Eating at night?

[pete64]

I have often wondered about the accuracy of the advice not to eat in the evenings if you are trying to loose body fat, as it is more likely to add fat to your body.

Presumably, when relaxed in the evenings, your metabolic rate drops and you burn less calories? So your blood sugar and glycogen levels are likely to be normal, resulting in any new glucose being converted and stored as body fat?

Is this effected by what time of day you exercise?

[TimD]

I really don't think even the "experts" agree on that one. I've heard both arguments, the one being a calorie in is a calorie in no matter when you do it, but tend to agree somewhat with the otherargument, being in the evening when the metabolism is down, it might be a good idea to eat LESS (not sure I'd cut it out altogether). In fact, a lot of people I've known trying to cut fat actually take a SMALL balnced (CPF) snack/meal to provide nutrients to the body during the fast to ward off catabolism.
Just my .02 on the subject.
Tim

[Ironman]

It's ok to eat late. You need some fat and slow digesting protein. Just don't eat carbs late. Eat your carbs early. That's a very common technique in bodybuilding. It works pretty well too.

[TeeBee]

Yeah, I've also heard you should avoid cheap carbs/starches late at night. I have some lowfat yogurt, sometimes a small protein shake if I'm starving. But I also go to bed somewhat hungry most nights.

[MikeS]

I've actually had really good results from my diet that includes eating a meal right before bed. I work out in the morning before work and generally eat six times a day. The last meal is at about 10:30pm, and almost always is a bowl of low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese plus a scoop of protein shake powder, about half a cup of sliced fruit like pineapples or strawberries, and a small amount almonds. As long as I have the right fruit around it's usually my favorite meal of the day.

In August I was trying to get rid of some of my remaining stomach fat layer, and I did it by scaling down all my meals proportionaly rather than cutting any out. It seemed to work pretty effectively; I don't have an accurate way of measuring body fat %, but according to the one-site caliper test I did (which I know is hardly better than guessing, but still, it has to be a little better, right?), I got down to about 7-8% from 10%.

I've put the calories back up again recently as I'm trying to put on more muscle now, and I'm not being as strict about fat in particular, so I think I'm getting back up towards 9% or more, but I do like eating in the evening, and I don't think it affected my attempt to lose fat. I feel better when my calories are spread out evenly through the day, and from what I've read I think it's healthier (but I'm not a nutrition scientist).