Late Night Snacking Issue

I only limit myself to eat past 8 over the weekends! and I am counting calories but Im scared that eating past 8 will slow down my metabolism!

As long as you're controlling your total food intake for the day, you've got nothing to worry about. You can literally eat right before bed and be fine. The idea that late night eating causes fat gain (assuming correct total food intake) is a complete myth.

I only limit myself to eat past 8 over the weekends! and I am counting calories but Im scared that eating past 8 will slow down my metabolism!

It won't. Really. It won't.

You need to feed your body when it needs to be fed. If you're working out after 8, you NEED TO EAT AFTER 8 or you're not feeding that workout properly and THAT will have a lot more effect on your metabolism than some mythical property about calories that after 7:59:59PM they all turn into little metabolism-bashing faeries.

Eat when you're hungry, drink when you're dry, it's not the timing that makes you fat it's the overall quantity and quality of your food in the long term.

I make sure I leave enough calories for a late night snack: I usually have 2 medium soft-boiled eggs and 2 Jacquet toasts (tiny Melba toast type things that you can get in Waitrose) at about 9pm. It comes to about 200 calories. I haven't suffered from the midnight munches for ages because of this.

And I have made it a goal to not eat past 8, but now after working out I get soo hungry!!

Unnecessary handicap. Why do this to yourself? Are you after self-improvement or self-torture?

The idea that late night eating causes fat gain (assuming correct total food intake) is a complete myth.

The idea that late night eating causes weight gain on the next morning's weigh-in (which is what my wife likes to point to as evidence) is not mythical at all. But that's because I haven't necessarily pooped out all the detritus from last night's snack yet. Colon content weight shows on the scale, sadly, and I suspect that's where this myth largely came from.

I routinely eat after 8, sometimes after 9, and often as late as 10. It's quite often the sugariest snack of my day (wine and extra-dark chocolate chips, generally). I've also arrived home very late on several occasions after bicycling and been unable to eat a large meal until 8:30 or 9:00 PM. I'll sit there wolfing down a 2,500 calorie meal to try and make up for a 5-hour bike ride, and my wife will always lecture me about late eating.

Sure enough, the next morning, the scale's up 2-3 pounds. Then, mid-morning, I have an earth-shattering "movement in B-Flat with musical splashing accompaniments", and the day after that the scale's right back where it should be.