I’m trying to cut. I workout at about 8pm during the week and after I’m hungry. Is having a protein shake (just skim milk and protein powder) ok to have that late?

  • KastorNevierre@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    There’s nothing inherently wrong with eating late.

    Not doing so is usually given as general advice for a few reasons:

    • Digestion can prevent you from sleeping well
    • Excess carbs before bed pretty much all get turned into fat cells because you’re not going to use the available energy while asleep
    • If you’re too full when you go to sleep, you may not feel like eating much in the morning and it can throw off your dietary routine

    If #1 doesn’t happen to you, then a shake after a workout isn’t going to hurt you at all.

    • MrCharmingTaintman@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Carbs are not gonna get magically turned into fat because you eat a lot of them before bed. Unless by ‘excess’ you mean eating over your calories. In which case the same would go for protein and fat.

    • antheus1@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Your point about excess carbs being converted into fat is bogus. You have to think of the body as a whole system. Calories in - Calories out over the course of a day.

      Lets say you consume 1500 calories in a day and use 2000. 500 calories are burned each day. Lets say the protein shake in question is 200 calories.

      Scenario 1: You eat 1500 calories all before during the course of the day, including your 200 calorie protein shake. Your body burns up 500 calories worth of fat.

      Scenario 2: You eat 1300 calories during the day. Your body burns 700 calories worth of fat. You then eat a 200 calorie protein shake after dinner. Your body stores 200 calories of fat. Your net for the day is still your body has burned 500 calories worth of fat.

      This is an overly simplistic view of things and not how it actually works but my point is that, even using the assumption that calories consumed before bed end up as fat, the net effect is the same.

      • KastorNevierre@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        The net effect is not the same, specifically because of that simplistic view.

        OP is trying to cut. Generating extra fat cells works against that process - even if he ends up using the energy stored in those fat cells, the cells do not die off - they remain and add a layer of adipose tissue between the muscles and skin.

        It’s not something most of us worry about very much, but for someone trying to achieve a lean look, it’s undesirable.

        CICO is “bro science” that works for the vast majority of us, but those minutia you’re glossing over are actually important in this scenario.