Sooo tired...
jassnip
Posts: 116 Member
Ugh! I'm so tired. I've been used to all the energy I have with this WOE, and all day today I've been lethargic and feeling like I need to crawl into bed to nap. Even as I type my eyelids keep dipping. *shakes head* I've been doing LCHF for about a month now and introduced IF a couple of weeks ago. I slept well last night 11:30-8:30. Why am I so tired? Today has been one of my fast days, but even those are usually a piece of cake. I don't like this. Help!
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Are you keeping your sodium up and your electrolytes in balance?
How much sodium are you getting on all days?
Are you eating to a reasonable calorie goal on your non-fast days?
Are you eating a reasonable amount on your fast days?
Most of the "fasting" programs (5:2 as example) I have seen are not a "water only" fast so I am just guessing that your fast day does include some nourishment.
ETA: by "up" regarding sodium I am meaning as much as 3000-5000mg. Seems to be the average needed range for new folks especially and many on-going.3 -
Even before I read the message, my first thought was, "I bet they're not eating enough." Sure enough, I see IF mentioned and that fasting today is related to your symptoms.
Eat More
Your body is going to do what it needs to do at its own pace and doesn't appreciate being forced to move faster than it should. If you consistently try and force things, you'll end up suffering negative effects from it. Being exhausted is one of the first signs that you're not eating enough, your body is down-regulating the "energy out" side of things because it doesn't have sufficient available energy. Abundant and constant energy is a sign that you are eating enough and that your body is able to mobilize that energy (which is the part of the issue that low carb works best at fixing).
Eat More
Trust your body. If you don't feel good (outside of adaptation withdrawals), something you're doing is wrong.
Edit:
- "But my calorie goal!"
- "F[orget] your calorie goal. You don't get to choose how much your body needs you to eat. It will let you know what it needs, and it expects you to do the best you can to meet those needs."12 -
Thank you both. You both have similar advice. Eat something. So I am. I prolly have dipped too far down on the amount I was eating and it hit me like a ton of bricks and the last thing I want it my metabolism to down regulate. So I'm eating a some LCHF appropriate snacks while I make myself a couple of burgers. Sometimes it takes others pointing out the obvious for us to "get it."5
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Thank you both. You both have similar advice. Eat something. So I am. I prolly have dipped too far down on the amount I was eating and it hit me like a ton of bricks and the last thing I want it my metabolism to down regulate. So I'm eating a some LCHF appropriate snacks while I make myself a couple of burgers. Sometimes it takes others pointing out the obvious for us to "get it."
I'm glad to hear it. The good news is that being really tired is a short-term solution to energy deficit. So, there's no permanent metabolic damage. Especially when you pay attention to it and eat enough to compensate.
I eventually found that I could have constant energy even with extended periods of not eating, mostly because there was nothing available that fit my dietary restrictions. But, it was after several months of eating keto. It may be that IF is something your body is ready/willing to handle in the future. A lot of low carb people use IF for various reasons. You don't need to rule it out forever. Just listen to your body right now.
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@FIT_Goat Further education, if you don't mind. So I thought one of the bennies of eating Keto was that (particularly if you are fat, which I am) if you didn't have enough calories available from food that it would then use your body fat for energy? Does it take the body a great deal of time to ramp up that process? Is converting fat from food easier for it to do than pulling from body stores?0
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Thanks @kpk54 I did, but it turned out only one burger with a dollop of bleu cheese dressing and 6 hot n spicy wings. Delish!
I devoured just under 1500 calories in the last hour. And now I feel like I wanna go for a walk. *smh* sometimes I feel utterly dumb.1 -
@FIT_Goat Further education, if you don't mind. So I thought one of the bennies of eating Keto was that (particularly if you are fat, which I am) if you didn't have enough calories available from food that it would then use your body fat for energy? Does it take the body a great deal of time to ramp up that process? Is converting fat from food easier for it to do than pulling from body stores?
That is one of the benefits, a healthy fat cycle. It isn't the time it takes to ramp up that process. It doesn't take huge amounts of time to burn fat, although it may take a while to maximize your efficiency at it. What takes time it the healing and reregulation of your hormones and metabolic processes.
I forget where I read it, but one author encourages us to stop thinking of fat cells like a savings account. They're more like a checking account. When we eat, fat goes into the cells (even if we're at a deficit for the day). Between meals, fat comes out. It constantly goes in and out. That allows you to maintain a balance of energy through the day. High carb diets lead to hormonal issues (insulin being one of the biggest factors) that cause the body to deposit fat at a high rate, but have a difficult time withdrawing it. Like an account where you can deposit any amount you want, but can only take out $200 a day. This causes our bodies to lack energy, so we eat more, which means more fat gets stored, but we still have a hard time getting more out when we're not actually eating. Did you ever feel like every cheat went right to your body, but days and days of perfect behavior didn't change anything?
Removing the carbs will cause the body and the cells to return to normal. Your fat cells will start allowing the fats in and out without resisting it. Eventually, they'll dump energy as fast as is possible when you need it. There's a proposed upper limit (I think it's ~30 calories per pound per day), but that's more than sufficient even for a lean person (under most conditions and this may be a long-term average, it's possible short-term could be higher). Anyway, the more fat you have, the more energy the cells will be able to release. So, it's true. You will get the calories from fat. You just weren't getting enough (for whatever reason).
Anyway, give it time and trust your body. Everyone is different. You could have higher energy needs than you assume. I have to eat way more than MFP recommends for my age/height/weight/gender. I still lose weight eating enough that it says I will maintain or gain weight. I'm not even that active. I am a huge "no calorie counting" bigot (biggest one around these parts), because I believe the formulas are almost always wrong for the individual. They might tell us the average for a population, but they fail to do an adequate job predicting need for each person. Then people set goals based on those numbers which don't reflect the reality of their own body.
I have rambled way off topic here. You're right, low carb does allow you to use your body fat for energy (more efficiently than high carb). Just you were probably pushing the limitations of what your body can actually use at this time.3 -
I'm pretty average I guess so the BMR and TDEE calculators, including MFP regarding NEAT, are and were spot on for me. I lost my weight counting calories and have maintained for the last 2+ years. What the calculators didn't tell me or help me with was how to set my macros for satiety. I sort of stumbled upon that when I decided to eat keto for reasons other than weight loss.
I'm trying to wade through this idea of keto using your fat stores. I understand it if eating in calorie defect but not understanding anything beyond this. @FIT_Goat, what is the proposed upper limit at ~30 calories per pound per day??? referring to? I got lost in that sentence. 30 calories per pound of what per day? TIA.1 -
@kpk54 It took me a couple of times reading the sentence too. But I think what he meant was there is an upper limit on how much fat the body will pull from it's stores and that is ~30 calories per pound per day. So conceivably a 145lb person could pull 4350 calories out of fat stores (145*30) if they were having a crazy active day.
One would probably have to add the caveat -- if their metabolism and hormones are in a healthy state. But that's a guess on my part.1 -
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The proposed limit is expressed in calories per pound of fat per day. Someone who is 145 and has 20% body fat would have 29 pounds of fat (call it 30) and so they could easily compensate and handle a 900 calorie deficit each day. The exact numbers and extent of the limit is hard to tell. They have seen 40 calories per pound of fat a day, in an individual with a healthy metabolism. They've seen it as low as 22 calories a day in those with impaired metabolism.
The more fat you have, the more total energy available for use, even if you are only getting 20 calories a day or worse out of each pound. The healthier your metabolism, the less fat you need to carry because you can get energy out a lot easier.4 -
This info from goat is awesome and makes perfect sense, but I think fasting is still a good tool to use only if you can do it and feel good however. Lots of times, if you get enough sodium you will be able to continue fasting and feeling great. Drinking broth throughout a fast day could be all you need to keep this in rotation and still be a healthy plan. As long as you break the fast if you're sure electrolytes and hydration have been maintained but still aren't feeling great. Bottom line is listen to your body.
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I love all the knowledgeable people on this board. Thank you for the clarification @FIT_Goat.
@Sunny_Bunny_ I wasn't going to throw the IF out the window, I feel like I need it to get my BG numbers to continue to drop. They're in normal range now, but still kinda high in the morning 93-94 for the last few days. But obviously something I did bombed. I can think of a couple of things that it might have been. 1500 calories the day before instead of 1800, 1 cup of broth over the day rather than 4, even though I had a keto-ade with 1/2 tsp of salt, instead.
There's so many variables to toy with and fine tune. It's just wonderful to have supportive helpful, smart, knowledgeable people to help me work it all out.
Ever so grateful.0 -
I love all the knowledgeable people on this board. Thank you for the clarification @FIT_Goat.
@Sunny_Bunny_ I wasn't going to throw the IF out the window, I feel like I need it to get my BG numbers to continue to drop. They're in normal range now, but still kinda high in the morning 93-94 for the last few days. But obviously something I did bombed. I can think of a couple of things that it might have been. 1500 calories the day before instead of 1800, 1 cup of broth over the day rather than 4, even though I had a keto-ade with 1/2 tsp of salt, instead.
There's so many variables to toy with and fine tune. It's just wonderful to have supportive helpful, smart, knowledgeable people to help me work it all out.
Ever so grateful.
Those things both sound like they are completely reasonable sources of your complications that day.
I think you're doing a great job with your troubleshooting and experimenting to find your best plan for your needs. Kudos for your commitment to your health.
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