When you go to fitness camps you meet a lot of people with eating disorders and problems.  Some of them are more severe than others, but most people need help of some form or another with certain nutrition issues.  One of the problems or disorders that you may have or that you may come across at a weight loss camp in another guest or client is Night Eating Syndrome (NES).  Night Eating Syndrome is a condition that has come to light in recent years in which someone suffering from NES lacks appetite towards the morning and then overindulges at night when they “make up” for calories not consumed during the day.  Because NES also implies changes in mood and irritability, some researchers have linked NES to people who have traditionally not been “morning people.”  Due to increasing demands in the developed world, many people find themselves without time for themselves which increases stress and limits good sleeping habits.  All these things can converge to take away some of your quality of life and propagate a vicious cycle that only hurts the person suffering from Night Eating Syndrome.

From the more scientific side, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine concluded that Night Eating Syndrome was about a daytime anorexia that morphed into a state of depression as the day went on.  In addition to this, hormonal changes present in the person’s body were found to be partially responsible for the syndrome.  Changes in hormones related to stress, sleep and hunger are at abnormal levels during different types of the day for people suffering from Night Eating Syndrome (NES).  For instance, at night time when melatonin is supposed to be at higher levels to induce sleep, night eaters have very low levels of the hormone.  Similarly instead of having a rise in leptin, a hormone that suppresses hunger, people who suffer from Night Eating Syndrome have no such increase while experiencing an increase in cortisol, the hormone related to higher stress levels. 

From the point of view of fitness camps and weight loss camps, Night Eating Syndrome (NES) is definitely something that can be helped at places that help you lose weight.  The lack of availability of food is something that truly helps you because you really don’t have a choice.  In many situations it is quite difficult to get food, and in other instances it is less likely for you to get food because you see your time at the fitness camp as something that you’re not going to interrupt with mistakes.  It’s very common that people at fitness camps behave very well for the couple of weeks or months that they spend there.  By the time they leave whichever one of the weight loss camps they were at, their habits have changed, and it’s less likely that they’ll commit them again.