Keeping up activity level while anemic?

bluefire301175

Hi all, just wondering if any of you have experience with iron deficiency anemia and if so how did/do you keep up your activity levels? Just for some background my ferritin level is a 4 out of a range of 15-150 and my hemoglobin is 9.6 out of 11-15. I'm exhausted most of the time and I've been gaining weight far too easily over the past 3 months or so(partly from diet and partly from low energy levels, possibly lowered metabolism?). I've just started taking iron this week. At the very least is there a time frame to when I'll feel normal again? I'm taking 325mg iron twice a day as prescribed and hoping for the best. Thanks in advance!

TavistockToad

How many calories have you been eating? To damage your metabolism you would need a sustained period of extreme calorie restriction.

jgnatca

I start to feel better pretty quickly when I increase my iron.

Here's a few tips to increase absorption.

Take with vitamin C.
Don't take with dairy or calcium supplements. They will interfere with each other.
If the iron is hard on your stomach try taking at least one of the doses just before bed.

bluefire301175

TavistockToad wrote: »

How many calories have you been eating? To damage your metabolism you would need a sustained period of extreme calorie restriction.

Oh no I didn't mean lowered metabolism from lack of calories though at one point that may have been the case. Some say that low iron can mess with your thyroid and cause metabolism to slow, I'm not sure if its true hence the question mark.

bluefire301175

jgnatca wrote: »

I start to feel better pretty quickly when I increase my iron.

Here's a few tips to increase absorption.

Take with vitamin C.
Don't take with dairy or calcium supplements. They will interfere with each other.
If the iron is hard on your stomach try taking at least one of the doses just before bed.

Thanks, I've been taking the iron with a glass of orange juice on an empty stomach. I think it actually helps prevent stomach upset since I haven't had any issues except for the very first time I took the pill, and that was without orange juice and right after eating.