Suhoor that actually holds until Maghrib
Why most suhoor meals fail by mid-morning, and the three-part structure that fixes it.
The Fit Muslim4 min read
If you're ravenous by 11am, your suhoor was built wrong. Almost always it's the same mistake: quick carbohydrate, very little protein or fat, and a rush of water at the last minute.
If you have diabetes or another medical condition, or are pregnant or breastfeeding, speak to your doctor before Ramadan about whether and how to fast, and what to eat at suhoor.
Don't skip it
“Take Suhur as there is a blessing in it.”
Suhoor is a sunnah with a blessing in it, not just a practical meal. It's also the meal people most often sleep through. Set the alarm, and get up for it even if all you can manage is a glass of milk and a few dates.
Don't eat it at midnight and go back to bed, either. Zayd ibn Thabit described eating suhoor with the Prophet ﷺ and then standing for prayer; asked how long was between the two, he said it was enough time to recite fifty verses of the Qur'an (Sahih al-Bukhari 1921). A suhoor eaten close to Fajr is a suhoor that lasts longer into the day.
“And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the night [i.e., sunset].”
Check your masjid's timetable for when eating must stop. Many timetables give a suhoor end time a few minutes before Fajr as a margin of safety.
The three parts
Slow protein. Eggs, full-fat yoghurt, cottage cheese, milk, or leftover chicken or lentils from iftar. Protein keeps you feeling full for longer than a meal of mostly carbohydrate does.
Fat, deliberately. Olive oil, avocado, nuts, nut butter, the yolk you were about to throw away. Fat slows the rate at which your stomach empties. A fat-free suhoor is a suhoor that ends early.
Complex carbohydrate with the fibre intact. Oats, wholegrain bread, a wholemeal paratha, dates with their skins. The fibre is doing the work. Juice and white bread on their own will leave you hungry well before Dhuhr.
Get all three on the plate and you'll feel the difference by mid-morning.
Salt, water and tea
Season normally. You sweat salt out over a long day; there's no need to cut it out of suhoor. If your doctor has told you to limit salt for blood pressure or another reason, follow their advice.
Drink to thirst, through the evening. Two litres forced down at 4am mostly ends up in the bathroom by Fajr. Spread your water from iftar to suhoor instead: a glass at iftar, with dinner, after taraweeh, before bed and at suhoor.
Plan for tea and coffee. If you drink a lot of tea or coffee, cutting it suddenly on the first day of Ramadan is a common reason for a pounding head that week. Many people cut down gradually over the weeks before. At suhoor, a cup is fine; a pot will send you to the bathroom.
A worked example
Three eggs cooked in a tablespoon of olive oil, a bowl of oats (about 50g) made with milk and stirred through with full-fat yoghurt, three dates, and a glass of milk. Season the eggs.
Depending on the brands and the dates you use, that comes to roughly 40g of protein and somewhere around 850–900 kcal. It's a substantial meal, and for most people it holds until the afternoon. If it's more than you need, scale back the oats and the oil, not the eggs.
When you can't face food at 4am
Plenty of people genuinely can't eat a plate of eggs before dawn. Don't skip suhoor; drink it instead.
- A suhoor smoothie: a glass of milk, a handful of oats, a banana, a spoonful of nut butter and two dates, blended. Protein, fat and fibre in one glass.
- Yoghurt and fruit: a big bowl of full-fat yoghurt with a sliced banana and a handful of nuts.
- Leftovers: a small portion of last night's daal with a slice of wholegrain bread.
Each of these is far better than nothing, and far better than a pastry and juice.
Make it easy the night before
At 4am, every decision is harder than it should be. Take them all before you go to bed.
- Overnight oats: oats, milk and yoghurt in a jar in the fridge, with the dates and nuts ready to stir in. Nothing to cook.
- Eggs boiled in advance: a batch boiled after iftar lasts several suhoors.
- The table laid: bowls, spoons and a jug of water out, so you're eating within five minutes of the alarm.
- A quiet plan for the house: if others are sleeping, choose food you can prepare without the blender at full volume.
Ten minutes of preparation after taraweeh is the difference between a suhoor you eat and one you sleep through.
What to avoid
- Sugary cereals, white bread and jam on their own. Quick in, quick out.
- Very large portions. Suhoor isn't a second iftar. Overeating at 4am makes Fajr uncomfortable and doesn't keep you full any longer.
- Very salty processed food such as instant noodles: it'll make you thirstier, not more satisfied.
Suhoor and training
If you train in the hour before iftar, suhoor is the meal that has to carry you through the session. Make sure it has a proper portion of protein. Our guide to building strength while fasting covers the rest of the training day, and iftar without the crash covers the other end of it.
References
- Qur’an 2:187, Sahih International translation.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 1923; Sahih Muslim 1095 — the blessing in suhoor.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 1921 — the interval between suhoor and Fajr.
