🍚 Don’t do what sumo wrestlers do

Memorial Day Weekend is just around the corner! Did you know that the first Memorial Day was celebrated by making fruit pizzas in the shape of an American flag?

jk, but wouldn’t that be neat? Here’s one we’ve made in the past. Go try for yourself! 🫐 🍓 🍌 

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Would you like to look like a sumo wrestler?

Unless you’re specifically training to be one (i.e. put on as much bodyweight and fat as possible), my guess is you probably would rather not.

Sumo wrestlers typically try to gain as much weight as possible so they will be heavy and competitive in their matches. One of their key strategies to packing on the pounds is to eat right before they sleep every night. Large, heavy meals, often with bowls and bowls of rice 🍚

Probably sometime around the mid-2000s, my mom and I used to share a bedtime snack together before going to sleep every night. We’d toast a couple chocolate fudge Poptarts and pour ourselves a tall glass of milk to each enjoy alongside a tv show (like Who Wants to be A Millionaire, RIP Regis) before bed. She liked the dry, crusty sides more than the insides of the Poptarts (crazy, right?), so I usually got to eat her middles too :)

While certainly yummy and enjoyable, this probably wasn’t the healthiest ritual for us to have. This time period also happened to coincide with some of my most overweight years. Some of that can be attributed to the awkwardness of 3rd to 6th grade growth phases, but the countless midnight Poptarts surely played a role in my accumulation of more body fat than I would’ve preferred at the time.

The very method of eating right before bed is one of the strategies sumo wrestlers use to gain body fat.

The Nuance: The sumo wrestler lifestyle may be healthier than you might think, however. While they are probably eating 2 to 3 times as many Calories as they average person, they still eat a largely whole foods diet. This, alongside a rigorous exercise routine and impressive mobility, actually keeps them decently metabolically healthy! Their fat is stored primarily subcutaneously (right under the skin) rather than viscerally (deep inside, around the organs). As a result, their organs are in pretty good shape, and blood tests typically show relatively healthy lipid profiles.

The nuance’s nuance: However, sumo wrestlers are typically very inactive for all hours outside of training, and they also commonly drinks lots of beer. So… still not the perfect pictures of health.

All that aside, it’s still very apparent that sumo wrestlers carry more fat than most of us would like to. So why is eating right before sleeping one of the key factors to putting on weight?

It comes down to how our body uses—or stores—what we consume.

Remember when we’ve talked previously about taking walks after meals to help lower blood sugar and insulin spikes? That’s because being active within 90 minutes after a meal prompts our muscles to uptake the sugar and fat that hits our bloodstream and to use those calories by expending energy, rather than sending it all straight to storage.

The inverse is also true: If we don’t move at all after a meal, and our muscles are already saturated with as much energy as they can hold, we will begin to store all the calories we just consumed, largely as fat.

Of course, this is a natural process, and it’s a good thing our bodies can store energy rather than need to use it right away. However, the compounding effect of excess energy storage over time can result in excess body fat. Whether you have aesthetic goals around your body fat percentage or not, we know that excess fat on our bodies can create a slew of health problems—especially if we’re not very active.

So when sumo wrestlers eat big meals, carb-heavy snacks, and drink beer shortly before bed, their bodies use virtually none of that energy. Instead, almost all of what they consume gets stored as fat.

The same can happen to us when we eat close to bedtime, or if we’re very sedentary after our last meal of the day.

An additional detriment: Eating near bedtime can negatively impact your sleep quality. It appears that if you eat something high in fat or sugar within an hour or two of bed, you’re likely going to take longer to fall asleep, experience more waking up during the night, and possibly impair recovery.

Of course, it depends on what foods you eat. Some foods even have sleep-promoting qualities. Foods like kiwis, cherries, and almonds contain certain compounds and minerals that can prepare our bodies and minds for improved sleep. But I don’t know many people whose late night snack craving is whole fruit and a handful of almonds. Most of us reach for high-fat or high-sugar processed foods when the late night cravings hit—and these are the foods that are most detrimental to our sleep.

You know what happens when you don’t get a good night’s sleep? Your blood glucose is more dysregulated the next day. You’re also more likely to experience stronger cravings all day. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of bad sleep and excess unhealthy food consumption!

How to get a good night’s sleep without adding more body fat every night:

Experts generally recommend not eating within 2–3 hours of bedtime. This gives your body plenty of time to digest your last meal and wind down those processes before you try to sleep for the night. If you care about not putting on extra weight, I suggest leaving it at that and not eating within a few hours of bed.

However, if you are not concerned about your weight but want to get good sleep, some evidence suggests that having a more of your daily carbs in the evening in the form of a higher-carbohydrate dinner, or a nighttime snack of simple carbs (easily digestible natural foods, not high added sugar foods) may actually help you wind down for better sleep. You can incorporate some sleep-promoting whole foods like cherries, kiwi, nuts, or milk, in your diet an hour or two before bedtime.

If you do eat a bit too close to bedtime, or have a very large, carb- and fat-heavy last meal, you can blunt some of the negative effects by being active in the evening. (Intense activity before bed can also impair sleep, so that’s not recommended, but any light activity can be great). A post-dinner stroll, playing with the kids/pets, tidying up around the house, etc. can all be effective ways to encourage your body to use up some of the energy you just consumed!

3 tips to resist eating before bed:

1. Brush your teeth right after dinner. Once you finish eating, clean things up and do the dishes, then go brush your teeth after about a half hour. This is an easy way to prevent the desire to eat more, and it gives you a mental “wrap up” for the night.

2. Drink tea before bed. Be sure to choose a non-caffeinated version, such as an herbal tea. Many teas, such as chamomile, have been shown to have calming, sleep-promoting effects. They have virtually no calories but are great for when you want to consume something other than just water.

3. Start and end your day with lots of protein. That’s right—your sleep quality starts at the beginning of your day. If you remember from a previous post, not getting enough protein throughout your day can lead to strong cravings late at night. By eating lots of protein at both your first and last meals of the day, you’ll set your body up for nourishment, muscle-building, and satiety, while preventing late-night cravings.

All in all, remember to have grace for yourself. One night is not going to make a big difference. Build healthy habits, and you don’t have to be afraid of making exceptions.

And if your mom invites you to share some chocolate Poptarts and milk before bed, say yes and enjoy the night. Just maybe not every night—unless you’re a sumo wrestler :)

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: At least a few nights a week, don’t eat within 2+ hours of bedtime. Notice if your sleep quality improves.

Level 2: Stop eating ~3 hours before you go to bed, and make sure you get lots of protein at breakfast and dinner.

Level 3: Don’t eat close to bedtime, go for a walk after dinner, and incorporate a calming routine that includes chamomile or a similar tea alongside bedtime rituals.

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✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Article: The Workouts Longevity Experts Swear By for a Longer, Healthier Life. So good, I’m sharing twice! If you missed when I shared this several weeks ago, don’t miss it this time. Read now or bookmark for later!

• ISO: French tutor! 🥐 This isn’t a pick, but rather a solicitation. Anyone personally (or know a friend) able to provide some weekly French lessons to yours truly? I’m a beginner—reply to this email!

Go forth and find some local berries to eat! ‘Tis the season, and I’m sure they’re all around you. Enjoy your three-day weekend, American folks, and spend some time outside ☀️ 

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).