Night time eating

[AutumnPunkin 313]

I am sure i am not alone with the habit if night time eating. I am often an insomniac, and i find it so hard to resist eating between 2300-0300. I understand how bad it is to not sleep well, often, regularly, and adding nighttime eating to the mix is dangerous on many levels.

I am hoping others have experienced this problem. How are/did you cope(ing)?

I am speaking to a therapist..... We will see if it helps. Its not like i feel i need a snack, its almost a meal!! Support..... Inspiration....

[Threetimesacharm 1,400]

I too am in your boat. I think it is because it is the dead of winter and cold outside so I feel like staying in and eating. I am journaling mantras to keep me from eating, I plan out my entire day of food and do not stray from it, I have a cup of tea instead of food...............and alot of prayer!!

[icon23 273]

I am in this boat too--insomniac-night eater. If your night eating is like mine, it's actually called Night Eating Syndrome and is an eating disorder (you can look it up). The only thing that has really helped me so far is not keeping any unhealthy food in the house (either I don't do it at all or I'm forced to snack on something healthy). I'm hoping that being sleeved (in 11 days!) will help, but I started a thread about this a while ago and it doesn't seem like it will. However, I am currently on day 4 of the pre-op diet and instead of eating crap in the middle of the night, I have only had 1 Protein Shake instead, if necessary, so I feel like once I am sleeved, I won't go crazy with night food choices either. Also, I am starting to see a therapist who specializes in eating disorders this week, so I'm hoping that will help a lot too.

[SerendipityHappens 1,594]

The predisposition to eat at night time may be genetic. https://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/eating_disorders/night-time-binge-eating-disorder.htm

I feel SOOOOO fortunate in that for me my hunger shuts off after my evening meal and It doesn't even cross my mind to visit the kitchen in the middle of the night. I can imagine how difficult it is to deal with the desire to eat at all hours of the night. I hope that in addition to your therapy, having the sleeve will help you with curbing your desire to night eat.

[karenb4729 309]

Wow, I didn't know that this was a disorder. I suffer from this as well. Luckly my choices are usually a piece of string cheese but last week my husband had some chocolate striped shortbread Cookies and I ate about 6 of them. That was my first real suger binge in the past 7 months and when I got up in the morning I had a horrible bout of dizziness. I am really trying hard to work on this issue.

[AutumnPunkin 313]

I am in this boat too--insomniac-night eater. If your night eating is like mine' date=' it's actually called Night Eating Syndrome and is an eating disorder (you can look it up). The only thing that has really helped me so far is not keeping any unhealthy food in the house (either I don't do it at all or I'm forced to snack on something healthy). I'm hoping that being sleeved (in 11 days!) will help, but I started a thread about this a while ago and it doesn't seem like it will. However, I am currently on day 4 of the pre-op diet and instead of eating crap in the middle of the night, I have only had 1 Protein shake instead, if necessary, so I feel like once I am sleeved, I won't go crazy with night food choices either. Also, I am starting to see a therapist who specializes in eating disorders this week, so I'm hoping that will help a lot too.[/quote']

Holy moly!! I had never even heard of that before! That describes exactly what i am going through. What i found interesting is that it is now classified as a binge eating disorder because of the lack of comfort experienced by eating like that. Wow, that is something to speak with my therapist about. We already talked about my risk if bulemia. Thanks, i am so happy to know i am not alone.

[Biellita165 28]

My therapist want me to change my sleep hours so I don't eat at night. I honestly hate it bc I love going to sleep late. I just wish I knew a way to cope with this eating habits. Sometimes I'm not even hungry, but still I feel like I have calories left so i say why not and proced to have my meal. Now that I'm sleeved it usually is either a piece of cheese or tuna.< /p>

[clk 3,519]

I also did it - I've been a lifelong insomniac and found that I'd eat an entire meal in the evenings, usually sometime around midnight. Even on nights when I could sleep I might wake up hungry halfway through the night, which always struck me as completely bizarre.

I started curbing it early out when food wasn't appealing. Nowadays I try something protein/dairy before bed and it tides me over. I'll do string cheese, or a handful of nuts, a hard boiled egg, or maybe an extra Protein shake, whatever it takes. I now eat a Protein snack before heading to bed. I am careful not to snack in bed and I only allow myself to drink Water at night but I admit that even with a sleeve there are times (especially during my cycle) when I have to resist the urge to eat a late meal.

I've also found that my insomnia is far better now that I've lost weight. I cannot even begin to guess at why because I was an insomniac as a skinny child. But maybe I'm more active now or I'm just sleeping more soundly. Whatever the reason, I only have occasional bouts of insomnia these days. I had a real problem immediately post op and found that it got much better when I cut/curbed my artificial sweetener use.

Good luck - and thanks to the posters that linked to this disorder. This is something I've always done, that my mother does and that my younger sister does, too. I had no idea that it was common and always figured it was simply a behavior I learned from my family, but it's interesting to know that it might be part of a larger issue.

~Cheri

[SerendipityHappens 1,594]

I had no idea that it was common and always figured it was simply a behavior I learned from my family, but it's interesting to know that it might be part of a larger issue.

~Cheri

It's not actually that common.. only about 1% of the general population... BUT among the super-obese (those with a BMI over 50) 25% have night eating... so it's quite common among us fatties, but not overly common among the general population

[JennyBeth 127]

I'm surprised by this! I have done this for YEARS! The amount of food I consumed increased as my weight did (go figure). When I was young and thin I might eat a small handful of crackers, which increased and now just like others I can consume an entire meal during the night! When my eating greatly increased I attributed it to taking my ambien prescription. Being a horrible insomniac I really needed something to help me sleep. Then I saw a dateline episode about how a side affect of Ambien was "night eating" among other issues. I stopped taking it (which has led to horrible sleep because nothing OTC works as well) but the nightly eating continued, but I figured it was because the habit was already ingrained in me. I had no idea that it's an actual eating disorder! WOW!