My Attempt at Kicking NES

M

mabelharris1105

New member
So, I'm pretty sure I have NES (night eating syndrome). Every night, for the last year or so, I've been waking up around one hour after falling asleep and have been binging a bunch of calories. I think this habit developed because it's at this point that I should be moving into my second sleep cycle (and so can be more easily awakened) and a year ago my schedule became very tight (i.e., stressful), as that's when I went to back to school, as I've continued to work.

I've tried some things to kick this habit, starting with telling myself, just before falling asleep, that tonight I'm not going to binge eat, to now locking the fridge and putting the key to the lock in a timed safe. However, while these things have helped a bit, this habit has become so ingrained it now causes me to scourer my house at night and prepare myself delicious meals, such as dry cereal, straight peanut butter, or whatever else I hadn't locked anyway.

Anyway... I'm getting desperate, because while I have good dietary discipline during the day, this habit has been preventing me from staying at the weight I want to be at. So, while I feel crazy admitting all this stuff, I'm going to see if this dairy, combined with an imaginary audience (imaginary as I can't imagine this exercise being interesting enough for anyone to follow), will help.

So, imaginary audience, I'll talk to you tomorrow and let you know how tonight's adventures went!
 
Hi Mabel and welcome to the forum! That must be so frustrating for you and I hope you´ll be able to get on top of it.
 
Oh wow, sorry I'm not familiar with this. Hopefully someone else here will have some good knowledge or advice to pass on, but I do wonder what your food day typically looks like? Are you consuming enough protein do you think?
I'll definitely be an audience, cheering you on your journey xx
 
Thank you LaMaria and Spencer! I really didn’t expect anyone to respond, let alone so kindly and helpfully. I know that that’s a sad sounding sentence, but don’t worry, it’s just a sign of my ignorance, rather than any sort of bitterness.

Anyway, great question, Spencer! In the morning, I usually have oatmeal and an apple or a banana, and I swallow a one-a-day multivitamin. In the afternoon, I usually have a large salad with shrimp (or some other vegetable and protein dish). And in the evening (after my workout), I usually have a protein shake with peanut butter and berries, and another bowl of oatmeal.

Now, recounting last night, my half-asleep body sought out carbs, as it usually does, and I ate one bowl of cereal saturated with tap water, which I have a vague memory of tasting disgusting, and dry cookies meant to be dipped in a hot beverage. This is one less disgusting bowl of cereal than usual, so progress! BTW, I think I usually seek out carbs because soon after I’d started school again, I began waking up at 4 AM to finish the schoolwork that I’d been too tired to finish the night before and I’d eat a bowl of cereal to get myself going. As a result, I think I’ve trained my glucagon level to tank and my insulin level to spike in the middle of the night. I really don’t think it’s because I actually need the carbs, as I eat a bunch of oatmeal throughout the day, and I’m 5’5”, 155 lbs., and was consistently just below 150 lbs. before this started, and felt comfortable there.
 
Hi, Mabel & a belated welcome to the forum. I’ll be part of your cheer squad too, but I couldn’t come up with much in the way apart from having some protein with every meal. Add some Greek yoghurt to your oatmeal & maybe some almond meal or crushed nuts & seeds. How much are you in deficit during the day? I sleep better if I have had a small protein snack in the evening. Raw almonds are good.
 
Hey Mabel, welcome to the forum!

I have been slow in answering as I never heard of NES, its new to me. So I Googled it and learned a little. According to one website 10% of obese people suffer from NES, so it may not be rare so much as not talked about much.

I have a (self diagnosed) binge eating disorder (BED, I guess), I know that's not the same but I suspect we both suffer from related eating disorders. Same devil, different face. One thing I was going to suggest, because I do it, is a substantial evening snack before going to bed. That is one of my historic binge times, so not going to be hungry helps me. But after reading your posts again, I am not sure that will work for you.

I have not cured my BED, but over the last year and a few months have found ways to stop bingeing and live with the BED. I still want to binge sometimes, but have so far been able to fight it off. Maybe you can find something like that as well. I did it by just stopping for a single day and then getting support, advice, and help to stay stopped. A lot of that came right here, much from Cate and LaMa. Don't know Spencer too well, she is new, but she sure looks like someone with a lot to offer. There are plenty of others.

Just keep posting here and telling your story. If you are like me you will find it therapeutic, and you'll get lots of support. I am looking forward to following your progress, and am optimistic that you will be successful!
 
If you usually wake up at the same time could you either set out something you can eat without feeling bad about it or set an alarm to wake you up properly so you can make better choices? Sorry if you've tried those already, they're just what I would do.
 
Hi Everyone!

I’m really taken aback by the all the support. Thank you! I’ll try to return the favors throughout my stay on this forum.

Cate, thank you for your support, advice, and having me think about my daily calorie deficit! I’ll keep your advice in mind; although, atm, I think I’m getting more than enough nutrition throughout the day, including protein. And as far as my daily calorie deficit, I’m eating and exercising how I did when I was 144 lbs. (I’m 155 lbs. now), so while I’m not sure what exactly my daily calorie deficit is, I think it’s adequate to get my goal if I can cut out my middle-of-the-night binges.

Rob, wow, that was really kind of you to have taken the time to Google NES! And thank you for your confidence in me! So, I’ve kind of learned to live with my binging as well. At one point, I was up to 167 lbs., but mostly by increasing my awareness, locking the fridge, and continuing to fight despite the setbacks, I got to my current weight. Also, briefly, I was able to get back down to my target weight of 144. How I did it was during one of my breaks between school semesters, I devoted the majority of my attention to weight loss, I cut out dinner, and exercised like a fiend. However, school soon started again, and I felt needed my brain sharper in the evenings, so I reintroduced dinner and refocused on beating NES, rationalizing that I can’t do what I was doing and be who I want to be throughout the day, and getting worried that if I don’t beat NES, it will one day become a fully unconscious habit. But, I don’t know, maybe this is just the hand I’ve been dealt, and I should have given my body more time to readjust to not taking in calories at dinner time.

LaMaria, great advice! And, yeah, my mind went to the same places. Here’s what happened. When I set out meals to eat at night, I’d eat them, but at night, it’s like my body won’t stop going until it meets its carb quota, so my body wouldn’t stop at just what I set out for it. And same thing with the alarm. It awakened me and then I’d be in control, but then I’d go back to sleep, wake up half-asleep after my second sleep cycle (another hour later) and the binge pattern I’d just dodged would happen.

So, recounting last night, no cookies, but two awful, large bowls of cereal. I’m thinking I might need to get some more locks and safes, and do some reorganizing, as not all of the cabinets in which I store food have handles that I can lock together. I think accountability is helping, though, as I was really hoping to report today that I beat it, nothing stops me, and now I’m just going to start counting the days with my newfound freedom! Sigh…
 
mabelharris1105 said:
Here’s what happened. When I set out meals to eat at night, I’d eat them, but at night, it’s like my body won’t stop going until it meets its carb quota, so my body wouldn’t stop at just what I set out for it. And same thing with the alarm. It awakened me and then I’d be in control, but then I’d go back to sleep, wake up half-asleep after my second sleep cycle (another hour later) and the binge pattern I’d just dodged would happen.
Click to expand...
Not what you want of course, but it´s kind of amazing how resourceful our bodies/brains are!
 
Mabel, I find your posts very interesting, something new to me. I also appreciate your resolve and creativity in working with your problem. I hope you stay with us and are successful. As I have said it seems to me to be different face of the same problem most of us have, but a unique one.

You are off to a great start here, I am looking forward to following your progress, and providing whatever support and encouragement I can.
 
“Not what you want of course, but it´s kind of amazing how resourceful our bodies/brains are!”

Lol. I can definitely see how set points were adaptive when we were in the sub-Saharan Africa. They really get you in gear. But, yeah, in this age of simple carbs, credit, socioeconomic markers everywhere, they suck! (Well, except those that keep us alive; they're alright.)

“Mabel, I find your posts very interesting, something new to me. I also appreciate your resolve and creativity in working with your problem. I hope you stay with us and are successful. As I have said it seems to me to be different face of the same problem most of us have, but a unique one.

“You are off to a great start here, I am looking forward to following your progress, and providing whatever support and encouragement I can.”

Thank you! And, yeah, I agree “same problem” “different face.” Again, that’s some real grit you showed in taking it on and succeeding how you have.

-

So, good news, last night, only one bowl of cereal and no cookies! Along with this forum, I think what helped was that my newest friend stayed the night and woke up, walked past me, to use the bathroom, and smiled as I was eating cereal. This woke me up just enough that I still finished the bowl (not even seeing the sexiest person alive walk past me would have stopped me from doing that) but feeling embarrassed, got me to regain enough control to stop there, get back into bed, and remarkably, not wake up after my next sleep cycle.
 
So, I may have found my way out of this, which is locking up everything at night, except a couple of apples to quickly raise my blood glucose level and to keep myself from doing anything too crazy (as what I've been doing up to know has been entirely sane, lol). Strictly speaking, I'm still night eating, but getting it down to just a couple apples I think is a huge step, and so to try to induce myself to build on this, I'm counting last night as my first night, in a long time, without sleep eating. Thank you everyone for giving an audience I'm willing to be this candid with and thus truly accountable to!
 
Awesome! Very curious to see if the less intense sugar/carb rush will end up breaking the cycle after a while.
 
A couple of apples sounds like a much better alternative & is a step in the right direction.
 
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