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If anyone else has been through something like this, I'd greatly appreciate your input because I'm seriously at my wits end here. I've been in a 500 calorie deficit for over a month now and it's going great. I'm actually enjoying it and losing weight, albeit slowly. However, I noticed shortly after starting that I was having trouble staying asleep. At first, I didn't make the connection between the two, but now, I don't know what else could be causing this. I've never, ever had this issue before in my life. I could go to bed whenever and I'd wake up when I had enough sleep. 8, 9 hours, longer even. Now I wake up after 5 hours. Every single morning, almost on the dot. If I go to bed at 3am, I'll wake up at 8am. If I go to bed at midnight, I'll wake up at 5am. I can sometimes get back to sleep afterwards, but it's real hard and most of the time I have to just accept defeat and get up. 5 hours is not enough sleep for me. I need at least 7 and a half to feel functional. And no, don't have any trouble falling asleep in the first place. I just can't stay asleep. Lately, I've been trying to eat at maintenance to see if that helps, but I'm actually struggling to do so. I don't have a big appetite at all, never have, despite being just under 250lbs. Trying to cram extra calories into my diet is difficult while keeping food relatively healthy. Still, I've been logging about 2000-2300 as opposed to my usual 1800 for the past few days, but it hasn't helped at all. And just for the record, I don't think it's hunger waking me up. I don't feel hungry, at least. I wasn't finding my deficit much of a struggle at all. But I can't keep going like this. Have I just not been eating more for long enough? Do you think if I continue aiming for maintenance, this will get better? My biggest fear is that I've screwed my sleep up forever. I feel so defeated. I don't want to stop my deficit, especially when it doesn't even seem to be helping. But I can't go on like this either.
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