People have a lot of questions, especially when it comes to nutrition. One of the most common ones is: Is consuming carbohydrates at night a bad idea?
Most people attribute their weight gain to carbohydrate-rich foods. Some even believe that when you eat carbohydrates at night, your body turns them into fat.
You can’t gain fat unless you are consuming more calories than you are burning. That is being in a caloric surplus.
Our human bodily processes and metabolic activities do not function like this.
Carbs are an important macronutrient, required for your body to perform at its best. Consuming carbs can help you build muscle and burn fat.
Did you know that they help with stress as well?
When we are stressed, our bodies produce a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is released in response to stress as part of our body’s “fight or flight” response, and it can affect every cell in our body.
It activates our sympathetic nervous system. When we are unable to properly shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic mode, we can become overloaded with stress.
We should manage our cortisol levels so they peak at the right times, which include when we wake up in the morning, during our workouts and when we need to be alert and focused.
However, we don’t want to spike our cortisol levels at the wrong times, either (i.e., just before bed), as this will lead to a state of stress. Reducing cortisol production allows our bodies to calm down so we can rest and recover.
Carbs can help us control our stress levels by blunting our cortisol response. Consuming them in the evening helps in tapping into a parasympathetic mode which calms us down and helps us sleep.
Additionally, your body undergoes most of its repair and recovery while you’re sleeping, utilizing both protein and carbs as energy sources to repair your muscles. By eating carbs at night, not only are you blocking cortisol production, but you’re also providing the necessary resources for your body to build muscle and burn fat.
Speaking of muscle mass, building it takes a lot of time, energy and resources. Our body requires a lot of energy to power through workouts. Our body gets most of that energy from carbohydrates along with some protein.
When we work our muscles, we use up muscle glycogen. If these glycogen stores are not replenished sufficiently, we can’t push through the rep efficiently. Dieting down, especially by cutting carbs leads to muscle glycogen depletion.
In conclusion, when it comes to losing weight, it is okay to consume carbohydrates provided you are in a caloric deficit and choosing the right sources of carbohydrates.
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