Late Night Eating – DO IT.

Hi Joel,

What do you think of low-no fat natural Greek yogurt with berries and nuts as a late night snack? I also add flax seeds to it … am i doing myself good or harm?

I like to take a slice of low salt turkey, spread with dijon, and roll it around sliced cucumber–jeeps me full all night! Or cooked broccoli dusted with parmesan cheese

Thanks for That Joel! I’m always asking myself what to eat at night. With this article all is clearer than water. Thanks,

Henry Latourrette

Hi ,it’s 23:30pm here in the uk and I just had grilled salmon and I got a pan tossed in some curly kale,peppers,zucchini,mushrooms and spring onions a bit of salt n pepper and drizzled some olive oil hope that was ok ?

Btw it tasted sooo good thx Joel for letting me eat without feeling guilty I used go to bed hungry thinking omg am I going to do this forever ? And I wake up practically dragging myself out of bed from starvation and it’s really difficult being a full time housewife taking care of two toddlers one is two and a half and the other is one and a half so thank god for Joel !!!!

Are nuts a good choice for night eating?

a protein snack before bed and I sleep like a baby! It just takes a couple ounces of chicken breast or beef or a couple tablespoons of home made chili. No sweets before bed!

Always love the info in your blog. What i HATE is clicking on a video thinking I’m going to immediately get more great print info only to find out I have to listen to an extended monologue. I’m a busy trainer who typically checks emails after 8:30 pm and I don’t have time for all the talk. This practice is becoming common in most of the fitness emails I receive and is frankly making me consider unsubscribing. Either give people the information up front or tell them they’ll be listening to a 10 minute explanation about how badly the need the info. Thanks for considering my comment.

My husband always eats a late nite snack. Now I can join him hahaha. Just to change to meat and veggies, happier with fruit

@ Dawn:

Hi Dawn,

You have to be careful with Soy, it is actually an extremely overprocessed food, and in asian countries there diets only consist of approximately two tbsp a day . To much Soy for both men and women can over time, cause high concentrations of isoflavones (phytoestrogens) in the body which can have a significant cumulative estrogenic and toxic effect, especially when they are exposed to organs that have sensitive estrogen receptors sites such as the breast, uterus, and thyroid.

You could try, oat, almond or goats milk that is suitable for lactose intolerance. Try to avoid rice milk as it can effect your blood suagr levels as it has a high GI
I have seen the impact on a few female friends that drank soy milk, and there menstual cycles where thrown out of wack.

great! I always eat around an hour or two before sleep. and I am still losing weight. hopefully it will continue dropping. I have to watch what I am eating in the middle of the night from now on..!

hmmm, looks like a lot of people like to eat at night (as do i.) looks like you are right on about it as long as we keep it healthy.
personally, i like almonds. i buy them raw, and if i feel like it, i toast them with a hint of salt. (rinse the almonds a bit to make the salt stick)

thanks to rose for the oatcake recipe!

Sam wrote:

@Alvan –

Alvan, I agree, I just had low-fat chocolate milk last night before I went to bed, but I thought it was a “cheat” food, since yesterday was my cheat day…so now I know it’s not, I’ll have it more often!

Thanks for the tip
Sam

dude chocolate milk is a cheat food.

You mentioned before that eating fats with carbs was not good. What about foods that contain both such as almonds or other nuts, containing both fats and carbs?

Joel Marion wrote:

Originally Posted By Michael
Sorry for my ignorance,,,I’m a little confused. You mentioned Carbs aren’t good late at night. I understand eating a slow digesting animal protein but aren’t fibrous vegetables carbs??? I guess stay away from fruits late at night too because they’re also carbs.
Green veggies are mostly fiber, and have a negligible impact on insulin…so despite technically being carbohydrates, they don’t really count…
Fruit on the other hand has a good amount of sugar and more of an impact on insulin, so not recommended before bed.
Hope that helps!
Joel

Aren’t almonds and other nuts also carbs? Are they still a smart late night snack. U had mentioned that carbs and fat were not good to eat together. Nuts contain both carbs and fats.

I like crunch penutbutter on celery.

Hi Joel,

Me and my partner was talking about this the other day its not really about how much you eat or what time you eat, its about what type of foods you are eating and also people tend to forget about the little snacks that they have in the day. For example, tasting food while cooking to make sure its tasty, putting sugar in tea or coffee. What I eat isn’t bad but its the time of night that I eat my dinner at 8pm or 9pm and it was normally rice , potatoes, veg and meat. Now what I do is if I eat dinner to late I have salad, tomatoes, cucumber, chicken and then a low fat salad dressing on top because befor I found eating all that heavy food a bit to filling and I was finding it hard to shift the weight.

Reading your blog has clarified what I had been thinking all along, thank you.

Carina

Hee Joel!! nice article.wat about peanuts with a slow digesting protein at night?? will that do any good ??

Hi Joel! What if I do my workout late (no other option for me)? Is a post-workout recovery shake/meal still something sensible when consumed one hour (and sometimes less) before bed?

There’s more to it than just keeping available muscle building protein in your system.

You body burns more calories while sleeping than most of your day time activity. While you;re sleeping your body is working hard to create all the hormones you need to drive you thru the following day. It takes all the amino acids, fats, vitamins and minerals being absorbed from the food in your digestive system and uses it to create tomorrow’s hormones. The adrenol glands alone produce some 50 different hormones, and it’s all done at night.

If you starve your body for 12 hours or so during the night time, you’re depriving your body of the ingredients it needs to set you up for the next day!

Joel I agree with you on the premise that late night eating does not pile up fat when eating the right kind of food, but most of the dietitians and medical professionals are of the opinion that eating animal proteins when digestive process is slow at night can cause indigestion of the animal protein or hamper good digestive power in the long run. Can you clarify on this please.

One trick I used when losing 40 lb of weight, and felt hungry at late was to eat 2 or 3 whole boiled eggs. These babies work like magic for me, they stop the hunger, are nuticious and tasty.

We enjoy Muscle Milk before turning off the lights at night!

Hey Joel, brilliant post! I fell for the no eating after X hours a few years back, didn’t help I can tell you. I just have a question. At night I struggle to find things to eat to fulfill my calorie intake as most of the time my fats are on par. So basically all I have left is…OD on fat =P or try and eat some carbs. I have a damn good diet, but should I be eating more carbs and less fat during the day so I have more room at night? I just feel guilty eating carbs (grain based) at all really.

I was recommended this web page by my step-brother. I’m not sure whether this write-up is published by him as nobody else know such detailed about my problem. You’re awesome! Thanks!