All I Wanna Do Is Eat At NIGHT!!!!

Don't let it sabotage your deficit then. I prefer to eat two dinners, one around 400-500 calories, and another little meal or dessert anywhere between 200-400 calories every night. On 1600 calories a day, I make it work. Tonight I get toast and peanut butter washed down with my favorite tea. And I've already had scrambled eggs, zucchini, squash, onions, tomatoes. Yum.

Yes I do this too. Actually looked this up and what I found was that it means your body is running low on energy. You can either fuel it with food or recharge it with sleep. If you want to lose weight, try a low calorie snack and go to bed earlier.

Having a disturbed sleep pattern 4-5 hrs average, I often want to eat in early hours of the morning eg 1-4 am. Spoke with my Gp who suggested that it could be related to thyroid problem ( this is all ok) or there is some link between 0CD and overeating particularly at night. As I am a mental health professional, will explore this option.

This is all good advice and all good suggestions. I don't really have much to add. I am an evening snacker as well. For a long time I fought it successfully. But I realized that when I do have a snack or two before bed not only do I sleep better, but I actually feel thinner in the morning. I like to have a bowl of popcorn and some chocolate or some fresh berries with whipped topping. Yup sometimes I'm just craving carbs so I'll have some Better N Peanut Butter on reduced carb/fat bread. That usually works and will save me from an all out binge But I know how it goes... you're not hungry at all, just craving something sweet, so you have something sweet and then you crave something salty so you have that, then back to something sweet... It's quite the mind game isn't it? I have come to a point where I prefer (now) to go to be slightly hungry and have a great breakfast by around 7:30 AM. I've always been a breakfast person anyway, now it consists of lotts of egg whites, meats and veggies. Yum! That holds me over to well into the afternoon. My lunch is usually light and sometimes I just snack instead of having lunch. Point is, the rest of my food is pushed further into the day so by the time I am eating my dinner it's early enough for some digest time but late enough to avoid snacking. Hope this helps.

Like others have said, I also want to snack at night, so I budget for it. I'm petite, so my goal is also 1200 cal/day, and I make it work. I usually have 200 or so calories left at the end of the day. And sometimes if I'm feeling snacky at night and don't have the calories, it actually motivates me to get up and exercise for 20-30 minutes so I can have a little snack.

I eat half of my daily calories after 6pm. I don't snack during the day. I eat breakfast & lunch with half of my calories. I eat dinner usually around 6-6:30 and then wait a couple of hours and have a nice snack around 8:45-9pm.

Meal timing doesn't matter as long as your eating the same number of calories. It's about choices and balance. If you eat more during the day, you won't have as many calories that you can consume later on. Plan for when you want to eat, not when you think you should eat.

If you can save 200 calories, try 35g porridge oats (homemade) with a tablespoon of honey, made with milk and/or water. It will definitely sate your appetite without damaging your calorie goal

isabelleriley93 wrote: »

For those who snack late and crave sugar/carbs at night- how is your sleeping?

I don't "crave" sugar or carbs at night. I simply choose to do most of my eating in the evening hours. Sometimes it's carbs, sometimes it's not. I never really crave any one type of food over another. I simply eat what I need to in order to fill out my macros for the day. When I'm still looking to knock out 1500 - 2000 calories, a good bunch of that will end up being carbs. In any case, doesn't matter what it is, my sleep is great.

eeelizabeth2012 wrote: »

Pedal_Pusher2point0 wrote: »

LOL @ "evolutionary reasons"................No I think you do it because you're hungry.

No. It is not hunger. I have no problem eating if I am hungry. It is the the types of food I am wanting and the specific times. Some literature I found does talk about how we tend to want high energy food at a time when our body is more likely to store it as fat for later on. Others talk about hormones and insulin spikes, etc. I have always been this way. It doesn't matter if I have a big meal or a small meal or a carby meal or a meal that is just protein and veggies. It is not psychological either. It is an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach (not hunger) that seems to only be relieved when I continue to eat. But, yes, sometimes I can trick it with tea or a small snack of some sort.

Hmmm, any way to pinpoint what exactly this feeling IS? You list the things it is NOT and you also said it's not boredom. Is it anxiety? Worries that come into your mind in the evening when you have more time to think? Or is it a habit? Habits can be really ingrained in us. But, they are changeable. I just think it would be helpful to find out the source of this feeling rather than try other ways to mask it.