Compensate for late night eating?

Reza151
Reza151 Posts: 517 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all! I've gotten into a nasty habit where if I wake up around 2 or 3 am, I grab a bite to eat and then go back to sleep. Typically I'll grab a greek yogurt, which I was originally planning on having at work as a snack before I leave for the gym. Last night, I got home from the gym around 10:00. I had just about reached my calorie limit for the day (I go by Dan's IPOARM, so my 1900 calories stay 1900 even on days that I work out ---i.e. i dont eat back calories). BUt I was still hungry so I made a batch of kale chips (ate them all!). I had already had my carbs for the day but maybe I ate too fast because I still didnt feel satisfied. So by midnight I had eaten the kale chips, a 180 calorie whole wheat tortilla, and some left over chicken in curry with red peppers and mango. I went to bed and woke up around 2 am and ate some strawberry cream cheese and a greek yogurt.

Do I count those late night calories as part of yesterday's intake or today's? Should I compensate the next day for the binge? Suggestions on curbing my late night binges?


I should add that this late night eating has made me go over my calorie limit as well: Maintenance for me is around 2100 calories so my daily target is around 1900. Maybe I'm not used to eating under 2000 per day?

Replies

  • Reza151
    Reza151 Posts: 517 Member
    Bump.

    Anyone?
  • hkmurphy83
    hkmurphy83 Posts: 262 Member
    Whenever I eat in the middle of the night, I count it towards that day's calories. So if I eat at 2 AM on Monday night/Tuesday morning, I track them under Monday. Then I work my butt off on Tuesday to try and burn some of those extra calories. I don't follow the IPOARM and do count. I also eat back part of my exercise calories. So far it has been working for me. There are just days that we are more hungry.
  • aweigh2go
    aweigh2go Posts: 164 Member
    If you are shooting for a weekly average of consumed calories, it doesn't matter if you add it on the day before or the day after IMO.
  • Reza151
    Reza151 Posts: 517 Member
    Whenever I eat in the middle of the night, I count it towards that day's calories. So if I eat at 2 AM on Monday night/Tuesday morning, I track them under Monday. Then I work my butt off on Tuesday to try and burn some of those extra calories. I don't follow the IPOARM and do count. I also eat back part of my exercise calories. So far it has been working for me. There are just days that we are more hungry.

    well the first part of the binge was around 10 or 11 pm and then part 2 around 2 am.

    Well that answers that. Guess I should not have eaten the yogurt I just did since I had one at 2 am. But I was hungry (though not so much for lunch) and dont have much else snackwise with me.
  • wllwsmmr
    wllwsmmr Posts: 391 Member
    I have issues with night eating too but I'd log the calories on that day if I still have available calories based on personal goal (which depends if you'd eat back exercise calories or not) and log the rest the following day so I'd have to lower my calorie intake the next day to reach my daily calorie goal.
    If you'd wanna be stricter then log them all to the following day.
    It doesn't really matter what time you eat to decide which day you log it, just do it the way it works best for you in terms of sticking to your goals :)
  • spamantha57
    spamantha57 Posts: 674 Member
    I used to count 1 day as the time I'm awake, but since using MFP a month ago I do it for the next day after midnight.
    I eat more at night anyway & usually sleep like 4am-11am.
    Since MFP already has breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks broken up, I kinda have my day go something like...
    Breakfast noon - 4, Lunch 4-8, Dinner 8-midnight, Snacks midnight - sleep

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