Do you get up during the night to eat?
Apparently, for those who do, the average overnight caloric intake is 700 calories.
That’s a lot of calories, especially if you’re looking to lose weight. You could easily be eating back your calorie deficit overnight, or even pushing the balance into weight gain.
But, if you do get up in the night to eat, I suspect you might already know that!
So, the question becomes: why do you get up in the night to eat?
Well, while the answer to this will vary person to person, I have some ideas for things you could consider as a starting point. Perhaps something here will resonate with you.
First, let’s consider the obvious. Are you actually hungry?
If you’re restricting your intake during the day, perhaps to ‘make up’ for the calories you ate overnight, you might be creating a bit of a vicious circle.
So, if this could be you, strike off what happened overnight and eat three good quality meals today.
Next, consider whether you might be being woken up by a blood sugar drop which then makes you feel super hungry.
If this could be the case for you, it’s time to think about what you’re eating at dinner. Choose a meal with plenty of protein to promote satiety, and lots of fibre too. The fibre could come from veggies but including some starchy, fibre rich carbs might help to promote sleep.
How about your sleep quality in general?
If your sleep quality doesn’t seem great, perhaps it’s time to work on that.
This could be a bit of a ‘chicken or egg’ situation, as obviously if you’re getting up in the night to eat, you’re probably feeling that your sleep quality isn’t great.
But, it’s still worth thinking about your sleep quality as a bigger picture and doing what you can to improve it.
How’s your circadian rhythm?
These days, it’s really easy to stare at screens for a huge majority of the day without getting much / any natural daylight. If this is the case for you, your body might not be sure when is day and when is night, so it might be worth thinking about how you could send some clearer signals.
Getting at least 30 minutes of natural daylight before noon is important, as is winding down at the opposite end of the day by dimming the lights and turning off your phone/tablet/computer a good hour before bed (or at least switching to ‘night shift’ mode).
I hope these thoughts give you some ideas for how you could make changes to your routine and lifestyle to help. Remember that you might not find they give you an immediate change, so stick with any changes for a good few weeks before you decide whether it’s working.