MISINFORMED

yesterday, i went to a friend's apartment to eat cookies. chocolate chip and butterscotch, if you must know. this is a pretty typical outing for myself and my roommates. pretty much every sunday we go, eat cookies, and make fun of the neighbors. good times had by all. except for the neighbors. unless they are masochists. which they might be. j/k roflmao /chuckle

anyway, while we were there a semi-regular cookie eater shows up. he chimes in every once in a while, trying to contribute to the wise cracks about how so-and-so's boyfriend is a "duh-duh-duh" (mind of mencia, for those of you who didnt get it right a way). and then he puts in his two cents about how eating right before going to bed is bad for you, makes you fatter, and you magically acquire more calories. and i shot him down.

it is a common view actually. i have heard it several times over the last few years. but it doesnt make any sense. his argument was this (and i assume he was just spitting out something he heard on the radio or something, like most people do about such things. they have no formulated opinions of their own, only borrowed information. but they sure do get defensive when someone calls them out on it) "when you eat the food and go to bed the calories get stored in the body, and they become harder to use, so you gain weight."

fine, i'll explain the process even further. you consume calories, you go to bed, your body's metabolism drops as does your caloric expenditure meaning you need less calories to run basic bodily functions like breathing and heart rate. the calories not used then become stored as glycogen and fat. fat takes more time to breakdown into usable glucose (which is where i think the theory comes from). so what is the effect on the body? you might become slightly more lethargic when you wake up.

you see, when it comes to gaining weight it comes down to a simple equation. calories consumed > calories used. that is it. when people say they have a glandular problem that prevents them from losing weight, what they mean is the glands are releasing a hormone which gives them a feeling of being hungry, or the glands fail to release a hormone that would have them feeling full after eating. either way the result is that they eat more food than they will use through exercise.

the idea that once calories are stored as fat they are never coming back is ridiculous. your body is constantly adding to and taking from your fat stores. it just happens to do it more quickly after a few minutes of aerobic exercise. so eating before you sleep has nothing to do with weight gain. calories weigh the same no matter how they are stored in the body. and even if it did affect the body in the way it was explained to me last night, i cant think of a single situation where it would cause significant weight gain. if you are eating right and exercising regularly, a few extra fat cells wont last more than a day anyway. and if you are obese then you have bigger issues than the time of day you are eating more than your share (no offense).

i just dont get health fads.