How To Eat Properly Before Sleep
Contrary to popular belief, eating before bedtime doesn’t have to mean putting on weight around your belly. In fact, eating the right foods at night can aid your recovery from exercise and feed your muscles with the right nutrition while you sleep.
That said, you must be careful. Eating the wrong foods will cause you to have problems falling asleep, and wreak havoc with your digestive system. To make sure you sleep well and give your body the resources it needs to repair and rejuvenate, here’s a list of general rules to stick to when choosing your pre-bed meal:
Rule #1: Avoid Carbohydrates & Insulin
Consuming carbs in the evening will trigger an insulin release and cause the body to stop fat burning.
This is bad news because the body more readily stores carbs as fat in the evening hours anyway, as metabolism naturally slows down in preparation for sleep.
And let’s not forget that the body isn’t as active when you’re in bed, so it hasn’t the resources to burn off the extra energy provided by the carbs eaten before bedtime.
Rule #2: Eat Slow Digesting Proteins
White meat proteins such as turkey and chicken are great pre-bed meal choices because they digest slowly and don’t trigger the unwanted insulin response discussed in Rule #1.
Another highly recommended choice is the milk protein casein. Casein coats the stomach, digests slowly and provides solid nutritional benefits to your muscles over several hours.
Rule #3: Eat Quality Fats
Quality fats, or healthy fats as they are often referred to, include nuts, oils and nut butters. These foods make a great addition to any nighttime meal as they help slow gastric emptying and digestion while increasing fullness and satiety.
In short, this means you’ll feel full after your evening meal and won’t end up snacking on the sofa right up until bedtime!
