Keto and Carbs before Sleep

(Arne Mister Ito) #1

Hello everyone,

I’ve been keto-adapted for several months now, doing OMAD, and I’m very happy with it. However, there’s one thing I’m still unsure about: whether it’s better for daytime focus and alertness to eat carbs before going to bed — basically at the end of the last meal.

I’ve definitely noticed that I fall asleep faster and sleep longer when I do. But that doesn’t necessarily mean I feel more rested and energized the next day. It could also be that the body simply needs more sleep to process the carbohydrates (to “recover from the carbs,” so to speak). I also suspect that the body might “miss the carbs” the next day (carb withdrawal).

Since I don’t yet have enough personal experience with this, I’d like to ask whether any of you have paid attention to this and have tried both approaches — staying strictly keto during the day and either including or not including 20–50g of carbs before bed — and can share how it affected your mood and mental state the next day.

#2

We actually process carbs worse at night, but they do help sleep, and do lower cortisol, so there’s that.

No, that’s when you’re still dependent on them, not why you’re always glycogen deficient. 20-50g isn’t enough to totally reload you, and especially not enough to then load the muscles and then start spilling over. There’s nothing to recover from, carbs aren’t poison, starch doesn’t equal cupcakes. We have as much dogma and fear in keto as the vegans do, don’t fall victim to that.

Sleep is WAY to important to screw with, if you do better with some before bed, then you do what works for you. I do a hybrid of CDK/TKD, and do much better this way than I did doing strict keto for over 4yrs. Keto isn’t a cookie cutter we all have to fit it, very few if near none of us are doing the “real” ketogenic diet to begin with, we’re doing something based on it. If you feel better, sleep better, your blood sugar stays fine, you don’t have cravings etc, nothing to be afraid of.

(Bob M) #3

I know that many people believe that carbs before sleep lower cortisol, but I cannot find a single study of this. Particularly in people eating low carb diets.

#4

I have tried out so many things, not always intentionally…
Food before bed (about 8 hours after dinner… unless I had multiple dinners. I go to bed quite late, try to change that since decades) definitely makes falling to sleep easier, food has this effect on me (my energy drops after meals). Carbs aren’t better, more like worse as I don’t feel as good if I eat more carbs but I do low-carb since very long and it really suits me. So it’s just food for me, preferably not much carbs.
I even enjoy food more at night BUT… I still consider it’s great, it just doesn’t feel right as I just feel my natural eating window is in the afternoon. So I only consume food late if I didn’t eat right during the day and manage to get hungry - or if I get tempted (but it’s only a nice fatty protein bite then, it was a slice of cheese today and it’s still hours before bed). I never wake up energized but I always was a morning zombie. Really low-carb helps a little.
But it’s me, you should figure out what works best for you.

I definitely don’t miss the carbs, no matter what (not even mentally. my body doesn’t need them and doesn’t want them so that part is very clear). New day, new well fasted state… No matter how I ate, I want low-carb. Well if I really, crazily overdid carbs (not really a danger nowadays, my body is sturdy, it takes a lot and my desires pull me towards mostly animal food), I definitely strongly desire carnivore but that’s extreme. Normally it’s tabula rasa, no pull towards carbs, that’s nice.

#5

There’s an inverse relationship between Insulin and Cortisol. My nighttime cortisol was always high, when I started my TKD/CKD thing, that went to normal.

This is the test I used both times, IMO not worth the price at retail, but they constantly do 50% off and many times give them away for the shipping only when you’re on the list, and that’s when my cheapskate a$$ buys them!

(Arne Mister Ito) #6

Thanks for your replies.

Doesn’t your body miss the carbs at some point later when you take a lot of them at once in terms of CKD?

my goal ist to achieve as much mental focus and performance during daytime. My assumption was that therefore I need many ketones (by fasting) and taking enough sleep, but I don’t know how much is enough sleep if you live keto-adapted and neither i can fully understand the impact of carbs in these terms.

#7

Nope, but you want starchy, not sugary carbs. If I eat sugary crap I’m way more likely to want that kind of stuff, luckily that’s really rare for me. Oatmeal, Sweet Potatoes, 647 Bread, even a protein bread I use sometimes (Sola) is a high protein and fiber bread, which is real bread, but doesn’t mess with me.

To give you an idea of my avg blood sugar…

xdrip
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My old baseline when I was doing strict keto was usually around 110-120, that was for a little over 4yrs. Most of our sugar cravings come back to blood sugar dropping fast. That said, after my moring carbs before the gym I spike, drop usually within 90mins, and no cravings.

Couple years ago when I’d eat them (usually bad ones then on a cheat meal), you’d have to lock up the cabinets…or me!