Vegetarian girlfriend is having low carb diet troubles

lc_norah

First off, I seriously believe your girlfriend is suffering from some type of eating disorder. Not because she's low carb as I follow low carb also. She seems to have a seriously unhealthy outlook on her weight and appearance though.

Secondly, what she's experiencing is what some people in the LC community call 'carb flu'. Here's somewhat of an explanation from the Paleo Leap website:


'What is “Low carb flu”?
If you’ve ever dramatically reduced your carbohydrate intake, you might have felt it already: it’s that first few days of headaches, brain fog, crankiness, and constant, dragging exhaustion. At some point, you know the magic is going to happen and you’ll start feeling like a human being again, but the transition period is really rough. It feels like having the flu (hence the name), only you’re not sick; you’re just cutting carbs. Low-carb flu can include any of the following:
You feel fuzzy and foggy, like your brain just isn’t working right. You might have a pounding or throbbing headache.
You’re exhausted, cranky, and irritable for no reason.
Going to the gym feels like an insurmountable challenge. If you do make it, your performance is completely down the drain.
You’re ravenously hungry, tearing into everything in sight.
You’re craving anything with carbs – bagels, pasta, pizza, sandwiches, mashed potatoes, candy…'


I keep my carbs at about 23g per day, and have never experienced carb flu. But I lowered it over the course of about a week or so. I imagine if she just changed overnight, this is what has happened to her.

Besides suggestion that she might need a bit of counseling, I'd suggest that she add a bit of carbs back into her diet. Also, if she's experiencing muscle cramping and leg pain, she's not drinking enough water. She should be drinking about half her body weight in ounces. So, about 55 ounces of water a day.

I know many people don't agree with low carb for one reason or another, and I'm not trying to start a controversy or anything. I follow low carb and it works for me. I'm just trying to help the OP with what is probably going on with his girlfriend.

PRMinx

I wouldn't necessarily call this an eating disorder. I would call it disordered eating. There's a big difference between the two.

What are her reasons for being a vegetarian?

It sounds like the diet she "thinks" is going to work best is too restrictive, which is going to cause her to cycle through periods of being on it and then periods of being off of it. Classic yo-yo dieting. I would tell her to drop specific diet titles (low carb, keto, etc.) and just focus on hitting healthy macros with a reasonable weight loss goal (ie. not two pounds a week).

Dinosaurus112

we talked yesterday.
her originial reason for becoming vegetarian revolves around a diet issue a few years ago. she would starve herself for days on end, and then have a huge craving for sprinkles.. the ones you put on ice cream or a cake. it sounded bizzarre. but yes, she would STARVE herself for sometimes 5 days at a time to try to lose weight. which is another issue in itself.
as a result her parents took her to a nutritionist and doctors, after making a deal with them to only check her scale once or twice a week because she was so focused on the numbers, which only led to more starving in hopes of bringing the numbers down.
after a while of them all trying to get her to stop this and eat more, she became a vegetarian as if to say "HA, now i cant eat as much! what are you gonna do about it?"
she is well aware of this and other behaviors but feels as though there is nothing to be done. she has since found legitimate reasons for being vegetarian and only lately seems to have started turning back towards that mindset, which worries me.

i spoke with her about building muscle while burning fat, which would result in less of a loss and maybe a hjigher end weight than she hoped, BUT she would feel so much better, and LOOK so much better. her response was, i cant do that, i know thats a good way to go about it, but the NUMBER needs to be low.
she is so focused on that..

i really at this point want her to just eat healthy and start over for a time. get everything normalized again. and then get back into some sort of diet, but do it the best and healthiest way.

PRMinx

we talked yesterday.
her originial reason for becoming vegetarian revolves around a diet issue a few years ago. she would starve herself for days on end, and then have a huge craving for sprinkles.. the ones you put on ice cream or a cake. it sounded bizzarre. but yes, she would STARVE herself for sometimes 5 days at a time to try to lose weight. which is another issue in itself.
as a result her parents took her to a nutritionist and doctors, after making a deal with them to only check her scale once or twice a week because she was so focused on the numbers, which only led to more starving in hopes of bringing the numbers down.
after a while of them all trying to get her to stop this and eat more, she became a vegetarian as if to say "HA, now i cant eat as much! what are you gonna do about it?"
she is well aware of this and other behaviors but feels as though there is nothing to be done. she has since found legitimate reasons for being vegetarian and only lately seems to have started turning back towards that mindset, which worries me.

i spoke with her about building muscle while burning fat, which would result in less of a loss and maybe a hjigher end weight than she hoped, BUT she would feel so much better, and LOOK so much better. her response was, i cant do that, i know thats a good way to go about it, but the NUMBER needs to be low.
she is so focused on that..

i really at this point want her to just eat healthy and start over for a time. get everything normalized again. and then get back into some sort of diet, but do it the best and healthiest way.

Ok, I take it back. She has an eating disorder.

Is there something in her life lately that is making her feel like she is no longer in control? Stress?