Is it okay to go to bed hungry?

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  • LoupGarouTFTs
    LoupGarouTFTs Posts: 916 Member
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    ryanp_942 wrote: »
    Improper feeding time is generally bad for you, especially if you are trying to lose weight (look up night eating syndrome). Appetite, digestion, nutrient absorption, insulin secretion and liver enzyme activity are controlled by your body clock.

    Your hormone levels are rhythmic due input from the body clock - as a result cortisol, insulin, leptin etc. naturally peak at certain times of the day/night and eating too late disrupts this. This can lead to pathologies associated with metabolic syndrome, for example diabetes and obesity.

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating at any time of day, as long as you meet your macros and stay under your calorie limit. I've lost 58 pounds over the last year having a bedtime snack of varying size and nutritional components every single night.

  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Sure. Just don't throw any beans out the window before you do.
  • ryanp_942
    ryanp_942 Posts: 44 Member
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    LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating at any time of day, as long as you meet your macros and stay under your calorie limit. I've lost 58 pounds over the last year having a bedtime snack of varying size and nutritional components every single night.

    With respect, I was speaking generally from scientific studies across large numbers of people. There is an established link between night time eating and weight gain; that is not to say a late snack will absolutely cause you to gain weight, you are simply more likely to, partly due to disrupting hormone levels. Congratulations on losing 58 pounds.
  • Wiseandcurious
    Wiseandcurious Posts: 730 Member
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    ryanp_942 wrote: »
    LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating at any time of day, as long as you meet your macros and stay under your calorie limit. I've lost 58 pounds over the last year having a bedtime snack of varying size and nutritional components every single night.

    With respect, I was speaking generally from scientific studies across large numbers of people. There is an established link between night time eating and weight gain; that is not to say a late snack will absolutely cause you to gain weight, you are simply more likely to, partly due to disrupting hormone levels. Congratulations on losing 58 pounds.
    If you don't mind, could you post any links to the studies you refer to? There is a world of diference between correlation and causality, so I am curious to read more about this link that has been established and see if there is any evidence that it might be a causal link.
  • ryanp_942
    ryanp_942 Posts: 44 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Wiseandcurious wrote: »
    If you don't mind, could you post any links to the studies you refer to? There is a world of diference between correlation and causality, so I am curious to read more about this link that has been established and see if there is any evidence that it might be a causal link.

    Hopefully the link works (quite a lot of technical language for a non-scientist but the disease section is fairly easy to grasp) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016561471300165X#

    If not, it should be easy enough to find on google by searching "How to fix a broken clock" by Schroeder and Colwell, 2013. I'd also recommend http://jbr.sagepub.com/content/26/5/423

    Unfortunately many scientific journals have access fees so it may not be possible for you to read this particular review for free beyond the abstract. Some key words to look up if this is the case are 'circadian rhythm + metabolism'
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I go to bed hungry a lot... because I'm too hungry in the morning and typically end up having a light dinner. But I find it easier to resist hunger at night than during the day.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    no, this is horrible. You go into double starvation mode and lose all your progress. Please do not do this….
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
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    The question really is, what is causing the hunger? If there has been excessive calorie deprivation then eat.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
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    You might die of hunger.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    I heard that the tooth fairy does not come if you go to bed hungry …..
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
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    You might eat your pillow and pillows aren't negative calories like celery and you will gain.
  • mgdnutty
    mgdnutty Posts: 17 Member
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    I eat before bed but I leave out the carbs
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    OdesAngel wrote: »
    You might eat your pillow and pillows aren't negative calories like celery and you will gain.

    This.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    Sure you can. But that sucks. If I can avoid things that suck, I do.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    edited March 2015
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    the gainz fairy also skips your house when you go to bed hungry
  • LoupGarouTFTs
    LoupGarouTFTs Posts: 916 Member
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    ryanp_942 wrote: »
    Wiseandcurious wrote: »
    If you don't mind, could you post any links to the studies you refer to? There is a world of diference between correlation and causality, so I am curious to read more about this link that has been established and see if there is any evidence that it might be a causal link.

    Hopefully the link works (quite a lot of technical language for a non-scientist but the disease section is fairly easy to grasp) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016561471300165X#

    If not, it should be easy enough to find on google by searching "How to fix a broken clock" by Schroeder and Colwell, 2013. I'd also recommend http://jbr.sagepub.com/content/26/5/423

    Unfortunately many scientific journals have access fees so it may not be possible for you to read this particular review for free beyond the abstract. Some key words to look up if this is the case are 'circadian rhythm + metabolism'

    The OP's question was "is it okay to go to bed hungry?" not "should I eat while working third shift?" For all we know, "bedtime" is 8:30 at night, which is well within people's normal circadian rhythm (is that even still a "thing?"). Even if it were midnight or four a.m., however, the digestive process is the same. The link between metabolic disorders and shift work is not yet proven but whether it were proven or not it would have nothing to do with how your body digests food.

  • ryanp_942
    ryanp_942 Posts: 44 Member
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    LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »

    The OP's question was "is it okay to go to bed hungry?" not "should I eat while working third shift?" For all we know, "bedtime" is 8:30 at night, which is well within people's normal circadian rhythm (is that even still a "thing?"). Even if it were midnight or four a.m., however, the digestive process is the same. The link between metabolic disorders and shift work is not yet proven but whether it were proven or not it would have nothing to do with how your body digests food.

    People's circadian rhythms are entrained to the light-dark cycle but can be modulated by feeding and activity. "For all we know" and for all you know are not the same thing. (Is that even still a "thing?" - seriously, when there are entire journals and university departments dedicated to it, how can people so confidently dismiss what they clearly know so little about? The arrogance baffles me.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,063 Member
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    I always go to bed hungry.

    And something seems to settle during the night because I certainly do not wake up hungry. I don't get hungry until somewhere between 10 and 11 am.
  • kindrabbit
    kindrabbit Posts: 837 Member
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    Following this with interest. I used to NEVER get hungry. I lived in fear of hunger and kept my belly stoked at all times. funnily enough this lead to being about 4 stone (56lbs) over weight.

    I am trying to retrain my brain and body. I certainly don't want to be hungry, and if I plan well and use my calorie allowance sensibly, I don't have to be, but I am learning that it's OK.

    Yesterday I had my lunch about 1pm and a small meal at 4. I worked 5-10pm so it's hard to eat an evening meal. I cannot eat at work. When I got home at 10.15 I was hungry (almost belly rumble but not quite). In the past that would of lead to me eating an entire meal. I only had 50 calories left for the day as I had had 3 meals and various snacks. I had a hot chocolate (40cals) and went to bed satisfied.

    I expected to feel hungry when I got up but I didnt. I've just had my usual cereal and yoghurt and I'm good to go till lunchtime.

    I also weighed myself this morning just out of curiosity and haven't moved a lb!
  • anapro19
    anapro19 Posts: 3
    edited March 2015
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    LoupGarouTFTs wrote:

    The OP's question was "is it okay to go to bed hungry?" not "should I eat while working third shift?" For all we know, "bedtime" is 8:30 at night, which is well within people's normal circadian rhythm (is that even still a "thing?"). Even if it were midnight or four a.m., however, the digestive process is the same. The link between metabolic disorders and shift work is not yet proven but whether it were proven or not it would have nothing to do with how your body digests food.

    The digestive process is the same but I think the other poster is making the point that eating late at night might affect OP in other ways, such as ultimately increasing appetite. I don't think he was saying OP will gain weight, just offering that the times we eat relative to sleep are known in the research world to be interconnected processes as far as appetite etc. So certainly it's entirely possible to eat late and lose weight. Maybe that is all the OP was asking.

    There was also recent research published that it may not just be timing of food but the window in which we eat that matters. In this case they found that trying to stick to a 12-hour food window was better for appetite regulation and weight gain I believe. I myself am trying to delay breakfast slightly because I know I cannot finish dinner until 8 pm most days. Giving your body that full "fasting" period (where the word "break-fast comes from! Child of a linguist here...) seems to help with appetite regulation apparently.

    These are all again large studies over many people, and there are probably a lot of variables that we each individually don't share with the average study subjects in each way so we won't all see the same effects (which may themselves be quite small). But just piping in to say I'm familiar with this research too.

    Many people clearly do eat before bed or have evening snacks and are losing weight, again, not what this poster was arguing against. For myself I think I do notice that eating before bed disrupts sleep (as many have stated), while others need fullness to sleep well.

    Perhaps for OP a good solution might be to try shifting meals a little bit, leaving dinner closer to bedtime (or trying to get to sleep earlier). It shouldn't be necessary to eat right before bedtime consistently, right? Maybe this isn't possible if one has a shared mealtime with family though.

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