Late Night Eating Tactics by Mark-Anthony Bailey

You have stayed disciplined all day long. You have followed you diet to the forkful and you had an intense and productive training session. Things are now winding down and it almost time to hit the bed. But your stomach starts to rumble telling you it is time to deposit some more fuel into the tank. But it’s late at night and you have always heard that you should not eat at this time. What do you do?

Option #1: Starve/Fast

You could hold fast to the no eating after 7pm rule, but several things are going to occur as a result. Since we cannot eat while asleep, every night you go on your own fast. While fasting may be popular with the “body cleansing” groups, it does very little for our muscle building efforts over here at MostMuscle.com. Let us say that you consume your last meal at 7PM and you normally wake up at 6:30AM and have breakfast by 7AM. That is a space of 12 hours (half a day) that your body is without a fresh supply of much needed muscle building nutrients. So for half the day you are in a catabolic (muscle wasting) state while the other 12 hours you are trying your very best to build muscle. This constant battle is a major factor in slowing your progress. Protein catabolism begins around 6 hours after your last meal, which means that you are breaking down your hard earned muscle by 1AM when you are in dreamland and can nothing about it. Good luck with this option.

Option #2: Eat!

You decide to stuff something down. But this is where things get tricky. If you decide to take this option you must be very selective about what kind of and how much food you consume. Protein and carbohydrate types and combinations can make a big difference between muscle growth and waistline growth. Carbohydrates alone may replenish glycogen stores and help with nitrogen balance but does little for protein synthesis (muscle growth). Also, insulin sensitivity is low at this time and carbohydrates can be easily stored as fat. Eating carbs at this time should be done with caution, especially if you are trying to lower your bodyfat levels. On the flipside, carbohydrates at this time can be very useful if you are an ectomorph trying to gain muscle size and have trouble consuming enough calories during the day. The type of carbohydrate is important as we want to increase blood sugar levels but not as much as too elicit an insulin spike response. Some fats consumed with the carbohydrates will help prevent the spike and maintain blood sugar levels over a longer period of time.

Add a combination of fast and slower acting proteins to counteract catabolism and promote protein synthesis while you sleep and you have successfully constructed one of the best weapons against nighttime muscle catabolism.

Meal Examples:

Supplement Option (Muscle Gain):

20-30 grams Protein Powder (Whey/Casein combination)
1 cup of Low Fat Milk
4 Nilla Wafer Cookies (My favorite)
1 Tablespoon Flax Seed Oil

Food Option (Muscle Gain):

1 can of Tuna in spring water
1 teaspoon Low Fat Mayonnaise
1 cup of Low Fat Milk
5 plain crackers

Supplement Option (Fat Loss):

20-30 grams Protein Powder (Whey/Casein combination)
2 cups of Water

Food Option (Fat Loss):

1 can of Tuna
2 cups of Water

These are only a few options. Give you a general idea of what your last meal should look like. Night time feedings are especially important for those who train early in the morning as it is this meal that will fuel your workouts. Try these tactics for 30 days. If after this time you are adding more fat than muscel mass, cut some of the servings sizes back by 30%. Trial and error is necessary here as everyone will react differently and you should change and adapt as needed.

Let us know your experiences with this at the forum. Train Hard!

 

Mark-Anthony Bailey is the Editor-in-Chief of MostMuscle.com. As an Exercise Physiologist and competitive natural bodybuilder, his goals have been to ensure that his clients get the latest information on training techniques, nutritional guidelines and lifestyle modifications needed to obtain optimal health. He can be contacted at: markanthony@mostmuscle.com