Whether for the reason of actual hunger or just your time to relax or possible boredom, eating late at night is a sure fire way of guaranteeing fat storage.
There are a number of reasons why people eat late.
oLack of frequent meals: many people don't even eat breakfast and may eat very little throughout the day often only once or twice.
oToo much fast releasing carbohydrate food sources eaten and not much protein.
This causes erratic blood sugar levels and energy highs and lows.
oEating rubbish: again sugar rushes and causes turmoil in the body.
It is very important not to eat within 4 hours of bedtime.
Throughout the day your body is using the fuel from food to repair muscle and create energy.
However when it comes to the late afternoon and evening everyone is always winding down and the calorie expenditure is much less.
Therefore we don't have need for as much calories in the evening.
It is very important that you don't have too high an calorie intake throughout the day as at the end of the day the body does a stocktake of what remains re carbs, protein etc.
Surplus carbs are temporarily stored in the liver and if not used up within few days will store as fat.
Excess protein will typically be mostly excreted and some will store.
If you finish your last meal around 7pm and go to be at 11pm the food you ate will be burned up so there will be no excess whereas if you eat at 10pm and go to bed the opposite will be true.
Also eating late has an effect on your quality of sleep which will have an effect on recovery etc Therefore the lesson is eat breakfast, frequent small balanced meals and finish last meal 4 hours before bed.