If seeing the words “lean” and “carb” in the same sentence shocked you, you’re in for an even bigger surprise: you can accelerate your weight loss goals and burn more fat by eating carbs at night.
Now, I don’t blame you for thinking I’m crazy, but don’t exit just yet. The reason eating carbs at night can help you lean out is due to a concept called carb backloading.
Carb backloading goes against everything we practice in the traditional Western diet, which features bagels, pastries, and concentrated orange juice as breakfast staples.
Carb loading even goes against what many health advocates preach. All of these years, we’ve been taught to eat carbs at breakfast to burn as energy throughout the day.
We’ve even been told that eating carbs for breakfast boosts our metabolism.
But science says otherwise. Carbohydrates have been proven to be more beneficial to our health – and less likely to get stored as fat – when eaten in the evening.
And I’m going to explain why.
What Is Carb Backloading and How Does It Work?
First off, I should mention that the carbohydrates I’m referring to are beans, legumes, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, vegetables, fruit, and gluten-free whole grains if you eat them.
As for refined carbohydrates – pastries, bread, and chocolate chip cookie dough – not so much. Highly processed carbs packed full of refined sugar will promote weight gain and damage your health no matter when you eat them.
Now, carb backloading is simply eating carbohydrates at the time of day your body is less likely to store them as fat, which is at night.
While this might sound counterintuitive, carb backloading can be explained based on how specific hormones, such as cortisol are naturally programmed to function during the day.
You see, cortisol is a hormone that triggers fat loss.
When you sleep, your cortisol levels slowly rise and remain elevated when you wake up in the morning.
This is a good thing because cortisol helps your brain function, regulates your blood sugar levels and gets your metabolism going. In fact, your body enters an optimal fat burning state when your cortisol levels peak.
So, what does this have to do with the time of day you eat carbs?
Studies have shown that eating carbohydrates directly lowers your cortisol levels.
Therefore, carbs have the ability to move your body out of a fat-burning state and into a fat-storage state instead. This is because carbs spike your blood sugar levels and trigger the release of insulin, a storage hormone that suppresses cortisol (1).
As you can see, eating toast, granola, or cereal in the morning— when your cortisol levels are the highest— can directly impair your body’s ability to burn fat and get lean despite your existing dietary and exercise efforts.
The fact that carbs prevent your body from burning fat also explains why having protein as your first meal of the day accelerates weight loss.
Unlike carbohydrates, protein stabilizes blood sugar levels which prevents the release of insulin. This allows cortisol levels to remain in a fat burning state.
When Is the Best Time to Eat Carbs?
The best time to eat carbs is approximately 4 hours before you go to bed, and right after you workout to replenish your glycogen stores.
If possible, try to work out later in the afternoon or the early evening to maximize carb backloading benefits.
If that’s not possible or you prefer working out in the morning, don’t worry too much.
It’s essential that you eat carbs after a workout to refuel. In this case, I recommend making a protein shake and adding a banana.
When paired with a carb, protein helps stabilize blood sugar levels. This will prevent the release of excess insulin, and allow cortisol to continue working its fat-burning magic.
As an added benefit of carb backloading, eating carbs at night can help you sleep better.
This is because carbohydrates boosts your brain’s ability to produce melatonin, which regulates your sleep and wake cycle. And getting 7-8 hours of restful sleep each night has been linked to sustainable weight loss, where 6.5 or less hours of sleep has been shown to promote to weight gain (2).
As you can see, unprocessed carbs aren’t necessarily the waistline troublemakers they’re thought to be.
You can get lean by eating carbs, as long you eat them when they’re less likely to be stored as fat.
And you know what that means: you can have your cake, and eat it for dinner too (a gluten-free, refined sugar-free, cruelty-free cake, of course).