night time sucks.

i do perfectly fine during the day but i have developed this habit where i wake up in the middle of the night and end up eating, it happens about 2x a night and put me 100s of calories over, and it happens now every night just about.  I have nooo idea how to stop it i feel like ive tried everything and im gaining weight and so miserable... has anyone else been through the same thing? help me pleaseeeeee?!

I've done this. As part of my diet I stopped eating late at night and ended up eating in the middle of night. To avoid this I have to eat before bed. I eat some nuts or toast with milk every night now, and it seems to fix the problem.

When I wasnt eating enough, I used to wake up in the middle of the night starving and eat.

Are you eating enough?

I agree that it sounds like you may be undereating during the day. How many calories and what is your activity? If your activity is too high that can be an issue as well. Do you have a bed time snack? This I think is very important though I know some give it a bad rap. It helps to keep blood sugar level and aids in sleep.

pmed <3

Hey ..I have been experiencing the same problem as well.  I've posted a very similar thread a week ago.  I don't think there is 1 particular cure for this.  I'm gonna see a doc on Thurs about some medication or something...if it works for me ill let you know.  Its sppose to help with my sleep. I usually wake up after 1 hr of sleep and eat.  I used to be slimmer and this night eating has made me gain weight too.  I started to go to the gym now and i've found excersising helps me stay motivated not to midnight snack. But I still have problems.  Lemme know if you find anything helpful too ok?

o yea i also wanna add that ive never experienced this before i started dieting.  about 2 years after i lost a buncha weight this  started happening...dont kno if that has to do with anything

whats pmed?

PMed=Private Messaged

i really should put more effort into capitalization and punctuation. 

I understand this problem as I have experienced it in the past, i now make sure that when working out my menu for the day I allow calories for supper. I have something like a piece of toast with Honey and a cuppa and make sure that I eat this before 9pm. I then find that I can wake up in the night but I wont eat anything or feel like I need to.

Good Luck

I used to suffer from night eating - SO BADLY that it developed into a habit that lead to a type of insomnia, where my body NEEDED the mid night food - due to routine, not physical hunger.


So, what is helping me over come this, is to eat a snack, such as a few tablespoons of almond butter or peanut butter, JUST BEFORE bed.

OR - at about 9 - which is 2 - 4 hours before I go to bed.

If I know I have had a good snack at night, than mentally, I do not snack.

Unless I am genuinely hungry of course.

Also - consider possible underlying factors that can hinder sleep

For instance, inadequate calories or certain nutritional factors (lack of certain nutrients/vitamins/minerals)

Those things can all cause you to wake up during the night, and also cause  cravings.


Personally,  I altered my diet so now I am getting adequate nutrition;     so fixing my diet, I increasing my calories a little, and having a appropriate before bed snack have helped.

I have this problem. I can understand your frustruation. I eat 1700 calories or so during the day, then inevitably wake up in the middle of the night and eat 200 calories or so (sometimes I wake up twice and end up eating 400).

After some soul-searching and advice from others, I have finally admitted that the problem is not eating enough in the day to maintain my weight. I am 6', around 135-140 lbs, and have a history of anorexia.

I have decided to look at this in a positive way. The body is such an incredible thing! When I can't mentally get enough calories during the day, it pretty much forces me to get up and make up for lost time, so to speak.

Now I'm trying to raise my cals during the day so that this doesn't happen. I'm scared that I will still wake up in the night to eat even with higher daytime numbers, but to be honest, it's worth it short term if it will help eradicate the problem.