why am i always hungry at night?
Night time hunger is a THING. Many people struggle with feeling hungry or snacky after dinner, despite making what seem like good choices during the day. Today’s blog post is going to answer the question “why am I always hungry at night” AND give you some tips and tricks to help mitigate it.
There are really two main reasons why you always feel hungry at night:
You haven’t eaten enough during the day
You’ve eaten enough during the day but not of the RIGHT foods
You’re not actually hungry…you’re just craving snacks
Let’s break it down so you can get a clear answer to “why am I always hungry at night?
1. You haven’t eaten enough during the day
If you’ve been working on weight loss this is very often the culprit behind night time hunger. You spend all day tracking macros, calories or points, meticulously weighing/measuring/portioning everything you eat, choosing low fat/low cal versions of as many foods as possible and then by the time 8pm rolls around you just haven’t eaten enough to be full (nor have you enjoyed what you ate).
And your brain knows it. Your body is smarter than you think and it does NOT care that you are trying to lose weight—it wants you to eat! So despite your best efforts of being “good” all day long, your body will send up hunger signals at night to try and catch up on food. If you are working on intentional weight loss, definitely check out this blog post to find out my top 5 skills to lose weight without dieting.
2. You’ve eaten enough during the day but not of the right foods
You know the drill—you grab a bagel for breakfast, a granola bar for a morning snack, quick burger and fries for lunch, some leftover cookies in the kitchen at work during the afternoon and then Chinese takeout for dinner. So by the end of the day you’ve definitely eaten enough food and yet…you are still left asking “why am I always hungry at night?”
And the answer is because you haven’t eaten enough of the foods that provide fullness and nutrition: aka protein, veggies and fiber. In fact you’ve only got 2 efficient protein sources the entire day (the burger at lunch and any meat or fish that’s in the Chinese take out) and that’s just not enough. Not to mention the lack of veggies and therefore fiber.
Even if your daily intake is a little more moderate than this, I suggest you journal a few days of eating and identify where your efficient protein and veggies are coming from. If you’re constantly asking yourself “why am I always hungry at night” I would bet you have a tough time finding those food sources when you really think through everything you are eating.
Work on including an efficient protein source at 3 meals a day and a non starchy veggie at 2 meals a day and see how it impacts that night time hunger.
3. You’re not actually hungry…you’re just craving snacks
Getting confused between hunger and cravings is super easy to do. We get an urge to eat and immediately think, oh, I’m hungry. Except an urge to eat does NOT equal physical hunger. We eat for SO many reasons aside from hunger—boredom, stress, anxiety, curiosity, circumstances, social pressure. You get the idea.
So you may THINK you’re always hungry at night, but what may actually be happening is that you’re craving a snack or dessert. Which is a normal feeling! Cravings aren’t bad. You want to be able to develop the skills to identify the difference between a hunger and a craving and make a thoughtful, intentional choice about if and what you want to eat as a result.
My number one tip to help identify the difference between true hunger and a craving is to ask yourself “would I eat steamed chicken or fish and broccoli right now?” (Or insert your totally bland but nutritious food option). You’ll know in an instant where you’re at—and then you can make thoughtful choice as a result.
Always feeling hungry at night is frustrating and uncomfortable. Now you have 3 areas to explore so you can understand WHY this is happening and what to do about it.
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