Bing eating late at night

Hi guys, I am about a year and a half post MGB’r and have had a few occasions (late at night) when I get the shakes coupled with a fast heart beat and then some minor sweat on my forehead. Immediately afterwards I feel the need to eat and it becomes a binge session. This has not affected my weight as I am still the same after I stabilized 7 months ago. Usually I get the craving for sweets and last night I devoured half a loaf of sweetbread with raisins !! I paid for it later when I topped and I tried to find info on the net about this to no avail. Does anyone know what causes this? Regards, Napoli

Hi,

I would contact Dr. Rutledge about this since he is the pilot for the MGB.  You MAY get a response here but I would go to the source.  It may just mean an adjustment on your meal plan or it may be something more.  Please, call him until he answers.  That is what his office staff say.  Keep me posted.  I'd like to know myself.

Hi thanks SJ, It would be a bit difficult for me to call him as I am 9 or ten hours ahead in the Middle East. At any rate I was wondering if some else had been through a similar experience. Fortunately for me it doesn’t happen often and I cannot seem to gain weight irrelevant of how much I binge but wanted to know if there is as you said a deficiency in my diet or another rational for this to happen. Thanks again, Napoli

Hi again,

How is your bloodwork?  Are you getting your labs done?  This might give some indications but not sure.  Also, since the MGB only helps with calorie absorption and does not cure our eating issues, you may want to find a counselor who specializes in food addictions/disorders.  There may some food triggers that you are not aware of.  We did not put all this weight on because one day we decided to get fat.  There are all kinds of situations, crises, trauma, and other issues that can be triggers.  It's like peeling an onion layer by layer to find the source.  It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's just finding it, confronting it and dealing with it.  Yes, it may be unpleasant but once that is taken care of, you would be aware of the trigger when it rears it's ugly head in the night.  You will be given the tools to deal with them in a positive manner and then not have this eating frenzy to worry about. This is just a helpful suggestion.  We need a whole body healing, not just a physical one.

Hope this helps.  Try emailing him if you can't call.  He will eventually respond.

Hi SJ, My blood works indicate all is quite well, although I do eat tons of choco’s and sweets. My sugar level is pretty low @80 and although we don’t have any diabetics in the family tree (or branch lol) I do worry that I don’t have hypoglycemia. The symptoms I read on the Internet are very similar to what I periodically go through (once every few months). The treatment seems to be “have a snack"…. I will have to dwell further and see if I am missing something in my diet or if something I am eating is potentially triggering this effect.  It’s a strange feeling to sweat at the forehead and my hands tremble slightly coupled with giddiness and then the hunger feeling. Once I get some food in me it seems to go away but the binging part has me topping at times and that’s the worst part of the whole experience. The good news though is that I feel real healthy all the time and eat well and keeping my same exact weight of 87kgs now for so many months is something I could have only dreamt about before. So if this is a side effect that I will experience now and then…well then its like having the odd cold once or twice a year. Thanks again for trying to help me and I do find your suggestions comforting. Regards, Napoli

Hi,

I used to have hypoglycemia and was told to eat six small meals/snacks a day.  Maybe a nutritionist can help you with that.  When we become our own doctors, it can sometimes do more harm than good.  Glad you are doing well otherwise.

I agree it’s a haphazard approach for us to “doctor" ourselves. I spoke to my local witch Doctor (general M.D.) last night and he said that I would need to go in for a bunch of test to confirm If I have hypoglycemia. The good news though is that he said on average its treatable through (as you guessed) a more balanced diet.  I will await his diagnosis before I discuss with my dietician whom would I presume would know what to put me by my doc’s recommendation. Its funny though as I thought this maybe a well known issue to MGB’ers on this site…..?  In the interim I will continue to have my many meals a day (my coo-workers are going nuts watching me eat all day without gaining weight! Lool). Thanks again! Napoli

Hi,

Binge eating is not related to any surgery.  There is usually something else going on.  As I said, it may be something you are not even aware of.  I would not toss away the idea of talking to someone who knows about this issue.

Yes, I know about the eating.  I have many RNY friends who are struggling big time because they still have to diet, count calories etc.  Yes, I have, in the past, gained weight due to my lack of discipline in watching what I ate, but with the MGB, the weight comes off very quickly with a little wisdom in my food choices and more activity.  I am very pleased.

It sounds like some of this is physical and possibly mental with the feeling that you cant just eat a snack and move on so I just wanted to share something with you that I learned a few years ago...hope this helps! 

I  used to be a night time eater....would skip breakfast, half the time skip lunch, feel exhausted at the end of the day, eat some crappy fast food, feel sleepy from fat/calorie overload, take a nap, wake up and then graze the rest of the evening snacking on this and that sometimes good food and sometimes not so good.....

Then one night I was watching a special on TV about SUMO WRESTLERS and what kind of training etc they had to go through. Well since most of them are Japanese and the Japanese arent typically known as a culture plauged by obesity, I was curious as to how they got so round. It actually stated in this documentary how part of their training was to feed them large carb heavy meals and then make them take a nap. It went on to explain that the way to build a big fat tummy even in a body type that didnt naturally put on weight in the belly area was to have them lie down and go to sleep with a full belly.

Having a tendancy to carry my weight in my midsection already, that was the day I quit eating three hours before bed lol and I do believe I lost some weight just from that alone. I lost 50lbs that year and the ONLY things I did to achieve that were a.) stop eating fast food b). stop eating 3 hours before bed and c.) start eating breakfast no matter what (which also kept me from raging with hunger/snacking late at night because it started my metabolism earlier in the day)

I guess what Im trying to say is that you owe it to yourself after having come this far to put some effort into figuring out whats wrong and to exercise a little control of what you eat so late at night. It might be ok for now but any weight you do gain will probably go straight to your belly if youre not careful....just my advice! 

Angela