Low fat cottage cheese with a few almonds.
Low fat cottage cheese made with skim milk is a very filling, slow digesting source of protein. It actually takes five to seven hours for the body to fully digest the casein protein in cottage cheese. When you add a few almonds, you slow the digestion even further and gain some healthy fats, Vitamin E and antioxidents.
So why is this important before you sleep? Well, one of the ways you lose body fat is to keep your metabolism revved up. You do this by eating small, frequent meals every four hours or so. However, when you sleep, you may be going six to eight hours without food. Cottage cheese keeps your body supplied with amino acids during sleep, which discourages you from losing lean muscle and is low in fast-digesting carbs -- something you want to avoid at night.
It's also a great source of calcium and Vitamin D, which recent research suggests may help people lose fat.
