Why do I wake from sleep to eat?
Asked by annapcholka on Feb 07, 2009
in Eating Disorders
I have a problem. When I’m dieting, I wake up to eat a couple of hours before I get up. First, it was for a drink, but then it became "an eating time". I usually get up at 9 or 10, but now at 5 am, I have a little breakfast, like 1 fruit or 0% fat cream cheese with skim milk. Otherwise, I eat 1300 cal per day and I feel full. I eat just fruits, milk products, seafood and rice, and cereals. I drink plenty of green tea. I don’t eat sweets, potatoes, or meat and I have no problems with cravings. So, is it normal or healthy? How can I stop it if it isn’t? Help me to figure out what it is?
Answer
Certain eating disorders and sleep disorders compel people to awake from their sleep to eat - but I doubt if that’s your problem. You are simply under-eating and your body is waking you up for food! On the back end, I can see your Body Mass Index (BMI) is 22, slightly low for a woman with a large frame, but still acceptable. I also see you are trying to reach BMI 18.9 which is very underweight for you. I'll bet you will sleep through the night, if you stop dieting and start to eat a balanced diet with 2100 calories a day. Learn to love your perfect body and, even better, be grateful for it!
So you can log your weight -- which allows you to do the following:
- Plot your weight curve
- Analyze the trend of your weight (see under Recent in the figure above)
- Determine the projected target date (see under Overall in the figure above)