No. The time of day during which you choose to eat has no bearing on how your body processes food. Any extra calories you take in will be stored as fat whether you eat them at noon or midnight.

That's not to say that evening eating isn't a problem for many dieters. It's easy in the evening to snack while relaxing.

When we eat in front of the television, we aren't paying attention to what we are eating in front of the TV report feeling like they haven't eaten at all. It appears that the food eaten doesn't register all that well when we are distracted.

• Don't deny fat. Eating fat-free cookies and other treats that contain refined carbohydrates can lead to bingeing. Instead, allow yourself up to 30% of your daily calories to come from fat, particularly mono- and poly-unsaturated vegetable oils, nuts, and fish oil.

• Stay with it. More than half the dieting success stories in the survey said they applied these strategies to their diets every day.