Cannot sleep at all someone please help

Hi All, when I restrict my calories to 1200 I do not sleep, I get about two hours if I’m lucky. Has anyone had something similar which have a remedy to help? I think it may be my blood sugar which is giving me insomnia. I am literally wide awake so alert and I can feel everything like I’m really jittery, it’s literally EVERYTIME :-( unless I eat 1700 I don’t sleep and so at the moment it’s either don’t lose weight or don’t sleep. I’ve tried oil of magnesium, banana before bed, sodium chloride, Melissa dream nothing is helping. Please help!
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Replies

  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,472 Member
    I take natural calm! It works!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member
    If I under eat all kinds of stuff happens, none of it good.

    Give us your stats. How tall are you? How much weight do you need to lose? Do you work, go to school, care for a family at home? Do you exercise? If you exercise are you eating more on those days?
  • kellyrosiemfp
    kellyrosiemfp Posts: 14 Member
    I’m pescatarian a lot of my fruit is high fibre fish potato the most sugar I’d have is a high fibre cereal bar, so it is not the quality of my food. I’ve recently had a blood test and everything is perfect including cholesterol. I’m 5’6, walk 6 miles a day diet insomnia is a thing I’ve read about it but just wanted to know if someone else is in the same boat! Bmi is 26.3 so I am technically over weight want to get to 9 stones- currently 11!
  • kellyrosiemfp
    kellyrosiemfp Posts: 14 Member
    Everything I make is homemade
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    edited October 2019
    I agree with everything @tinkerbellang83 says except that she used a TDEE calculator and that isn't the method Myfitnesspal uses, so if you use MFP, use the "Lose 1 pound per week" setting, use "Active" for the Activity Level, and add exercise into the Exercise tab and eat (at miminum) 50-75% of your calories required to fuel that additional exercise.

    If you go by tinkerbell's idea, just eat 1700 every day and don't add back exercise calories. Myfitnesspal uses a slightly different calculation.

    From Help at the top of every page: How does MyFitnessPal calculate my initial goals?

    I would be unable to sleep on the amount of food and activity you are trying to do, too.

    Please eat.

    Sleep is the least of your problems, your body is very stressed.

    That BMR x 1.6 is actually MFP's calculation not TDEE so OP should still be counting any intentional exercise above the 6 miles of walking i.e. running/strength training/sports/etc.

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member
    edited October 2019
    oh, okay. Thanks, @tinkerbellang83 ...I never really paid a lot of attention to the Activity multiplier since it was so far OFF for me. :lol:

    I don't think her 6 miles of walking is actually accounted for in the Activity setting. My belief (and what MFP states) is that the Activity Setting is just for daily regular work, school, or around the house activity. It doesn't give a lot of extra calories. Of course I have no way to know if she means she walks 6 miles at her job...it could be that or it could be intentional exercise - the two are treated differently on MFP.

    My experience is/was that I have to use the "Active" setting even though I'm retired and live in an ittsy bittsy condo (so not much daily activity at all.)

    The Activity Level thing was WAY off for me, and/or my earned exercise calories were off. I suspect a bit of both.

    Bottom line is always gonna be, "Track as accurately as you can and adjust based on your own personal results."

    The rest is just noise.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    edited October 2019
    oh, okay. Thanks, @tinkerbellang83 ...I never really paid a lot of attention to the Activity multiplier since it was so far OFF for me. :lol:

    I don't think her 6 miles of walking is actually accounted for in the Activity setting. My belief (and what MFP states) is that the Activity Setting is just for daily regular work, school, or around the house activity. It doesn't give a lot of extra calories. Of course I have no way to know if she means she walks 6 miles at her job...it could be that or it could be intentional exercise - the two are treated differently on MFP.

    My experience is/was that I have to use the "Active" setting even though I'm retired and live in an ittsy bittsy condo (so not much daily activity at all.)

    The Activity Level thing was WAY off for me, and/or my earned exercise calories were off. I suspect a bit of both.

    Bottom line is always gonna be, "Track as accurately as you can and adjust based on your own personal results."

    The rest is just noise.

    I suppose I am basing this on the fact she states she walks 6 miles per day. I work at a desk job, but I walk to and from work 3km each day, so although theoretically I am "Sedentary" on account of my job, lifestyle wise I get minimum of 8000 steps per day in so have myself set as Lightly Active. It makes more sense to include anything that is a normal daily occurence in your base calories IMO.

    I've always found the activity level to be spot on.

    TDEE and MFP + exercise tend to work out more or less the same. If OP was set to MFP's sedentary (BMR x 1.25) 1856 cals and then added 6 miles of walking as exercise that would be around 350 calories which would bring OP to 2206 and still around 500 cals above the 1700 she feels she needs to eat to sleep.

  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
    Add calories, OP. Unless you are consuming a lot of caffeine or using some kind of "fat burner" (they're bogus but people take them) that is revving you up, your problems sleeping are due to too little food.
  • kellyrosiemfp
    kellyrosiemfp Posts: 14 Member
    Thanks everyone perhaps I need to be more patient, I too have a desk job but walk 12000 steps a day on average. I’ll up the intake and see how I go and hopefully sleep better
  • kellyrosiemfp
    kellyrosiemfp Posts: 14 Member
    I’m 31 btw!
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    Thanks everyone perhaps I need to be more patient, I too have a desk job but walk 12000 steps a day on average. I’ll up the intake and see how I go and hopefully sleep better

    Good stuff, bear in mind you need 4-6 weeks of data to get a trend (particularly if you're a female of child-bearing age).
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    I’m 31 btw!

    Close enough :)
  • NorcoRyder
    NorcoRyder Posts: 6 Member
    edited October 2019
    Have you tested your blood glucose levels during these episodes? I’m wondering if nocturnal hypoglycaemia could be at work.

    Edit: A carb snack at bedtime can help in this case.
  • cbstewart88
    cbstewart88 Posts: 453 Member
    I have had a difficult time sleeping for many years now. I'm kind of just used to it. Someone on MFP recommended magnesium supplements for help with sleep. I bought a bottle. What I neglected to investigate however, was that magnesium supplements can cause bad diarrhea. It took me two weeks to discover what was causing it. I should've realized - another lesson I've learned the hard way. Or soft way I should say...LOL