new hunger at night

Lately, I've been hungrier at night (without having changed my eating or exercise routine) so I started budgeting a few calories for night

(like literally, tonight i craved lettuce w light ranch dressing - weird, right? and a string cheese - ha!)

i know you're not supposed to eat at night, but is it REALLY that bad? it helps me sleep I feel like.

Eating at night isn't a huge problem so long as you're not interrupting sleep to do so. Lots of people have all kinds of ideas about fasting while you're asleep, but as long as you're sticking to your allotted calories, you'll be fine. 

If you're getting hungrier at night you might want to take a good hard look at what you're eating for dinner and when you're eating in relation to when you sleep. 

On a side note, I always try to start a meal with a fruit or whole portion of uncooked veggie like an apple, pear, carrots, cucumber slices, etc. If I eat one of these things (full portion!) before eating anything else in the meal, I'll not only eat less but feel fuller longer. I know there's some technical stuff behind that like the fiber from the fruit/veggies changing the way we digest food. The important part is I eat less and stay fuller longer. 

Good luck!

P.S. There's not a whole lot of nutritional value in lettuce w/ light ranch... :\

thanks for the info! yeah, the lettuce thing was just a weird craving tonight. I can maybe look at altering my eating a bit like you suggest. I'm just nervous to do that because it's been working, yknow? I've been at this about 8 weeks now (not long I realize) and I've lost 8 pounds (a miracle and first time ever in my life even if I am on the only who can notice, i'm pleased!) but only the last like three days have I gotten a little hungry at night...guess I'll see how it plays out.

Have you been eating the same things regularly? Remember, it's a good idea to get a very wide variety of foods in. Various vitamin deficiencies can lead to hunger and it's not something you can fix with a vita-supplement. 

If you keep having trouble, maybe drink some water or tea (if that's not a problem for you before bed time). I try to skip food after 9pm and stick with tea but that's only because at that point, I've had my max calories for the day. 

Good luck!