DannoXYZ 

Well... food doesn't sit in your stomach, it'll be digested even when you're sleeping. There's no air-space in the stomach, it's a muscle stretches and shrinks to contain the volume needed (unless you're swallowing air with your food, then a burp takes care of that).

Now the food that is digested can go into different pathways depending upon the state your body's in. If it's in a depleted state, like it's been hours since your last meal, or if you've just gotten back from a ride, pretty much ALL of that food's going to be going into replenishing your glycogen stores and rebuilding muscle. You can be sitting around watching TV afterwards, going to sleep, or fixing the bike, doesn't matter, that food will end up at the same place, in the muscles.

HOWEVER, IF you've already eaten dinner and your glycogen stores AND you eat a snack right before bed, then this extra food & calories will end up as fat on your body. Doesn't matter if it's a candy-bar, slices of cinnamon toast, potato-chips, burger, etc. it'll end up getting converted to fat because there's no more room for glycogen in your muscles & liver.

So the determining factor in piling on fat is when you eat, but rather of how much you eat in relation to your glycogen-stores. If it's low, then eat, if not don't, simple.

Good, listen to your body... Feeling hunger is in the brain due to low insulin and low blood-sugar levels. Feeling hungry all the time will cause your body to switch to starvation/famine mode for self-preservation. Your metabolism will slow dow, your body will convert muscle into fat for the long winter, all of which is counter to your goals. Eat a little snack to raise your blood-sugar, which raises insulin and leptin and you'll stop feeling hungry. Another guy mentioned sugar-water and olive-oil to ward off hunger-pangs, which I'm gonna test next.