Is it safe to eat carbs at night?

What are the disadvantages of indulging in a carb-heavy diet?

In the current age where people are increasingly becoming more fitness conscious, the myths surrounding weight loss seem to flourish, mostly with regards to the consumption of carbohydrates. It is most commonly believed that intake of carbs at night can essentially ruin a regular healthy diet.

Many believe that in order to shed those extra pounds, one must cut down drastically on carbs after 3 pm, which means no carbs in dinner or dessert. Intake of carbs post noon to known to be the worst enemy of weight loss. However, it is interesting to know if this approach can actually help one in accomplishing a healthy and sustainable weight reduction goal.

If your diet consists of excessive carb and sugar without any fibre (which gets absorbed faster), there are high chances that your level of blood glucose will shoot up. Foods that are rich in concentrated carbs such as pasta and white bread are being increasingly associated with obesity and heart diseases. Therefore, a low-carb diet is the most flexible diet.

Excess of accumulated fat, primarily called visceral fat which lies around the abdomen, can result in diseases such as type-2 diabetes. If the excess amount of glucose isn’t burned through any kind of exercise, it may instantly respond by discharging insulin into the blood, consequently storing the extra sugar in the form of fat. Advanced carbs which are fundamentally present in pasta and white bread are likely to be digested faster in our bodies, hence their sugar content enters into the veins fast.

Thus, intake of carbs in the later half of the day is known to be bad instead of eating carbs in the morning. If you consume carbs in the morning, you are more likely to burn down the glucose during the day’s activities. It is believed that when there’s a long gap between two high-carb meals, your body is more equipped to deal with it, and is also more energetic.

If you consumer carbs closer to your bedtime, you will have less time to burn them off, and they will simply turn into fat when you go to sleep. If you lessen the quantity of carbs after lunch, then you could move one step closer to your weight loss goal. Also removing carbs will enable you in selecting additional food choices that are solid in their nutrient content, but less on calories, thus enabling you to feel fuller.

Remarkably, carbs are found in almost everything, starting from vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, beans to seeds. Hence, it gets little challenging to give up on carbs entirely. Also, it’s not advisable to cut down on carbs drastically. Instead, reduce the carb content slowly, one small portion at a time so as to not shock your body.

Slowly start including high-fibre, whole-grain carbs into your diet; they can seriously aid your weight loss programme. Having said that, there cannot be a definitive quantity of carbs that can be consumed in a day. It depends entirely on your weight and the kind of lifestyle you follow.

(The author is co-founder, fitness & nutritional scientist, FoodDarzee)