| Hi Friend!
Man, did I know all the late night spots for munchies when I was in my 20's. As I've written before I was training around 10 hours a week between weight lifting and sports and the weekend was when I played hard after working hard all week (I fell for the work hard / play hard trap). One time, my buddy Bret and I, who also was a big exerciser with a high metabolism, went to a club called Aria, and we sat at the shrimp bar eating shrimp. That was basically our night. Pre-game and then go to the club and eat cocktail shrimp. It was hard to keep weight on then, being so active, so late night eating was real helpful.
Now, having my own business where I sit more to run the behind the scenes parts and being blessed with many other responsibilities that aren't working out all the time, I have to be more thoughtful with everything, including what and when I eat and eating late for the most part is something I avoid. It's too disruptive to the quality of my sleep. I think it leads me to snore when I eat too close to bedtime and it makes it more difficult to manage my weight when I eat late, which I do fine with, but I also am thoughtful about it, not sticking my head in the sand and hoping for the best. Either way, I think there are benefits and costs associated with it and being more aware of them they may help you to make different choices.
Late Night Eating Tips
- If you want to gain weight, eat late.
- If you want to lose weight finish early.
- Eating Late is less than an hour before you go to bed.
- Finishing Early is 2+ hours before you go to bed.
- If you want to perform early in the morning eat a good dinner.
- If you don't need to perform early in the morning, but more as your day goes, then eat a good breakfast.
- If performance and/or muscle building is a current goal, then consuming protein sources and/or protein and carbohydrate sources right before bed may be helpful.
- Late night eating may cause you to sleep less well (opinion).
- Late night eating may cause you to snore (opinion).
- Late night eating may cause you to sleep less long (opinion).
- Late night eating may cause you to have disrupted sleep (opinion).
- Late night eating may cause you to perform poorly the next day (opinion).
- Late night eating may cause you to not be hungry in the morning (opinion).
- Finishing early may cause you to sleep deeper (opinion).
- Finishing early may cause you to sleep longer (opinion).
- Finishing early may cause you to sleep better (opinion).
- Finishing early may cause you to perform better the next day (opinion).
- Finishing early may cause you to be hungry in the morning (opinion).
- Finishing early may reduce snoring at night (opinion).
Dr. Thomas Halton, PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology, and a nutrition weight loss expert, wrote a blog post about what he uncovered while doing a research on late night eating. It's pretty interesting, so I'll let you read it for yourself.
Going to bed content more often than full,
Coach Mike
p.s. I'm a 6:8=2, which means I finish my last meal around 6p, go to bed most nights around 8p and gives me 2hrs of digesting time. What's your last meal to lights out ratio? Reply and let me know. |
