Night Eating Syndrome, Please Help

Howdy,

I've been reading about this eating disorder called "Night Eating Syndrome."

The symptoms:
Eating more than 50% of your daily calories after dinner.
Eating sometimes 4 times or more a night.
Has trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.
Foods ingested are mostly carbohydrates: sugary andd starch.
Feeling guilty while eating.
Little appetite for breakfast (NO WONDER)
 There's a serotonin in the brain which in turn, leads to asleep.
Melatonin is geartly decreased in Night Eaters.

I'm eating so on track, just great, during the day. The about 11:00 PM the bottom drops out. I try over and over to get victory over this. I've gained about 15 lbs now and it's due to Night Eating. I'm really struggling, am I the ONLY ONE? Can your offer me any suggestions? Thank-you, Kathy

I do the exact same thing.. I don't know else to say about it.. I'm fighting it every day (night actually)... I'll eat every 2 hrs during the night sometimes. it helped for a while locking the fridge..but I think it's more complex than that..and need to figure it out myself. I'll start some research.

Leslee

I just had a new revelation one of the posters here helped me with and its working.  I was the same way about being extremely hungry at night.  I was also having lob blood sugar episodes often.  Im eating the wagon plan, but a little modified to eliminate sweets for me.  You can look on the BAF or WLS Grad board to hear more about it.  Basically I eat 7g protein for every 15 grams of carbs and no more than 30 g carbs per setting.  I wait 3 hrs between meals and eat 4 times a day.  I eat no more than my BMR for weight maintenance... and if you want to lose you can use the formula on the daily plate by plugging in how much you want to lose each week.  I no longer am hungry.  Good luck, Jess

I do the same thing.  I can't eat until lunch.  I eat at 12pm, 4pm, 7pm & 9:30pmish with lots of coffee & water before and in between.  I usually do well and eat mostly protein and veggies even at night.  My usual night snack is frozen greek yogurt.  However recently I find myself picking while trying to figure out what to have for dinner.  Tonight...I picked in the brownies.  OMG they were good and I've done it every night since the damn things came home on Saturday.  I just can't stop myself and I can't bring myself to throw them away because the kids are enjoying them for dessert as is my husband.  Wish they were just GONE.  I'm usually really good about planning my meals but this week when I go to cook what I've planned I just don't want it.
So frustrating.  I only can suggest to keep it protein rich.

I have a recipe you might try if you and your kids like brownies...super delish and not bad stats! They are a little more cake-like than most brownies but they are very tasty and you won't be disappointed. Don't tell the kids what's in them and they won't know.

Might make your little evening brownie discretion not so bad...

Mini Protein Brownies...

1 1/2 c. of Pilsbury Reduced Sugar Devils Food Cake mix
1 1/2 c. (6 scoops) of Chocolate protein powder
1 15 oz can of Pure Pumpkin

Mix all together. This will be really thick - don't add anything else to it - it just works! Put batter in greased pans. Only fill about 2/3 full because they puff when you bake them.

I use mini-muffin pans and it makes 36 mini-muffins
Or you can use regular muffin pans and it makes 12

For mini-muffins: bake for 6-8 min at 400 degrees
If you use regular muffin pans - bake for 18-20 min at 400 degrees

They should look just a tad under-done in the center. If you bake them until the center is firm they will come out a little dry.

Stats for 1 mini-muffin:
Food energy: 43kcal
Total fat: 0.61g
Calories from fat: 5
Cholesterol: 2mg
Carbohydrate, by difference: 7.54g
Total dietary fiber: 0.76g
Protein: 2.71g
Total sugars: 2.06g

Stats for 1 regular size muffin:
Food energy: 129kcal
Total fat: 2g
Calories from fat: 15
Cholesterol: 6mg
Carbohydrate, by difference: 22.5g
Total dietary fiber: 2.25g
Protein: 8.23g
Total sugars: 6.18g

I usually smear a little LF cream cheese on these (but I'm trying to increase my calories)...

Thanks June Cleaver for the brownie recipe! I have the same problem and your recipe would definitely help me.

Diana

OMG..........WOW.  I thought I was the only one.  This is me and my situation to a tee.  I'm marvelous during the day, but around 8:00 p.m., I start getting the munchies.  I wake up every 3 or three hours and go into the kitchen to have a snack.  I keep healthier snacks on hand for this, but it's always a craving for something sweet.  If I'm out of what I usually keep, I'll turn to something not so great for me.  I've dealt with this for years, and years, and years, even before the WLS. 

I never heard of this before. I eat at night if I'm up late, I like to have soup or sometimes a low calorie sandwich. I also eat yogurt every night. Sometimes I eat fruit. I don't understand the problem if it's the same number of calories you should be eating per 24 hours, if it's at night or daytime? For example, if you overall eating is 1000 calories, does it matter if it's day or night? Or is this a problem if it interferes with your sleep or your life?

I find myself doing this but I'm not as bad as I use to be. In fact I rarely do it now. I had this problem really bad when I was younger. I find that I'm almost sleep walking. I have little control. Make sure your not waking up because your dehidrated. Drink lots of water before bed. It's also a stress thing.

I would love to hear more about this.

Heidi

The little bit of research I've done says some consider it an eating disorder, some consider it a sleep disorder...or perhaps a mixture of both. I read more about it on an eating disorder site, and they put it in the same category of disorders such as bulimia, anorexia and overeating. They gave no solutions, but it was interesting to read.

I bought these "diet cookies" you can find them at "dietcookie.com" They are an appetiite suppressant food and actually taste pretty good! The last two nights I would eat one right before bed and then when I wake up have one by my bedside and eat it. Since I've done this (only two nights so far) I've only waken up that once and consumed that one 90 calorie "diet cookie"... the appetite suppresant conmponant must be helping me get through the night better. I'm using them during the day to help control my appteite as well, so I just save two for the night time, only 180 calories to help curb the night time eating, which is better then the sometimes, oh i don't know, maybe 1000 calories I can pack in a night sometimes.

So I don't know if a nyone has any answers to this disorder yet, or if it's just recognized as such...so I just need to find ways to manage it to teh best of my ability so it doesn't effect my sleep or weigh mananagment efforts as severely.

Leslee