I am one week in and doing really well. 2KG lost so far.

My biggest problem is sleep eating and binge eating at night, including on FAST nights.

This is not a new problem for me. I have always done it, as long as I can remember.

On non-fast nights i’ll either eat really late at night after dinner or wake up in the middle of the night in varying ranges of consciousness, make my way to the fridge or pantry and scoff food.

Of the 3 days/nights I have fasted thus far I have scoffed food during all 3 nights (usually around midnight-1am).

I am concerned this will sabotage my fasts and ultimately my diet.

So far I have tried leaving a glass of milk next to my bed to drink if I get hungry, leaving 100 calories spare and some left over dinner for a later night snack and even shutting all the doors (normally open for my kids) and leaving notes on them.

My wife says when she catches me and wakes me I either pretend I am not doing anything even though my face is full of nutella and the evidence is smeared on the walls and benchtop or I will shout things like “leave me alone, mind your own business” etc.

The way I describe it is that I am never (not that I am aware of) not totally unconscious. I always have a level of consciousness but it’s like I am in a hypnotic trance where although everything seems hazy I know exactly what I am doing but I just do not care to stop myself and seem to be almost zombie like “must eat, must eat, must eat” and this is especially true on FAST nights.

I am thinking about hypnotherapy and will report back post decision.

Does anyone else experience anything similar?

Hi bigbooty (lol awesome username btw!)

There could be something to this. I have never thought about the liver although all my blood work is completely fine. Hdl and Ldl are fine, blood sugar not perfect but still good.

I might look into a liver detox and some supplements and speak with the doc of course.

I feel my issue is more psychological to be honest.

You see I am the heaviest of both my brothers and I have always eaten like a lion compared to them. As a baby my mum said she had something wrong with her milk when she was breastfeeding me but didn’t know it for some time so she was essentially kind of starving me without knowing it. I reckon this stuck in my subconscious somehow and to this day when I get to those subconscious reptilian type levels during sleep/rest like I would have been in those early stages of life I just go back to wanting food even though I don’t need any.

Ive done this since I can remember. I remember being 5/6 years old and secretly waking up at like 3 or 4 in the morning, turning the tv on and eating milk and cookies.

My diet is pretty good too, not perfect but good, I have a European background so we have always eaten a fairly similar diet to the Mediterranean one growing up and a lot of that has stuck in my own family now. I eat lots of fresh fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, healthy oils, lots of good varied protein including lots of fish, never drink sugary drinks, almost never eat choc, lollies or icecream except for the odd donut at work and in terms of carbs I have greatly reduced. I aim for one ‘carby’ meal a day only and always try to go for brown, wholemeal and as close to natural as possible.