dizzy spells due to low calorie intake?

cibilbee

Thanks for all the great advice so far, after reading all these I know the calories bump is the right call . Right now I'm 5'7'' and 183 lb with about 28% body fat. I drink a ton of water and workout a lot. I try to eat about every 3 hrs so hopefully bumping up my snack calories will help. Thanks again!

Not to be rude, but how do you know your body fat%? Did you get it tested or are you going off of something computer based? I am 5'6.5'' and 132 and I eat 1500-1700 a day. I dont think you are eating enough at all.

I got it tested at the gym. They have a machine you hold and squeeze and it gives you your body fat %.

myfitnessnmhoy

Don't assume a dizzy spell is a lack of net calories (though it could be). The same could be caused by dehydration or an imbalanced diet.

First, talk to your doctor to make sure there are no actual problems. It's reasonable to eat a little more quality food and drink more water and see if it goes away, but don't spend a lot of time self-experimenting resolving dizzy spells. (to OP: Yes, you've done this, and good job!, this is just more informational).

Second, make sure you are drinking a reasonable amount of water. Skip the numbers and the slogans. In a normal healthy person, your urine should be pale yellow. If it's clear, you're drinking too much but you're good unless you are drinking A LOT of water (more than a couple gallons a day).

Third, check your fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Make sure you are eating a reasonable balance of all three. Keep sugars to a reasonable minimum. Make sure you are getting iron, potassium, and sodium and not ridiculously overdoing any of the three. Check your other nutrients occasionally to make sure you are getting enough of each. It's OK to take a multivitamin/supplement if you're struggling with them and can't get it through food easily - just pick the multivitamin that gives you what you need and doesn't give you what you don't.

Finally, remember that a couple hundred calories a day will slow your weight loss but aren't going to do you any real harm, so if you're otherwise healthy and you've gone through the above, eat a little more and see what happens.

jjrichard83

thats another good point, once your caloric intake hits a certain bottom point, your body goes into survival mode and starts hoarding every calorie it can get its hands on.

So much misinformed well-intentioned advice on these boards...

Contrary to what has been said, you CAN NOT go into starvation mode by lowering your calories like that... That is not how the body works... In fact, for most of us - a 20 day fast would not put us in starvation mode until we hit close to 7-8% bodyfat.

Go research any of the IF authors and see their sources. These guys have to deal with this "but what about starvation mode" comments all the time. I've dropped my calorie intake to 1500ish per day & my TDEE is around 2800. All that means is you need to chose your calories wisely and make sure that you consume nutrient dense foods opposed to nutrient weak high carb foods that makes you hungry & knocks your insulin levels out of wack.

Research actual starvation mode & make sure you're not reading articles from ppl on this site, or from people who don't know how to properly read & comprehend peer reviewed studies on starvation mode.

nanaloseweight

I drink a ton of water

Not good for you at all!! Only drink what you need NOT what you think you need as this can be dangerous.

slim4health56

Are you consuming anything different since starting your weight loss journey? I tried a well-known protein shake when I started out and it wrecked me...felt dead. Look at your food diary and pick out anything that you've added that you didn't normally consume. I do NOT want to start a flame war here, but some people don't respond well to artificial sweeteners either.

VBnotbitter

Well as it was over a year ago she's had time to sort it out by now

KANGOOJUMPS

yep, happens to me all the time, I fast a lot.

BrainyBurro

Holy Necromanced Thread, Batman!

TruckersWifeTruckersLife

I wasn't having problems with dizzy spells but I did up my daily calories from 1200 to 1400 a couple of weeks ago and it has made a huge difference

ron2e

thats another good point, once your caloric intake hits a certain bottom point, your body goes into survival mode and starts hoarding every calorie it can get its hands on.

So much misinformed well-intentioned advice on these boards...

Contrary to what has been said, you CAN NOT go into starvation mode by lowering your calories like that... That is not how the body works... In fact, for most of us - a 20 day fast would not put us in starvation mode until we hit close to 7-8% bodyfat.

Go research any of the IF authors and see their sources. These guys have to deal with this "but what about starvation mode" comments all the time. I've dropped my calorie intake to 1500ish per day & my TDEE is around 2800. All that means is you need to chose your calories wisely and make sure that you consume nutrient dense foods opposed to nutrient weak high carb foods that makes you hungry & knocks your insulin levels out of wack.

Research actual starvation mode & make sure you're not reading articles from ppl on this site, or from people who don't know how to properly read & comprehend peer reviewed studies on starvation mode.

Thank goodness for a bit of sense! I am SOOOOO fed up reading about 'starvation mode' on this forum, it's a myth.

TribeHokie

Yep I've definitely had this happen to me. When I was a young stupid undergrad and thought I could live on 500 calories a day I had to skip class several times because I was too dizzy to get out of bed. Eat more and make sure you aren't overestimating your intake.

slim4health56

Blood pressure measures the strength of the heart contracting...

Not exactly...blood pressure is the force of blood against the walls of arteries.

nanaloseweight

Quote.... I do NOT want to start a flame war here, but some people don't respond well to artificial sweeteners either.


I agree with this artificial sweetener theory, read an article just recently, very interesting too. I have started to add cinnamon to my coffee and fruit and I no longer need sugar/sweetener anymore!! Yay, way to go.

Benb7777

40 years ago I started out T 335 lbs went on a strict 800 calorie daily diet, working out at least an hr a day, 15 months later I was at 170 lbs & feeling great! Not once did I have a faint feeling. NOW 40 years later I found myself at 242 lbs Feb 1 exactly 40 years later. So I decided it was time to get back in shape so I started the same ͏Di͏e͏t again and after a month I’m down to 224.8 lbs , but I can’t seem to shake the light headedness. Then made a crucial mistake giving blood yesterday faintness was only a step away. Man what a difference 40 years makes, but have to get it back in shape so I can leave a good looking corpse, just kidding. But I am gonna have to balance my calories during the day

PAV8888

You may want to bring this up in a separate post that you start so that people can freely respond to you specifically as opposed to the users from 7 years ago

There is a reason why MFP will not assign less than 1500 Calories as a target for a male.

There is a reason why a deficit that is larger than 20% of TDEE (25% while obese) is considered AGGRESSIVE.

There is a reason why losing more than 1% of your body weight per week is considered AGGRESSIVE.

Based on your discussion I will make the assumption that you must be at least 60 years old.

Now there are some incredibly athletic 60 year olds on MFP. But I think that even they will probably all agree that it is unlikely that at 60+ they have the same recovery capacity and ability to disregard common sense and health recommendations that they might have had in their 20s!

Hopefully you have time in front of you. Loads of time to get to your goal weight. There is no time-table that is dictating a VLCD without a direct medical exigency and supervision.

Oh yeah... and you will feel dizzy and light headed if you try to implement one... and that is only the tip of UNWANTED HEALTH SIDE EFFECTS that you are incurring.

I lost 72.5lbs my first 12 months of logging on MFP eating >2500 Calories a day. No-typo. And somehow I suspect I ended up much happier than trying to do that by eating 800!

Just saying!