Hi all,

I am a new member. I am a male (doesn't seem to be to many men here, but what they hay...). Anyway, not sure if this post should go here but here goes. I am 35 years old and need to lose about 60 pounds (90 to get down to my 25 year old weight). I have eaten at night (between 11pm and 1am) for 10 years - and I literally mean every night. It all started when I used to be a fitness fanatic and think it started because my body really did need the calories since I was working out twice a day most days during the week. Needless to say, I'm not longer working out like that but have continued to eat at night.

What happens is I will eat dinner around 7pm and be fine. Go to bed around 11pm and not be hungry at all. All the sudden I will wake up and literally be starving to death. I will ALWAYS eat crappy food. Cheese and crackers, Capn Crunch, left over pizza, chips, PB and J, etc... Its as if I can't sleep unless I eat late. I literally do this every single night without fail.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so, how did you beat it? I tell myself everynight before I go to bed "you are not going to eat tonight". But like I said, I'll sleep for a little bit and I wake up a different person, starving to death... Thanks in advance guys!

Sounds like you should track your calories for a few days to see how much you are eating- you could not be eating enough during the day but then be eating too much when you wake up at night.

Have you tried just before bed having a healthy snack like some fruit and maybe a tiny bit of cheese? Or an apple with peanut butter? Something controlled so that when you do go to bed your stomach isn't empty?

I'd try that approach first, then if I still wake up I'd drink a glass of water to try and trick my stomach, specially if you track your calories and know you are eating enough.

At 256 calories to lose weight you could get in 2000 calories a day and still lose.

If that were me, the ONLY thing that would work would be not having any 'grab-able' food around for a few weeks. Then, when you wake up, you have no choice. But thats good, you cannot think rationally and make good choices when half asleep - so attempt to 'clean out the house' until you can form the new habit of sleeping through the night. At this point, your body is waking up out of habit to eat, not because you are going to starve without the calories (which was probably the case before).

Welcome!!!

I agree with bonnnie and beerab. Make sure you are eating enough during the day, and even have a snack before bed. But I also think it is really important to not have food that you can binge on in your home. I have nothing that can be eaten instantly. the quickest thing I have to eat is frozen vegetables in a steam pack that take a couple minutes in the microwave. I feel like I have nothing in my kitchen but it works. Sometimes I feel like binging but I'll look in my kitchen and there really isn't anything I can binge on.

Another thing you should do is make sure you are drinking enough water, which is about 8-10 glasses a day (one glass is considered 8 ounces). I have a one liter water bottle and I make sure to fill it up and drink it all twice everyday. I'll have one liter with breakfast, one with lunch, then whatever I want for dinner. I have to drink a lot of water to help fight against binges.

Thanks guys. All good advice. Tonight I will eat an apple w/ peanut butter and a few glasses of water and see if that works... I'll check back in tomorrow if that's cool... thanks!

Until you can form the habit of not waking up at all, can whatever you eat at night be something healthy? Maybe some fruit, low cal sandwich. I"m not encouraging, but going cold turkey while you work things out might be a bit much. Also while you're not hungry right before bed, maybe have something right before bed and see how that works?

I'm a night time eater as well. Then I finally decided that it really didn't matter when I ate my calories as long as I didn't eat more than my nutrition plan. So I eat fruit and veggies and keep my calorie intake low during the day and eat the majority of my calories at night. Things are actually going better for me. And I actually work out pretty hard after work and am not hungry. It may not be what nutritionists will say to do and maybe my trainer would fuss at me, but I feel I've gotta do what works for me. And right now this is working the best.