Most Americans eat a heavy meal late in the day and then go on to have a snack while watching television. This sabotages your weight loss efforts.

Your body's metabolism slows down dramatically in preparation for sleep and it's fat storing process begins. You can help minimize the weight gaining process by eating dinner earlier in the evening. If you take a walk or do other forms of physical activity, you can lessen it even more.

A study made by the University of Minnesota showed that people who were put on a 2,000 calorie diet either lost or gained weight depending on the times of day that they ate. Those who ate most of their calories early in the day lost weight while those who ate them late in the day gained weight - a lot of weight.

Ideally, you should eat your largest meal at mid day; but, if you can't, you should eat your evening meal as early as possible - between 5:30 and 6:00 pm. The later you eat, the smaller your portions should be. Eating more slowly will also help.

Evening meals should contain more vegetables and grains and fewer proteins and fats. Delay your dessert until after your post-dinner walk - and make it low in fat.

Your evening meal should be no more than 500 to 600 calories. Of course, here again, most of those calories should be low in calories.

To help you keep track of what you eat, use a food diary. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Even just a piece of paper will do. You will only need to keep it for a short time - until you can see a pattern in your eating habits. A study by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association shows that impressive body fat losses are associated with keeping records of what you eat.

Creating meals that are low in fat but are still delicious can be a challenge. If you have a job and then must go home and cook dinner, it's even more difficult. Here are a few tips to help:

1. The first step is to plan ahead by keeping your pantry and refrigerator filled with healthy foods.

2. Plan meals as well as your pantry. Set aside a short time each week to plan meals and snacks for the week.

3. Use a microwave to shorten cooking time when possible. Fast food doesn't have to mean fat food.

4. Keep a list. When you get low on a food or ingredient, add it to the list. You'll be less likely to stop at McDonald's on your way home from work.

5. Double favorite recipes and freeze half for when you're late and don't have time to cook.

Yes, losing weight is a challenge. But you can help yourself by paying attention to what you eat and what time of day that you eat. Plan ahead so that you can prepare nutritious meals quickly. Remember that the later in the day that you eat high fat foods, the more weight that you will gain.