I need your opinions/expertise please

[Tazaria]

I started Paleo 2 weeks ago and I need help with a little problem I am experiencing. Right now where I live it is about 10:30 at night and I am hungry. I ate a dinner of chicken breast with red bell pepper and pineapple with a side of roasted asparagus. I feel like I ate quite a bit! I have tried waiting it out and I've drank about 20oz of water to make sure it is truly hunger and not thirst. In the past I always believed what was said about not eating after 7:30pm because your digestion slowing down and all that, but now I'm finding resources that say it is more healthy to eat when you are hungry, don't when you are not. Is it ok to eat this late or not? What do you guys think? Do you have problems when you eat late at night. 

[chemgeek]

I have no problems when I eat late, but I've long had a bit of a messed up eating schedule because of my martial arts. 

On the other hand - a significant portion of the world (France comes to mind) routinely eat later than 7:30 PM. In fact, many restaurants in Lyon when I was there earlier this month don't even open until 7 for dinner, and French people on the whole are a lot healthier than most North Americans. So I don't think it's the boogyman people would have you believe.

[calanthrophy]

If you're hungry, eat. Eventually you'll learn to identify patterns in your hunger and can plan an evening snack or just eat more dinner if necessary.

[Elastigirl]

A few things to consider:

Calanthrophy is right, as you get into the habit of eating this way you're body will adjust and you can eat more during the day

How much fat are you eating? Sometimes people unintentionally go way too low on calories, the cut out grains, don't eat many starchy vegetables, and then don't add in fat to their diet. If you find yourself consistently hungry, add a bit more fat to your diet. Just add a bit more when you roast your veggies, or eat fattier meats.

Sometimes at night I think I'm hungry too, when really I'm just tired.Sometimes I'll just try and go to sleep. If I really can't sleep, then I will eat something. However, there is a fine line there. You also need to listen to your body and eat if you really feel hungry. Sounds like you did some good things to distract yourself and drank water and still felt hungry. In that case, you hopefully ate something. I try and choose protein in those cases. Definitely not junk food, as that is craving not hunger.

[Tazaria]

6 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

A few things to consider:

Calanthrophy is right, as you get into the habit of eating this way you're body will adjust and you can eat more during the day

How much fat are you eating? Sometimes people unintentionally go way too low on calories, the cut out grains, don't eat many starchy vegetables, and then don't add in fat to their diet. If you find yourself consistently hungry, add a bit more fat to your diet. Just add a bit more when you roast your veggies, or eat fattier meats.

Sometimes at night I think I'm hungry too, when really I'm just tired.Sometimes I'll just try and go to sleep. If I really can't sleep, then I will eat something. However, there is a fine line there. You also need to listen to your body and eat if you really feel hungry. Sounds like you did some good things to distract yourself and drank water and still felt hungry. In that case, you hopefully ate something. I try and choose protein in those cases. Definitely not junk food, as that is craving not hunger.

I feel like I ate a lot for dinner but maybe I didn't, or maybe it was what I ate. It was the first time I had really experienced that. I try to eat a bit of fat per day but don't want to overdo it. I like a little oil on my roasted veggies or I'll have a big salad with oil and vinegar dressing. I eat a lot of chicken though and not so much on the fattier meats. I'm thinking maybe I just didn't eat enough fat yesterday then so I got hungry. I tried to wait through it and drink water just to be sure it was actual hunger and it was. I actually did just end up going to bed instead of eating though since it was so late. The reason is because if I eat something too heavy before bed then I don't generally sleep very well. I had just had fruit for dinner and I don't like eating more than one serving of fruit per day. Maybe next time I can try a handful of almonds or something. 

 

Thanks everyone for the help!