In a local magazine: New Zealand healthy food guide – August 2006… pages 78-79

Excerpts…

“It’s a common piece of advice for those trying to lose weight: ‘Don’t eat after 5!’ But will we explode if we do?
“Some popular diet books advise cutting out eating carbohydrates, or anything at all after 5 or 6pm. The diets often reduce the total carbohydrate intake by cutting out carbohydrates such as pasta, breads, rice, potato, biscuits, cakes and soft drinks. Vegetables, dairy products and fruit are the type of carbohydrate allowed.
“But a search by Sanitarium of more than 4800 scietific journals in the National Library of Medicine medline database failed to find a single study that supported the theory that carbohydrates need to be cut out after 5pm in order to lose weight.
“In theory, cutting out some of the carbohydrates after 5pm or not eating after 8pm could reduce the total energy intake for the day. This would ultimately lead to a reduction in weight.”


The article also makes a good distinction in the jargon which I have never understood before… what is the difference between serving size and portions???
“Serving size is the average serving size of the product. However, this may not be the same as the serving you actually have. In fact your serve size may be a larger portion. A portion is how much you actually eat. “


And of course, the article ends sensibly…
“So, no carbs after 5pm? It is not the time of day that foods are eaten, but it is the combinationof the totla ammount of foods, what the food is made up of, the ammount of activity taken over a day and general health which causes weight gain. If there is a balance of food and activity over a day, body weight remains stable.”

Well - Ive been doing this around a fortnight (no carbs after 5) and no significant weight loss. I'll stick at it for another two weeks and report back...