The Late Night Eating Debate: should you eat at night?

There is a whole debate on if you should or is you shouldn’t eat after night fall. Some nutritionists and weight loss gurus say that you shouldn’t eat nothing after 7 pm. Others say that you can eat something light at night. Avoid eating fatty carbohydrate full foods they say. Others recommend the light night meal only if you want to lose weight. And the last category says that you can eat whatever quantity of food you want at night. But there is a catch: during the whole day you have to eat less or the exact amount of calories that you have burned during the day.

Some say to eat a royal breakfast, a princely lunch and a poor man’s supper. Basically they say eat light at night. Stop snacking and eating junk food while watching television or surfing the net. I hope you aren’t eating something while reading this, especially if it is late at night.

Night eating is encouraged by others. They say that you won’t get fat. One calorie keeps the same characteristics all day long. Your body doesn’t know that it is late or early in the morning. If during the day you have eaten less and at night you recuperate you shouldn’t get fat. The total daily caloric intake is the one that matters and how many calories you burn.

All the nutritionists and weight loss gurus seem to be on the same page when it comes to fast food and junk food at night or at any time during the day. It should always be avoided and replaced with fresh healthy food. That is a sure way for better health.

I my opinion you have to take into consider how active you are during the day. If you have an active lifestyle, always being on the move and exercising frequently you can indulge in bigger meals even at night. But if you are more of a couch potato you would be better off if you eat lighter meals, especially at night. There has to be a balance between the daily energetic needs of your body and the energetic value of the food you eat.

The rule would be the more intense physical activities you have during the day the bigger the meals can be. If you work hard all day long without having the chance of eating something you can prepare yourself a big healthy meal. The problem is that we usually eat a big pizza or some other fast food to stop the hunger. I am guilty of this but I am working on it. Nowadays there are fewer and fewer the situations in which I choose the easy and unhealthy way of eating fast food.

Ideally you would eat something every 3 to 4 hours. Small meals and snacks that don’t fill you up and give you the energy you require for what is ahead. You should always eat only food in quantities that your lifestyle requires. That way you will be healthy and fit at the same time. Or you will get healthy and fit.

Find out how to eat much more healthy food by reading the Healthy Eating Guide: eat much healthier food.