"Carb Flu" ?? Feelling Horrible
bubingadrummer
Posts: 33
Does anybody know about this topic? Today has been a real hard day. I am having major crash and feel terrible. I have not been able to eat but half a salad today. Headache, fatigued, shaky, flush, anxious, and just out of it. I think it may be what they call a "carb flu" because today is day 8 with lowering my carb intake to only 50 grams a day. If you look through my diary you can see that I am also on a calorie deficit diet as well. Do you guys think skipping the gym tonight would be a copout or because of the lack of energy and calorie intake I would probably wind up feeling even worse justifying the miss and making it up another day? I would appreciate any help. Also, what do you guys think about protein shakes being on a low carb diet at night after the gym to replace dinner? Thanks!!
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Replies
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Uhm... So, no, I've never heard of the "carb flu" but, may I ask why you're not eating more than 50g of carbs daily? And, ...... why on earth are you eating that little??
Taso, Steel, Dan... HELP THIS MAN OUT! He's gonna get hangry....0 -
I, also, have no idea what a "carb flu" is, and am also wondering why you're going so low in your carbs.
What i notice though, is that you are seriously undereating. I didn't see a single day where you hit your calorie goal and most days you were under by close to, if not over, 1,000 calories!!
My advice: EAT MORE0 -
You probably feel terrible because you're missing like 700-1000 calories daily. =/0
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You are a brave soul to take down your carbs. I tried it for two weeks when I was in my teens and just about died. Since carbs can have an effect on your blood glucose level, you may be cutting down too low. Especially if you do a lot of cardio exercise. So all the symptoms may just be withdraw pangs. Be super careful. I would speak with a nutritionist if it doesn't get better. Good luck!0
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I, also, have no idea what a "carb flu" is, and am also wondering why you're going so low in your carbs.
What i notice though, is that you are seriously undereating. I didn't see a single day where you hit your calorie goal and most days you were under by close to, if not over, 1,000 calories!!
My advice: EAT MORE
See... I'm a genius. But seriously, look at my friends list, reach out to SideSteel, Taso, HeyBales, or HelloitsDan... You'll be glad you did.
*hands you a cupcake*
I think this should make you feel better!0 -
You probably feel terrible because you're missing like 700-1000 calories daily. =/
This sounds like the most likely explanation. By day 8, you would be adjusted to lower carbs if you were ever going to adjust. However, few people adjust well to starvation.0 -
If you feel terrible and can't work out then eat. You may be getting the real flu it is everywhere right now anyway. I have decided I am eating a reasonable amount and exercising instead of starving. It is working much better than what I did in the past and I have more energy not less. I have lost 5 lbs as well and am in it for the long haul.
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"Eat more carbs" isn't the answer, but EAT MORE most certainly is. I, too, took a look at your diary. You can't keep having huge 500-600 calorie burns and not eat all of that back, ESPECIALLY if you're on a LCHF diet. If I don't hit my calorie goals within 100 AT LEAST, I feel like crap. Eat moar baconz.
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Thanks everybody. I think you are all right. My calorie deficit is huge but I though you needed a deficit of at least 500 to loose weight. I think Im going to start bumpijg my calorie intake. I really cant stand this feeling.0
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You're just setting yourself up to gain it all back and then some. If you feel terrible, you are doing something wrong and your body is warning you, but you are not listening. You do NOT have to cut carbs to 50g per day to get to and maintain a normal weight, and you definitely do not need to cut your calories so low. I'm assuming you are a guy, that means you could probably lose weight on 2000 calories a day (as a petite, 5'2' woman, I can do it on 1200 - 1400). Stop starving yourself. You need carbs to function properly. Just make sure they are good ones. Stop trying to lose a lot of weight fast and do something you can actually stand to do indefinitely, not for a few weeks just to lose weight quick. We are too impatient with this stuff and it doesn't work that way.0
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Also, you need to be subtracting your fiber from your carbs. Example: If your goal is 50/day, but you eat 20g of fiber, then you've only net 30. This could also help the crashy feeling. But yeah. Seriously. Eat more, increase your fat (that is the cornerstone of any paleo/LCHF diet) and drink at least a gallon of water a day. I'm not joking. EDITED TO ADD: Have you figured out your TDEE/BMR? That 500 number you threw out seems a little generic and flippant. Check this link out to figure out exactly what you should be doing:
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/0 -
I had something similar when I temporarily cut out grains, bread, pasta, etc. I felt like death for about 4 days and then the fog lifted.0
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Also, you need to be subtracting your fiber from your carbs. Example: If your goal is 50/day, but you eat 20g of fiber, then you've only net 30. This could also help the crashy feeling. But yeah. Seriously. Eat more, increase your fat (that is the cornerstone of any paleo/LCHF diet) and drink at least a gallon of water a day. I'm not joking.
He is counting net carbs.0 -
P.S. You might want to check your cholesterol before hitting the bacon real heavy. I know this high fat idea is all the rage, but it matters what kind of fat, too. I thought the cholesterol going out the roof due to a high animal fat diet was just a "girl thing" (I made the mistake of trying Atkins 7 years ago), but then I talked to a guy friend who had the same thing happen to him on Atkins.0
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Also, you need to be subtracting your fiber from your carbs. Example: If your goal is 50/day, but you eat 20g of fiber, then you've only net 30. This could also help the crashy feeling. But yeah. Seriously. Eat more, increase your fat (that is the cornerstone of any paleo/LCHF diet) and drink at least a gallon of water a day. I'm not joking.
He is counting net carbs.
No. He isn't. If his target is 50(as the original post says) and yesterday he hit 52, but his fiber was 21, 52-21=31.0 -
All right, Im goin to try to up my calorie intake. I didn't know you could loose weight while almost meeting your calorie goal. I DO NOT want to burn out and quit.0
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All right, Im goin to try to up my calorie intake. I didn't know you could loose weight while almost meeting your calorie goal. I DO NOT want to burn out and quit.
God. yes. Yes you can. MFP underestimates nearly EVERYONE's caloric needs, which is why I recommended Scooby's calculator to figure out what you can eat and still lose. BUT. If you use the TDEE calculation, don't plan on eating your exercise calories back.0 -
All right, Im goin to try to up my calorie intake. I didn't know you could loose weight while almost meeting your calorie goal. I DO NOT want to burn out and quit.
The calorie goal that MFP gives you ALREADY has the deficit built into it. That's why, when you plug in your exercise calories, MFP gives them back to you to eat.
Not sure what weight loss/week goal you put into MFP but with the target it gave you of 1,750 calories, that's probably already a 500-1,000 cal deficit. Any calories you burn during exercise are only increasing that deficit even more.0 -
I was eating 1200. I felt like crap and stopped losing weight. I bumped up to 1400, started losing, but slooooowly. Bumped up to 1600, and I'm losing like a boss. Sometimes, if I work out a lot, I might even go up to 1700-1800.
Personally (and before I get my *kitten* flamed, this is my opinion) I don't subscribe to the theory that carbs are bad. Or that carbs stop your weightloss. I lost 75 lbs on Weight Watchers four years ago. I ate as many carbs as I wanted. Granted, most of the carbs came from fruits/veggies, but i love my whole grain bread. Especially the sprouted kind from the whole foods store.
The MOST trouble I get into is:
1) I'm not eating enough
or
2) I'm eating too much
I haven't seen enough validated research that says carbs are going to kill me. All my blood tests are in the perfectly healthy range, and I lost a substantial amount of weight in previous times without paying any attention to my carbs.....at all.0 -
eat something substantial and go to the gym0
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I've never heard of Carb Flu... I'm 5"10.5 and under 165 lbs and my caloric intake is higher than yours... maybe that's why you feel ****ty?0
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Thanks everybody. I think you are all right. My calorie deficit is huge but I though you needed a deficit of at least 500 to loose weight. I think Im going to start bumpijg my calorie intake. I really cant stand this feeling.
I think you might just be a little confused on the way myfitnesspal works - I find that a lot of people do at first so don't feel bad. When you set it up and you say, I want to "lose 2 lbs per week," MFP sets you up with a calorie goal that is ALREADY at a deficit that will likely help you lost 2 lbs per week. So you are right that you need a deficit to lose weight, but MFP has already set you up with that deficit so don't eat EVEN less.
There is also lots of opinions about eating exercise calories back, and I think you should. Say your BMR is 2200, so mfp put you on a 1700 calorie diet that gives you a 500 calorie deficit every day. 2200 is what your body would burn if you just lived your day and didn't hit the gym. So when you DO hit the gym, you should fuel your body more with healthy food to give you the energy you need. So when you burn 500 calories at the gym and don't eat them back, you are now at a 1000 calorie deficit which is just too low.
Hope that made sense --
Also, protein shakes - yeah, why the heck not? If you have a decent protein shake, it shouldn't have a lot of carbs. All my whey proteins have like 1 carb per scoop...
If you up your food and continue to feel ill with this "carb flu" (never heard of this either), then change your goals and eat more carbs. Your body knows best! For example, I feel pretty darn good when I follow a diet of 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein so that's what I aim for. 0 -
All right, Im goin to try to up my calorie intake. I didn't know you could loose weight while almost meeting your calorie goal. I DO NOT want to burn out and quit.
I dropped 18 pounds from an already fairly lean frame between the day after Christmas and February 9th's weigh-in. I can give you some pretty specific statistics, but the biggest thing there was staying active (I averaged 574 extra calories burned per day) and eating cleanly. My average daily deficit (my base goal was 2000 and then add in exercise calories, so average goal was 2574) was only about 80 calories per day.
Don't give up - you can do it and it definitely should feel good!0 -
OP...just wanted to also acknowledge your burnt out feeling, which is a very valid concern...
I think it's important to remember that this is life. It's not a diet, a fad, or something you do occasionally. If we ever do what got us here in the first place, we will ALL be back to square one. This isn't a mad dash to the finish line. We didn't gain weight over night, and we're not going to lose it (and KEEP it off) that way either.
Be kind to yourself. You only have one body. Extreme dieting won't solve your problems. You are going to have to tweak your diet and exercise constantly as you lose weight. There's going to be a LOT of trial and error until you learn what YOUR specific body's needs are. If you feel like crap, that's your body telling you it can't sustain itself.
You need to think more long term. What are the little changes you can make AND live with comfortably right this very moment? Do those things. A real lifestyle change is done slowly....comprised of those accumulated little changes you can live with.
Remember to story of the turtle and the hair? Be the turtle.
In the time I've been here, I've seen a lot of people crash and burn. You know why I'm still here? Because I've made the decision to work this into my life. Good days, bad days, binge days....it doesn't matter. In January, there was one day I ate an entire medium sized pizza. I nibbled on it all day until it was gone. I have MFP friends that have quit over a mistake like that. I didn't because tomorrow is another day, and I haven't truely lost until I give up. Now, I'll be honest. I had to bust my *kitten* for over a week to undo what I did in one day. But I DID recover, and now I'm still losing. I lost ONE battle, but not the war.
Bottom line is: Don't push yourself further than you are willing to go. That is self-defeating. Just try everyday to do better than yesterday....and if you fail, remember that life happens. Take the hit, get UP, and move on.
Edited for stupid typos :happy:0 -
You have quite a bit of alcohol in your diet as opposed to non-starchy vegs which is a no-no in the beginning of a low carb diet. If you want to do low carb please research it and do it right otherwise you'll gain back whatever you might lose.. Unless you have metabolic issues and insulin issues you'd be better of counting calories.
I'm not anti-low carb, I follow Atkins. Low carb isn't a quick fix, it's a way of eating and requires a lot of effort.0 -
P.S. You might want to check your cholesterol before hitting the bacon real heavy. I know this high fat idea is all the rage, but it matters what kind of fat, too. I thought the cholesterol going out the roof due to a high animal fat diet was just a "girl thing" (I made the mistake of trying Atkins 7 years ago), but then I talked to a guy friend who had the same thing happen to him on Atkins.
Word - I did a super low carb week for like a week and I happened to have a blood test at the end of that week. 25 and borderline high cholesterol - not good!
I still limit my carbs, but I don't indulge in bacon and fatty meats! I eat healthy, lean proteins most of the time and get my fat from nuts, olive oil, avocado, etc. The good stuff.0 -
I eat lots of eggs and my cholesterol is fine
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If limiting carbs makes you feel bad, please know that you can consume a high carb diet, lose weight and have incredible energy. It works for me and has reversed ALL of my medical conditions. I enjoy eating a ratio of about 80% carbs, 10% protein and 10% (or less) fat. I am fully satisfied and feel like I can eat this way forever.
Best wishes which ever way you choose to eat. :-)0 -
I eat lots of eggs and my cholesterol is fine
I eat a lot of eggs too! I didn't say eggs cause high cholesterol, unhealthy fats like the fat found in bacon does!
Eggs may be high in cholesterol, but I've done lots of research on it and have found many studies that suggest they don't CAUSE high cholesterol.
And also, everyone is different and different genetics make people more susceptible to different things.0 -
What you are describing is "die off". We all have candida in our bodies and it should be there, however, most people who are overweight have an overgrowth of it (particularly in their stomachs) due to the fact that candida feeds off of sugar and carbs. When you take its main food source down to a minimum, some of the candida will starve and will die (this is good). When candida is dying off it releases up to 79 toxins into the system. Some of those toxins are formaldehyde, alcohol and acetlyaldehyde. What you can do is increase water intake to help flush the toxins out. In a few days this will subside and you will have more energy. Just don't give up. You are doing something good for your body.0
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