Carbs at night

[Andresz7]

Sometimes I get hungry at night, and there's barely anything to eat. I've heard that you're not supposed to eat carbs at night, but I've also heard that carbs are a good night time snack. Can someone explain to me?

[musclehead24]

okay, so carbs can be good at night if you are trying to gain weight, but they can also be bad if you are trying to lose weight, it depends on what you are trying to do, carbs and the types and how much of the carbs you eat before bed can depend on whether it becomes beneficial to you or not, one reason why carbs can be bad for you before bed is that when your body is at rest your metabolic rate and everything slows down, so the quality of carbs and amount of carbs you eat are critical. if you are training i would opt to not eat any carbs ro your last meal of the day and eat something high in protein so your body is more apt to use it to repair muscle and reduce the time period your body goes without food and reduces catabolism plus it wont store as much of it as fat, if your going to eat carbs before bed, i would eat something in the whole grain department such as whole grain breads and eat a smaller amount gram wise like 25 to 30 grams of carbs, try to stay away from the white carbs or carbohydrate foods that have enriched flours in them as this will spike your insulin levels and at rest increases the storage of sugars in the body which increases the at content in your body i eaten in acess, i would like to know your totals of carbs during the daytime, what your actiivity levels are like during the day, what your training is like i any, this also plays into whether or not you should be eating carbs beore bed. i will try and respond to your messages as soon as i can.

[bigdavid]

having elevated blood sugar at bed time has an antagonist effect on growth hormone secretion that is the main problem with carbohydrates right before bed

[Mark_j]

i eat anytime lol..

[fadi]

I would highly recommend reading Alan Aragon's articles. He covers cabs in many of his articles http://alanaragon.com/articles

[Andresz7]

okay, so carbs can be good at night if you are trying to gain weight, but they can also be bad if you are trying to lose weight, it depends on what you are trying to do, carbs and the types and how much of the carbs you eat before bed can depend on whether it becomes beneficial to you or not, one reason why carbs can be bad for you before bed is that when your body is at rest your metabolic rate and everything slows down, so the quality of carbs and amount of carbs you eat are critical. if you are training i would opt to not eat any carbs ro your last meal of the day and eat something high in protein so your body is more apt to use it to repair muscle and reduce the time period your body goes without food and reduces catabolism plus it wont store as much of it as fat, if your going to eat carbs before bed, i would eat something in the whole grain department such as whole grain breads and eat a smaller amount gram wise like 25 to 30 grams of carbs, try to stay away from the white carbs or carbohydrate foods that have enriched flours in them as this will spike your insulin levels and at rest increases the storage of sugars in the body which increases the at content in your body i eaten in acess, i would like to know your totals of carbs during the daytime, what your actiivity levels are like during the day, what your training is like i any, this also plays into whether or not you should be eating carbs beore bed. i will try and respond to your messages as soon as i can.

Thank you for your response. I am 17 years old, I practice soccer for high school everyday and when I have days off I weight lift. However, I have a history of being fat so I am trying to lose body fat.

[Andresz7]

okay, so carbs can be good at night if you are trying to gain weight, but they can also be bad if you are trying to lose weight, it depends on what you are trying to do, carbs and the types and how much of the carbs you eat before bed can depend on whether it becomes beneficial to you or not, one reason why carbs can be bad for you before bed is that when your body is at rest your metabolic rate and everything slows down, so the quality of carbs and amount of carbs you eat are critical. if you are training i would opt to not eat any carbs ro your last meal of the day and eat something high in protein so your body is more apt to use it to repair muscle and reduce the time period your body goes without food and reduces catabolism plus it wont store as much of it as fat, if your going to eat carbs before bed, i would eat something in the whole grain department such as whole grain breads and eat a smaller amount gram wise like 25 to 30 grams of carbs, try to stay away from the white carbs or carbohydrate foods that have enriched flours in them as this will spike your insulin levels and at rest increases the storage of sugars in the body which increases the at content in your body i eaten in acess, i would like to know your totals of carbs during the daytime, what your actiivity levels are like during the day, what your training is like i any, this also plays into whether or not you should be eating carbs beore bed. i will try and respond to your messages as soon as i can.

Also, I'm supposed to consume about 325 g of protein and 305 g of carbs but I don't think I've ever reached that amount.

[schwellington]

Good luck loosing body fat at 305 grams of carbs

[AaronJP1]

Yeah carbs, so many theories around it.
You just have to experiment try low carbs, high carbs, carb cycling....
Right now I'm trying high carbs on lift days sorta cycling it.

[Andresz7]

Good luck loosing body fat at 305 grams of carbs

How much grams am I supposed to consume then??

[Marcinator]

How much grams am I supposed to consume then??

How much do you weigh?

[Andresz7]

149.5 lb

[JudoJosh]

Carbs pre bed is fine as long as it is within your you set macronutrient and caloric limits.

[AaronJP1]

149.5 lb

I would say multiply by either 2 on higher side. Simple people even multiply by 3 or 1.5 on the lower side....

250g carbs a say would so ya fine.

[Marcinator]

149.5 lb

JudoJosh said it - it's all about your macronutrient ratios and your caloric limits more so than "what time" you consume the carbs.... if you're trying to trim down you better make sure you burn more than you consume, if you're going for gaining mass then the opposite. Having a sound nutritional plan will be the key here.

[Andresz7]

Thanks!

[musclehead24]

who is telling you to eat all this food? and what are you eating to try and take in this much food? quality and quantity matters, seems like alot of carbs to be eating if you are having a problem shedding bodyfat, smaller meals throughout the day will keep your metabolism elavated and i wouldnt eat the carbs before bed then, i would eat a high protein meal like a protein powder mixed with 2 percent milk, a can of tuna, a chicken breast, some low fat cottage cheese beore bed, that way with how active you seem to be you have slow digesting proteins so you dont hit a catablic state while you sleep, one thing to do is to keep a training log about when, how much, and how often you are eating as well as what your eating throughout the day, track your amount of proteins, carbs, fats, calorie totals for every day, how long are your practices? how many days a week do you workout? what isyour bodyfat percentage right now? you seem very active and you are also very young yet, you shouldnt have any problem losing weight given all that, how long and how often you are practicing and where your carb sources are coming from all tie into this.

[Andresz7]

who is telling you to eat all this food? and what are you eating to try and take in this much food? quality and quantity matters, seems like alot of carbs to be eating if you are having a problem shedding bodyfat, smaller meals throughout the day will keep your metabolism elavated and i wouldnt eat the carbs before bed then, i would eat a high protein meal like a protein powder mixed with 2 percent milk, a can of tuna, a chicken breast, some low fat cottage cheese beore bed, that way with how active you seem to be you have slow digesting proteins so you dont hit a catablic state while you sleep, one thing to do is to keep a training log about when, how much, and how often you are eating as well as what your eating throughout the day, track your amount of proteins, carbs, fats, calorie totals for every day, how long are your practices? how many days a week do you workout? what isyour bodyfat percentage right now? you seem very active and you are also very young yet, you shouldnt have any problem losing weight given all that, how long and how often you are practicing and where your carb sources are coming from all tie into this.

Thank you for your response. I don't know exactly what my bf percentage is because the clip I use doesn't seem accurate. It says 8% but I know if I was that low I wouldn't be wanting to shed body fat. Also my practices are everyday for 2 hours. Sometimes we get days off and that's when I weight lift. I weight lift 3 days a week and rest between each day. M carb sources are complex carbs like whole wheat, whole grain, and multi grain items. I don't eat any fast food or refined carbs whatsoever.

[rglass0013]

And i recommend "Better than Steroids"

trust me, its the best 30bucks ive ever spent. it shows the exact science to calculate your food intake for different goals.

[rglass0013]

Yeah carbs, so many theories around it.
You just have to experiment try low carbs, high carbs, carb cycling....
Right now I'm trying high carbs on lift days sorta cycling it.

Carb sources such as pasta, oats and other things similar to it are classified as "active carbs"
carb sources such as vegetables are classified as "free carbs"

Free carbs can be eaten as much and as often as possible. Generally the "active" carbs are not recommended before bedtime due to the insulin spike they cause which interrupts with fat loss during the night. i cut the active carbs about 2-3 hours before bedtime in order to conduct fat loss and muscle growth. and if i get too hungry ill take a scoop of casein protein and plenty of vegetables, before bed.