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Most carbohydrate is not stored as fat regardless of when you eat it, unless you are eating a huge amount of carbs.
"De novo lipogenesis" is the term for the conversion of carbohydrate directly into body fat, and it is not all that common. Instead, with high carb consumption the body uses the carbs for energy and then stores dietary fat as body fat -- since it is not needed for energy, which the carbs are providing. It is not that "carbs make you fat" directly, but that by providing an energy surplus they stimulate your body to store dietary fat as body fat. See this paper for more info:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/74/6/707
| quote: | Because storage of energy as lipid is much more efficient than storage as carbohydrate, the presumption has been that animals use de novo lipogenesis as a metabolic safety valve for storage of carbohydrate energy present in excess of carbohydrate oxidative needs (ie, carbohydrate energy surplus). On the basis of this presumed role, inhibitors of de novo lipogenesis [such as (–)hydroxycitrate, an inhibitor of ATP citrate (pro-S)-lyase] have received attention as potential therapeutic agents for obesity and hyperlipidemia.
Most experimental data in humans, however, contradict this view of the function of de novo lipogenesis. Initial studies in which indirect calorimetry was used showed little or no net de novo lipogenesis after short-term carbohydrate overfeeding (1). Subsequent isotopic studies confirmed the absence of quantitatively significant flux through hepatic de novo lipogenesis under most conditions of carbohydrate energy surplus (2,3). |
From this it follows, of course, that it is perfectly fine to eat some carbs before bed as long as you don't eat a ton of them and don't eat much fat along with them.
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