Eating right before bed will NOT make you fat!

Hello again! I hear questions and opinions about this myth and topic all the time so I figured I would shed some light on the subject to my readers. We have all heard that eating late night snacks and meals right before bed can make you fat. Well to tell you the truth I have had hundreds of late night meals back in college and almost 80% of those meals or snacks probably weren't anywhere near healthy. Am I fat, overweight, or unhealthy today? No.

Here's the reason and I will make this brief. We all place metabolic demands on our bodies everyday based on our activity levels. And because of these same demands, certain metabolic processes such as rebuilding muscle or replenishing oxygen have to happen.

For example, if you worked out twice today and ran 3 miles, then you have placed a high metabolic demand on your system. So until that metabolic demand is met, you will continue to utilize the calories that you are consuming to help fulfill those metabolic processes that I mentioned earlier. This does not have anything to do with the time of day. If you happen to wait until 2am to eat, this simply means that you will then utilize what is needed to satisfy your demand at that time. It does NOT mean that what you just ate will be stored as fat. On the other hand, if your activity level for that day does not call for the amount of fuel that you consume, then yes the excess calories will be stored as fat. We only gain weight when our calorie intake is greater than the calories that we expend. Keep this in mind as you continue to reach your fitness goals. Good luck!