Importance of eating before sleeping

[Rex Sanders]

On the first night of a recent trip the temperature dropped much lower than expected. I wasn’t hungry after I made camp, so tried to sleep without eating dinner.

Big mistake. Every hour I woke up cold and had to do light exercises to warm up.

About midnight, I was awake and hungry, so finally cooked dinner. After dinner, I slept straight through until dawn. The temperature dropped a few more degrees during that time.

So eating before sleeping on cold nights is pretty important. I “knew” that, but now I’ve experienced it.

For me. YMMV.

— Rex

[Tipi Walter]

A hot meal fills the belly bag with radiating heat like sleeping with a hot water bottle.  Esp nice in winter, sucks bad inside a tent during the summer.

[Mike B]

Same for me, I find that the nights I do not eat close to bed time I wake up hungry and cold. I usually try and have a hot drink and a snack before bed time.

[Tom K]

Load up on protein at dinner time.  It has a higher thermic effect than either carbs or fat.

[Franco Darioli]

The word calories comes from a Latin word that means heat.

So “how many calories ?” can be understood as “how much heat “

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I guess being a soft and squishy woman has its benefits. Hot flashes help, too.

[Dena Kelley]

Diane said “I guess being a soft and squishy woman has its benefits. Hot flashes help, too.”

Haha. That was the one upside I found when I began getting hot flashes…”Well, maybe I won’t freeze at night when I’m backpacking!”

[Tom K]

“So “how many calories ?” can be understood as “how much heat “”

Yes.  The question then becomes how much of that heat is generated breaking down the substrate during digestion, and how much is heat generated when the remainder of the substrate is used to produce ATP, or repair muscle damage when the amino acids in protein substrate are used to repair muscle damage.  Thermic effect refers to the former.

[Author]

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