A question almost never spoken about

[Youngguns]

how long do you wait after your last meal before you sleep while dieting?

[Frosty]

Cool question!

I've been playing around with this recently, meaning the timing of the last meal before bed and how it affects sleep.

It's often read that you shouldn't eat a meal right before bed because digestion will inhibit sleep. You know what I find? Since I'm cutting on 6 smaller meals, that last "meal" isn't big enough for it to matter. Bigger meals, yes I agree more time before bed to aid sleep. These smaller cutting meals it doesn't matter....I sleep about the same as eating and going right to bed and eating and waiting an hour.

However if it's longer than an hour, I might get the urge to eat again....BAD news when cutting. Night time is deadly time...a high risk time for fucking up a diet.

My balance has been found at eating at 10 pm and waiting about half an hour at the most before hitting the sack. 15-30 mins is fine. It allows me to take melatonin and GABA before my meal and have it kick in not too long after my meal, and I go to bed satisfied.

[Myth]

30-60'

[ChunkyThunder]

Most days I wait what is probably too long, I eat last at about 8:30pm and go to bed at about 12:30-1am... Usually I come home from work at 11pm take my last caps of fish oil and a serving of creatine and that's it. If I am really hungry I may have a shake or something, and rarely I will have actual food at this time but 5 out of 7 nights a week it's just my fish oil and creatine.

[GirlyMuscle]

Less than an hour.

[Gothic Muscle]

90 minutes - got this from Rob Faigin's Natural Hormone Enhancement and apply it to every meal I eat at night!

[Youngguns]

bump!

[Xfactor]

About an hour for me, but if I'm bulking then I may try and wake up to get a protein shake or eat some leftovers.

[Jeffatron]

1 hour for me.

[slackadjuster]

2 hours. If you aren't very active at night......is there a difference (metabolically) between awake and asleep?

[Sledge]

doesn't eating release natural sleep hormones? So if you eat your last meal of the day hit the sack and read a book your body will put it's self to sleep.
Just look around any living room on Christmas day. A while bunch of people zonked out after a big meal.

[Sledge]

Just to add to the above. I'm a trainer and I never conduct theory training after a lunch break because people will start to nod off. I always run some sort of practical activity for at least an hour after lunch.

[figurebre]

In contest prep, I have to do my final hour of cardio after my last meal! SO usually an hour....on a very empty tummy :(

[BigJD69]

At least an hour for me.

[Klaus Urine]

As long as possible, normally about 2-2.5 hr. A full stomach fucks my sleep.

[Chris the Swede]

I sleep better with food in my stomach, so 15-60 minutes is fine. Now when dieting I usually use some kind of supplement to maximize GH, then I´ll wait two hours minimum.