 Learn how you can maximize your training and increase your gains by eating "junk" in the evening after training. Yes, you read that correctly. Junk before bed. Blasphemy to all you "fit-fammers", and everyone else who's ever heard Dr. Oz and all of the other un-informed 'professionals' making ill-advised health recommendations. Before I explain why eating "junk" before bed is actually very beneficial, It comes with a few "caveats, provisos, and quid pro quos" as Genie from Aladdin would say. This information only applies to HEAVY LIFTING, HARD TRAINING individuals who are looking to increase muscle mass and not focusing on fat loss. For both men and women. This doesn't mean you have to be a professional powerlifter, but as long as you lift weights routinely with decent volume and fair amounts of intensity, then this information is for you and will work. Keep in mind that men have a lot higher tolerance for carbohydrates and the ability to store and use glycogen in their bodies then women, so women may not benefit from a whole gallon of ice cream. Sorry, Ladies, that's just biology working against you. If you haven't ready my articles on the benefits of eating carbs late at night and the roles of insulin in your body, i highly advise you do so as to understand the mechanisms in use by your body to make eating "junk" appropriate for anyone weight training. If you have any doubts in this information, then just look at me. I'll happily tell you that I've been eating up to 400 grams of "junk" carbs most nights for the past year and am in the leanest shape of my life. Use this information wisely, and remember moderation is always imperative. This is no way a free pass to be a complete fat kid, but rather a tool that can be utilized to maximize your training and also enjoy yourself in the process. Now, for what you've been wating for. If you want to look like Arnold. Eat Cherry Pies. If you want to look like Dr. Oz, eat your vegetables. 
Here’s why you should pound “junk” carbs at night after you train: 1. You need to rebuild your glycogen stores to fuel performance. Skeletal muscle will recover from even the hardest workouts within 48 hours. Your nervous system, however, can take up to ten days to return to normal, because when you train, it works far harder than your muscles do relative to its capacity. Having sufficient glycogen in reserve will allow your motor neurons to fire at a higher level during training, enabling your muscles to fire with maximum force. 2. You need glucose for maximal contraction as sets approach failure. When you approach the anaerobic point during training, your muscles need glucose to continue contracting during the glycolytic (glucose-burning) cycle. Making sure your glycogen stores are full will allow your muscles to use fatty acids during training until the need for glucose arises—at which point glycogen is broken down and used. 3. Your glycogen levels may help muscular growth. The debate here makes a case for both sides of this issue, but research has shown that full glycogen reserves help limit the protein breakdown caused by training sessions. This also increases glycogen usage during your training session(s) the following day. The idea of replenishing your glycogen levels, then, is not to recover from today’s workout, but to prepare for tomorrow’s.  Cookie Monster's got it right 4. High-glycemic carbs won’t kill your nighttime growth hormone release. Eating carbs before bedtime will disrupt nighttime release of growth hormone—an incredibly powerful fat burner and lean tissue builder. Your body won’t release growth hormone during sleep until about two hours after your blood sugar and insulin levels return to normal. Low-glycemic carbs keep your insulin and blood sugar levels elevated for hours. In contrast, high-glycemic carbs create a spike that ends within an hour or so of eating. In other words, eating junk replenishes your glycogen stores without interfering with your nocturnal hGH cycle. When you try to Carb Back-Load with brown rice and whole-grain toast, you’ll get subpar results, to say the least. This is why. 5. If you train in the early morning, you can get a bigger boost from your post-training nutrition. There’s an “insulin memory” to your night-time carb feedings that extends to your next morning meal. Creating a larger insulin spike before bed causes a greater insulin response to food the next morning. So, using the CBL manual to tweak your diet for such an event, you can get a larger anabolic burst after you’re A.M. training. 6. Insulin is an anti-inflammatory. Big insulin spikes can help speed muscle repair and growth. Oh sure, you need free-radical production during the training session to trigger growth, but too much ultimately slows progress. The effect is called hormesis: a little is good, a lot is bad. Using junk to cause large insulin releases can potentially decrease muscle protein breakdown and increase muscle protein synthesis in even more ways than simple nutrient delivery. 7. Who doesn’t want to end the day with a box of cherry turnovers? This is some powerful information, and many of you may be hesitant to accept it, which is fine. On the other hand, there may be some of you who take this to the extreme and will find out it is easy to overdue.
As always, I recommend you track your calories and macronutrients and fit these "junk" carbs into your carbohydrate allowances for the day. This will ensure you don't over-indulge and you can increase your gains one cookie at a time! Healthy living, heavy lifting, everyone!
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