I always eat late at night (after getting home from work, helping with the children’s homework, putting them to bed and so on). Is this the reason I can’t shed the pounds?

Helen Clark, 47

It’s a myth that we somehow burn calories more slowly at night compared with during the day and that if we eat late in the evening, the calories somehow deposit themselves more readily into fat cells. Your metabolism is fairly consistent over a 24-hour period and does not “slow down” when the sun sets.

If you are finding it hard to shed the pounds, you need to look at the calories you are eating over the weeks and months, not simply those you are tucking away just before bedtime.

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At home we are free from food inhibitions

It is also well worth being aware of the psychological forces at work during the evening. First there is the tendency to eat more at home. The inhibitions that kept us from overindulging during the day are loosened and we unwittingly start to eat more; maybe picking here and there while preparing the children’s supper and having second helpings of dinner without really noticing.

Then there are the types of foods that we tend to allow to sneak into our dietary repertoire in the evenings; for instance, crisps, ice-cream and chocolate, which are very easy to tuck into in front of the television, again, often without really acknowledging that we are doing so. This “snack amnesia” is a well-documented phenomenon, but forewarned is forearmed.

And, of course, there is sometimes the alcohol factor. It, too, can loosen your normal inhibitions, making a big serving of pudding almost impossible to resist.

Other people’s food does contain calories

Finally, ask yourself if you are affected by the “possession rule of weight management”, which allows us to kid ourselves that other people’s food has no calorific effect on us, allowing us to pretend that if our dining companion has cheesecake for pudding and we eat half of it, they gain the weight, not us. Ditto your children’s leftover fish fingers. The best way of tackling all these issues is to keep a note of everything that passes your lips each night for a week. This way you will probably be able to identify the problems and work out why the pounds are not falling off.

It is almost certainly the amount and kinds of foods you are eating that are the concern, not the time on the clock.

For more of Amanda Ursell’s nutritional wisdom, visit the health club: timeshealth.co.uk/diet

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