What Happens When you eat late at Night?

As a personal trainer and weight management specialist I often hear people say they are gaining weight because they eat late at night.

When asked what types of foods they are eating. People tend to skirt around the question and state that they are certain that their late night eating is the problem. They even add in that they always go to sleep right after so that food just sits and turns into fat.

Yup this is my face when I hear this .

So here's the deal. Calories in versus Calories out. If you eat more than what your body can burn at rest + activity or exercise  (calories burned)) . Guess what you gain weight!!

 For Example, say my Basal Metabolic Rate aka what I can burn sitting on the couch is 1300 and I also exercised and burned 200 calories. This equals 1500 calories for the mathletes out there. So instead of eating 1500 calories, I eat 2000 calories every day. That's 500 excess calories everyday times 7 days in a week. Hmmmm you know what 500 x 7 =3,500 calories which equals 1lb gained. So in a years time I could potentially gain approx 50lbs. 50 pounds that wasn't gained overnight literally. 

The talk of weight gain due to night time eating is a myth. In reality its the quantity of food consumed that causes weight gain. Excess calories is the reason. 

So Im sure your wondering how to calculate your basal metabolic rate? Well thats another blog for another day. STAY TUNED!!