Carbs At Night: Fat Loss Killer Or Imaginary Boogeyman?

Myth. bb.com... hahah I wont go there.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter for 99% of people. The only issue with eating anything late is making your gut work when it's supposed to rest. (Which carbs help you do better & faster.)

I'm eating cookie dough cheesecake as I type this. I'll go to bed after I'm done eating. I have no problem cutting when I eat carbs, fats or protein at night, morning, I eat whatever, whenever.

I will say it depends on the person.

For ME, as a diabetic, carbs at night SUCK!!!!
I wake up with a "Hangover" feeling because of the spike..

I do believe it is individualized and each must make their own decisions. Will it hurt probably not? But, could it also be helpful for some? Probably so. To those that say, "It hasn't hurt me?", I simply ask, "Could you even be further along?"

I'll caveat a bit upfront. IF you exercise 1st thing in the morning and still have ample amounts of fat to lose "fasting" overnight could be beneficial. Not just carb restricting but simply don't eat before bed.

The reason:
Exercise (especially cardio-based) does two things metabolically. It burns calories and affects hormone levels in your body. Specifically, it helps raise levels of norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is a natural hormone in our bodies which underlies our "fight-or-flight" response and directly increases heart-rate which triggers the release of glucose from energy stores. Glucose is stored in our bodies are Glycogen where liver and muscle has only so much storage space. The rest of it is stored in our fat cells. The inverse of this can be seen as a rise in Insulin.

When you "fast" overnight, the levels of liver and muscle glycogen are normally very low when you wake up 1st thing in the morning. With depleted glycogen and low-blood sugar, you'll have the most optimal environment to burn fat instead of carbohydrates. Since carbs and glycogen are your body's primary and preferred source of energy if you have them available it will always use them first. When they're low (or non-existent) your body has little choice to tap into it's secondary energy source which is fat. Obviously our bodies are not that selective on what it'll burn as you'll likely use energy from all 3 sources but in this state the majority will come from stored fat.

As always it's an individual situation. Those with low-body fat already this probably would have a negative affect as if there's not much fat the body turns to muscle. Those that exercise at night this is probably much tougher to accomplish since you'll surely consume carbs throughout the day so there will always be a supply there.

That said, if you have a lot of fat you want to lose, eat ample amounts of protein to minimize muscle loss, can "fast" overnight and still push hard in your morning workouts then this could be an effective part of your weight loss strategy.

I do believe it is individualized and each must make their own decisions. Will it hurt probably not? But, could it also be helpful for some? Probably so. To those that say, "It hasn't hurt me?", I simply ask, "Could you even be further along?"

I'll caveat a bit upfront. IF you exercise 1st thing in the morning and still have ample amounts of fat to lose "fasting" overnight could be beneficial. Not just carb restricting but simply don't eat before bed.

The reason:
Exercise (especially cardio-based) does two things metabolically. It burns calories and affects hormone levels in your body. Specifically, it helps raise levels of norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is a natural hormone in our bodies which underlies our "fight-or-flight" response and directly increases heart-rate which triggers the release of glucose from energy stores. Glucose is stored in our bodies are Glycogen where liver and muscle has only so much storage space. The rest of it is stored in our fat cells. The inverse of this can be seen as a rise in Insulin.

When you "fast" overnight, the levels of liver and muscle glycogen are normally very low when you wake up 1st thing in the morning. With depleted glycogen and low-blood sugar, you'll have the most optimal environment to burn fat instead of carbohydrates. Since carbs and glycogen are your body's primary and preferred source of energy if you have them available it will always use them first. When they're low (or non-existent) your body has little choice to tap into it's secondary energy source which is fat. Obviously our bodies are not that selective on what it'll burn as you'll likely use energy from all 3 sources but in this state the majority will come from stored fat.

As always it's an individual situation. Those with low-body fat already this probably would have a negative affect as if there's not much fat the body turns to muscle. Those that exercise at night this is probably much tougher to accomplish since you'll surely consume carbs throughout the day so there will always be a supply there.

That said, if you have a lot of fat you want to lose, eat ample amounts of protein to minimize muscle loss, can "fast" overnight and still push hard in your morning workouts then this could be an effective part of your weight loss strategy.

Respectfully, I think you have it backwards. Lyle would concur:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/fasted-cardio-and-fat-loss-qa.html


Fatty acid mobilization is typically not an issue in obese people, and mobilization is the key thing that improves during fasted training.

Already-lean people MAY have some benefit from fasted training. For the obese, it's probably not going to make any appreciable difference and I'd let personal preference rule method in this case.


But I think that overall, if you're worried about the amount of fat oxidation that occurs DURING the training bout, you're absolutely micro-managing the irrelevant details ESPECIALLY if you're not already lean.

I'm eating cookie dough cheesecake as I type this. I'll go to bed after I'm done eating. I have no problem cutting when I eat carbs, fats or protein at night, morning, I eat whatever, whenever.

I'm going to go with whatever this gentleman recommends. Clearly the cheesecake is working for him. *holds out plate* yes, please.

Meal timing is irrelevant. Carb timing is irrelevant. Eat whatever you want, whenever you want. But stay under your TDEE. Simple.

Carb timing is not irrelevant. Otherwise, why would body builders use insulin and growth hormone to spike protein/carbs into the muscle?

Of course in your every day person, the carb timing is faaaaaaaaaaaaar less important but to say it is irrelevant is a point of debate, not a set fact either way as there are many studies showing pro's and con's of both.