The Case for Eating more Carbs in the Evening

[Ca.]

I've been having a few more salads, in the evenings. Not necessarily craving them, but feeling that with the onset of winter just needed to put on a couple pounds for improved body fat insulation. Polar bear i be.

Cold showers are much cooler but feel good and more tolerant. I am actuality enjoy them more, the more i take them.

Just made some chicken soup. Stocked with carrots, celery, onions (lots of) garlic, fine herbs, and ginseng, May put a small amount of brown rice seeing your recommendation of a slight carb boost will be of benefit.

it seems it will help during a longer winter hike in the low and high mountains and at higher elevations.

P.S- Never get tired of eggs and bacon. With about 4 tables spoons of 4 different kinds of (grass fed) fat compilation.

First thing in the am mornings Hmmm hmmmm Good :)

Thank you for the intelligence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenees

 

[Chad]

As per a few other commenters, i almost exclusively eat carbs in the evening, and like the others, it tends to work with my digestion. Since going Keto and since i still drink 160gs+ of fat in the morning/afternoon (coffee fat bomb), i don't fret too much about my carb intake (rarely have cravings for anything) but since it can take some energy with digestion, i prefer to have them with my 'biggest' meal which is dinner.

Overall my day to day eating looks like:
AM: Coffee fat bomb + Pate + a few slices of cured ham (prosciutto, Brezaola, Serano ham)
Lunch: Light: more pate and sliced meats. OR Proper: Either a pork belly strip or prawns in homemade mayo - maybe a few leaves of salad.
Dinner: Piece of fatty meat/fish with less than 30gs of carbs - some cauliflower mash (love it right now) and 2 florets of broccoli or some friend onion or some green beans.
Dessert: 2 pieces of dark choc

And snacking doesn't happen but every other day i'll have a handful of blueberries. They can be a nice pick-me-up after dinner or mid-day but this is only if i'm at home and it's rarely because I’m 'hungry'

I have found, and it may be due to my metabolism and/or state of health (still recovering from whiplash) but sometimes it has helped having a carby snack JUST before bed otherwise it feels as though my cortisol can begin to shoot up, also it may help that the light digestion efforts lulls me (eventually) to sleep. Whether it's something to do with low blood sugar or something i'm not sure but taking L-carnitine didn't do much to help (nor did Glycine) and it must be only a small snack - piece of dark choc, FEW nuts or berries but mainly berries. (This is just something i realised and actually hasn't happened for a few months)

I think because it felt like more work digesting some carbs that not only was it only more efficient to have in the evening as it doesn't interfere with any work but it also helps relax. Having a fast metabolism or at least not being quick to gain weight and not having an issue with overeating (except portion control!) i only tend to shy away from the veggies that potentially have issues like nightshades, but i'll have 3 cherry tomato's with salad or dinner, because i know overall i'm not going to gorge and then have carb cravings the next day, that's actually yet to happen.

 

[Arwenn]

When I was in full keto (& I was measuring my blood ketones with a meter), I felt tired, depressed and that brain fog never seemed to fully go. The iodine helped fix a lot of those issues I was having but diet wise, I simply do better with carbs. I may give oats a go and see what results I get. Thanks for staring this thread Laura!

 

[monotonic]

I feel great in total keto, except I become overwhelmingly apathetic. But I am going to see if iodine helps with that.

 

[Beau]

Beau, what's your blood type? I'm A+, curious if its sort of related to the blood type diet (with O doing best without carbs perhaps?).

I'm O+. I don't know that blood type is an indicator in this specific situation. There's probably a multitude of factors that go into how a person's body deals with specific dietary lifestyles like keto/zero carbs.

 

[kalibex]

I remember stumbling across some paleo folks on another board (might have been Paleo Hacks) who said they were having problems on super low carbs. At the time (this was a couple of years ago, as I recall), some of them were experimenting with adding 'resistant starch' into their diet - to keep their gut fauna happy.

Mark's Daily Apple did a short article about same:
_http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-definitive-guide-to-resistant-starch/#axzz3xQ32kDox_

 

[Jacques]

Even though I try not to eat too many carbs, when I do it's almost exclusively at night. I noticed that when I ate carbs with breakfast, I didn't do as well. But at night if it's a salad or whatever, I seem to do fine. I wasn't doing horribly when I was zero carb, which was for a while, but I know that since going back to eating some veggies with dinner I do feel better.

Just a "me too".

I pretty much figured out on my own that breakfast should be keto, lunch should be keto, and dinner can be carby. Or, dinner can be keto/paleo and post-dinner snack can be carby. If I do that, everything is fine.

The absolute worst is carbs for breakfast. That's a no-no for me. I don't feel awful or anything, but it's like it throws my system out of whack for the rest of the day.

Finally, the re-inclusion of some carbs means I've actually managed to gain 2kg, which for me is a good thing. I'm still 13kg under my American Junkfood Diet weight. I still have all the Keto Perks, like more rapid healing, increased strength, etc.

I have strongly suspected for awhile now that pure keto is good for far fewer people than we think. I think the key is to get the ketone-burning systems up and running again, and then experiment and adjust the diet for optimal performance over the longer term. That will naturally involve different tweaks for different peeps.

As you said Scottie, just a "me too" for Beau post and your post.

Breakfast = very close to no carbs, just bacon, eggs, coconut oil, avocado and curcuma.
If lunch and most of the time there is none, it is mostly keto (bone broth, MCT oil or something similar)
And for dinner, mostly keto with some vegetables, butter and mayo.
And sometimes, a little little snack during the evening with some carbs. It does help me to sleep better.

For me it is a big NO to eat as much lipid in the evening as I eat in the morning. My system does not take it and although most of the time, we have dinner around 16h30, I have a very poor digestion through the evening and the night and I always wake-up around 2 AM which is called the liver hour (http://www.holisticbynature.com.au/2014/04/why-you-wake-up-at-the-same-time-every-night-pt-1/). But If I eat less lipid for dinner, I don't wake up during that time.

I have also gain a couple of pounds since I'm eating more carbs and I feel less depressed.

I'm trying to find my max of carbs while staying in keto. But so far, I can easily eat 50g of carbs and stay in keto.

 

[Joe]

From all I've ready thus far, I think the important thing is to restrict the carbs to very late in the day or early evening. I'll be interested to see how many issues this clears up for various people.

Sounds like a good test... but I'd advise to not eat carbs last thing before bed, but rather immediately after the last meal of the day, which ideally should be as early as possible. I think some people's sleep might not be the best if digestion is ongoing while sleeping. So if bedtime is 10 or 11 or whatever. Then last dinner with some carbs should be 6 or 7 at the latest.

 

[Kawika]

Even though I try not to eat too many carbs, when I do it's almost exclusively at night. I noticed that when I ate carbs with breakfast, I didn't do as well. But at night if it's a salad or whatever, I seem to do fine. I wasn't doing horribly when I was zero carb, which was for a while, but I know that since going back to eating some veggies with dinner I do feel better.

Just a "me too".

Me three :)

I find that I feel better eating some carbs at dinner, when I was on very low carbs I lost so much weight that I became skin and bones and it seemed that I was losing muscle mass also. Adding a bit of carbs I gained back some weight and feel stronger.

 

[Mark]

I feel better having some carbs with dinner. I tried strict keto and that was Ok I guess, but I had some joint pain from old injuries that hadn't bothered me in decades. Then I noticed if I had a little bit of carbs the pain would go away for the most part. If I have too much then I start to feel tired and the next day I don't feel so good. So a little bit is Ok, too much is definitely bad for me.

After I get much further along with the iodine therapy I'll try strict keto again and see how that works.

 

[T.C.]

Just made some chicken soup. Stocked with carrots, celery, onions (lots of) garlic, fine herbs, and ginseng, May put a small amount of brown rice seeing your recommendation of a slight carb boost will be of benefit.

Hi c.a.

Don't know if you have any sensitivities, but when it comes to rice, you're better off with white rice. Most of the lectins in rice is in the bran.

I also feel like I've craved more carbs with it being winter. In summer, I didn't crave anything at all and lost a lot of weight. I put weight back on when I started eating fatbombs, but that also coincided with shorter days/longer nights and colder weather. I've only been eating breakfast for the last two or three weeks, but I'm still hovering around 76kg/168lbs. In the summer, I was around 68kg/149lbs.

Anyway, I went out and got some oats today because I like the sound of having something else to eat and if it'll help with detoxing, that's great (for those in the UK who are going to try them, Sainsbury's supermarket do an organic bag). I just had a half a cup; couldn't resist adding some cocoa powder and stevia :)

I'll see whether it stimulates appetite, affects my sleep later, how my stomach feels and most of all for myself, I'll be monitoring my mood, thoughts, brainfog etc.

 

[monotonic]

Why oats? Gluten?

 

[Redrock12]

Lately I've been eating brown rice sautéed with coconut oil, butter, hot sauce, turmeric, garlic powder, powdered ginger, broccoli, and ground beef or pork or chicken, for my evening meal. For dessert I usually have 3 medjool dates, which satisfies my sweet tooth. Although I very occasionally have a couple of pieces of sprouted grain toast, along with 3 eggs fried in butter and coconut oil for breakfast, it's usually eggs only, interspersed with bacon about three times a week.
Although I've historically been a big meat eater, I did not do well on a strictly keto diet, (although I still eat too much meat.) I generally felt overall crappy with no energy. With the present regimen, I feel better, have more energy, sleep better, and have lost about 5 pounds.

 

[T.C.]

Why oats? Gluten?

The main issue with gluten in oats is through contamination, not the oats themselves. And if you read what Laura put in the original post:

And, if the person is not super gluten sensitive, oats because they have so many other benefits.

See: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/oatmeal-everyday-powerfood.html

It is also the case that some fiber type things can help carry toxic stuff out of the colon and with quite a number of us finding that we have loads of toxins that are being released by iodine therapy, maybe this is part of the answer?

 

[T.C.]

5. Gluten-free safe.

I am gluten sensitive and have no problem with oatmeal. If you are gluten intolerant or have celiac disease there is some cause for concern. Oats lack many of the prolamines (proteins) found in wheat (gluten) but oats do contain avenin. Avenin is a prolamine that is considered toxic to the intestinal mucosa of avenin-sensitive individuals. Oats can also contain gluten from nearby wheat field contamination and processing facilities. Many studies have shown that many celiacs can consume wheat free oats with no problems.

So just because Laura is suggesting an experiment, it isn't a 'go ahead' for for everyone to just start eating loads of oats. As always with diet, it's a personal, case by case, thing. I personally haven't had any overt gluten sensitivity, but I'm just using them as a nice change/addition and seeing what effect adding some more carbs into my diet will have.