Is it okay to go to bed hungry?

Alluminati

You might eat your pillow and pillows aren't negative calories like celery and you will gain.

mgdnutty

I eat before bed but I leave out the carbs

arditarose

OdesAngel wrote: »

You might eat your pillow and pillows aren't negative calories like celery and you will gain.

This.

arditarose

Sure you can. But that sucks. If I can avoid things that suck, I do.

ndj1979

the gainz fairy also skips your house when you go to bed hungry

LoupGarouTFTs

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

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

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

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

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.

noaddedsugarx

I went to bed hungry last night and dreamt about food all night.

asdowe13

Hungry - Yes
Hangry - NO

anapro19

4 words, all that needed to be said.

adowe wrote: »

Hungry - Yes
Hangry - NO

cb2bslim

I have a really small snack (1 T. peanut butter with rice cake or couple of crackers) maybe 2 1/2 hours before heading off so going to bed hungry doesn't happen to me. I cannot sleep otherwise.

Jgasmic

I don't sleep well if I eat too close to bed and if I'm sleepy I eat way more throughout the day, so for me it's better to go to bed hungry.

amusedmonkey

I generally lose appetite after 6 pm, so that's when I have my last meal. It's rarely I'm hungry right before bed, but lately I have been acquiring the habit of snacking on fruits before bedtime because the family would sit together watching tv or doing some kind of activity with a bowl of fruit in the middle. I have not noticed any difference in weight loss between being an early eater and a late eater.

LoupGarouTFTs

anapro19 wrote: »

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.

It astounds me that I can say the exact same thing that other people (including yourself) have said on other threads and get an argument for it. The point is that the digestive process is the same. It does not matter what point that the other poster is attempting to make, as it does not negate the digestive process being the same. The OP is not asking about circadian rhythms in the first post. The only thing the OP is asking is if it's okay to go to be hungry. The correct answer is the one that has been given: it's fine to go to be hungry, but it's also fine to eat before you go to bed, as the digestive process is the same and it won't affect weight loss. Circadian rhythm, metabolic disorders, whatever, are all beside the point. Interesting? Yes. On a tangent from the OP's question? Probably.