Q. I should not be eating starch carbs late at night? or as early as 3:00? Or should I care at all?

A. It depends. When you eat late at night when your metabolimsm naturally slows and there is no immediate activity burning up calories because you are sleeping, it is possible for your body to store these excess carbs as fat. Also, excess carbohydrates tend to raise insulin levels which in turn prevent the release of Growth Hormone (GH) which is required for muscle recovery.

However, not replenishing your carbs stores (glycogen in your muscles and liver) day after day will eventually lead to muscle fatigue.

It's the state of your glycogen stores that determines the fate of the carbs you take in. If they are depleated through exercise and diet, then the extra carbs will simply fill your carb stores and not cause an insulin response. So storage into fat (adipose tissues) is not going to happen. Furthermore, growth hormone (GH) can be released. If however your glycogen is already 'topped-off' the excess carbs will go to fat and no GH will be released.

Some bodybuilders eat heavy carbs for breakfast and carbs with protein after their workout and don't have any carbs at any other time. This seems to work best for building muscle and hard gainers.

Others prefer not to have too many carbs at any one sitting and spread them out throughout the day except for the last meal. This works best for keeping insulin levels even. This is probably best for people that have trouble keeping fat off.

Konrad Roeder