It seems like every week I hear a new piece of advice about whether or not a person who is dieting should eat late at night right before they go to sleep. In this article I will analyze for you the benefits and downsides of eating late at night...
Downsides of Eating Late at Night
Eating late at night can potentially affect your weight loss program. Whether or not eating before bed affects your diet depends on what you eat. If you eat a meal made up of protein and healthy vegetables then you are unlikely to gain weight. However if you eat a lot of processed carbohydrates in the form of bread, pasta, grains or sugar then this will cause your body to release a lot of the hormone insulin. An elevated insulin level not only makes it harder to fall asleep but it can also prevents your body from producing Human Growth Hormone or HGH.
Elevated insulin becomes a problem because your body produces most HGH during the first hour after you fall asleep. If you have a high insulin level during the period of night that you should be producing HGH, you won't be producing HGH. Not producing HGH is bad because HGH is a hormone which helps your body burn fat and build muscle.
In addition to avoiding carbohydrates late at night, you also shouldn't drink alcohol. Although alcohol helps you fall asleep faster, it also prevents you from producing HGH and degrades the quality of sleep you get. Low quality sleep will drain your energy and increase your appetite, making dieting more difficult.
Benefits of Eating Late at Night
Eating a snack made up of high quality protein has been shown to increase the production of HGH. An increased HGH level will help you burn more fat and gain more muscle.
Conclusion
Eating protein and vegetables late at night is alright but you should avoid sugary foods and high carbohydrate foods before you fall asleep. This means that if you want to eat dessert, you should eat it several hours before you plan to go to bed.
The main reason not to eat carb heave snacks late at night is to allow you to fall asleep quickly and produce more HGH because HGH helps you lose weight. To accelerate your weight loss goals try to maximize your HGH levels by minimizing your insulin level all day long by avoiding consumption of sugar and carbs.
How Eating at Night Affects Weight Loss - By Wayne Atwell
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