Hunger Pangs at night

jokoh92
jokoh92 Posts: 112 Member
edited November 29 in Health and Weight Loss
During the day I am fine, but at night its like attack of the ghrelin. I have been eating lunch at 12, a small snack at 5 and then dinner at 7 or 8. And maybe a piece of fruit, yogurt, or granola bar before bed with a bottle of water.

I eat 1200-1400 cals on days I don't workout or at least try to and 1500-1800 cals on days I do workout, but no matter what day at night I crave and I get headaches.

What can I do to stop the pangs?

Replies

  • mousie1973
    mousie1973 Posts: 438 Member
    how much under in cals are you a day... if you are significantly under in cals, eat more.
  • CassidyScaglione
    CassidyScaglione Posts: 673 Member
    edited February 2016
    Eat more.

    If you are waking up in the night from hunger then you are obviously not eating enough.

    Use this: http://dailyburn.com/life/health/how-to-calculate-bmr/

    Calculate your BMR and TDEE and make sure that your daily net is between those numbers.
  • akamran1
    akamran1 Posts: 78 Member
    A tablespoon of peanut butter as the snack before bed has worked for me in the past. It hasn't happened in a while now, so it may have been a stage I was going through. If you like yogurt, maybe try a small amount of full fat Greek yogurt -- I think it is the fat and protein that works.

    Good luck!
  • bubble_wrap0428
    bubble_wrap0428 Posts: 88 Member
    You shouldn't be starving going to bed. Eat a small snack with protein. I mean going to be slightly hungry is a good sign but not to cause you to be uncomfortable.
  • MelaniaTrump
    MelaniaTrump Posts: 2,694 Member
    I had mozzarella cheese stick tonight. Look for a protein snack. A glass of low fat milk could also do the trick.
  • srturco
    srturco Posts: 4 Member
    Are you getting 35% of your cals from protein?
    are you meeting or exceeding your daily fiber?

    from my own experience i know high protein and high fiber works for me

    I don't even look at a refined carb -- beans, veggies, fruit and sweet potatoes are my carbs



  • kmwond
    kmwond Posts: 2 Member
    I have also been having this problem. Once I started consuming a bit more calories or ate something low fat before bed I've stopped the late night "snacking" if you will.
  • sew205
    sew205 Posts: 34 Member
    Half an ounce of cheese before bed.
  • SonyaCele
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
    i make tons of vegetables or salad with dinner, and just snack on them all night.
  • cubfan26
    cubfan26 Posts: 11 Member
    Hi Jokoh. This is a huge one for me. In fact, I guess that most of my extra weight comes from late-night and middle of the night eating or binging. I am on my fourth day here and each of the first three days I had to fight the battle you described. I have not given in yet to my evening hunger. It helps me to remind myself each day, that in order to meet my goals, I will need to accept that I might not always feel satisfied with the amount of food in my belly. So what I do at night when hunger strikes is to make a cup of tea and pour myself a tall glass of water and remind myself once again that feeling a bit hungry is better than feeling out of control and desperate. I hope this helps! Hang in there and keep the things that work while you try to solve the things that do not work.
  • jokoh92
    jokoh92 Posts: 112 Member
    mousie1973 wrote: »
    how much under in cals are you a day... if you are significantly under in cals, eat more.

    CassidyScaglione wrote: »
    Eat more.

    If you are waking up in the night from hunger then you are obviously not eating enough.

    Use this: http://dailyburn.com/life/health/how-to-calculate-bmr/

    Calculate your BMR and TDEE and make sure that your daily net is between those numbers.

    Thanks! I changed it to 1580cals/day which would be losing 1 lb a week and I think this will make me feel less famished at night or I hope. I will see how this week goes.
  • jokoh92
    jokoh92 Posts: 112 Member
    akamran1 wrote: »
    A tablespoon of peanut butter as the snack before bed has worked for me in the past. It hasn't happened in a while now, so it may have been a stage I was going through. If you like yogurt, maybe try a small amount of full fat Greek yogurt -- I think it is the fat and protein that works.

    Good luck!

    Thanks, I think I will try the yogurt thing because peanut butter makes me binge.
  • jokoh92
    jokoh92 Posts: 112 Member
    bubble_wrap0428 wrote: »
    You shouldn't be starving going to bed. Eat a small snack with protein. I mean going to be slightly hungry is a good sign but not to cause you to be uncomfortable.
    JanetYellen wrote: »
    I had mozzarella cheese stick tonight. Look for a protein snack. A glass of low fat milk could also do the trick.

    I will definitely try to find something with a good bit of protein to eat before bed. Protein does seem to do the trick in the past. So I will try to eat Greek yogurt or peanuts or cheese like you said. Thanks for the tips!
  • jokoh92
    jokoh92 Posts: 112 Member
    srturco wrote: »
    Are you getting 35% of your cals from protein?
    are you meeting or exceeding your daily fiber?

    from my own experience i know high protein and high fiber works for me

    I don't even look at a refined carb -- beans, veggies, fruit and sweet potatoes are my carbs



    Yes I definitely need to eat more complex carbs and stack up on the protein. I take fiber supplements and I eat at least two pieces of fruit a day. I know I need to eat more, but I'm on a tight budget.
  • jokoh92
    jokoh92 Posts: 112 Member
    kmwond wrote: »
    I have also been having this problem. Once I started consuming a bit more calories or ate something low fat before bed I've stopped the late night "snacking" if you will.

    Thanks. I have increased my calorie intake and will try to consume something like yogurt which is low fat right before bed. Hopefully that will help.
  • jokoh92
    jokoh92 Posts: 112 Member
    cubfan26 wrote: »
    Hi Jokoh. This is a huge one for me. In fact, I guess that most of my extra weight comes from late-night and middle of the night eating or binging. I am on my fourth day here and each of the first three days I had to fight the battle you described. I have not given in yet to my evening hunger. It helps me to remind myself each day, that in order to meet my goals, I will need to accept that I might not always feel satisfied with the amount of food in my belly. So what I do at night when hunger strikes is to make a cup of tea and pour myself a tall glass of water and remind myself once again that feeling a bit hungry is better than feeling out of control and desperate. I hope this helps! Hang in there and keep the things that work while you try to solve the things that do not work.

    I will definitely have to start making tea at night. I'm not really a big tea drinker, but I notice on nights I do drink tea, I am a lot less hungry, so I guess I will have to start doing that more.
  • Shells918
    Shells918 Posts: 1,070 Member
    I have light hot cocoa. Only 25 calories,4 carbs and 2 grams of protein. I feel like I'm having something very sweet but not hurting my calorie/carb intake too badly.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    edited February 2016

    Here is a quick overview of your last 8 weeks, hope you don't mind the analysis, it does show that most of your calories come from carbs. You may want to try towards a higher protein/fat diet if you are finding satiety issues. Hope that helps.

    ik8dvkzbh3k9.png


  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
    Nifty chart EvgeniZyntx.

    Did you use an export program of some sort? All I see under my reports tab is individual charts for different macros.

    TFS.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    EvgeniZyntx wrote: »
    Here is a quick overview of your last 8 weeks, hope you don't mind the analysis, it does show that most of your calories come from carbs. You may want to try towards a higher protein/fat diet if you are finding satiety issues. Hope that helps.

    ik8dvkzbh3k9.png


    THIS is a beautiful chart. I admire your expertise.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    @ilex70 I wrote an export tool and used part of it. You can find the details here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/EvgeniZyntx/view/mfp-data-export-tool-the-overview-659927



  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
    @ilex70 I wrote an export tool and used part of it. You can find the details here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/EvgeniZyntx/view/mfp-data-export-tool-the-overview-659927

    Excellent. Thanks for sharing.
  • jokoh92
    jokoh92 Posts: 112 Member
    EvgeniZyntx wrote: »
    Here is a quick overview of your last 8 weeks, hope you don't mind the analysis, it does show that most of your calories come from carbs. You may want to try towards a higher protein/fat diet if you are finding satiety issues. Hope that helps.

    ik8dvkzbh3k9.png


    Thanks. I knew I was eating way more carbs than protein/fat but I didn't know it was that much. I will try to find more things with protein/fat in it than carbs.
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