I dont consider myself "overweight" at 5'4 and 125lbs, but I do know I have more body fat then I need to. My goal is 118lbs, with low body fat, around 15%. I eat healthy (low carb) pretty much all day long, I drink plenty of water. I exercise intently on most days.

Here's the problem, I think i'm addidcted to night time eating. I still live at home with parents (only 24 and can't afford to move out yet in the overpriced bay area) and they buy a LOT of junk food. For some reason I can pass by it during the day, and at work I can pass by the donuts, cakes, cookies, etc. with no problem. But for some reason, every single night, I wake up and it's like i'm sleep walking and rading the fridge at night. I know its not cause i'm hungry, but i keep eating and eating. And if that wasnt bad enough, eating at night i mean, i eat loads of carbs and sugar. I love tortilla chips, cookies and they are always available. I keep telling myself if i lived alone there would be no junk food in the house what so ever. But I dont. So I dont know how to overcome this addiction. I would like to try going to OA, but I think i would feel embarassed going there, cause i'm not overweight. I cant try low carb products either at night becasue that will send me into a binge.

Any advice from anyone?

Thanks for listening.

Sorry to hear you are having this problem. I'm wondering if your blood sugar is dropping at night and your body is telling you to feed it. If you have access to a glucose monitor it might be worth checking. You could just try have a low GI snack at night before going to bed to keep your levels steady overnight.

I used to eat cookies or crackers every night in bed while reading a book. It was just a bad habit for me and I had to learn to control it when I started this WOE. It doesn't sound like that is your problem, though, since you have such great control during the day. Maybe if you jot down the feelings you are having when you get out of bed it will help you to find the cause.

Also, there is a physical problem that causes people to eat at night like you describe, except they don't know they do it. They are not awake. Doesn't sound like that's it for you though.

Just some ideas. Good luck to you.

Thank you for the reply diemde. Hmmm.........a glucose monitor? Isn't that for peop with diabetes? I dont have diabetes. Also what are some low GI snacks? You said it could possibly be a physical problem, what are some physical probs that cause this behavior?

Yes, a glucose monitor is for folks with diabetes. If you don't know anyone who could test your levels at night, then don't worry about doing it. The point is that maybe your glucose level is dropping at night causing hunger. If you eat a low GI snack before bed, it would cause your glucose level to stay up at a more constant level.

You can take a look at this site to read up on the GI. There is a link to the food, so you can search for some that are low that you like.
http://diabetes.about.com/library/m.../nmendosagi.htm

Well, I don't know if this is an official term, but on one of the talk shows I saw recently they called it sleep eating. It was very interesting - these folks were sleeping, but raiding the fridge and wolfing down food left and right. They didn't even know they were doing it. Doesn't sound like you, though...

Good luck!

I do the absolute exact same thing! No word of a lie. You're half asleep and it doesn't matter what's going into your mouth - the worse for you, the better.

It's really weird. I feel like it's the texture of the food that I really enjoy when I'm half asleep. Before I started Atkins, I was terrible and the only solution for me was to get rid of everything in my apartment...If I spend the night at my parents house, I still do it.

As sad as it sounds, everynight that my mom would make muffins, I would wake up with a half (sometimes, many halfs) of a half-eaten muffin under my head. Pretty sad, huh? And I'm not kidding at all. It was terrible. She eventually stopped making them.

Could you get your parents to hid the junk food?! Post something if you figure out how to stop it.

Good luck

Rach

Have you tried Cheeters crackers? They are very good, come in about 10 flavors, cheesy to cinnamon, and are only 1 carb for three crackers. They are pretty big, too.
I have always been a cheese and cracker lover, so these get me through a lot of sticky situations. I been experimanting with new cheeses too, to keep things interesting.
Look them up-they're deffinitly worth it.
A word of caution-there is another brand that looks exactly like Cheeters. I don't remember the name, but they are awful! Don't be fooled!