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Sherry just asked this one in the MJ Discussion forum. It's perhaps my favourite nutrition question.

Q: When is the latest time I should make my last meal?

A: This question actually, really asks... "Will food I eat at night turn into fat?" It will if what you eat at night pushes you up over your calorie limit or 'calorie cap' (as I call it).

Consider the following two scenarios:

(1) Over your calorie cap at night - You eat breakfast on Target, have your morning snack on Target, you eat lunch on Target, but you have a blow-out mid-afternoon and eat a packet of crisp and can of regular soft drink. You follow this up with an early (6pm) pizza for dinner because you consider you've blown your diet. You don't eat anything after dinner.

(2) Under your calorie cap at night - You eat breakfast on Target, you skip your morning snack, have a light lunch (less than your Targets), eat your afternoon snack on Target and then eat dinner on Target, but late at 10pm because you had to stay at work to complete a job.

In the first scenario above, you've obviously overeaten during the day, so although you don't eat anything after 6pm, you'll gain body fat.

In the second scenario, you are still short of your Exchanges and your calorie cap, even though you don't eat until late at night. In this case you finish your day and go to bed under your calorie cap so you lose body fat.

In summary, its not how late at night you eat that causes you to gain or lose body fat. It's how you are placed relative to your calorie limit for the day.

On Friday, I spoke all day at a seminar, so by the time I came to dinner later that night I had lots of Exchanges left in my diet so I could eat more at night, being confident the food would not be turned into body fat. I was under my calorie cap.

So, with regards to gaining body fat its not whether the food eaten at night is any more likely to turn into body fat. It's a case of whether you are still under your calorie cap for the day.

This said, the old saying is a good guide, "Breakfast for a king, lunch for a prince and dinner for a pauper." At night, you won't be expected to need too much energy from food, so don't eat too much.

A good guide for dinner is, catch up on your nutrition (its the last chance to hit your Exchange Targets) and eat enough to get to sleep without being too hungry. Simple!

The exception is for athletes who need to carbohydrate load and eat big after an afternoon or evening training session.

I hope this logic puts things in perspective. Nutrition is complex but with Metabolic Jumpstart I aim to make it simple.