Can you eat carbs after 6pm?

I’m sure that a lot of you have already heard of this a few times whilst you have been embarking on your fitness journey. I can hear them now in the background, huddled together thinking that they are so correct.

Don’t eat carbs after 6pm because if you do you are going to get fat.

It makes me laugh sometimes and also wants to take these individuals and see where they got their information from to come up with such nonsense. The real facts are that eating too much food in general is going to make you fat. Being in the incorrect calories surplus is going to make you fat. So, it doesn’t matter what food group you eat in the evening, it is how much you are eating in that day.

The main reason I have found that people come to this conclusion is because the majority of people who are overweight or unhappy eat a lot of carbs in the evening.

Pizza, Pasta, Takeaway in fact.

But even if you just look at those different food sources, we all know that they are not the best for us. They can be used to treat yourself because I’m all about having balance but eating lots of complex carbs like those is not great at any time of the day, let alone last thing in the evening.

But what I really want to point out is people saying that you shouldn’t be eating after 6pm, and the only reason that I can logically come up with for that is that you have a longer fasting period. If you were to stop eating at 6pm and then your first meal is only at 8.30am the next morning. That is a good 14.5 hour window that you haven’t had food in your system. Taking your consumption for the day lower than someone who may have a protein shake before bed. So essentially, they are just reducing their calorie intake in general.

Eating late and dependant on what food you have eaten does also affect you the next morning, if you were to eat a lot of high carb foods like pizza then you are probably going to wake up the next morning feeling a little worse for wear. A little bloated and generally slower as you’ve retained water and salt.

So, what we need to be thinking instead of saying to just not eat carbs after 6pm, is to watch what we are eating after that time. Greek yoghurt with dark chocolate and a protein shake before bed is easily digestible and will not leave you feeling blue in the morning. It is totally up to how you feel you diet better, whether you thrive more on a fasting period or not.

What do you think about the saying above? Do you agree that you should lay off the carbs in the evening to ensure that you stick to your diet the way you want too. Or should you give yourself some more breathing room. Indulge a little when you want too but you know that you may feel a little sluggish the next morning, but I’m sure if you are working with me you’ll have a killer workout the do the next day to put those carbs to use.

Let me know in the comments below.

CJ