Ever wake up at night and head for the fridge?
joowelz
Posts: 172 Member
Just wondering how others handle the mid-sleep urge to eat and whether that negatively affects your weight loss efforts. It happened to me last night, and as a result, I went over my calorie goals for yesterday. 
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Replies
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Try drinking water or a cup of tea instead of eating.
Have a snack before bed.
Add it to the next day. Look at your weekly calorie goal instead of just daily.
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Sure, if I wake up hungry in the middle of the night and don't eat I won't be able to get back to sleep, and that will mess up my day. So I have 140 calorie Kashi bars on hand for this.
I try to prevent this by having a bedtime snack.4 -
Is it every night?
If not, try to allot a small calorie budget (maybe 50 per day) to the midnight snacking. That's 350 cals in a week and should cover 2 small midnight snacks. Meaning, on those days you go over because of that it doesn't matter as it's averaged into the weekly total.
I always make sure I have something suitable on hand that fits into that budget. My current favorite is ~100g of raspberries and a small slice of cheese ~25g which gives me a snack averaging about 150cals.
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This happened to me last night. I woke up around 12:30, and I was wide awake. By 1:30 am, I was sick of just laying in bed TRYING to fall back asleep so I went into the kitchen. I opened the fridge, and there really wasn't anything to eat, so I went back to bed after taking some sleeping pills.
If I didn't take a sleeping pill, I would have been back and forth into the kitchen probably 10 times. That's normally what happens, and I probably would end up having a bowl of cereal, which is usually what happens. But I make sure it's a small bowl, and the almond milk is very low calorie, so I'm not messing up my calories too much. If I'm hungry, I can't fall asleep. I really hate that.2 -
This is a daily thing for me, and is in fact one of the biggest things holding my progress back. It's like I'm sleep eating, sheer instinct, going to the fridge and cabinets and concocting cookie dough if there's no other option. Yea, it's organic whole wheat flour, coconut oil, and coconut sugar, aaaand amazing, but I'm eating it for the emotional void im filling and it's an automatic sleep aid. When I wake up, I'm usually pretty pissed at myself. I would love to get out of this cycle!1
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I find that if I am active enough during the day, I am too beat to get out of bed for anything. Like, I must REALLY have to use the bathroom like it's an emergency before I bother getting out of bed. Hunger, thirst, doesn't really matter, if I am being as active as I aught to be, I'm too tired to handle that in the middle of the night. How active are you? Do you feel like maybe you're sleep is being interrupted because you're hungry? Or is there another possible cause?1
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No...0
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CoffeeNCardio wrote: »I find that if I am active enough during the day, I am too beat to get out of bed for anything. Like, I must REALLY have to use the bathroom like it's an emergency before I bother getting out of bed. Hunger, thirst, doesn't really matter, if I am being as active as I aught to be, I'm too tired to handle that in the middle of the night. How active are you? Do you feel like maybe you're sleep is being interrupted because you're hungry? Or is there another possible cause?
This is me too.
I usually go to bed about 1 am and I'm up again about 7:30 am to go to work, and school, and to walk and cycle and lift weights and do homework and housework and everything else on a never-ending Things To Do list. By the time I collapse in bed at 1 am, the only thing getting me out of bed is to stumble into the toilet. And a couple nights recently, I nearly fell asleep in the middle of that! If I'm awake enough to have functioning thought patterns, I do sometimes think I should get something to drink, but I really can't be bothered. Just too much effort.
I do know that if I have a rare lazy day, I tend to sleep more restlessly.
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In another recent thread, I said this:In the middle of the night I'm too tired to do more than stumble into the toilet and back to bed.
As above, look into why you're getting up in the middle of the night. I did for a while when I lived on my own ... usually after hearing about B&Es in my area. I'd be up prowling in the middle of the night. Then when I went into perimenopause, one of the multitude of symptoms was falling dead asleep and then suddenly being wide awake about 2 hours later. And if the room is too hot, I'll be restless.
I've found that these things help:
- exercising in the evening wears me out (but for some people it wakes them up so they can't sleep)
- quitting caffeine by about 5 pm
- drinking non-caffeine teas after 5 pm
- drinking a cup or two of camomile tea closer to bedtime
- being busy earlier in the evening, but just relaxing the last half hour or so before bed
- a new bed with a really comfortable mattress helped a lot
Plus pretty much anything in the cupboard or fridge would require work. I don't have a lot of "grab and go" stuff. In the middle of the night, the last thing I want to do is to put in the effort to make a snack.1 -
I have woken up hungry, made decaf coffee, a snack and watch TV for an hour and go right back to sleep. That's happened about 10 times in two years..I just eat a snack before bed time now..usually chocolate..0
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Luckily, as long as I've eaten enough all day, I'm not too hungry at nite. If I'm at all hungry before bed I have something to munch, an apple or glass of chocolate milk. My step father has always had the bad habit of getting up at 1 am and eating a whole carton of ice cream or a bag of Doritos, and he's always had weight issues.1
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Never, but I always go to bed on a full stomach. I have a 200-400 calorie snack before bed.2
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I've been known to sneak a peanut butter sandwich in the night!1
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Yes in the past I have...now I live in a different house and the kitchen is downstairs - so I'm too lazy to walk downstairs HA HA HA! Its works for me!1
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no, my bed is sooo warm. And if I tried to get up I'd disturb the cats.1
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only time I go to the fridge in the middle of the night is if I am thirsty and I get some water to drink.(cant drink the tap water here its soooo nasty and tastes like over chlorinated pool water0
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Husband does this every night. And wonders why he isn't losing weight. Told him, I did....4
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Just wondering how others handle the mid-sleep urge to eat and whether that negatively affects your weight loss efforts. It happened to me last night, and as a result, I went over my calorie goals for yesterday.
I'm a "fitness fail" because I wake up at 5AM and don't get home until 9PM so that means dinner is late. I never wake up mid-sleep and crave food, but I sure do in the morning. I try and snack throughout the day, but it's inevitable that I'm going to have to consume my dinner late-night. Just make sure it meets your macros. Really not that detrimental from my findings.
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Sometimes it's hard for me because I'm an insomniac. I have been for over 20 years. So at times when I wake up, I'm completely awake, like full of energy, I can start my day awake even if I've only had 2 hours of sleep. I try to keep my calories small. I don't think I've been too bad. Since I discovered IF I've been having a problem eating all my calories during the day, so I'm not really going over the day's calories. I just wish I could get a full night's sleep!!! I wouldn't have this issue.1
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Never0
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2 nights ago woke at 3am ravenous. Ate 3 low cal chocolate bars with a mug of tea. Went back to sleep, then up at 6am for work. Yesterday was a bit tough as i was 300cals down for the day. Not normal for me1
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Just wondering how others handle the mid-sleep urge to eat and whether that negatively affects your weight loss efforts. It happened to me last night, and as a result, I went over my calorie goals for yesterday.
Yes, I have done that. For me it absolutely effects my weight negatively.0
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