Why I Recommend Carbs at Night in Menopause

If you've been white-knuckling your way through menopause, avoiding carbs, swearing your body loves this because you felt the loss of water weight when you initially started, or because you heard they'll make you gain weight, this episode is going to flip your world upside down. I'm going to share exactly why I recommend, on purpose, carbs at night. All right, but first, I'm Debra Atkinson and you're listening to Flipping 50. Welcome back if you're an OG, you're all around, you're here, you're committed, you're loyal, and you don't miss a walk with me, maybe a hike, maybe a commute, or you're cooking dinner. But also welcome if you're brand new. And yet this is a little risky. So right before a big holiday built around food in the United States. I'm talking about eating carbs at night. So let's say maybe this is exclusive of that very day or the multiple times because you have to eat at the in-laws and the out-laws and the parents and everybody else's house. We are not lacking for carbs generally during Thanksgiving. In fact, carbs are probably the problem. It's never the turkey. So I would go as far as to say it's really also not the pumpkin pie, or if you like that other kind, that pecan that some fight over at our house. So there's that. We're going to go deep into this. And first, let me mention this. This episode is sponsored by the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist. If you are a health coach or a fitness training coach and you work with midlife women, but you haven't gone through specific training on working with women in menopause, If you feel like you are a little less confident about what it is that you want to be doing. For women, because they get injured more frequently, because they may experience hot flashes, night sweats right in the middle of their workouts sometimes. Been there, done that. And not me, but clients. And, you know, it's a little awkward. I remember when it was first happening. It's awkward because they feel awkward. And there they are in the middle of the, for whatever reasons, it was the lat pulldown when I remember that moment happening. And she was mortified and she was feeling like, I can't go on. And so if you've experienced that and or don't know what to do on a day a training session should happen and you had something planned, but she's sleep deprived, what do you do for that? How do you alter exercise so that You can help her on those days she is sleep deprived, be safe in the exercise and yet get on track so she sleeps better that night. Help boost libido and not beat it up or squash it anymore. Help her reduce that weight loss resistance she's got, reduce the belly fat or prevent it from occurring in the first place by starting to educate her sooner and younger. And no matter who you're working with, women in their 30s, ideally if they're proactively thinking about this, they will get to their 40s and 50s with far fewer problems. Right now is the time to get started. Reach out to me directly, DM me on Instagram. I'm the only one who sees those messages, by the way, but unfortunately we don't see on other platforms private messages. Neither me, my coaches, or team have the ability and the bandwidth to do that. You could reach out to Flipping 50 at support@flipping50.com. Now is the time. This is the perfect opportunity and there has never been a better time. You may think there are a lot of fitness and menopause coaches. The truth is there are a lot of people changing their labels to that who still are uneducated about the changes that they need to make to keep women safe and keep you keeping customers coming back. Let's make you profitable at the same time you're changing lives. All right, let's dive into this episode. So here's what nobody tells you about the no carbs after 6 PM, and I've heard even worse, like no carbs after 3 PM rule. It's not just wrong for women in menopause. It's actually sabotaging your sleep, your cortisol rhythm, your next day workout, possibly your sanity, and your ability to poop. So can we all agree those are all important? I'm breaking down the science of why strategic evening carbohydrate intake may be one of the most underutilized tools in your menopause toolkit. And trust me, this isn't permission to crush a pint of ice cream, because actually that's far more fat and sugar than actually the type of carbohydrates I'm talking about. This is about understanding how to work with your changing physiology instead of against it. So let's dive in. I wanna start with this first big overarching thing that we need to consider, and this is the cortisol-serotonin-melatonin connection. Yes, it's a three-way. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now, have I got your attention? Here's what's happening in your body in menopause that changes the carb equation completely. Your cortisol rhythm is already struggling. Keep in mind, I've said this many times, but if you're new and don't remember it, or you've heard it and don't remember it, your cortisol is off because as estrogen comes Cortisol goes up. It's like this, phew, we're just gonna take over. It doesn't work well, but that is what the body tries to do to remain or retain or get back its own kind of homeostasis. In menopause, the natural decline of estrogen becomes a problem for cortisol, but there is also this change of cortisol at night. It becomes blunted. It's supposed to, over the course of the day, be high in the morning, come down in the afternoon, and at night. Natural decline gets a little blunted. The translation: you're revved up when you should be winding down. For some women, it's like that dial, like a baby, days and nights are mixed up. So you're staring at the ceiling at 2:00 a.m., or if you just wake up— and here's what a lot of women think: well, I'm just waking up, and then when I wake up, I can't get back to sleep. If I could just stay asleep, I'm fine. But the reason you're waking up is cortisol. Because cortisol has an impact on your blood sugar, and your blood sugar then will wake you up because it's, it's an alarm bell. It's like your blood sugar's dipping too low, you need something. So it comes up, comes on, and your cortisol comes up, and that will help release blood sugar. So it's very integral in— yeah, integration. Spit that out. I could cut that out, but I'm not going to because I was human and you get it. Okay. So it's interesting that, you know, a lot of us are trying to finish dinner at least 3 hours before we go to bed because we'll get a better night's sleep. By the way, that's not true for everybody. So when I'm working, we see this pretty frequently in the continuous blood glucose monitor challenges that we'll do. We periodically do them throughout the year. If you want to participate in one, I'm free if you use my link to my glucose monitor so I can help you and I know what you're experiencing. I coach you for a month, so live most days with an audio or answering questions via text in a WhatsApp group. We call it a pop-up group. But what we find is there are generally a handful of women in any group who are waking up frequently at night. And we have specific tools and tricks, and one is eating at night before you go to bed. Now, we don't wanna eat something that spikes your blood glucose immediately, but having a little fat and protein combination, like a handful of almonds, small handful is the key here. So we're not after eating calories, but if you stay asleep, your hormones that support working with fat storage at the right amount and fat burning at the right amount kick in. So you actually, by eating a snack before bed, may be one of those women who benefits from weight loss because you're sleeping better. It's been proven that postmenopausal women who just are long sleepers or improve their sleep lose weight easily without changing anything else. So if you're struggling with sleep, know that that is your first priority. Figuring that out. And by the way, I know if you're struggling, it seems hard to believe, and you may feel you've tried everything, but you can figure that out. So stay tuned because today this also may help. Research shows that cortisol levels tend to remain elevated in the evening in postmenopausal women compared to premenopausal women. That can interfere with the natural transition into sleep or the ability to stay asleep. So what evening carbohydrates do— carbohydrate consumption triggers insulin release that has a little antagonistic relationship with cortisol, but it also releases serotonin. We'll talk about insulin helps shuttle cortisol down, signaling your body it's time to shift gears from go to rest and digest, and it's kind of in that mode. Now, you may also associate, "But insulin resistance, you know, insulin means fat storage." But we're not talking have a big meal. So we're going to talk about the right kind of carbohydrate, which is also an important thing to consider. We're not talking about some of your favorite snacks. We're talking about really strategic carbs. Let's talk serotonin and what is that, in case you need a reminder. Serotonin is one of those neurotransmitters that makes you feel good. So serotonin is like when you are talking with your best friend, whether on the phone or— I've noticed this, I send voice messages to my friends all the time, girlfriends, guy friends. But when I'm sending it while I'm talking to them, I mean, it feels like we're having a conversation even if there's no back and forth. I know there's going to be, I know they're going to respond to it. So it is still a feel-good thing. I do that while I'm walking, and while I'm walking Moses sometimes. Now there's a little push-pull there with that guy, but other than that, but if you're new, Moses is my four-legged mini Bernedoodle. Yeah, so he's in control. But when you're doing, you know, things like walking or moving, getting exposure to sunshine, you're venting with a friend, those are feel-good things. Guess what though? They produce serotonin and so does eating the right kind of carbohydrate. Now, by right kind, the kind that doesn't spike your blood sugar immediately, but kind of gives you a little rise and then has basically a time release to it. So you're gonna experience a nice little stable rise and stay there. It's not like, ooh, spike, like drinking, leaded Coke. I mean, Coke with sugar, right? Because it spikes your blood sugar and then it's going to drop you like a pancake and boom, you're worse off than you were before. And other carbs are like that too. Guess what? I hate to be a buzzkill for you, but I got to do it. Popcorn. Popcorn is like eating sugar. It turns to sugar pretty quickly in your system. I know you've been taught and told this is a good, healthy snack. Oh my goodness, no. No, it's not. If you douse it in butter, you know, like in the movie theater, does it become better? Actually, it probably becomes more lethal because the combination of carbohydrates together with fat, particularly saturated fat, actually leads to worse problems like cholesterol. Not, not really what we're after, right? So you gotta give up those kind and we're going for the good kind. So here's the cascade you have to understand. Carbohydrates, when we eat them, result in a little increase in, in sugar, blood sugar, and then insulin. And then there's tryptophan transport. That word should sound familiar, especially this time of year. Tryptophan in turkey has a little relaxation effect to it. That's a specific amino acid that's related to— you have a tryptophan hangover kind When you eat carbohydrates, insulin is released. Insulin clears branched-chain amino acids from your bloodstream but leaves tryptophan behind, and this changes the ratio and allows more tryptophan to cross the blood-brain barrier. Makes you feel more relaxed. Tryptophan results in serotonin and melatonin. So once tryptophan gets into your brain, it's converted into serotonin, your feel-good neurotransmitter, just like talking to a girlfriend and venting. Did you know gossip essentially makes women feel good? As long as no one's getting hurt, right? We're okay. And then when darkness falls, so literally at night, serotonin is converted to melatonin. That's your sleep hormone. Yes, we produce less of that as we age, but you can help your body create more if you do the right habits. That exposure to sunlight first thing in the morning, you get that sunlight in your eyeballs. When it's dark, you will produce more, more melatonin. But also this, this is one thing that you can do. Studies have demonstrated that carbohydrate-rich meals in the evening— so what we're talking about here is not a side of chips, okay? What we're talking about here is, say, a sweet potato. That's what we call a resistant starch, and the resistant part is important. Resistance to fat storage, resistant to storage because it takes longer. In, in elementary school, you and I learned, probably depending on your age, I'll reveal mine, I'm 61. It's Black Friday savings season and this is huge. You know the Bioptimizers products I always talk about, the ones that are science-backed and lab-tested, like Magnesium Breakthrough for sleep support and Masszymes for digestive support. From November 23rd through December 3rd, you get 25% off. This is the once-a-year sale you do not want to miss. Sure, you can always get 15% off with code FLIPPING50, but if you want the biggest savings and gifts, load up your cart now and check out between November 23rd and December 3rd to lock in an even bigger discount of 25% off. Plus This is an exclusive to my audience and only at buyoptimizers.com/flipping. You'll not only get an amazing discount but also free gifts with select purchases. Go right now to buyoptimizers.com/flipping, use code FLIPPING50, FLIPPING50, and grab your favorites before this deal disappears. After December 3rd, it's gone. Don't miss it. But I learned we called these complex carbohydrates. It's very, very similar, like long chain. So we got to break this down and the body has to break that down and we have to break this down. So it's not like breakdown spike, which, which is what happens with the popcorn or what happens with chips, what happens with, uh, Cheetos or crackers, you know, those types of really rapidly, easily digested and broken down kind of carbs. Not good. We don't want the processed kind, but also I would say popcorn we don't think of as processed necessarily, but yes, it, it in fact has the same impact on us. So we wanna look at what happens here so that we can improve what it is that we're doing and get better results. We want more melatonin so we can sleep a little bit better and carb-rich rich meals like sweet potato for dinner, maybe some berries after for dessert, increases the availability of tryptophan in the brain, subsequently boosts our serotonin synthesis. So that plays a crucial role in mood regulation and sleep initiation. It just means like after Thanksgiving, but not with that overfull stuffed feeling, we feel kind of relaxed. I don't know about you, but a lot of us in the household, we've been in here with relatives. We kind of like to lay around and maybe play games, but naps sound really good in the afternoon after Thanksgiving. Now we try to get everybody up and go for that turkey trot, but it doesn't always work out that well. So the menopause connection is estrogen enhances serotonin production and receptor sensitivity. So there is something that's going positive for us while we have adequate estrogen. That starts to go downhill and we have to work a little harder and figure out how do I get it? Sweet potato might be it. And when estrogen drops in menopause, then you're already working with a serotonin deficit. So evening carbs can help compensate for this loss. Sleep architecture matters more than you think. Research indicates that women in menopause experience significant changes in their sleep architecture. I probably don't have to tell you this. I'm preaching to the choir. So including reduced slow-wave sleep, that means the kind that helps us like recharge and let your brain reset, kind of lock in what you learned for the day and not have to remember it. And it's increasing our sleep fragmentation, which makes us, you know, wake up and look at the clock and wake up and look at the clock. I've noticed I'm doing that more very recently because I'm in the middle of a move and all day my brain has been like, not just in work things and not just in regular day-to-day things, but now there's on top of this I have to be planning for, is this an essential thing or can I pack this thing? And now that I've packed it, I need it. Like, where's my, where's my watch recharger. I don't know which box that's in. I'm like, I'm on overwhelm. My son called today and asked if I can babysit at some date in May. My response was, okay, yes, but you know I'm surrounded by 182 boxes and I will not remember this in a week. I will put it on my calendar, but please ask me again when I'm coherent, because your brain is like that too, and we're just gonna be a little overloaded. And so there There will be times when you work hard enough, you make some of these changes, and it's going to go well, but it's probably not going to go all well all the time because we have just a different tipping point of, oh no, I'm not letting you sleep, than we did before. Okay, so just know though that evening carbs are potentially your friend. And let me tell you this., we are going to be much more likely to deprive ourselves of carbs when we need them the most. If your stress level is up, whether it's because of mental, emotional stress or because of physical stress—you're working out a little bit harder—we need those carbohydrates a little bit more. And so it makes logical sense to you, potentially, if you're working out a little harder. But if you're not, you may feel like, well, I have to cut back on those because I don't need those. But your stress level still potentially will benefit from it. And remember, if you're doing anything that keeps your body in a stress mode, your body is going to be like, oh, I'm hanging on to all that fat, not letting it go because we're under duress here. So remember that if you can keep yourself in a chill mode, you're going to be far better in balancing your fat burning and fat storage. Okay, so keep that in mind. As a midlife woman who is exposed to mold, the air I breathe is really important. Americans spend an average of 90% of our time indoors, but did you know indoor air can be 100 times more polluted than outdoor air? Breathe easy with Air Doctor, the award-winning air purifier that eliminates 99.99% of dangerous contaminants like allergens, viruses, smoke, gases, mold spores, and more. Air Doctor was voted Best Air Purifier by Newsweek, so it's no surprise that 98% of Air Doctor customers agree their home's air feels cleaner, safer, and healthier. 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So if you've ever woken up at 2 or 3 AM, that is really kind of the time, and it may be adjusted. So I sometimes can go to bed really early and then my wake-up time might be closer to 1. But if you can't fall back asleep, your heart may be racing a little bit, your mind starts spinning, the monkey mind, you feel almost wired to despite being really exhausted, right? I, I'm living this right now. So realize I'm, I'm teaching you as a coach, but we can't necessarily escape and run from instances in life where you're going to push really hard by choice. Or, you know, and I would say right now I'm at choice, and that is, by the way, a really healthy decision to make. I want to make this move. I wanna be closer to my baby Dean, first grandchild, and the one after that and the one after that, right? And so I am excited to do this. We're also releasing an app pretty soon. It's a busy time. We're also bringing new people into our team. It's a busy time. And yet, of course, that's what I wanna be doing. And you know, there are people who couldn't tolerate that, who often will say something like, I hope you have a good weekend and get some rest, but I don't even know if you let yourself rest. Someone will say that because I think from where they sit, what you're doing may feel too much. Just want you to know you have to let that roll right off of you and realize that's potentially about them and their ability to tolerate, and they don't think that they could do it. So realize that if you thrive in a different state of being than someone else, you number one have to just be really real with yourself and say, is that true? Am I really thriving? Or be willing to say, you know, that kind of stung because it's true. And then how are you— how do you want to change it? But if it's true for you, you're living in a state of this is kind of bliss, and I know I'm gonna sprint really hard right now, and then after that it's gonna kind of chill out and get back to normal. And, uh, I'm gonna be so much healthier because I'm around my family. I'm closer to my grandchildren. I mean, I don't know about you, but as I think about this, even I feel like AI is in my brain showing me how much younger grandparents are and healthier when they're around their grandchildren. So thank you, AI. It doesn't do everything right, but it's got that one right. So I digress. Let's go back to this one. This is like cortisol-driven blood sugar event when you're waking up in the I love the night. It is not just, oh, you don't have progesterone, although that can help you, by the way, offset it. But here's the mechanism. If you go to bed with low glycogen stores, especially if you've been really restricting your carbohydrate all day, your blood sugar can drop during the night. Your body interprets this as an emergency. It's going to release cortisol and adrenaline to raise your blood sugar, though through what's called gluconeogenesis, making glucose from protein and fat stores. The problem that the cortisol wakes you up in order to make this happen, and once the cortisol is elevated at 2 AM, falling back asleep can be a little more challenging. So there's that. So what the research will tell us is that nocturnal, that means nighttime hypoglycemia, nighttime low blood sugar and sleep disruption demonstrate Maintaining stable blood sugar through the night supports continuous sleep. Okay, so we know— all we know from that is we know the problem destroys your sleep. What's the answer? Research is often conducted in diabetic populations, but for the rest of us, say pre-diabetic, because that's what insulin resistance is. Many women in 40s and over are insulin resistant, maybe not called or labeled pre-diabetic, But it's, it's kind of the verge of where we are. And that applies to anybody experiencing blood sugar volatility up and down. So if you struggle with stable blood sugar, you feel like, I need caffeine right now, that's maybe a sign blood sugar isn't where it should be. So the evening carb solution, consuming adequate carbohydrates with dinner or before bed, but I really mean before dinner. Right? So I don't want you to consume that sweet potato right before bed. I don't want you to consume, you know, bowl cereal or a banana before bed. I want it to be fat and protein so that it's not going to spike your blood sugar. So if you're unaware of blood sugar, carbs will raise them the highest, the fastest. Even a good carb will do it faster than, say, protein. And then fat has the least influence on a blood sugar rise. You're probably still going to get some from where you were, but it's going to have the least impact. So just a little bump in the road. So when you eat, say, 8 almonds I mentioned earlier, that's probably going to help stabilize your blood sugar. You're going to keep your blood sugar the same because it's kind of releasing over time. It's just going to blunt any problem that you might have had. So think of that as You have that sweet potato with dinner, maybe you have berries. That's the equivalent of about 3 servings of carbohydrates. A medium sweet potato is 2 servings. Therefore, half a medium sweet potato, by the way, is 1. Are you tracking with me? And then about 3/4 cup of berries for dessert, or you have strawberries on your spinach salad. You know, you've got some other carbohydrates sitting in there. So that is, um, really helpful for maintaining your liver glycogen stores. That reduces the likelihood of that middle of the night cortisol surge. So think of it as just putting premium fuel in your tank before you go for a long drive. It's going to last longer. You're going to drive better. So the fiber factor— regularity matters, yes, but it also is a part in this time release of the energy. So if you're eating a carbohydrate, what would be an example of something that does not have it? Like saltine crackers. It's a carbohydrate, but it's processed, and it just is like, you know what happens. You did that in 5th grade. You melted one in your mouth and it was gone because there's no fiber in that. You try that with, um, something that's made from nuts and seeds, that's not going to happen, right? It's not going to dissolve in your mouth because it's got more fibrous in it more fat. So we're looking for fiber in the carbohydrates, so beans, legumes, sweet potato, butternut or other winter squashes, acorn squash is good, berries or citrus fruit. They have a little more sugar, but those of fruit are the lowest in sugar and the highest in micronutrient density. So those all are helpful as well. So We can struggle in menopause with constipation even more than we did in younger years, if that was true for you as a female before. And the decline in estrogen affects smooth muscle motility in the GI tract, as well as the gut produces a lot of hormones. So if hormones are changing, it's almost a natural that gut microbiome might as well. Women overall may eat less food than they did in effort to overcome the weight gain that they feel they can't control. I know I'm guilty. You know, it's natural by default to think, oh, you know, I want to eat a little bit less because I feel like I'm fluffy, or, you know, I'm— and the brain will do strange things. So intelligently, you and I probably both know that's not a good idea. But if your default, just from teachings of decades, you know, we're gonna be subject to that. We We need to be surrounded by other women who are talking that's nonsense to us, that are supporting us. And let's, you know, eat and fuel our bodies, because the body that is calm and not stressed because you're depriving it will burn fat for you. It will release. So if we're under-consuming water, not hydrated, and avoiding carbs, you've got a recipe for, you know, constipation. You're gonna slow everything down. So why evening carbohydrates help? Number one, the fiber content, simply because we're increasing fiber. And you could have it at lunch or breakfast, we could say the same thing there. But the kind of carbs we're gonna increase are gonna be sweet potatoes, again, squash, rice, might be oats, but less likely, and fruit. And that adds bulk to the stool, feeds beneficial gut bacteria, and all of that supports healthy colon health and motility. Magnesium content. Content. Many of our carb sources contain magnesium, so whole grains. And you may or may not be able to tolerate them if you don't tolerate wheat or gluten, but if you do, beans and potatoes with the skin, also very helpful with magnesium, which has a relaxing effect. Magnesium as a supplement even can be beneficial, but taking it in food, even better. The overnight effect— carbs in the evening gives your body overnight to process them, which often results in a morning bowel movement. And that is generally when most people will find it's comfortable, start the day, start the day feeling good. Research published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology confirms that adequate fiber intake— and adequate defined as 25 to 30 grams— significantly improves bowel regularity and the timing of fiber consumption can influence transit time, you know. And I think some women are shocked to find that, um, they could have a bowel movement every day, or even after every meal. Like, you could go multiple times a day, and that would just be normal, not efforting, but just be normal. So it's hard to tell what is your norm until you've actually tried it. You're also fueling if you work out early in the morning, you're fueling your workout. So realize you're probably going to feel better what's in your system the 16 hours prior to your workout. So if you work out early in the morning, it was dinner last night is actually still stored glycogen in your muscle is supplying that. And if you don't have carbs, you're not doing it. And I know a lot of women think, well, I'm tricking the system and that means I'll burn stored fat instead. It doesn't always work that way. Your energy expenditure just actually goes down, so the workout feels harder. You feel a little less energetic, more lethargic, and in the end, your fitness level can't really benefit from that because you're probably not going as fast or as hard or landing as long. Like, your endurance isn't as good if you're not fueled. So realize everything is going to get better, including your recovery. Muscles store carbohydrate as glycogen. It's your primary fuel source for moderate to high-intensity exercise. So again, 12 to 16 hours prior to that next workout, what you eat is readily available. So that means maybe you'd go into the workout not having very much, and you'll still be okay because you're somebody who eats regularly. You just want to fuel again after that workout, and that will be okay. It's those of you who may be short-sheeting yourself on carbohydrate and on overall fuel at any time and trying to get by on caffeine or other caffeinated beverages, thinking you're again tricking the system. And honestly, that will come back to bite you. So protein synthesis, what's the connection there? So many of you know we talk about this very often in regard to muscle, in regard to bone health. Muscle protein synthesis gets harder. We have less of it, the level goes down. We have to eat more protein in order to get more muscle protein synthesis. Resistance training is the other thing that helps muscle protein synthesis, but otherwise muscle protein breakdown is where we spend time. We have to push ourselves over into muscle protein synthesis, and there is no neutral. We're not just maintaining, we're either on one side or the other. So the nuance most people miss is postmenopausal women have blunted muscle protein synthesis. That makes us anabolic resistant, meaning we don't gain muscle easily. We have to work for it. We need more stimulus and better conditions to build or maintain muscle. So training in a depleted state compromises your ability to generate mechanical tension. We usually go right to protein, but we also need carbohydrate to support ourselves. Research in the Journal of Applied Physiology demonstrates that carbohydrate availability effects protein metabolism. So it's not just eat protein, but eat protein and some carbohydrate during and after resistance training. It makes a difference with adequate glycogen stores supporting more anabolic environment. So we are going to be much more likely not just to gain strength but to gain a little lean mass. And I know that sounds like a fair— foreign thing to want that, but that means you have more muscle fibers. Those muscle fibers grow in a bit. That doesn't mean you grow in size, by the way. It means you're just more tight, more defined, and probably less fat. And you now have a greater metabolism. And if you're monitoring on a smart scale, as I hope that you are, you are seeing your skeletal muscle mass increase. But you have to work hard for that. So what does it look like? Who benefits the most from evening carbs? Generally women who struggle with sleep or the onset of middle-of-the-night waking, women who train early morning, especially resistance training, women who experience evening anxiety or that tired and wired— I really want to go to sleep but I can't— women dealing with constipation or sluggish digestion. If you feel like you just don't go or you don't get empty, that's you. You know, a lot of women will complain to me of feeling bloated and big belly, and sometimes times, that is, you're just carrying around extra poo and we need to go. So women who have chronically low carb and notice declining performance, mood, or sleep. So check in, are you your regular, normal, bubbly self? Now maybe you don't define yourself as bubbly, but if your mood is tanking, there may be a reason compared to you normally. So it's not a free-for-all. 3 servings of carbohydrates. Again, just to go back, a medium sweet potato, that's 2 servings. Then you might have berries for dessert. Now you've got 3 servings. For dinner, that's where I'd want you. I kind of go 1, 2, 3. Breakfast, just 1 serving. So you have a little bit of fruit with your smoothie. Not, it's not a fruit smoothie. It's a smoothie with high protein and fiber and a little bit of fruit. Fruit. That's ideal. If you're not having that, maybe you're having egg whites with a little bit of sweet potato or some leftover from last night, but you're, you're trying to include some kind of carbohydrate. Maybe you enjoy a piece of toast. I'm not, not a bread eater. I, I don't— I haven't bought bread for years except when I have guests who insist on bread, but otherwise I use regular whole food instead as my sources of carbohydrate. So you're looking for 3 servings. So half a medium sweet potato, it's about half a cup of cooked rice or beans or legumes, that gives you 1 serving. You're after 3 at night. So if you have a bowl of chili, probably with the beans, you get adequate amounts of carbohydrate in that. A little bit of berry for dessert and you're probably good to go. Timing considerations, you know, if you're having them with dinner, I would definitely look at, try to make sure you still have 3 hours, 2 minimum, but 3 hours is even better for ideal optimal sleep. I would not suggest a bedtime snack with somebody right off the bat, not unless I knew they had changed this at dinner. They were getting still high protein but also including carbs. And look at how you do then before you add a bedtime snack. So we wouldn't just automatically add one. The pushback that I know you might be feeling, "Won't carbs make me gain weight?" You know, let's address that because I know that's going to come up and it's just going to feel like, "Ugh, this feels wrong." You know, start with a little amount. So if you don't feel like you can have 3 servings have half of that sweet potato, start there, or quinoa or brown rice. But again, remember, if it's a whole food, it's probably gonna go even better. If you like a white potato instead of sweet potato, cook the white potato, cool it overnight in the fridge. You can reheat it and the property changes so that it will now be a resistant starch. Otherwise it is higher in glucose and will store that way, and it's not necessarily your best friend. So hope that makes sense. It's fascinating that in a study published in Obesity, it examined dieters who consumed the majority of their carbs at dinner versus spread throughout the day. The evening carb group showed greater weight loss, improved satiety, better hormonal profile, and meaning favorable changes in leptin, which kind of controls your satiety hormone, and adiponectin, which which is fat burning, is kind of the opposite of insulin, which is fat storage. Reduced hunger throughout the day. Go figure, when we're in a good mood, that happens. Okay, probably because of overall what happens— better sleep, better cortisol rhythm the next day, better insulin sensitivity the next day, improved metabolic health. It's all very connected, but it might start with carbohydrates for dinner. So I hope that was helpful. All the things that we answered today— why does no carbs after dinner, why does it fail? How do carbohydrates affect serotonin and melatonin production? What's the connection between evening carbs and sleep quality? We reviewed all of those things and how you can help yourself. But I would start with including some carbohydrate at dinner and just warm up to the idea and take your, quote unquote, take your temperature. Just, you know, on a perceived scale of does your workout feel better? Did your sleep feel better? Did you stay asleep instead of waking up? Check and see how this happened for you. So what I want you to do is test it yourself. Don't take my word for it. Really want you to look at what, what works for you. So hope that was helpful for you. And as you listen to this, if it was helpful, I so appreciate it if you share it with a friend. It's how we spread the word. It's how you and I surround ourselves with friends who are going to age as well as we are. So let's say, hear it for the girls, don't keep it a secret. And thanks so much for tuning in today. What are you waiting for? Let's start flipping 50 today.