Bad news about late-night snacking

Here's an article from TIME about late-night eating:

Midnight Snacks: More Fattening Than You Feared?

I am a devoted evening eater. In the summer, 9:00 is not an unusual dinnertime for our family. And even in the winter, when we aim for earlier dinners to accommodate the girls' bedtimes, I tend to snack before bed. It's part of my apparently all-wrong way of eating. I do eat three meals a day, plus an afternoon snack after a hard workout or if I'm feeling really hungry -- but I save the bulk of my calories for the evening. I like going through the day knowing that there's a reward at the end. So I eat virtually the same thing for breakfast every day: a double-tall nonfat latte (made at home on my super-awesome machine); a slice of toasted flax bread with a tablespoon of peanut butter and jam; and half a piece of fruit or a handful of berries. I try not to have bread again at lunch -- and if I'm trying to be virtuous (read: feeling like my pants are becoming tighter), I'll eat a cup of nonfat, plain Greek yogurt topped with sliced fruit or berries and a serving of frosted mini wheats. If I'm cutting myself some slack, I might have soup or a turkey wrap or leftover dinner from the night before if it's available. If I need an afternoon snack, I'll have another nonfat latte or a handful of nuts or hummus with a few crackers or one of those Special K 100 calorie bars ... something along those lines.

Not bad so far, right? But at dinner, I usually cut loose a bit. Both because of the aforementioned appeal of feeling like there's a reward waiting for me at the end of the day -- and because dinner is the meal where I'm preparing food not only for myself, but for three other hungry people who generally have less tolerance for supremely repetitive and/or lowfat meals. That's not to say we eat fat-filled dinners every night, far from it. We do plenty of chicken, soups (the ones I make are generally low in fat), salmon burgers, stuff like that. But we also offset those meals with burritos (which aren't too bad if we can control ourselves with the cheese and sour cream), pizza, pasta, meat loaf ... you get the picture.

And as long as I'm baring all, here's the rest: we also have dessert most nights. Not in any kind of formal way -- the girls usually rummage around for a sweet after they have dinner, and my husband and I do the same thing after they've gone to bed. I try to make sure we've got lowfat ice cream or fro yo on hand, but when my husband does the shopping he comes home with the premium goods. And if that's what's in the house, that's what we eat. I won't even get into the happy nights when he gets a wild hair and makes chocolate chip cookies ...

So really, I probably do consume more than 50% of my daily calories after 6:00 at night. Which is exactly what this article is telling me I potentially shouldn't be doing. In a nutshell, it says that lab animals gain more weight if they eat during a time they'd normally be sleeping. It has yet to be proven in humans. But there are plenty of folks out there who tout the "no food after x pm" rule. I was delighted last year when I read something -- I wish I could remember where -- that said calories are calories, it doesn't matter when you eat them. I really hope that's true, because I don't want to change the way of eating that feels most natural to me and makes me happiest. I've also been hanging my hat on something my friend J told me a while ago -- she's from Slovakia and spent a chunk of time in Spain with her then-boyfriend: that no one eats dinner there before 10 and nobody is fat. Maybe that's because they stay up super late after they eat? After all, this article is talking specifically about eating during a time you'd normally be asleep. Perhaps the Spaniards normally don't go to sleep 'til 2:00 in the morning, and that's how they avoid weight gain? Maybe my rhythms are set up similarly, and I can get away with snacking at 10pm because that's not during a time my body thinks it should be asleep?

Regardless, I do spend a lot of time wondering: if I made some substantial changes in the way I eat -- timed it differently, adjusted my mix of carbs/proteins/fats, cut out sugar and alcohol, made sure to eat a smart snack right after weight training -- would I see a big difference in my body? Would I finally be rid of the genetic thunder thighs that 5 years of running and weightlifting haven't winnowed away? Would I have a super sleek body with well-defined muscles? I don't know. And because I love eating and drinking so much, and doing those things at the times of day that feel best to me, I may never find out. Maybe it's just not that important to me (yet).