does any animal eat at night?

[Opo]

5 minutes ago, Harikrishnan said:

does any animal eat at night?

My dog ate a bone yesterday at 3 am. 

[Sine]

On 14.2.2016 at 7:47 PM, SaynotoKlaus said:

 What's the deal with eating right before going to bed? Why do people say it's bad , because it makes you fatter? Is it unhealthy though? 

Lately i often wake up in the middle of the night feeling kinda hungry , so i was thinking to always have one of my meals before i go to sleep. If it makes me gain weight , that's good because i'm too skinny anyways , but i don't want to damage my health though , if this is the case.

Because why fill yourself up with energy right when you need it the least?

[Arcangelo]

Eating Before Bed > NEVER

[Harikrishnan]

3 hours ago, Opo said:

My dog ate a bone yesterday at 3 am. 

yeah i also checked plenty of animals eat at night.

now regarding why people say not to eat at night coz when your stomach is full going to sleep, it has lot of work to do to digest food,as you have no activities that will burn the food. stomach is second brain and it will be working all night when it want rest. how do you think it will be will u get good sleep? how do you feel waking up? check it out.  its hard for me to wake up if i had a bad late night dinner, i will feel groogy, lack of energy and all and if i eat early and its all digested before sleep, when i wake up i feel pretty good.

Here is another thing i learned empty your bowel before going to bed and you will wake up amazing.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Harikrishnan

[Thought Art]

I noice that my stomach is full and I roll around and don't sleep at well. I don't think sleeping with a full stomach is good for you. It is a habit I myself need to develop.... eating hours away from bed time. 

[Osaid]

Digesting food takes a significant amount of energy and will invoke various digestive processes, so eating close to sleep time will lower sleep quality. 

7 hours ago, Harikrishnan said:

does any animal eat at night?

Diurnal animals usually don't, but nocturnal animals do. Humans are diurnal.

[CultivateLove]

On 2/28/2016 at 11:08 PM, ZenDog said:

Meal timing is irrelivant all research suggests.

Bro... Have you even read a single paper on nutrition / meal timing in your life? Be honest.

 

On 2/28/2016 at 11:08 PM, ZenDog said:

What matters is your total caloric intake for that day.

Typical "it's all just calories in vs calories out" bro. No nuance or further information required.  

On 2/28/2016 at 11:08 PM, ZenDog said:

People keep making fitness and nutrition way more complicated than it actually is.

Guess where you are on this chart - It's called the Dunning Kruger effect, you just fell victim to it.

[savingmylove]

From what I've been told, it is dangerous to eat before bed because your body would not be able to properly metabolize what you've eaten, which may lead to complications. It is also related to some superstition that it causes nightmares.

From personal experience though, I have not seen any bad effects of doing so. I often doze right after a good dinner or midnight "snack" and I'm still healthy and nightmare-free. 

[Michael569]

On 04/07/2021 at 1:37 PM, CultivateLove said:

Savage and ruthless but very true. Oh how sweet the feeling of "I know everything" used to be after finishing my first nutrition book