# Oats before bed



## Andy Dee

As i really struggle to eat carbs for a first meal in the morning, was wondering if its acceptable to have oats as a bedtime meal to leave me with some carb energy till midday?


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## tom_91

It will keep your body anabolic during the night and encourage your body to burn fat in the morning as it uses it as its main source of energy. Or so i read.


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## jakelad

Carbs are stored as fat when they are not being used for energy so it 'can' be a bad idea having them before bed


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## madmanc89

jakelad said:


> Carbs are stored as fat when they are not being used for energy so it 'can' be a bad idea having them before bed


 x2. carbs before bed are a big no no IMO. why dont you have a protein/carb shake in the morning. i do this as istruggle with carbs in the morning


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## big_jim_87

i wouldnt have oats b4 bed on a regular basis buddy you will get fat and bloated and you deffo aint gina be hungry in the morning! lol i have shyt loads of food in the day then 1-2meals b4 bed no carbs then i wake up nice and hungry


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## kaos_nw

I used to belive carbs before bed were sacrilege! but recently thought fvck it and nearly always have cereal, oats, popcorn, bread etc before bed and I have carried on loosing fat, whilst keeping muscle


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## engllishboy

jakelad said:


> Carbs are stored as fat when they are not being used for energy so it 'can' be a bad idea having them before bed


Protein and Fat are stored as fat when not used aswell buddy.


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## Will101

I wouldn't. Carbs are an energy source and you don't need much energy to sleep so just makes no sense.

Also, i'm no expert but would the effectiveness of the carbs as an energy source have finished by the time you get up?


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## Kezz

you cant get fat overnight and if what you eat is part of your overall calories it makes no difference when you eat them


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## hilly

LMAO, why would eating some oats before bed make you fat. if some1 in this thread can explain to me how this will work i will send you 100 pound today.

If im eating 500 cals a day and its all in oats before bed i will get fat then surely LMAO


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## dsldude

Exactly carbs is carbs and calories is calories no matter what time of the day.

But the idea that you can eat some carbs at bed and then leave it 12-13 hrs till you

have to have some more isnt very good, if you cant handle porridge first thing

in the morning just get some fine oats and blend it with your shake.


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## BigDom86

i drink 100g oats 60g whey and 15ml EVOO before bed. same as my morning shake. both with 1 pint of milk


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## Mikazagreat

Did that for a while bulking was doin very good gains but added some seirous bodyfats.


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## glen danbury

jakelad said:


> Carbs are stored as fat when they are not being used for energy so it 'can' be a bad idea having them before bed


BS - excess calories make you fat

in '07 I was eating 100g of oats with whey before bed and still managed to get lean enough doing this to step on stage and win

if it fits in with your macro needs its fine


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## Guest

andysutils said:


> As i really struggle to eat carbs for a first meal in the morning, was wondering if its acceptable to have oats as a bedtime meal to leave me with some carb energy till midday?


I generally try not to eat carbs before bed, as some guys here i think already said that it's stored as fat, plus why do you need energy when you going to bed to sleep...unless you are planning on all nighter sexy time, hahahaha.

I prefer to eat cottage cheese and mix bit of pine apple in it... and a glass of milk, if still hungry after maybe sneak a little bit of serial again with milk. I like anything that feeds your body all night with protein (casing).

If you say dont want to eat porridge everyday in the morning... try ask your mum, girlfriend...lol or do your self some pancakes for the morning, which a great... two soft boiled eggs with two ry bread toasts... have a banana if that dont feel you... some guys mix protein shake in their porridge too....

hope this is useful


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## Guest

or if your in a real rush and dont have time for hardly anything... jsut blend a big protein shake, with bit of milk, bit of water, berrys, banana, myabe an apple... something for fiber... if you dont want to eat porridge.

Shake like that will sure feel you up, only trouble if on a morning shift or soemthing like that, ull wake the hell out of people in the house, ha


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## hilly

NikstaC said:


> I generally try not to eat carbs before bed, as some *guys here i think already said that it's stored as fat*, plus why do you need energy when you going to bed to sleep...unless you are planning on all nighter sexy time, hahahaha.
> 
> I prefer to eat cottage cheese and mix bit of pine apple in it... and a glass of milk, if still hungry after maybe sneak a little bit of serial again with milk. I like anything that feeds your body all night with protein (casing).
> 
> If you say dont want to eat porridge everyday in the morning... try ask your mum, girlfriend...lol or do your self some pancakes for the morning, which a great... two soft boiled eggs with two ry bread toasts... have a banana if that dont feel you... some guys mix protein shake in their porridge too....
> 
> hope this is useful


could you explain the bit in bold please??

also i would like my body to have some form of energy while i am sleeping for growth and repair but thats just me


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## zelobinksy

Personally i prefer carbs earlier in the day, your body has little need for a large amount of carbs late at night.

carbs are your primary energy source, so basically your just fueling your self for nothing...?

If you want some carbs, just have a protein shake with milk, you'l get nearly 10g carbs from the milk alone, late at night its really protein you'll want.


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## hsmann87

andysutils said:


> As i really struggle to eat carbs for a first meal in the morning, was wondering if its acceptable to have oats as a bedtime meal to leave me with some carb energy till midday?


nothing is set in stone.

try it. if it works, then great.

if not, then change it up.

thats the name of the game.


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## glen danbury

zelobinksy said:


> Personally i prefer carbs earlier in the day, *your body has little need for a large amount of carbs late at night.*
> 
> carbs are your primary energy source, so basically your just fueling your self for nothing...?
> 
> If you want some carbs, just have a protein shake with milk, you'l get nearly 10g carbs from the milk alone, late at night its really protein you'll want.


bold statement considering you dont know the persons activity and lifestyle

whilst there is some evidence that glucose tolerance decreases as the day goes on this is probably skewed somewhat because of peoples eating habits and lifestyle

if your active at night IMO carbs would almost become essential. if your trying to gain weight then limiting kcal intake for half the day by retricting a food/macro source isnt a logical step

excess kcals make you fat - so if adding the oats in before bed puts you over your energy needs then you will get fat, if not its fine


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## PaulB

I have 100g of oats before bed. I do it to keep myself in an anabolic state whilst sleeping. Everybody is different, if you are a hard gainer and the calories are part of your daily intake I dont see a problem. If you are going well over your calorie requirements then you may put on some fat. People under estimate the body, if you are working hard in the gym and generally have an active lifestyle the body will utilise the macronutrients to their best advantage no matter what time you eat them. IMO


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## PaulB

I cant eat in the mornings nor do I have the time to cook eggs etc... so I just have a shake. 100g oats, 25g protein, 500ml milk, 20g dextrose. You could add some olive oil to that as well. Blend the oats so they are quite fine.

Dont forget you should be aiming to eat at least every 3 hours so leaving yourself until midday before eating will put you in a catabolic state which you definitely dont want.


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## Mr.GoodKat

I don't think that there is any scientific evidence to support the myth that eating before bed will make you fat. I think that eating before bed is just down to personal perference (I prefer to avoid eating before bed).

Anyway, going back to the original post, would eating oats before bed see you through to midday?

If it were me, I'd still have a late breakfast regardless of having some oats before bed?


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## jakelad

The reason I said it 'can' be a bad idea is because obviously to many carbs an calories that we don't burn, gets stored as fat. Correct me if I'm wrong but there is 4kcals to 1g of carbs? Obviously we don't use as much energy through the night than during the day, so how do we know how many carbs before bed is to much?


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## JohnR

Can anyone tell me exactly how long after youve eaten oats or any other low glycemic carb source does it take before youre body actually uses it as energy Always makes me laugh when I hear people say " I always have porridge an hour before I train to give me energy" surely it must take a good while to pass through your digestive system & for your liver to convert it to glycogen I can understand if it was a high glycemic carb source as you get a sudden spike in blood sugar levels but Id have thought with something like oats youd be using what you ate the day before maybe Im way off the mark I dont know


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## Andy Dee

I dont have a problem eating first thing, I just have a problem eating carbs first thing.

My breakfast is 4 whole eggs, 1 scoop whey powder and 1 tspoon of peanut butter.


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## dsldude

andysutils said:


> I dont have a problem eating first thing, I just have a problem eating carbs first thing.
> 
> My breakfast is 4 whole eggs, 1 scoop whey powder and 1 tspoon of peanut butter.


Just put some oats in with the whey then jobdone.


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## dsldude

jakelad said:


> The reason I said it 'can' be a bad idea is because obviously to many carbs an calories that we don't burn, gets stored as fat. Correct me if I'm wrong but there is 4kcals to 1g of carbs? Obviously we don't use as much energy through the night than during the day, so how do we know how many carbs before bed is to much?


Correct, but some people seem to think that 200 calories of protein is magically not going to get converted to fat in the body, but 200 calories of carbs will easy go straight to fat, Any calories no matter what the source will end up as bodyfat if its in excess to your body's needs.


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## chrisj22

dsldude said:


> Just put some oats in with the whey then jobdone.


Bingo!

I can't remember the last time I sat down and actually ate a bowl of oats.

Just chuck them in your shaker with some whey and blend it up :thumbup1:

To the OP; I believe in book-ending the day, so I'll generally have what I had for breakfast as my last meal also.

And I also agree with Hilly - you won't store fat having oats before bed. It's a load of tosh that urban myth.

Fair enough if you were ramming a bag of chips down you everynight, but everyone knows that oats are very slowly released.


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## Spriggen

The only problem I found I've had with getting oats down me before bed is it causes me to have a sh1te sleep (usually keep waking up)


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## Andy Dee

Lol!


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## jakelad

chrisj22 said:


> Bingo!
> 
> I can't remember the last time I sat down and actually ate a bowl of oats.
> 
> Just chuck them in your shaker with some whey and blend it up :thumbup1:
> 
> To the OP; I believe in book-ending the day, so I'll generally have what I had for breakfast as my last meal also.
> 
> And I also agree with Hilly - you won't store fat having oats before bed. It's a load of tosh that urban myth.
> 
> Fair enough if you were ramming a bag of chips down you everynight, but everyone knows that oats are very slowly released.


how on earth can it be a myth? Its a known fact that what kcals an carbs u don't burn gets stored as fat. Like I said in my previous post, it depends because we don't know how much we burn


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## hilly

jakelad said:


> Carbs are stored as fat when they are not being used for energy so it 'can' be a bad idea having them before bed


i think he is refering to this quote and others.

the only way we can store fat is if we are eating more than we need to maintain and grow.

if im eating 60 grams of protein and 20g fat before bed and building muscle but not fat then i switch it to 30p/30c/20f i will not get any fatter.

this is what he meant. you stating the above makes no sense and can be misleading


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## chrisj22

hilly said:


> i think he is refering to this quote and others.
> 
> the only way we can store fat is if we are eating more than we need to maintain and grow.
> 
> if im eating 60 grams of protein and 20g fat before bed and building muscle but not fat then i switch it to 30p/30c/20f i will not get any fatter.
> 
> this is what he meant. you stating the above makes no sense and can be misleading


Thanks mate, I couldn't have said it better :thumbup1:


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## glen danbury

jakelad said:


> how on earth can it be a myth? Its a known fact that what kcals an carbs u don't burn gets stored as fat. Like I said in my previous post, it depends because we don't know how much we burn


yes but kcals from fat and to a degree protein will have the same effect (Ok granted protein has a slight metabolic advantage but not enough to radically change one meals effects on adipose IMO)

so if you over eat before bed significantly you will get fat - totally agree, whether its carbs, fats or protein though is pretty much irrelevant IMo - just hit your daily macros

I personally fidn that a good dose of carbs before bed has a sedative effect on me and i sleep better with a good dose of carbs before bed


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## Phez

A question to the experienced members of this thread then.........

Do all of your meals during the day have the exact same macros (or near enough), with the exception of maybe your post and pre-workout meals (unless they're also the same of course)?


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