waking up and eating

Hey everyone,

    So normally I would wake up early (between like 5 am and 7 am) and always ate a few pieces of fruit, a small 90 cal granola bar, my "special snack" for the day of 200 calories, and my bowl of cereal....I would eat this much because I always did extensive exercise within the following few hours and was just simply hungriest then and was able to not eat as much all day ....I would just eat a normal lunch and dinner...so it was like my "breakfast time" was for not only breakfast but snacks for the day as well....I never ever gained weight this way or anything....

anyway, over the past few weeks I have been waking up in the middle of the night after sleeping for like 2 to 5 hours. I can not sleep until I eat all of those things and then I always go back to sleep right after no problem. I still wacth all day and don't eat again until like 12 p.m. or lunch and then again for dinner....so I basically have been eating all of my calories at like 1 am to 3 am....I try to resist every morning so I can eat later, but can't go abck to sleep until I do...I'm just too hungry and my body is craving all of it regardless of the time....I thought it was normal for 2 nights for this to happen....but it just keeps on going. The only change I have made in the past few weeks is I jog 8 instead of 4 miles a day. Is this pattern detrimental to my health? how can I end it, b/c it is just getting annoying? Either way it will have to end in a few weeks when I will be living in my school setting where I won't have access to my first meal of the day until a normal time, so it will end regardless....

again, please note I don't eat all that stuff when I wake up and then eat it again at the normal time....so I am still eating the same amount everyday, just the time is messed up

you're an ed sufferer. you're male yeah? you know well that you are restrictin and undereating for someone who's changed their activity to 8 miles a day. interesting that your ed buddy who decided he was going to lose some weight also has started running 8 miles a day....

you postd a meal plan the other day that is certainly restrictive. you are waking to eat because you are hungry. tho i think you know this. so either eat more or do less and if you are going to join your buddy in relapse..... then dont post about it here

fidget, i really really really do like you and your straight-forward, no-nonsense approach, but sometimes it's just a little much, you know?  please don't take this the wrong way, but it's just that everyone is coming here for support with their own issues and struggles, and i really think criticism can usually be offered with a more positive slant.  coddling, no...a bit more respect, yes. tough love is okay...to an extent. you can't scare fear out of someone.   maybe you should just ignore the posts that irritate you the most? clearly you get frustrated, and that's no good for you, either. you've got great advice, experience and wisdom to offer, and i think people might sometimes be more receptive and get more from it if they didn't have to duck from your blows.  <3

lalce, it does sound like you know you're being pretty restrictive and not eating nearly enough to sustain such high levels of exercise.  the body has really amazing survival mechanisms that switch on in times of proposed threat.  when i was at my worst with restriction and exercise, i couldnt sleep more than one or two hours before my blood sugar would plummet and i would wake up to what felt like an alarm system. i'd have a mint or lifesaver (ha) and go back to sleep.  give your body a little (or a lot) more reserve, and i reassure you, your sleep patterns will normalize.  <3

edit: not that i am indicating that a friggin mint was a good solution to, uh, starvation...just trying to elucidate how the body tries to adapt

i hear you cruumb. il try not to scare the newbies    ......but my point remains lalce1.... you know you're not eating enough and only you can change that

Hey -  I have suffered from your exact problem -   woke up and wanted to eat a lot of my calories early in the day - as in, 5 am - because I was not generally eating enough, so I was very hungry  in the early morning.


I used to eat at 3 am. Every night.

Also - if you eat a lot of your calories earlier on in the day  and taper them off at night - your body will run out faster at night, because you ate most of your calories early in the day!

Even people who DO eat enough, which you are apparently not doing,  experience this. They eat a large breakfast, and than eat less and less through out the day, and then they wake up at night feeling hungry - because their bodies have used up all the calories from earlier that day.


Eating your calories LATER IN THE DAY could help; it helped me.



What helped me stop this was:

To eat enough

To either eat a BIG meal for dinner
 OR  


To eat a normal or big dinner, and eat a small snack JUST before you go to sleep -  as in a banana, or glass of milk, nothing that will take a lot to digest!

I found that even if I DID eat enough, I mentally was less likely to want to snack if I KNEW that I had just had a huge dinner, or a snack JUST before bed…

Hello everyone,

    Yea I kind of figured it was from my body naturally being hungry then because it is ina  weird cycle. As for the undereating thing, I really really don't feel I am. My weight stays in the same area generally and I feel fine....if I didn't how would I manage to jog 8 miles no problem in 100 degree heat everyday?

   I don't mind fidget's personality....but my ED friend? who is that? (that remark threw me off and I don't get it)....but other than that I totally respect what you have to say....after all I am the one who asked

I will simply just resist eating the next time I wake up (prob tom morning)....maybe going to back to my normal set meal times will end this stuff

il have to go digging.... i was sure i answered a post re an ed friend you had. if not - my bad. good on ya for taking the advice the way it was intended. get your cals up... be a little fairer to your body and it will look after you... and let you sleep!