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Night Eating Syndrome Need Help!

MetalMX

MetalMX

Member
Im 19 years old. Im 6"2 and 238lbs I've been bodybuilding for the past one and a half years and i eat a very good balanced diet. The problem i have is i have night eating syndrome. If i go to sleep at say midnight id wake up again at 1am and eat something, then go back to sleep and wake up again at 3am and eat again then go back to sleep and wake up again at 5am and eat.

This would happen usually 3 times a night. Its uncontrollable when i get up i have a massive appetite like i'm starving. Some nights i don't even remember getting up and eating but i see the food that i've eaten in the bin, its really disturbing and its giving me a weight problem i cannot lose weight or stick to a certain diet because its all ruined at night, i'm extremely frustrated and depressed because of this.

My doctor prescribed me with fluvoxamine maelate an SSRI in low doses for the night eating but im hesistant to take it because of side effects.

I've read Zoloft is successful in treating this condition but it has a good amount of sides. Wellbutrin seems to be a good SSRI with minimum sides.

From research it seems night eating syndrome has to do with low melatonin levels so you cant stay asleep, low leptin so your appetite isnt suppressed normally at night and high cortisol putting further stress on your body and making you hungry.

My main problem is not being able to lose bodyfat!, also my muscle mass could be better because of the low hormone levels. I'm seeing an endo in a week and i think i will on HCG to restart my testes or TRT and will be asking for GH replacement because of my very low levels.

I have endocrine problems:

LH: Under 0.5 ( 2.0 - 10.00) *
FSH: Under 0.5 ( 1.5 - 13.00) *
Growth Hormone: 0.5 mIU/L * ( 0-15 )

Total Testosterone: 6.7 nmol/L * ( 12.0-32.0 )
Free Testosterone: 17.8 pmol/L * ( 43 - 138 )
DHEAS: 8.2 umol/L ( 2.5 - 13.00)
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin: 29 nmol/L ( 15-50 )
Prolactin: 190 mIU/L ( 85-500 )
Estradiol: 306 * ( 0-160 )

Free Androgen Index: 23% ( 15-100 )

Thyroid Panel:

Free T3: 3.0 pmol/L ( 2.5-6.0 )
Free T4: 9 pmol/L ( 8-22 )
TSH: 3.76 mIU/L ( 0.30 - 4.00 )


Does anyone know whats a good SSRI for this condition with minimum side effects?

Also should i get my melatonin, leptin and cortisol levels checked?

Any other tips or advice would be great.
 
man. sorry to hear about this, strange numbers u got there for being 19! have u done a cycle before?

this is what i can offer. my mother has had the same issue, for quite a few years, its off and on. she will eat in her sleep and not remember and wake up bloated and full, feeling like crap. it really put some weight on her. one easter all the candy that she got me and my 3 other siblings she ate in her sleep!!!! it was crazy, like 4 bags of candy! she also would eat ice cream, cereal, nuts, just alot of food. i pushed for her to see a hypnotherapist but she never did, she did however start eating better during the day, exercising more, and making sure she ate a good meal before bed. her issue i think was more related with blood sugar problems and emotional issues than anything else. she has not had any issues in the past 6 months and has subsequently lost weight.

i believe in the ability of oneself to help control conditions like this, what i would do is tell myself before bed what i wanted to happen. "i want to sleep well this night for 8 hours, i will do it" "if i get up to eat i will snap out of it and go back to bed" positive affermations may help your brain recognize what is happening more and alert you to wake up so you can go back to bed. make sure ur diet during the day is good too. also another trick you can do is setup somthing that would be complex for you to do in order to get to food. like put a bunch of things in front of your door when u go to bed so you would have to move them all to get food and more likely wake up. also you could put baby locks on the cabinets and fridge to make it more difficult. last suggestion - along with the positive affirmations, it may seem silly, but i would write down "i will sleep the whole night and avoid eating" on paper and put it in the kitchen and places i see normally throughout the day to better reprogram your brain.

the ssri may help, my mother is on prozac now, but really i think with the evidence there of your test and estradiol levels being so off, that is probably the culprit and once you get that under control, you will probably get this other eating issue under control too

good luck man!
 
hey i got thru the exact same thing. if i wake up during the night i eat and dont remember it the next day. i also get this same feeling if im anxious. i feel your pain about low hormones. i was 21 when i found out i had no testosterone. probobly never progressed full way into puberty during highschool. really makes you mad. anyways, maybe try a lite sleeping pill like ambien to make sure you sleep all the way thru the night.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Yes i now know 100 percent what im doing when i wake up i tell myself i wont eat before bed and im never hungry before bed and feel like sleeping. Then i doze off and 1 hour later im up with a raging appetite im aware what im doing and i try to eat very little but i usually go for something fatty like sour cream for some reason. I think the night eating is more under control now then before for me.

I think the reason for the night eating is the low hormone levels and neurotransmitter imbalances with serotonin, melatonin. Right now im eating **** all and maintaining weight, my appetite throughout the day is gone and that tells me something is definitely wrong i cant build muscle or lose fat normally like someone is able to. Hormones really are everything especially since i'm trying to be a bodybuilder and really get a good physique with a high amount of muscle and low bodyfat.

Im pretty sure once i start treatment TRT or HCG with GH things will be a lot better. The thyroid hormone im not taking anymore even at 100mcg a day it was destroying my muscles and making me excessively hungry and i would put on weight, ill resume it once im on the other treatments.

This is all genetic but another thing that has added to my current problems is ive always been overweight and eating a lot of food and i was about 140kgs at my heighest 4 years ago. Then in 2005 i lost a lot of weight and became anorexic for a year and was hospitalised twice for 2 months, i was 69kgs at my lowest and 4-5% BF i looked like a sack of crap! Then after i tried to recover my body wasn't clicking i wasn't really gaining much muscle back but just bodyfat. No doctors even though to check my hormone levels its absolutely ridicilous!!! Only after extensively researching and learning about hormones, treatments, organs am i now able to understand exactly what is going on and able to treat this. While doctors continued to tell me now "You're fine, your hormones are normal" Then try to push some bullshit antidepressant on me.
 
This is a real problem. I`m sorry.
Have you ever thought about hormone replacement therapy?
You are to young to start it right now, but probably in a year or two it will be the right solution to solve your problems.
 
As i said Im starting hormone replacement shortly Testosterone and Growth Hormone replacement.

GH at 1-2iu's per day and Test at 125-150mg per week. Also Arimidex for E2 control.

Too young? if someone has these kind of problems they need to be addressed right away, i have nothing to wait for i'm done growing i'm about 190cm pretty tall. I wonder how im so tall with such low GH levels....
 
i feel your pain bro....ive been on zoloft for anxiety for about two years now and have developed similar problems....i wake up sometimes two or three times a night starving....and craving carbs and sweets for that matter....its a horrible situation...im trying to get a grasp on it also.....i have done several cycles in my life so i think there may be some hormonal imbalance but im not sure thats the culprit...i have read other study's where individuals taking ssri's like zoloft have night eating issues. Since ive cut my dosage in half it has improved but i still do it once a week or so....i can defiantly say it has hindered my fat loss...even with a clean diet, cardio and lifting 4-5 days a week....its ****ing real frustrating....so i share your pain man....best of luck, if you figure it out let me know cause im sick of this **** myself
 
IRON4LIFE said:
i feel your pain bro....ive been on zoloft for anxiety for about two years now and have developed similar problems....i wake up sometimes two or three times a night starving....and craving carbs and sweets for that matter....its a horrible situation...im trying to get a grasp on it also.....i have done several cycles in my life so i think there may be some hormonal imbalance but im not sure thats the culprit...i have read other study's where individuals taking ssri's like zoloft have night eating issues. Since ive cut my dosage in half it has improved but i still do it once a week or so....i can defiantly say it has hindered my fat loss...even with a clean diet, cardio and lifting 4-5 days a week....its ****ing real frustrating....so i share your pain man....best of luck, if you figure it out let me know cause im sick of this **** myself
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My doctor prescribed me Fluvoxamine for the night eating its an SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) also used for depression and its currently used to treat the disorder, though i'm not using it, i tried it for a week and i felt like a zombie the whole day from one single 50mg pill at night. The problem is it only works as a short term solution and if you use it long-term SSRI's can **** up your metabolism and make you put on monsterous amounts of weight!!! From studies i've read Zoloft is currently the MAIN medication given to patients with the disorder and people seem to be getting cured with this med, its quite contradictory what you read but it could be true.

The cause of the night eating is due to anxiety and stress in daily life. NES is caused by excessive cortisol and low levels of leptin, melatonin and serotonin. Leptin usually is highest at night and during sleep but in people with NES leptin doesn't rise properly to suppress appetite this is the same thing with melatonin the hormone which keeps you asleep and serotonin the "feel good hormone", and the cravings and hunger for carbohydrate rich foods when you get up are due to the low serotonin levels so the body tries to medicate itself with food, to increase serotonin, lower cortisol. I'm going to start using 5HTP its used to boost serotonin without any side effects like SSRI meds and see how that goes.

If you can fix the cortisol problem, reduce stress in your life and adjust your neurotransmitters to normal levels the problem will fix itself. Theirs a Nutritional Evalutation at Genova Diagnostics which includes all the levels of neurotransmitters in your body, essential fatty acids etc which i'm going to do and it covers a wide range of things which could also tell me what my body is lacking which could be causing the night eating problem.

I've never done a cycle man but once i get on TRT i'm going to use Tren Acetate with it for 6-8 weeks 100mg EOD :D.
 
Good news about the HRT; you are so out of range that I would correct hormone imbalances before I considered an anti-depressant (and for the record, Wellbutrin is an "atypical" AD, not an SSRI; it works on norepinephrine and dopamine to a much greater extent that serotonin).

Make sure you have a doc who really knows what he's doing; your numbers (specifically LH/FSH/GH) suggest that you're suffering from secondary, rather than primary hypogonadism. Your problem may not be in your testes, it may be in your pituitary.

Instead of throwing the kitchen sink at the whole thing, you may want to start out by only taking HCG to see if your testes are capable of producing T on their own. And although that estradiol number looks high, given the reference range, it looks like the wrong test and may be worthless. Do you have Quest near you? You need a male, ultrasensitive estradiol serum value.

If it still comes back high, maybe you start with HCG and arimidex; if that doesn't get you to where you need to go, then you can add in T.

This may be enough to raise GH levels and correct thyroid (your TSH is up and free T3 is not optimal), though if you're hypopituitary, it may not. But it's always best to start slowly. Throw too much in the mix too quickly, you can't properly evaluate the response. Titrate slowly. It may take more time, but you don't want things more out of whack than they are.

You can add GH and/or thyroid replacement if necessary.

With a condition as severe as yours (you're not just looking for "age management", you've got some pituitary issues IMO) you want to see the best. I'd suggest Dr. Crisler.

Wellbutrin is a good antidepressant, though not an SSRI. I don't know its indication in nighttime eating, but it has less sides than SSRIs for most. Ultimately it's about your response thereto.
 
Yes I have to be patient id love to just fix everything right away and be dandy but i know it doesnt work that way. Yes my plan is to start HCG and arimidex first and see how that goes, im pretty sure im secondary as well which is why i shouldnt jump into T replacement right away.

So you think HCG will improve GH levels as well? I thought u had to do GH replacement separately since it won't be increased much by Increased T levels.

Ive always had low test now its just gotten really low. My GH wasnt always this low but my IGF-1 was always hovering around something like 40 where the range was 120-400 totally out of range!
 
MetalMX said:
Yes I have to be patient id love to just fix everything right away and be dandy but i know it doesnt work that way. Yes my plan is to start HCG and arimidex first and see how that goes, im pretty sure im secondary as well which is why i shouldnt jump into T replacement right away.

So you think HCG will improve GH levels as well? I thought u had to do GH replacement separately since it won't be increased much by Increased T levels.

Ive always had low test now its just gotten really low. My GH wasnt always this low but my IGF-1 was always hovering around something like 40 where the range was 120-400 totally out of range!
Click to expand...

Bearing in mind that I'm not speaking with the authority of a physician, I do understand that a number of people get a decent enough rise in IGF-1 after beginning TRT that GH is not needed.

Keep us posted and good luck.
 
This might not help but could be worth a try. I never had a problem waking in the night to eat but I did have a problem eating huge portions of pasta at like 8pm and then at like 11:30pm right before going to bed. I changed up my diet and eat pretty good now, but something that takes away night time food cravings for me is drinking a shake made with water and casein protein powder shortly before I go to bed. It's a protein that helps prevent muscle breakdown and is a very slow digesting protein. After I drink this I feel full and have absolutely no craving to eat any carbs in the late evening. Might be worth a try. I'm pretty new to the scene but I think that casein protein in the evening before bed is useful in it's own right, so I don't think you can go wrong giving it a try, although I would certainly take others advice here on this matter if they disagree as I am very new and still in the beginning stages of learning.
 
A word of advice on the SSRI's. They cause terrible side effects, especially for an athelete. You may end up worse than you already are. Have you tried chugging massive amounts of water before bed? Sleep aids? Good luck.
 
From a leptin stand point, if your first meal is not enough your body will not regulate leptin correctly. That's why most people eat more at night than in the morning. Their bodies secrete leptin in a backwards manner. Along with your hormone replacement, I would make it a priority to change you eating habits and have 30% of your calories for breakfast.
 
Thats the problem i don't eat any breakfast and only start eating at the afternoon... but i've turned this around and when i have a big breakfast i tend to eat less at night if i'm consistent at it, but because in the morning i'm pretty full from eating at night its hard to eat but i understand its the only way to turn it around. Your very right about the whole leptin thing.

Blackcompe i'm not taking any SSRI's they have horrible side effects and they not only don't help but make things worse. A doctor prescribed this to treat my symptoms not the cause as most doctors do this.

Ive seen an endocrinologist recent and brought to him ALL my blood work... well he then says to see him again in a month and to REDO most of the blood tests ive already done with a few things added like morning cortisol... so thats another month i have to wait Ugh.

This is a online reply i got from a very good doctor i'm about to see, he is one of australias best doctors.

Dr Michael Elstein

The questions are why has your Pituitary shut down and why are you struggling to convert T4 to T3? Interestingly you do have TSH response which is raised but no LH or FSH and your oestrogen is raised. Then you have flat GTT(Glucose Tolerance Test)-glucose response suggesting hypoglycaemia. So yes a consultation would be a good idea, i use hormone replacement for my patients regularly and my goal is to get you into the optimal range for most hormones to improve your body and your mind.

Dr M
 
Just another idea... This isn't addressing the root obviously.

This is easy, but I shop for myself - bachelor pad. Keep the crap food out of the house completely.

If you're going to wake up and eat something (knowingly or not) - maybe make a shake before bed in a shaker glass and put it in the fridge. Something with some slower digesting proteins... I do this now - usually wake up once in the middle of the night to urinate, and I take a couple chugs of the shake... Having protein in your stomach all night is actually a good thing for building muscle - it sounds like you're just eating some bad things at night.

Sounds like you're in good hands with the advice in here already. I have no clue about the actual act of sleepwalking.
 
TimberLakers said:
Just another idea... This isn't addressing the root obviously.

This is easy, but I shop for myself - bachelor pad. Keep the crap food out of the house completely.

If you're going to wake up and eat something (knowingly or not) - maybe make a shake before bed in a shaker glass and put it in the fridge. Something with some slower digesting proteins... I do this now - usually wake up once in the middle of the night to urinate, and I take a couple chugs of the shake... Having protein in your stomach all night is actually a good thing for building muscle - it sounds like you're just eating some bad things at night.

Sounds like you're in good hands with the advice in here already. I have no clue about the actual act of sleepwalking.
Click to expand...

This is the truth. Only keep what you want to eat in your place; provided that your single. Ive done this and I looked better than I did while living at my parents and getting up and eating.
 
I live with my parents... i buy pretty much great clean food year round and make my own meals but my parents eat differently.. They make things like fried chicken and potatoes, mayonnaise salads etc... but i never eat this stuff never get a craving for it either. The ONLY thing that i get a craving for when i wake up at night is Sour Cream or yogurts lol... so i try to keep both out of the house how odd...

I'm trying to eat more fats in my diet now i think thats been the problem... i always eat very little fat. Now im eating flaxseed oil, fish oil, whole eggs, salmon, lean beef and stuff like that and my carbs only around pre and postworkout and this works great, i don't work well on carbs my body prefers fats. Whenever i eat low fat... i get fatter and lose LBM. Since hormones are made from cholesterol this is very important.

I know night eating is the body's way of trying to restore "balance" since i was very overweight in the past then very skinny now the body is trying to fix that.

I'm now making BSN lean dessert protein and mixing that and putting it in the fridge so if i wake up i sip on that a bit and go to bed seems to be helping so far.
 
Ok man, it seems these problems stems from my hormone issues. The low test levels, hasimotos hypothyroidism and adrenal problems (low cortisol), so once i get all that fixed i think this problem will fix itself.

I have to take armour thyroid permanently for life but since i have low cortisol i need to take cortisol replacement simultaneous to treat both the thyroid and adrenals. With the low test i'm going to go on TRT most likely because i'm going to be running steroids with it so... theirs no point in me trying to restart my natty test production at the moment with something like HCG if i on being ON for a while.
 
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