Hi everyone I'm Monica Reinagel and you're listening to the nutrition divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

I'm sure you've heard the advice to eat breakfast like a king,

lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

Many people believe that it's healthier to eat lightly in the evening.

In fact, one popular weight loss trick is not to eat anything at all after 8 p.m.

Despite the fact that our appetite peaks in the evening, something I talked about in last week's

podcast.

What's the rationale for this phobia about eating late in the day?

Well, people often imagine that if they do something physically active after a meal,

they're using up the calories in the food they just consumed.

By the same token, they believe that if they go to bed soon after eating dinner,

the energy from the food they've just

eaten will all be stored as fat.

But that's not really how it works.

For one thing, it takes your body up to two hours to digest food and turn it into energy for

biological functions. So let's say you get up from the dinner table and you take a

45 minute walk. Well that's great but you're not using up the food you just ate.

Most of it won't even have left your stomach yet.

Not to mention the fact that the average meal contains 5 to 800 calories

and walking for 45 minutes is only going to burn off a hundred or so.

Secondly, I think people vastly overestimate

what percentage of their daily energy or calorie expenditure goes to physical activity.

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