How many hours before sleep can you eat so as not to get tired

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It all depends on what you are going to have a snack with.

You can often hear that in order to maintain a good figure, you should not eat after six in the evening. There is also an opinion that it is better to focus on your schedule and have your last meal at least 2-4 hours before bedtime. Both of these statements make sense, although they should not be accepted as axioms. Let's figure it out together.

Can late meals harm the figure

Depending on the day, our body handles food differently. At night, food stays in the stomach longer, but less energy is spent on its absorption.

In addition, eating late can slow down metabolism. In one small experiment, it was observed that when participants ate a large snack an hour before bedtime, they burned 15 g less fat per day than when they ate the same portion for breakfast.

In another study with the participation of 20 men and women, it was found that if you eat dinner at six in the evening, three hours before going to bed, the oxidation of fats will be 10% higher than if you do it at 10 pm.

Similar data were obtained in a two-week study involving 11 women. Participants who had a 200-kcal snack at 10 a.m. burned 6.2 g more fat per day than women who ate at 11 p.m. (fat oxidation increased by 12%).

Late dinner can slow down fat oxidation by 10-12%.

In addition, a dense late meal can prevent you from falling asleep on time and getting a good night's sleep, and lack of sleep increases your appetite for sweet food.

When should you have your last meal

Try to eat at 6-7 p.m. This eating schedule can speed up fat oxidation, improve insulin sensitivity, and promote weight loss.

Thus, in an experiment with the participation of 12 healthy young people, daytime eating – from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. – provided benefits for the figure compared to a later regime – from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m.

With the same calorie content of the diet, those who finished eating at 7 p.m., lost weight and lost weight in 8 weeks.

But if, due to work and other matters, you cannot sit down at the table until 8-10 p.m., you should not make sacrifices and go to bed hungry A late dinner will not necessarily lead to weight gain, and an early one to weight loss.

In a review of 10 scientific papers on the topic, four studies showed a relationship between the body mass index of the participants and the amount of late dinner, five did not find such a relationship, and one proved the opposite.

So if you are used to eating late and at the same time you feel good and do not gain weight, continue in the same spirit.

If you want to lose weight, try to replace a full meal with a high-protein snack.

When possible eat your last snack

Small high-protein snacks 30 minutes before bedtime not only won't hurt your figure, but can also help with weight loss.

Two small experiments involving young men and women showed that 30-48 g of protein 30 minutes before bedtime increased energy expenditure the next day by 4-5.5%.

In addition, there is evidence that a portion protein powder half an hour before bedtime increases the feeling of satiety the next day. At least, this is true for overweight women.

This way, not only will you go to bed full and without a heavy stomach, but you will also use more energy and eat less the next day.

R.H. Goo, J.G. Moore, E. Greenberg, N.P. Alazraki. Circadian variation in gastric emptying of meals in humans/Gastroenterology, source
K. P. Kelly, O. P. McGuinness, M. Buchowski. Eating breakfast and avoiding late‑evening snacking sustains lipid oxidation/PLoS biology, source
C. Gu, N. Brereton, A. Schweitzer. Metabolic Effects of Late Dinner in Healthy Volunteers—A Randomized Crossover Clinical Trial/The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, source
C. A. Crispim, I. Z. Zimberg, B. G. Reis. Relationship between Food Intake and Sleep Pattern in Healthy Individuals/Journal of clinical sleep medicine, source
K. C. Allison, C. M. Hopkins, M. Ruggieri. Prolonged, Controlled Daytime versus Delayed Eating Impacts Weight and Metabolism/Current biology, source
A. W. Kinsey, W. R. Eddy, T. A. Madzima. Influence of night‑time protein and carbohydrate intake on appetite and cardiometabolic risk in sedentary overweight and obese women/The British journal of nutrition, source