"Breaking" at midnight?

This topic contains 10 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by ormaman444444 7 years, 6 months ago.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

xamos

5:36 pm
2 Jan 17
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Hey everyone,

I’m currently doing Alternate Day Fasting – I find it relatively easy to make it for 24 hours (midnight to midnight) however after midnight I get hungrier than I have been all day and it makes it almost impossible to sleep. Jan 1st was a fast day then I began my calories for Jan 2nd at around midnight (I’m staying up a lot later than I usually would due to being with family for the holidays) and I slept perfectly. Do you think this would have a significant impact on my progress? I understand fasts are meant to include your sleeping period so be between 32 – 36 hours long but I am miserable when I’m fighting to get to sleep with a rumbley tummy.

I also think perhaps when I’m back into a regular sleeping pattern I wont have this problem as I wont be awake! I guess that’s one to judge when I come to it.

Many thanks in advance for any advice 🙂

annette52

5:39 pm
2 Jan 17
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Why don’t you change it to lunch to lunch or dinner to dinner?

xamos

5:43 pm
2 Jan 17
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Hi @annette52 sorry I don’t think I explained myself very well – I do fast from dinner to dinner so i’ll eat my last meal on a NFD at around 8pm, then i’ll eat a small dinner on FD as my low calorie meal again at about 8pm but then by the time I go to bed (after midnight) i’m starving and I can’t sleep.

annette52

6:08 pm
2 Jan 17
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I am still a bit confused. I am having dinner soon and then will eat nothing at all until dinner tomorrow evening. Cups to tea and water will get me through along with a list of things to do to keep me out of the kitchen. I found it much harder when I missed breakfast on a FD and then had lunch and an evening meal.Alternatively you could have a glass of milk at midnight. Sleep is way more important.

Mark Mywordz

8:32 pm
4 Jan 17
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I drink camomile tea when I go to bed and that helps me. The taste is OK and it does relax me too. Do you do any exercise? That helps to relax you too. Sex also helps to relax you! Try to get to bed earlier and read a book at bedtime too…? If your house is cool/cold at night that also discourages you from getting out of bed to eat. I live near an airport. Quite often a plane wakes me at 6 in the morning: I just make a cup of tea and read my book for 10 minutes, then I can sleep again.

Minka

4:01 am
5 Jan 17
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I personally cannot sleep when I’m hungry and doing straight 5:2, I often have a protein snack before bed which makes all the difference. For me this is often a whey protein peptide drink.

bigbooty

9:39 am
5 Jan 17
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@Lael. Whey protein is a really crappy protein that spikes your insulin levels. So for 2-3 hours after your protein shake your insulin levels will be elevated. Which means any attempt at accessing your stored fats over night will be severely hampered. What typically happens is that if your glycogen stores (muscle and liver) are below about 70% full the body will access your fat to top up your glucose and glycogen reserves (gluconeogenesis). This will not happen for 3 hours because of your insulin spike caused by the whey.

If you must have something to eat try a good fatty cheese or some good tofu, but not whey. Its marginally better than having processed carbs.

snedger

1:56 pm
5 Jan 17
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It’s easy for me to say, but try to not give in.
When I started fasting it was really hard, but I persevered, ignoring voices telling me that I have to have something to eat so that I can do ???????
Longer you can go, the easier it gets – make a habit out of giving in, then you’re stuck with it – a few weeks of reprogramming food habits is worth the pain.
If you can manage to sleep whilst fasting then that is easy street.
Now when I wake up during a fast, I can usually choose to carry on, or not, ’til midday, without any stress – but I do like a bacon sandwich 🙂

Amazon

4:03 pm
5 Jan 17
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bigbooty,
did you know that Lael has reached goal and is now maintaining?

5:2 works if you stick with it no matter what you eat and when you eat it. I know you have strong opinions about certain foods but the fact is that creating a calorie deficit is the only thing required to lose weight and as I’ve said before, no foods are prohibited on 5:2.

bigbooty

9:00 pm
5 Jan 17
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@amazon and lael. Im sure I did know but forgot. Sorry about that, Im a born again Christian when it comes to food. I had a light bulb moment 2 years ago and decided that I shouldn’t eat processed crap anymore. I’ll try and curb my enthusiasm and get off my soapbox. I know that nothing is prohibited but that doesn’t mean everything is healthy for you.

ormaman444444

1:37 am
13 Feb 17
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I would definitely be looking at a cup of calming tea before bed