Not sure where to post this.

I've been crazy tired since I started counting calories. Luckily almost immediately that has subsided. Seems like my body has gotten used to this. I'm also not feeling the hunger pangs anymore, which is great ! My question is how much is TOO much sleep?

I get an average of 5 or 6 hours a night, which to most isn't enough to function on. If I sleep more than that I'll generally get a headache. Well, weekends come and go and although ive been able to stay away from booze (not even a drop!), I still stay up however late the party or get together is going.. and I'll sleep in til noon or later. Sometimes I'll get 12 or 13 hours of sleep. Which leaves only about 13 give ro take, hours awake. In that 13 hours, I consume my 1500 calories and do my exercise..

I know lack of sleep can inhibit weight loss success, but what about too much sleep ? Opinions?

Getting enough sleep is super important when you are losing weight... I think as long as you are feeling rested on the days that you only had 5-6 hours, then your longer sleeps will even it out..judge it based on the way you feel..

I can sometimes do the same thing, stay in bed for 10-11 hours sleeping and it's just because I allow it...sometimes over sleeping actually makes you feel more tired, and I personally end up feeling worse when I over sleep..

Sounds to me like you're 12/13 on the weekends is your bodies way of trying to make up for the 5-6 during the week.

You really can't make up a sleep deficit. It would be best to try to get a bit more during the week.

On that note, I'm going to bed!

Probably your body is more tired than you think it is and is making up for lost time. Are you drinking lots of water? And do you know if you have apnea? I have apnea, but it only gets really bad after I've been asleep 4-5 hours. You may be experiencing something similar causing you to wake earlier than you maybe should, and causing headaches from oxygen deprivation. Other signs are sore throat, spouse that complains of snoring, drowsiness during the day or falling asleep at inappropriate moment, nightmares or panic attacks while sleeping, etc.

As it has been already said - you can't recover efficiently sleep deficit from the weekdays. On the other hand 13 hours of sleep means you don't eat and you don't drink for a long time - so when you get up your body is already in the "starvation mode", and this makes burning fat very very hard. From my experience - 8 hours is optimal on regular basis, 10 hours once or twice a week helps as well. Too much is too much.

I can actually function on 5-6 hours of sleep, and my body often refuses to let me sleep above 7 hours (seriously. I have to avoid going to bed too early, otherwise I'll wake up wide awake very early in the morning). There are rare occasions where I'll sleep 9 hours maybe, but it's usually when I'm just completely and utterly mentally exhausted.

You said in your intro post that you're 22, so while you're fairly young you're not a teenager that likely needs those extra hours of sleep. As others have said, try balancing out your sleep more: More hours on the weekdays and less on the weekends. Set an alarm if you have to until you get used to it!

Also, what are you eating? Perhaps you're not getting enough nutrients (important when you're at a calorie deficit) or calories which can make you tired.

I agree with the post above about your body making up for the fewer sleep hours during weeknights. I have noticed my body sort of does this on a weekly basis, and some nights it makes up for lost hours.

Not true.

You need at least 7 hours of sleep a night to be healthy. You may think you are functioning great with 5-6 but your body doesn't.

I don't quite understand why sleeping more than 5 or 6 hours on weekdays gives you a headache but on weekends you can sleep 12 or 13 hours?

But I don't think too much sleep hinders weight loss if that's what you are asking, as long as you are still getting in your activity and eating right while you are awake.

Too much sleep is not the problem in our modern culture. 10-12 hours a night for most of the population would heal a slew of ills, quite frankly, as so many of our health issues are mediated or exacerbated by cortisol and our circadian rhythms. Plenty of sleep consistently is your best bet, running huge deficits and then overages isn't nearly as healthy for your body as a consistent, higher amount.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Evening those hours out to 9 a night might do a world of good for the OP. I have fibro and chonic fatigue so I try to sleep a lot (it doesn't always work out that way). It doesn't prevent me from losing weight. Actually, I'd say I was sleeping the most when I was losing weight.

Anyway, I would think if you start counting calories and find yourself increasingly sleepy then you may not be eating quite enough. Also, 5-6 hours is not enough sleep. If you get a headache then figure out why you get a headache because I'm almost certain it isn't normal or healthy to get a headache from more than 6 hours of sleep. There has to be an underlying issue.

A couple of years ago I attended a conference in which one of the speakers (an academic weight loss researcher) said that having less than 6 hours or MORE than 9 hours of sleep per night is detrimental to weight loss (because of hormonal changes brought about by the deficit or excess).

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I'm a "niner" per night. I would dearly love for it to be less, but I've learned the hard way that while I may not pay in weight gain, having too little sleep does a number on my immune system and I catch every virus that comes along. If I go much past nine hours, my back starts to ache and I have to get up.

We need to forget this 'starvation mode' stuff, ESPECIALLY the idea that it occurs from one night of extra hours spent sleeping. It's rediculous.