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My nutritionist told me on days like that, a smoothie (Greek yogurt, frozen fruit, spinach, oat milk) is a good option because it’s easy to digest. Or soup. Something lighter. If you go too heavy, takes longer to digest and will keep you awake or make sleep a bit harder.
Depending on your health conditions, I would first say most anything in moderation at that time is ok. Since you are training at a late time I believe a small amount of high glycemic carbs and something such as a protein shake would be ok at that time. The debate of carbs early vs carbs late has been argued for a long time. Generally just apply moderation and you should be ok. I generally go for low glycemic carbs like smart pop 100 calorie bags or a handful of almonds. As with any meal or snack it is good to have protein. If it’s a meal 20-40g or with a snack like smart pop I’ll drink some whey protein to match the popcorn so it will look like 25g protein 25g carbs.
I am in the same boat in terms of timing of meals due to gym and BJJ. I find a protein shake with whole milk as soon as I get home to be best. It doesn’t mess with my sleep and I feel it helps with recovery. Individual results may vary though.
I’d say it truly depends on your goals. One of the reasons people suggest not eating close to bed is because the insulin in your body isn’t going to react well to eating at night. If you have to eat I’d go for a salad or veggies. Here’s an article that can explain it better than me https://health.clevelandclinic.org/is-eating-before-bed-bad-for-you/amp/
Eggs!
Edit to say this surely is weird for us audience. Where I’m from eggs are a staple dinner and not breakfast. Also, milk has plenty of sugar and the first recommended from my last endocrinologist was to avoid it at night. Hope this helps!!
You could always go the route of getting casein powder for making a good shake. Add in some berries or other fruits and maybe even a teaspoon of honey. And a tablespoon of peanut butter and all your macros are covered.
Have some pre cooked rice in the freezer and do a quick veg stir fry? Then add the rice at the end.
Or baked beans on toast, or an omelette, or if I can’t be assed a bowl of oats and nuts and hot milk or water? I still wake up hungry but I do get to sleep
I’m curious why eating late matters? Do you have GI issues or some other health related concerns with eating before bed? There is a lot of misinformation around when and what to eat, most of it is just noise. People tend to overeat/binge late night, so avoiding eating at night is easy advice to lose weight or lower calories. The differences between eating the same food at 5pm vs 10pm is minimal
The recommendation for diabetics seems to be about 150 to 200 cal, mostly fat and protein, some carbs is OK.
I think it’s an amount to sate you without overdoing it.
An example is two boiled eggs (I add salt), or crackers and cheese totaling about 150 to maybe 200 cal.
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Take a page out of their book. Diabetics really have to make sure they don’t over eat and shoot their blood sugar high.
And apparently all humans benefit from not messing up hormones overnight by having to digest when the body should be doing just the opposite.
Ultimately, we seem to have same goals as the diabetics, and they’ve got it figured out. Two eggs.