Eating later in the day can pack on the pounds

Here is an article that shows why eating your main meal early and if you have to snack later in the evening, make it protein not carbs

Lose Fat by Dinner Time 

Dr Michael Colgan 6 November 2013

A generous friend of ours loves to take us to a late buffet ``supper`` at a local pub. He goes so often he has his own table. While we start at salads he starts at desserts. As we work through the courses he has 6-8 desserts and nothing else. Roughly once a month he comes to me with some new pill or scheme to lose weight. I keep telling him…..

Eat late and you gain fat. Because of the way our circadian pacemaker works to control appetite in the brain, food eaten after 8:00 pm is less satiating.(1) Consequently, people who eat dinner late eat more calories than those who eat earlier, approximately TWICE as many calories.(2) Research shows that late eaters also satisfy their appetite with a higher intake of processed carbs.(3,4)

Both proteins and carbohydrates contain four calories per gram. Proteins, however, are more difficult for the body to turn into bodyfat. So the tendency for late eaters to eat more calories, and to get those calories from carbs, is a double whammy for fat gain. As you might expect, late eaters have bigger bay windows.(1,5)

Eat dinner by eight: stay lean for life.

1. de Castro JM (2004). The time of day of food intake influences overall intake in humans. J Nutrition, 134: 104–111. [PubMed]
2. Baron KG, et al. (2011) Role of sleep timing in caloric intake and BMI. Obesity (Silver Spring) 19: 1347–1381.[PubMed]
3. Brennan IM, et al. (2012) Effects of fat, protein, and carbohydrate, and protein load on appetite, plasma cholecystokinin, peptide YY, and ghrelin, and energy intake in lean and obese men. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 303: G129–140. [PubMed]
4. Kanerva N, et al. (2012) Tendency toward eveningness is associated with unhealthy dietary habits. Chronobiol Int 29: 920–927. [PubMed]
5. Lucassen EA, et al. .Evening chronotype is associated with changes in eating behavior, more sleep apnea, and increased stress hormones in short sleeping obese individuals. PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e56519. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056519.