What to eat at night

nextinline

Hi guys, I'm currently trying to lose weight and would appreciate some advice. My diet currently consists of porridge with low fat milk and orange juice for breakfast. Dinner is something like a chicken fillet, wholegrain rice, carrots, broccoli. Tea is the whites of 2 hard boiled eggs, a slice of turkey, a tomato, some cucumber. Snacks are 2/3 fruits. At night then I would always have another bowl of porridge, but i think this might be too much porridge a day?
Any advice on how I could improve my diet?
Thanks

Brian?

It's hard to know if it's too much porridge as it all comes down to total kcals over the day.

Do you record your diet? Do you know how many calories you should be and are eating in a day?

Mellor

You haven't given a single quantity do it could be anywhere.
For example a chicken fillet could be anywhere from 100g-300g, the calories triple accordingly

TommyKnocker

Also no information given on Height, Weight, Age, Sex & current activity level (couch potato or running marathons/gym 6 days a week), so there is no way to begin to guesstimate what your daily calorie requirements would be.

nextinline

Thanks for the responses. I'm female, 22, 5'4, 65kg, currently going to the gym for a good hour 5 or 6 times a week. As for portion sizes I don't measure them as such, chicken fillets would just be medium, average size and for other foods its usually whats recommended on the packet so like 40g porridge, 60g rice, etc

Scioch

Start recording the amounts you eat and work out the calories, its the only way your gonna know where you stand in regards to if getting the right amount of calories to lose weight efficiently. You want to keep yourself below what your body requires to maintain the weight but not too low as to starve yourself.

What helped me was using myfitnesspal.com to log what I eat so I know what I needed, what I was getting and what each food was contributing. Keep an eye on the ratios of protein/carbs/fats of the meals and your daily total (all done for you on that website). If your over your carbs google low carb foods, if your not getting enough protein good high protein foods and same with fats.

Best way to change your diet I think is yourself by trial and error while being aware of the make up of the food which myfitnesspal will help you with. So when you do eventually get to grips with it you'll not only have found something tailored to yourself but you'll also be a lot more knowledgeable about foods in relation to your own diet.

TommyKnocker

Well this is just an approximation from a non expert here, but using this site I worked out what is known as your "Basal Metabolic Rate" or BMR. This is the number of calories your body needs just to surive. Basically if you lay in bed all day, you would expect to burn around this number of calories. From what I have read, you should never eat below your BMR figure and especially not over a prolonged period of time.

The formula used is called the "Harris Benidict Formula".

English BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

Metric BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

Your BMR came out at 1474 calories.

Next I factored in your activity level based on chart on this page.

Harris Benedict Formula

To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
3. If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

I chose option 3 (Moderately Active) as your multiplier. So I multiplied your BMR figure by 1.55 and came up with a daily calorie requirement for you of ~2284 calories.

This is called your maintenance figure and is the number of calories required daily to maintain your current weight. If your goal is to lose weight, then you should knock about 500 calories a day from your maintenance figure, so you should be eating about 1784 calories daily at the moment.

An important thing to remember is to recalulate your calorie requirements as you drop weight because your BMR will come down as you get lighter, which will have a knock on effect on you daily calorie requirements when you factor in your ativites.

Some advice I would give you based purely on what I found worked for me is

• Life is for living and enjoying. Eating healthy, nutritious food/meals should never feel like a chore. Healty home cookd food tastes nicer, will keep you fuller longer and give you loads of energy and lots of health benifits.

• Make 3 of your days in the gym "Resistance training" days (weights). This will encourage your body to hold on to muscle and shed fat It's important to have a healthy body composition (fat to lean tissue ratio). Being healthy is more than a number on a scales that you are happy with.
• Cut down the amount of carbs you get from starch (bread, pasta, rice, potatos etc) and increase your fiberous carbs (veg with some fruits)
• Don't be afraid of healthy fats (Olive oil, Coconut oil, Advacados, Oily Fish, nuts, nut butters, butter etc)
• To break down your diet I would look towards 2g of protein per kg of body weight (130g in your case). This means that as protein has 4 cals/g, 520 calories from your total of 1784 come from good protein sources (chicken, beef, fish, eggs, Milk). This leaves around 1260 calories to come from Carbs and fats. Carbs also provide 4 cals/g while mosts fats provide 9 cals/g. Coconut Oil provides 6 cals/g. Personally I would break the 1280 remaining calories up 50%/50% carbs/fats at the start and see how you get on. You can always tweak these later

These figures are not carved in stone either. They are purely meant as a guide.

• Don't weigh yourself every day or even every week. Every 2 weeks or every month is more than enough, and always weigh yourself at the same time of day under the same conditions (i.e. every Friday morning when you get up and after you have used the loo and naked). You will also see how you are progressing from how your clothes fit, how you look in the mirror and possibly compliments from friends and work colleagues.

I would also advise you to see if your gym do Kettlebell classes as I find these great for cutting body fat.



Have a look at this young womans site for ideas of kettlebell workouts. This young woman lifts weights and uses KB and in my personal opinion looks amazingly fit and toned and in no way looks like a female version of Arnie


Sorry for the long post, but I hope you find at least some of the above helpful.

nextinline

Thanks very much TommyKnocker for that detailed response, its very useful advice and I really appreciate it

steve_r

I also found the above very useful, so thanks for taking the time.

TommyKnocker

nextinline wrote: »

Thanks very much TommyKnocker for that detailed response, its very useful advice and I really appreciate it

I just noticed that after all that waffle above I didn't answer the question posed in the title of the thread "What to eat at night"

Again this is my personal experience, but I usually train in the evenings, around 18:00-19:30 including (warm up and post workout stretching).

After a cardio/conditioning workout I would usually just have some sort of protein with some steamed veg or salad. After weights, I would usually grab a protein shake immediately after and then a light meal as above about 1 hour after that, after I have showered.

I don't eat starchy carbs at all except for 30g of oats in the morning for breakfast, and I dont find the meals outlined above affect my sleeping as they are not that heavy. Honestly, giving up starchy carbs was about the best thing I have ever done with reagrds my health.

So really IMHO you can pretty much eat what ever you want (healty foods of course )at night as long as you are within you daily calorie requirements, but I did find when I was eating starches that having pasta, rice, potatos so close to bedtime made for restless sleep and feeling bloated. Now without them I sleep like a baby.

Gummy Panda

TommyKnocker wrote: »

I just noticed that after all that waffle above I didn't answer the question posed in the title of the thread "What to eat at night"

Again this is my personal experience, but I usually train in the evenings, around 18:00-19:30 including (warm up and post workout stretching).

After a cardio/conditioning workout I would usually just have some sort of protein with some steamed veg or salad. After weights, I would usually grab a protein shake immediately after and then a light meal as above about 1 hour after that, after I have showered.

I don't eat starchy carbs at all except for 30g of oats in the morning for breakfast, and I dont find the meals outlined above affect my sleeping as they are not that heavy. Honestly, giving up starchy carbs was about the best thing I have ever done with reagrds my health.

So really IMHO you can pretty much eat what ever you want (healty foods of course )at night as long as you are within you daily calorie requirements, but I did find when I was eating starches that having pasta, rice, potatos so close to bedtime made for restless sleep and feeling bloated. Now without them I sleep like a baby.

Does it not affect your ability to lift without the starchy carbs?

TommyKnocker

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Does it not affect your ability to lift without the starchy carbs?

I haven't found that to be the case. I am still eating carbs, just not starch based carbs. However I am almost 50 :eek: so I am not looking to get huge or anything. Just stay healthy, strong and control my weight. I find that I can still work towards increasing my lifts. I recover well and have no real problems.

I am curious to know why you think not eating starchy carbs would be a problem, but don't wish to take the OP's thread off topic.

Gummy Panda

TommyKnocker wrote: »

I haven't found that to be the case. I am still eating carbs, just not starch based carbs. However I am almost 50 :eek: so I am not looking to get huge or anything. Just stay healthy, strong and control my weight. I find that I can still work towards increasing my lifts. I recover well and have no real problems.

I am curious to know why you think not eating starchy carbs would be a problem, but don't wish to take the OP's thread off topic.

I tried lifting lowish carb before but after about third workout I felt depleted. I also got a bit of low blood sugar after one workout and had to be given a sugary drink.

mufcboy1999

without going to much into it as people seemed to have answered your question already. You have to cut out the porridge at night, yes a good source of complex carbs and food but unless your loading up on carbs for some sort of training, event etc there is absolute no need for them that late at night.

your diet seems ok, but seriously keep the carbs to a minimum if any at all late at night or whenever you settle down for the evening for that matter. If you learn how to cycle your carbs in con-junction with your diet, it will benefit you in so many ways.

nextinline

Thanks again for the responses. So would I be better off eating a few fruits or something then, to avoid eating those sort of carbs at night? You see I usually have my evening meal at around 5/5.30 and would be hungry again at 9 and then I would get away with just having the one bowl of porridge whereas if I didn't have it and other things instead I'd say I'd eat more calories, so now its more the worry of having those sort of carbs at night, rather than the calories, if you get me? (Say if bed at 11.30ish btw)

mufcboy1999

nextinline wrote: »

Thanks again for the responses. So would I be better off eating a few fruits or something then, to avoid eating those sort of carbs at night? You see I usually have my evening meal at around 5/5.30 and would be hungry again at 9 and then I would get away with just having the one bowl of porridge whereas if I didn't have it and other things instead I'd say I'd eat more calories, so now its more the worry of having those sort of carbs at night, rather than the calories, if you get me? (Say if bed at 11.30ish btw)

Fruits before bed would be an even worse choice man, full of sugary simple carbs stay clear of fruits in the evening unless you train then.

Try cutting out carbs completely or at least very few after 6 pm unless again you plan on training, you dont have to do this to lose weight but from my own personal experience cutting out carbs after 6 is great for shedding body fat. Eggs, chicken breasts, turkey, dairy products etc are all mostly 0 to low in carbs.

As far as the calories v carbs look at it this way if your in a calorie deficit you'll lose weight , simple as. Low carb diets arnt for everyone and are very hard to get use to, so just do what works for you, if your losing weight continue on what your doing If not switch it up.

nextinline

Thanks alot mufcboy1999, ill give the turkey/chicken/eggs or whichever a try instead.