Let' jump right in...
Who has heard the philosophy to not eat after a certain time of night or a certain number of hours before going to sleep?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I know you've heard this. Many celebrities preach about it. I remember an interview with Hugh Jackman (hubba hubba*) a few years back in which he stated he never eats anything after some crazy early time like 5--that's a little extreme. For a while, I tried not eating 2 hours before going to sleep. The logic behind this is that this act forces your body to use other energy sources during sleep rather than what you most recently ate.
Science 101 starting in 3...
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Physiologically, your body uses glucose for energy first because the body is a pro at storing fats. Fats are lipids, which in case you didn't know are insoluble in water--lipids hate H2O. The body is not so great at storing glucose; glucose is stored in your liver in the form of glycogen which has water in it. Which one will be bigger and take up more space? The glycogen because it has water molecules taking up space as well. Therefore, your body is gonna go after the glycogen before it goes after the fat. When glycogen (storage form) is converted to glucose (usable form), water molecules are released. This process requires ATP (adenosine triphosphate--big fancy word for energy). Therefore, the body is most likely going to go after the usable glucose that hasn't been converted to glycogen yet. In other words, it is going to use the glucose that you most recently put into your system--food. If there is not readily available glucose to use (i.e if you don't eat for a few hours prior to going to sleep), your body will end up resorting to fat eventually. Makes sense to a certain extent, right? I'm not going to cite that information because I didn't get it from one particular place other than my brain. It's from a combination of many lectures and textbooks. That's my citation.
Science 101 complete.
This is what I lived by even to the extent that I would feel guilty if I ate right before bed, unless it was a night out and I was awake until 3am and food--especifically (this is my new word=combo of especially and specifically...feel free to adopt it into your daily vocab) fried food--was a necessity for survival. Most of you know what I'm talking about. Another time to eat late is during Late Night at a dance event--my fellow west coast swing dancers know what I'm talking about. There comes a point in the night when you either eat something, pass out from exhaustion, or both. But with the amount of dancing we do, it really is a necessity.
Recently, I read this Livestrong article opposing this thought process, sort of. It is suggesting we eat bigger, more substantial meals at the end of the day. The article had some pretty legit ideas and reasoning:
1. Natural instinct--The article explains that back in the day of the grunting cavemen, days were spent hunting and gathering and nights were spent feasting to refuel for the next day. Granted, most of us don't hunt for a living anymore. A huge majority of us just sit in front of a computer most of the day expending little-to-no energy. So this might not exactly apply...but valid point nonetheless.
2. The numbers--Go read this section in the article. It makes sense to me, and I definitely can't explain it better. To make a long story short (which I always say, and never do), it makes more sense with our habits, tendencies, and physiology, to eat lighter during the day and a little bit heavier in the evening. I like this. Please note, eating heavier means eating heavier with HEALTHY foods. No Big Macs.
3. Psychology--This is my favorite part. If I ate larger dinners, I might not be so tempted (and give in to temptation most of the time) to eat snacks closer to bedtime. Granted, I don't think I have enough cholecystokinin/CCK. That's another big fancy word for the hormone that tells you when you are full (Side note: I'm pretty sure there was a recent study released on this. I'll research it and blog about it during another week). Also, sometimes exhaustion or boredom, both of which tend to happen at night shortly before bed, are mistaken for hunger. Alright, not sometimes--most of the time.
4. Practicality--This is telling us to make your daily diet merge with your life, not the reverse. Hmmmm that is quite practical. Who woulda thunk it? Remember that game with blocks that babies play? There's a square, a circle, and a triangle. The triangle doesn't fit in the circle hole. You've gotta have a "circle" diet to merge with your "circle" life. Triangle diets don't fit in circle lives.
I still don't think it's a great idea to eat RIGHT before bed. It's really unnecessary if you think about it--the purpose of food is to be your body's fuel. You don't need much fuel while sleeping. Also, if your blood sugar/insulin levels are normal (i.e. you don't have diabetes), eating right before bed will shoot your blood sugar up for a bit of time--giving you a burst of energy. That's exactly what you need right before going to sleep...NOT!
Interesting stuff, right? Definitely worth a shot...a delicious, satisfying shot.
MMMMMM, FOOOOOOD
*hubba hubba is my written text way of respectfully admitting how incredibly attractive he is.
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