DON’T AVOID CARBS!
“Don’t eat carbohydrates past 6pm.”
“Oh why’s that?”
“Because they’ll get converted straight into fat when you go to bed because you’re not burning them off!”
What the hell!?
Hahaha! Seriously where do myths like this come from?
Nope. Eating pasta for your dinner won’t make you fat. Eating porridge before bed won’t make you fat. Hell, even digging into the odd biscuit late in the evening won’t make you fat. There’s nothing chemically special about carbs that makes them convert to fat when you eat them after 6pm. That tasty mouthful of carbs isn’t going to slide down to your stomach and *BAM* magically turn into fat.
It all comes back to energy balance. If you eat more calories than you need and don’t burn them off, you’ll put on weight.
It’s not specific to carbs, this covers all food and it doesn’t matter what time you eat them.
So what’s the take home message?
If you’ve already eaten a lot over the course of the day, you might want to opt for a lighter evening meal to avoid going over your calorie limit. There’s absolutely no need to avoid carbs though.
There’s science to suggest that eating carbohydrate rich food before bed can help you sleep better.
There’s also health benefits to having a carbohydrate rich dinner after training in the evening.
Ultimately carbohydrates don’t make you fat. Eating too many calories AKA food in general does!
Don’t avoid carbs!
Coach Kate