Does anyone else feel intermittently sick / ravenous in the morning after eating late at night

[LadyoftheLavaLamp]

Just that really. Seems to be if I eat a big meal in the evening, or eat late, in the morning I swing between feeling very nauseous and starving hungry!

Does anyone get this? Know what is this caused by? And how can I prevent it if I am for example out for dinner?

No idea what causes it, but just here to say I feel exactly the same this morning. Very nauseous and currently can’t even bear the thought of food even though my stomach is rumbling.

Yes!

It’s related to blood sugar. If you eat late at night and had a lot of carbs it will spike your blood sugar much higher than the same meal earlier in the day. That’s because we’re far less insulin sensitive at night so blood sugar stays higher for longer.

The resulting up and down throughout the night can cause low blood sugar next day. Nausea and feeling hangry in the morning is a red flag OP!

Ideally you shouldn’t eat at least 3 hours before bed OR eat a really light low carb meal.

@LMNT this is very helpful thanks

I did wear a CGM a while ago on a free trial and had a few ‘red alerts’ of my glucose level dropping to 3 at about 3am. I didn’t really know what it meant though, or what to do about it!

So basically low carb and light evening meal??

And not too late

Yes its all about blood sugar, particularly if that late meal was very carby in terms of bready or pasta type of meal

Yes exactly. That was what’s called a hypoglycaemic event meaning low blood sugar.

It doesn’t mean you need to go keto but definitely try to lower your carbs, have less carb heavy meals in the evening and avoid ultra processed carbs as much as you can.

Happy to help

I feel nauseous almost every morning. I had no idea it was due to blood sugar and I do eat late so that makes sense

Gosh @LadyoftheLavaLamp - what a coincidence- I was going to start a thread about this, this morning but wasn't quite sure how to word it.
I find if I have a big meal the night before with steak, the next morning I'm really hungry. (Never nauseous though).
Why is this ?

Yes - this is why I eat dinner early. Usually about 5pm. Don't eat again until the morning and I feel fine. I'm pretty sure I'm insulin resistant and I had gestational diabetes so I try to be careful about carbs and sugar (which is tough because I love carbs and sugar 😅).

reactive hypoglycaemia - a major cause of obesity - eating too much causes hunger, because blood sugars destabalise

I take it no one who suffers with this is Spanish, they eat incredibly late

It’s not reactive hypoglycaemia. Reactive hypoglycaemia occurs within a couple of hours of eating. This is happening much later in the night.

But what they eat makes a difference. They’re the lowest consumers of UPFs.

I’m sure that some do have this issue.

Thanks everyone this is very interesting and helpful!

@LMNT sorry if I’m being dim, could you explain why the carbs being processed or not (re the Spanish eating times) would make a difference to this happening? I believe they are big on wine and bread with meals which I’ve always understood as being high sugar

Carbs are really interesting

I also am starving in the morning if I've eaten big the night before.

A cooked breakfast is also less filling if you have a slice of toast with it. Without toast I can go till dinner. With toast and I'm hungry again within a couple of hours.

Have a look at The Glucose Goddess, she explains it in her book and offers some hacks on how to overcome it.

Yes they make a difference but also in the context of how they eat.

They eat very little UPFs, the least in Europe so their blood sugar is already better from that point of view.

The leave large gaps between their meals. So even if they eat 4 times a day, there are big gaps between meals.

Then the type of food they eat helps too … plenty of fat and protein, often eaten first, then some carbs.

They simply eat healthier food in a healthier way.

Massive amounts of bread, you're viewed as a bit strange if you dont eat bread!!