Cannot sleep at all someone please help
kellyrosiemfp
Posts: 14 Member
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
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Have you tried eating somewhere in the middle, 1400, 1500, 1600?
How tall are you and what is your weight? 1200 might be too low for you.10 -
I take natural calm! It works!0
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Redordeadhead wrote: »Have you tried eating somewhere in the middle, 1400, 1500, 1600?
How tall are you and what is your weight? 1200 might be too low for you.
This - and even if 1200 calories is suitable for what you have to lose/stats, depending on what you're eating, you may not be eating foods that help you feel full or be getting adequate nutrition.
I also find that if I am stressing about not getting enough sleep, then that also impedes my ability to get to sleep, I found meditation very helpful for this.9 -
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?
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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!0
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Everything I make is homemade1
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kellyrosiemfp wrote: »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!
With your stats/activity level you shouldn't be at 1200 cals, I am guessing you've set yourself to 2lbs per day loss? With 28lbs to lose you should be aiming for 0.5-1lbs only and should be able to lose fine on 1700 calories, it will just be slower than you're expecting.
As you've not given age, I can only go based on your height/weight but age doesn't make a massive difference in terms of TDEE. For your stats (based on a 30 year old woman) your BMR is 1435, 6 miles per day puts you easily at Active activity level which is your BMR x 1.6, so your TDEE would be around 2296 cals per day. If you eat 1700 cals then you should still be able to lose around 1lb per week.
So if you sleep fine at 1700, eat 1700, log it accurately and you should still be able to lose weight and more importantly sleep!20 -
1,200 is really, really low...and generally only recommended if you are a tiny inactive woman.
I've been here a while, and generally when someone says they have a 1,200 calorie limit and she is not a petite inactive woman and is having issues....it's usually because the calorie limit is way too small.
It doesn't matter if the food is all organic grown and homemade. If your body doesn't get adequate fuel it isn't going to work right.
If you exercise you will also need to eat more too...MFP does a good job telling you how much. If you're walking 6 miles a day...that is a couple hundred calories that your body needs to do that.
Sleep is absolutely affected by poor or inadequate food. As an educator I know: Children who come to school without enough food at home often do not sleep enough as well -- hungry bellies can't sleep soundly and deeply.
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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. [**edit to say** tinkerbell elaborated on her take on this this in her next post below...]
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.8 -
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cmriverside wrote: »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.
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oh, okay. Thanks, @tinkerbellang83 ...I never really paid a lot of attention to the Activity multiplier since it was so far OFF for me.
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.2 -
cmriverside wrote: »oh, okay. Thanks, @tinkerbellang83 ...I never really paid a lot of attention to the Activity multiplier since it was so far OFF for me.
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.
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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.2
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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 better0
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I’m 31 btw!0
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kellyrosiemfp wrote: »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).0 -
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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.0 -
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...LOL3
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cbstewart88 wrote: »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
What was your reason for not sleeping?NorcoRyder wrote: »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.
OMG I wondered if it was something like this? It actually makes loads of sense I get night sweats a lot when I diet, is there a particular snack that would help
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kellyrosiemfp wrote: »cbstewart88 wrote: »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
What was your reason for not sleeping?NorcoRyder wrote: »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.
OMG I wondered if it was something like this? It actually makes loads of sense I get night sweats a lot when I diet, is there a particular snack that would help
Protein to prevent low BG. Carbs to raise it.
I would not assume that Dr. Google has the answer though especially when you are eating too little. Have you had your BG and a1c tested recently?1 -
My HBA1c was this
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I have problems sleeping if my carbs are too low (usually associated with lower than target calories), if I exercise too close to bedtime, or I am hungry! Lots of good advise on upping your intake (that's what helped me). I often have an evening snack before bed of Siggi's fat free yogurt (adds protein/fat) plus dairy sometimes helps with sleep. Building that into the calories for the day has helped.0
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12000 steps usually corresponds to the very top of the "active" setting on MFP (or just above that) in terms of calories assuming the activities that generate the 12000 steps aren't logged a second time as separate exercises.
The deficit is too large for the TDEE and amount of fat available to be lost.
Increased misery does not enhance weight loss, nor improve adherence and success during maintenance
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I upped it to 1500 and made no difference and incorporated magnesium citrate but again still didn’t sleep, will try 1700 just worried that I won’t lose, I seem to go off the rails at the weekend which is why I prefer to restrict more in the week :-(0
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Or you going off the rails on the weekend ***because*** you're restricting so much during the week.
If you're expecting instant feedback from the weight scale you will end up trying to cut too much end in disappointment in the end.
People can judge the rate of loss after 4 to 6 weeks which gives enough time for normal weight fluctuations and for your weight trend to show through.
You're not a racing car; you're a human!8 -
kellyrosiemfp wrote: »I upped it to 1500 and made no difference and incorporated magnesium citrate but again still didn’t sleep, will try 1700 just worried that I won’t lose, I seem to go off the rails at the weekend which is why I prefer to restrict more in the week :-(
Or perhaps you go off the rails at the weekends because you aren't eating enough the rest of the week and the hunger finally catches up with you.
ETA: The worry isn't logical, if you're logging accurately and you're walking 6 miles per day, it's pretty much mathematically impossible for you not to lose weight at 1700 calories.
Even if you didn't walk the 6 miles your TDEE for a sedentary person at your stats would be 1825 calories, meaning you'd be in a deficit of 125 calories every day.
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kellyrosiemfp wrote: »I upped it to 1500 and made no difference and incorporated magnesium citrate but again still didn’t sleep, will try 1700 just worried that I won’t lose, I seem to go off the rails at the weekend which is why I prefer to restrict more in the week :-(
I don't think you are fully appreciating the changes your body goes through when in a deficit and you have been in a very steep deficit. This may not be something that is fixed in one day by eating a few more calories.
Everything about your posts screams eating too little including "going off the rails" on the weekend. You are not on a sustainable plan for losing weight. I would bet that almost everyone who has failed to lose weight in past attempts, which definitely includes me, would attribute the fear of less/no progress as a cause to some of them.
You have to find a balance that allows you to be in a deficit, stick to it on the weekends, and sleep. It starts with eating more calories and reducing your deficit. This does mean you will lose slower but from my experience slower is faster because it can get the job done where going to fast always failed for me.
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So I don't have the science behind this but I had a health professional suggest having a protein shake just before bed. It breaks down slowly and they suggested that I would wake up feeling clear headed etc.. which I did. But again - no explanation to offer on why other than protein doesn't spike your sugar and helps with the sort of rebuilding that your body dies at night.0
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