Are PM Carbs Making You Fat?

Chance are, somebody has told you to avoid eating carbohydrates at night time because it will turn straight to fat.

I’ve heard this so many times, I’ve even avoided carbs at night in fearing of gaining fat!

But what does the science suggest?

Can we actually gain more weight from eating carbohydrates at night time, compared to during the day?

The answer, no… Your body doesn’t magically start storing carbohydrates as fat once the sun has gone down.

While our body does have an internal clock, it’s not there to regulate carbohydrate storage!

So why have we always been told to avoid carbohydrates in the evening?

The reasons are definitely not science backed, but people believe that because they are less active in the evening, the food will go straight storage as fat. And for some reason, carbohydrates have a bad name and we avoid it like the plague in any efforts to lose weight!

But are carbohydrates the issue, or is it our consumption across the entire 24 hours of the day that is the real problem?

In short, we don’t gain weight from eating carbohydrates at night time. This is simply a health and fitness myth.

We are more likely to gain weight with these considerations:

1. What kind of carbohydrates are we choosing at night time? Perhaps we opt for the banana at 10am, but the whole bag of M&M’s at 10pm?
2. What does your total daily intake look like? Are you eating too much in general?

These considerations are more to do with our eating habits, not so much the carbohydrates themselves.

When we consider weight loss by definition, we need to be in a calorie deficit. This means that we need to be consuming less calories than our body expends.

If you are guilty of cutting carbs in the evening in an attempt to lose weight, perhaps consider the type of carbs you are eating at night time. Are you choosing whole grain, healthy options or looking for the sweet deserts?

Are you consuming the right number of calories in a 24 hour period, or bingeing when it gets to dinner time?

These are often the bigger issues than carbohydrates themselves!