Just like breakfast is the first meal of the day when you BREAK the nighttime sleeping fast, MAKEfast is your last meal of the day before your sleeping fast. In this video we are going to talk about this very important last meal of the day.
Many people say that its just IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) and calories in / calories out that matters, I disagree with that. Lets look at some important things to factor in when deciding how much and what to eat on this important last meal of the day.
- Sleep quality
- Hunger
- Muscle synthisis
Lets start with sleep quality. As I cover in my sleep and bodybuilding page, the quality and quantiy of sleep is critical to gaining muscle. If you are losing weight then quality sleep is critical to make sure you are losing fat and not muscle. If you have a large meal right before going to bed its gonna mess with your sleep. If you have a fatty meal like pizza right before going to bed, you are likely to be up all night burping. Its not just IIFYM. Conversely, there are some foods that can help you sleep better. Milk is one that seems to help many sleep better. When planning your last meal, think about SLEEP!
Now lets talk about hunger. Hungry people do NOT sleep well. If you try to go to bed with a growling stomach you will NOT sleep well. See #1, sleep quality is critical! You know what works for you. If you are trying to lose weight, making your last meal of the day smaller makes sense because you wont be needing that energy during the night but only to the extent that it doesnt make you hungry. For me personally, if I am on a caloric deficit, I need to have 5 or 6 small well balanced meals to keep from being hungry so I need to eat before going to bed. If you are doing IF and can go to sleep without having eaten for hours, then thats fine. When planning your last meal, think about avoiding nighttime hunger.
Now lets talk about the most contentious, nighttime muscle synthesis. There are two camps here and its like a religious war so you have to decide which side you are on. The IF (Intermittent Fasting) people and the oldschool MSM people (Many Small Meal). The MSM people say that its optimal for muscle building to spread out your protein consumpion as much as possible so if you believe this, you need to make sure your Makefast has a good dose of protein because you wont be getting any all night long. If you are in the IF camp, then it doesnt matter the macros of what you eat for your last meal – just complete your macros for the day.
So lets give some general guidelines for Makefast, the last meal of the day.
If you are trying to lose weight, eat just enough so you are no longer hungry.
If you are in the MSM camp with me, make sure your last meal has about 1/5 of your daily protein
So, what is a good last meal of the day, a “Makefast”?
- a home made protein shake
- a glass of nonfat milk and a bowl of shrdded wheat
- a glass of nonfat milk and oatmeal
- nonfat cottage cheese and fruit
- nonfat, unsweetened yougurt and fruit
What are some horrible Makefasts:
- a six pack of beer
- a pizza
- a supersized big mac meal
- a dozen donuts
BTW, I have to give credit for the term “Makefast” to Charlie on the sweat4health forum