dizziness & food consumption

Trish1c

I am so confused. I did what the Step by Step guide on here said & put in info about me but only clicked lose 0.5 lbs per week to get my maintenance calorie goal. It was 1400 cal / day. I put in what I really want to do which is lose 2 pounds per week & the calories drop to the default 1200.

Upon tracking my bad habits I realized I was consuming closer to 2,000 - 2,500 cal / day. Cutting that in half seemed drastic. But I tried anyway because many were empty calories (soda, snacks & alcohol) I also manually upped my calorie goal to 1500 but I'm having a very hard time meeting it.

I'm also incredibly dizzy. Like seriously dizzy. I think I ought to go to a doctor (but I am saving that as a last resort). I have been told that the dizziness can be caused by eating too little. As much as I'd prefer to lose weight, by BMI I'm 1 point into the overweight category with a BMI of about 25.3, I can't take the dizziness.

So how do I figure out how much I can eat or is it more a matter or what I can eat or when I eat it? My protein today is very low; I tend to save that for dinner. Maybe I need a high protein lunch then a lighter dinner?

AliceDark

I'd definitely go to the doctor, just to make sure that everything is okay. After that, I'd try:

1. Make sure you're sufficiently hydrated.
2. Play around with your macro distribution until you find what works for you. Everyone is different. I tend to crash and get dizzy/nauseated if I don't have a small amount of carbs at every meal.
3. Manually set your calories to, say, 1800. Give yourself a few weeks to adjust to that, then go lower if you want. Weight loss is about a sustained deficit over time; a slow loss that you can sustain for a long time will beat a fast loss that you can't any day.

Your profile says that soda is one of your issues; did you happen to go cold-turkey off of caffeine? I've never known that to cause dizziness, but it does cause other issues like headaches.

Trish1c

I have gone cold turkey off soda in the past (giving it up for Lent) but over the years I got it down from 4-5 cans per day to 1 & some days none. It know what a caffeine headache feels like & this is not that. I had a series of full work ups over the years last about 3 months ago -- no issues. Doctor wasn't concerned about my weight; I am.

I get my 8 glasses of water.

After posting that I actually went to the gym, met with a potential new personal trainer & worked out Sweating seemed to clear my head. Came home. Made dinner & now I feel better. I was even under 1200 calories yesterday

I just had a huge breakfast -- milk, cereal & juice. I feel full which makes me happy.

Hopefully I'm simply adjusting to the new normal.