I am sure its been talked about dozens of times but how do you deal with going to sleep hungry?
If I can’t sleep due to hunger I get out of bed and distract myself until my sleepiness is bigger than my hunger.
The issue tends to disappear after the first 48 hours (I currently do 96 hr fasts with 1 day inbetween). Currently on a fasting break for the festive season, which I am already regretting…
Honestly you just have to push through.
Your ghrelin (appetite hormone) fluctuates for various reasons and you can easily turn it off by winding down and getting ready for bed.
Depending on how long your fasting for you’ll eventually not even notice because the hunger pangs won’t be there.
This comes from personal experience…
At the beginning when I started fasting or knew about fasting I tried the same thing as you. I couldn’t even do 16 hours before I would get very hungry.
Start slow. Do 12 hours..then 14…then 16…18, 30, 24+.
You will find the body will respond way better and you will be able to manage hunger and dizziness and headaches better.
I drink water but honestly feeling a bit of hunger is empowering to me. The old me wouldn’t allow myself to get hungry because I was eating junk around the clock regardless of my appetite.
Nowadays feeling that emptiness is a reminder that I’m in control and no longer a slave to my inner glutton. I don’t know if that’ll be helpful but changing the way I think about things has been life-changing for me.
Here’s a trick to squelching hunger pangs, which is probably just sugar addiction rearing its ugly head. Now don’t do this too close to bed or you could be up all night, but if you can get a few 60-90 sec surges of high HR cardio (say 150-160 bpm) you will notice your cravings totally disappear. And I mean this works EVERY SINGLE TIME. I learned this technique from an Fasting Doctor from South Africa about 20 years ago and it has never failed me. I believe it works because it triggers you Sympathetic Nervous System into thinking it’s fight or flight time and not a safe time to enjoy a plate of nachos. :) Give it a shot and report your findings. I usually do three 60-90 second surges with 4 or 5 minutes of LISS in between, but feel free to come up with your own protocol. Cheers!
Honestly this hasn’t been a big issue for me, thankfully. I do get periodically hungry, but it hasn’t been an issue specifically at night. Over time, you do learn to understand that hunger is a passing feeling more than something you need to satisfy.
I do a 20/4 fast and my window is between when I get home from work and when I go to bed so going to bed hungry isn’t an issue. This also puts most of my fasting time while I’m sleeping and while I’m at work which means I’m too busy to really notice the hunger.
When I was having a hard time sleeping because of fasting-hunger, I would either A. Drink water until my stomach felt full and B. Take a melatonin to help me get to sleep. Ultimately it is your willpower though. It’s OK if you fail and end up eating, as long as you get back to the plan and try again next time. Every person who has lost weight and are now in great shape, has failed more than once and given in to temptation. It’s about forgiving yourself of the mistake and trying again.