Binge Eating Before Bed Within Calorie Intake

for the past couple of weeks, iv been binge eating at night (off of mostly healthy foods)

My eating scheduele is like this......

8:00 AM- Breakfast= 300 Calories
10:oo PM- Dinner= 1500 Calories
Sleep- 11:00 PM

Total Calories: 1800 Calories

this is "within" my calorie in take, (under my maintainance) so will i gain fat from this type of eating?

I don't know if you'll gain fat, but you are bound to screw up your metabolism by going 14 hours without eating every day. You really should take some calories from dinner and have a lunch. Do you get lightheaded or feel bad in the afternoon? If you don't yet, you likely will start to at some point. Don't make yourself hypoglycemic, its not fun.

Are you HAPPY eating this way? I can't imagine that you are. If they are 'mostly healthy' foods, it must be pretty difficult to even GET to 1500 calories in one sitting. So I am under the impression that they are not all that healthy?

It's more effective to eat smaller meals throughout the day, to keep your metabolism going, and on top of that, I'm personally happier with more meals made of filling foods. I still like to eat a heavier dinner but with the right foods that's possible on 500-600 calories.

It does not look like you're actually binge eating. It just looks like you're hungry from skipping lunch and eating dinner late. 

i cant help it as well, :/ i REALLY like big portions and regular meals dont fill me up.

i usually have

700 Grams of Asparagus (24 oz)
6 Trader Joes Chicken Burgers (110 Calories each)
Massive Amount of Seafood (720 calories worth of crab or shrimp, etc)
10-12 Egg Whites (400-500 Calories)

It adds up :/ and iv tried breaking away, but it feels kind of bad since im not eating as much at dinner :/

I'm not familiar with trader joes, but it does seem like enough food. The problem is, you haven't eaten since breakfast...

It might be really tough, but see if you can begin to train yourself to feel satisfied sooner. You do not have to eat until you are STUFFED. Once you don't feel hungry anymore, take a few more bites and then STOP. There are certain tricks to help you feel full on less food.

Try

-eating an apple or some sort of fiber rich snack half an hour to 15 minutes before dinner to take the edge off of your hunger.

-drinking lots of water with your meal, as well as a low calorie warm drink. I say drink two different things because it does make you feel like you have more 'things' to eat. Satisfy your thirst on the water, and then sip tea throughout the meal.

-eating very slowly, truly enjoying your food. If you are ravenous, eat vegetables until you are not so, and then savor the main part of the meal.

-eating dinner sitting down in a chair, on a plate, with few distractions. Have a plastic container on hand to put left overs in so you are not tempted to finish food for the sake of cleaning your plate.

-substituting high calorie foods for lower calorie dishes that take up more space. If you are eating tons of steamed broccoli and carrots, the weight of the food in your stomach will make you feel better!

It really takes practice, though. A lot of practice. 

wow...quite the dinner

why don't you eat lunch? I've never seen anyone eat like that before honestly, I'm not sure what happens when such a large amount of food is eaten at once, but I'd guess a lot of those calories get stored away as fat, especially when it's before bed where there is very little activity to burn them. Also as mentioned it's probably going to really mess around with your metabolism.

How about for starters adding lunch to your eating habits, say 500cals, leaving 1000 for dinner...then I would maybe add 200cals to breakfast (most important meal of the day!) so 500 breakfast, 500 lunch and 800 dinner. THEN eventually try to fit 2-3 snacks in between meals...frequent meals will boost your metabolism. Also you won't feel the need to gorge yourself on food because your body has been having constant food all day and isn't starving...trust me, I used to still be really hungry after I ate but I'm getting used to eating a little bit less, as well as allowing some time for the food to settle in my stomach...it takes something like 15min before it signals it's full, so you might still feel hungry and want to eat more but wait a bit and hunger should go away (drinking water helps too). Hope that helps.

You wont gain fat, but by gosh its bad for you. You get addicted and you'll keep eating more until you eat within you cals. Believe me, me and a friend online are sturggling with it, from bad habits of saving up cals then 'binging' at the end of hte day to reach the goal.
Well you might gain a little as its so skewed, but there's no magic cut off time.

I know its a bummer, but eating that much food at one time will keep your stomach stretched out.  If you spread out your calories a little more evenly throughout the day, your stomach will eventually shrink some, and it won't expect such a large infusion of food in the evening.  It may take a week or so to get comfortable doing this, you may feel ratty and absolutely starving for a few nights, but once your body is used to it it will be much better for you.

i eat SO MUCH vegetables at dinner to try and make myself full (over  1 lb of vegetables) it just doesnt work :/

iv tried stopping but the guilt at the moment is killing me.

so i shouldnt gain any fat? Since im within my calories?

Original Post by scoch:

i cant help it as well, :/ i REALLY like big portions and regular meals dont fill me up.

i usually have

700 Grams of Asparagus (24 oz)
6 Trader Joes Chicken Burgers (110 Calories each)
Massive Amount of Seafood (720 calories worth of crab or shrimp, etc)
10-12 Egg Whites (400-500 Calories)

It adds up :/ and iv tried breaking away, but it feels kind of bad since im not eating as much at dinner :/

as long as you stay within your calories you won't gain weight.

but honestly? anyone who eats 6 chicken burgers, 10-12 egg whites, 720 calories worth of seafood and 700 grams of asparagus in one sitting has problems.

you could even LOSE weight if you spaced out your meals through the day instead of eating that.. big dinner at night.

just... wow.

I will second most everything the others have said--eat regular meals!

 

Also, 10-12 eggwhites is only about 200 calories, NOT 4-500 calories.

 

i binge (but stay around my calorie intake (not goal intake, actual burn intake)) every night.

and i feel like a failure saying that

ive gained 25 pounds since i started calorie-count

and all i wanted was to lose 5.

party season is over though, so hopefully i can make a change for the better.

dear God, let me follow through with my plans, just this once. 

wait so you binged every night at your maintainance but you gained 25 pounds?

Are you sure you did not underestimate your calories or overestimate your maintenance level, julia? o.O?

no i used to gain 10 pounds a month for many months... after 2 months of that i guess, i joined here.  oh, and the pro ana site i worshipped quoted this website all the time, btw.

i would eat maybe 4000 cals a night, thats when i binged

lately, i've upped just a few pounds, but it's getting worse, and i STILL can't eat properly.

my therapist was overweight.  yeah, sure, like i'm going to open up to her.

so i BS'ed my way out and spent my summer wishing i was a dead skeleton, and wallowing in pain and white bread. 

 

so the point is, how do i not binge? 

You may develop digestive disorder (IBS) binge eating..

also- how do you go out (for dinner) with friends?

i eat normally

then get home and binge.

 

and yes, i did.  i didn't digest my food.  it just stayed in my gut for months, or thats what it felt like. 

Just split up the 1500 calories into 2 dinners (i normally split the bulk of my calories into 2 dinners or constant snacking at night).

If you arent hungry during the day... dont think theres much problem with it.

If you are hungry during the day, then you can split up the meals into more snacks (an apple or something every couple hours). 

I dont think it counts as a binge if you are within calories for the day (but you might feel sluggish during the other parts of the day, if you do, just start splitting off some of the calories into other parts of the day like i said before).

I'm not sure if you'll gain any weight, but you might want to take some calories from your dinner to eat a lunch...Aren't you hungry from not eating for 14 hours?? It might be healthier that way, anyway.

And since you mentioned eating large portions at dinner and feeling bad for not eating as much dinner, you might wanna cut down on your dinner portions little by little. The more you eat, the more your stomach expands. 

Try eating more fiber-filled foods like apples, pears, or pistachios (but not too much because nuts are dense in calories..) to help you feel full to stay away from that 1500-cal dinner.

According to the book "The Fighter's Body: An Owner's Manual: Your Guide to Diet, Nutrition, Exercise and Excellence in the Martial Arts", you will not gain weight simply by going to sleep after eating.  You only gain weight when you eat more calories than you burn. 

To help with reaching your calorie goals and eating more frequently, try planning your meals and snacks out the day before.  Someone else posted this advise before and it has really helped me stay within my goals.

720 cals of shrimp would be over 2 pounds of shrimp and 400 cals of egg whites would be 24 egg whites!!! Are you for real? I dont buy into the "if you feel fine and not hungry during the day go for it" theory. This is not a healthy way to eat.
Many have said it, let me just repeat....break some of your nighttime food into a lunch and some snacks!
You wont gain weight, but I am guessing there are other potential health problems lurking here!