As we've discussed several times before in our newsletter articles, it is not necessary to avoid eating in the evening hours to lose flab. In fact, the right night-time meal can often positively affect your results and recovery from exercise by feeding your muscles with quality nutrition as you sleep.
The trick, as always, is choosing the RIGHT foods before bed, and knowing which foods those are. Here are some general "rules" to creating the ultimate pre-bed meal:
1. Avoid carbs and insulin. Because consuming carbohydrates will result in a significant insulin release (which will in turn put the breaks on fat-burning), carbs are ill-advised for a pre-bed meal. Carbs are also much more easily stored as fat in the evening hours when metabolism is naturally slowing in preparation for sleep. Besides, you have very little opportunity to burn off that energy when consuming carbs at night -- sleep isn't a very calorically expensive activity!
In addition to carbs, certain animal proteins have been shown to yield a significant insulin response as well, such as red meat and certain fish. While these protein foods are OK for a pre-bed meal, there are better choices, like those mentioned below.
2. Choose slow digesting proteins. Slow digesting proteins, like white meat proteins such as turkey and chicken, are great night-time meal choices as they digest slowly and fail to produce a significant insulin response.
Another great choice is the milk protein casein, found in also in cottage cheese. Casein coats the stomach, digests slowly, and provides quality nutrition to your muscles over several hours...very ideal as a pre-bedtime protein source!
3. Add fat. Quality, healthy fats such as nuts, oils, and nut butters are great additions to a pre-bedtime meal as they will help to further slow gastric emptying and digestion while increasing fullness and satiety so you don't wind up snacking all night long.
Want a quick and easy recipe for our ULTIMATE pre-bedtime meal? Try our Creamy Vanilla Almond Butter Milkshake tonight!
Creamy Vanilla Almond Butter Milkshake
Ingredients
2 Scoops of Vanilla protein powder Low Carb (rich in casein)
1/4 cup of cottage cheese (also rich in casein)
8 oz of unsweetened almond milk
1 heaping tablespoon of almond butter
4 ice cubes
Combine all ingredients in a blender, mix & enjoy!
This incredibly delicious milkshake follows all 3 "rules" given above. It's rich in casein (a very slow digesting protein), contains healthy fats, and is low in carbs. Give it a try tonight...you'll love it!
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