Hungry in the middle of the night?

AigreDoux

I am 36 years old, 5'5", female, trying to go from 168 lbs down to 130, currently at 162 after a month of tracking and 6 weeks of exercising regularly.

MFP set on sedentary gives me 1290 calories per day at 1 lb/week loss. I wear a fitbit and eat back some of those calories, 200-300 per day generally. Over the past week I've averaged ~1450 cals/day.

But some nights I wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep because I'm too hungry. I usually end up eating a handful of cashews, a piece of cheese, a hardboiled egg, but still have trouble falling back asleep.

Any ideas? I feel like it's ruining my deficit.

CassidyScaglione

If you are waking up ravenous, you are probably not eating enough. Try calculating you BMR and TDEE on here:http://dailyburn.com/life/health/how-to-calculate-bmr/ check your weight and height measurements are accurate. MFP seems to underestimate how many cals a person actually needs to live.

CassidyScaglione

I get this, if I enter your stats, which means you are under eating.

CassidyScaglione

These are the calories you would burn if you never even got out of bed.

4theking

Save more calories for later in the day and eat more protein in that last meal.

AigreDoux

So how many calories am I supposed to eat then? I have a desk job mostly, average about 6000 steps per day, doing weights+intervals 3 times a week (Strong by Lou Schuler/Alwyn Cosgrove).

Yesterday I ate 282 calories at breakfast, 250 at lunch (busy day at work, not typical), and 782 calories at dinner (5:30 pm) with 100 grams of protein at dinner only, went to bed at 8:30, and still hungry at midnight.

johnnylakis

AigreDoux wrote: »

But some nights I wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep because I'm too hungry. I usually end up eating a handful of cashews, a piece of cheese, a hardboiled egg, but still have trouble falling back asleep.

Yes, this happened to me also when I was doing 1,200 calories a day. Cassidy is right, you are not eating enough. Try eating a bowl of cereal with NO milk, that used to work for me.

CassidyScaglione

Eat between your BMR and your TDEE. You can calculate your TDEE in the same website I gave you. Do you have a food scale? Chances are good if you are estimating portions, you are off by a couple hundred cals everyday, so might be closer to your BMR than you think. Get a food scale if you don't have one, and eat somewhere between the number you get for TDEE and your BMR. You will probably notice MORE weight coming off since you won't be stressing your system .

CassidyScaglione

I know this because I more or less did the same btw. I have a food scale in the mail right now, until then I'm logging about 100 cals under my BMR because I know my estimations are not great, but will move to logging above it when my scale arrives. I know I must be at/around it already though, because I feel fed... Not starving like I was on the goal MFP set for me.

AskTracyAnnK28

Take 2 Tylenol PM an hour before bedtime - you should sleep like a baby!

CassidyScaglione

AskTracyAnnK28 wrote: »

Take 2 Tylenol PM an hour before bedtime - you should sleep like a baby!

Not this.

Nourish your body instead of starving yourself.

Springfield1970

AskTracyAnnK28 wrote: »

Take 2 Tylenol PM an hour before bedtime - you should sleep like a baby!

Oh dear. Poor kidneys :-(

CassidyScaglione

@Springfield1970 no kidding, right?