Eat Carbs Morning Or Night

Should you eat carbs during the morning or during the night? Also, should you eat carbs at all, or are they now a forbidden fruit? Carbs are controversial to say the very least, and they have been in and out of the news for ages. A few years ago, Dr. Atkins came out with his no carb diet, which has now been completely discredited (Dr. Atkins ended up in the hospital with heart problems).

However, moving to low carb (as the “new” Atkins advises as well as some of the other lower carb diets like Unleash Your Thin) is still very much present and popular. So if you do believe in low carb, or if you think carbs should be controlled, should you consume them at night or in the morning? Lets take a look at both sides of the argument.

Why You Should Eat Carbs in the Morning

Those who believe you should consume your carbs in the morning believe that doing this gives your body the chance to burn them off during the day. Our bodies are now set up to get their energy from the carbs we consume, so it makes no sense to eat them at night, when you are going to bed to sleep. Although this theory seems to make sense, it has now been almost completely been discredited.

Why You Should Eat Carbs at Night

Those who claim that you have to eat your carbs at night follow the train of thought that this helps your body feel fuller for longer, meaning you will eat less food the next day, which in turn helps you lose weight. This may seem like a tall claim, but there has actually been a very significant piece of scientific evidence to demonstrate this is actually true.

“In the study, researchers split 78 Israeli police officers into two groups and placed them on nearly identical 6-month-long low-calorie diets (1,300 to 1,500 calories a day) eating equal amount of carbs, protein, and fat throughout the day. The only difference: Half of the officers ate the majority of their carbs at night while the other half ate them throughout the day. At the start and end of the study, researchers analyzed blood hormone levels while the cops recorded their hunger levels.” – news.menshealth.com

This study clearly demonstrated that those police officers that consumed the carbs at night lost significantly more weight than the other group.

Which Side Is Right?

So does this mean the verdict is in and we should all start consuming our carbs at night? Not necessarily, some say. The reality is that the study was flawed to some degree. For instance, there was no monitoring of what kind of physical activity the police offers will involved in. In other words, it is possible that the night time officers were working out, whereas the daytime test subjects spend their entire day sitting down. Hence, it is not clear whether the weight loss that was noted came from the carb consumption or from different factors. However, at the same time, this idea that we should never eat carbs after 6pm< is completely ridiculous when you think about it.

“A commonly held belief in the fat loss arena is you should not eat carbohydrates after 5-6 pm because, by some magical, mystical, transmutative process, they suddenly become more fattening after this time than in the morning. Yeah, right – and I have a buddy who looks like a musclebound version of Brad Pitt during the day, but morphs into a Dick Cheney look-a-like the minute the clock strikes six.” – anthonycolpo.com

So where does the truth lie? It lies in the fact that diets simply don’t work. It is all about eating a healthy diet that is consistent with your nutritional needs. Some people need more carbohydrates, perhaps because they have huge energy drops during the day. Some people need more protein, for instance if they are involved in heavy bodybuilding or have just come out of surgery. Some people need to consume more or less sugar (although this never means they should eat one piece of chocolate cake after another). It is about knowing what is good and bad for your body, knowing the difference between the calorific intake of a doughnut and that of a chicken drumstick (both have the same amount of calories, but one is much worse for your body than the other). Most of all, it is about making sure you don’t deprive your body of anything. The more you deny yourself the right to certain things you enjoy, the more you will crave them and the more likely you are to fail.