I've been up since about 2:30 a.m. when my son woke me up (went to sleep about 1 am, so going on very little sleep). The thing is that I'm much hungrier than usual, presumably due to higher levels of cortisol. At the same time, I'm wondering....is the hunger all due to cortisol increases? Or, does my body really need more calories since I'm up more? I stayed in bed until 4:30 a.m. but then I got up and started going about my usual day and even went to the gym. What do you do with your calories....do you allow more on days like these?

Take this with a grain of salt if you want, but if I were up for all those extra hours, and hungrier than usual, I would eat more.

I firmly believe that weight loss boils down to calories. But there's really not a magic number that you have to stick to everyday. Say you have an extra 300, or even 500 calories today? What effect would that have? Not much. You'd lose .1-.2 less than you would normally. Even if you did that once every week, your overall progress wouldn't be slowed much. So why suffer, when in the end it won't matter much.

I agree with zoodoo's analysis. Do you have any days where you end up with extra calories? Looking back on my food diary I tend to have around 500 or so in surplus over the course of a week, so on these nights/days when you're up extra it could be a good time to use them up.

I'd allow more but it would be protein heavy with some healthy fat. I find that if I give into hunger by eating carbs I end up on the crazy train

Sleep burns fewer calories than just sitting around awake. Add in, I don't know, a couple of hundred maybe, but try to go for something you can eat in moderation rather than a trigger food since you're feeling extra hungry. And hey, if you eat a couple of hundred calories more than you should on one day, it's not the end of the world, especially if you went to the gym!

Being hungry can actually keep you awake too, it's due to hypoglycaemia. Sometimes I've realised that despite having enough calories for the day, I can't get to sleep or have woken and can't go back to sleep due to hunger, so I have a snack.

Thanks so much for all of your thoughtful responses! I'm finding it a lot easier then if I hadn't posted here because now I know that I can have some extra without feeling guilty.

Your son & my daughter should play so that we can sleep! My daughter had me up all.night.long last night. I was going to post this, so I am glad to see you already did!

The life with little kids! On crazy nights like that, I allow myself an extra 100-150 cals. Small snack, or bowl of cereal, just to get through. You can't stop life!

So interesting to come across this thread, as It is currently just about 4am and I can't get to sleep! I was about 400 calories short today, I didn't feel hungry but now I am...... I wonder if I should just get up and have a snack!