Odd symptoms while IFing

Hello everyone, first post on the board, looking forward to meeting some new people and hopefully gaining some enlightenment on some minor issues I've noticed since beginning Intermittent fasting.

My story begins pretty commonly at hitting a plateau, previously I was 280 lbs at my max and through proper diet and exercise have now reached 195 lbs, however have witnessed a noticeable halt on progress. I increased the intensity of my workouts, increased cardio, did more HIIT, reduced weight size and increased repetitions, sets and tension, reduced calories to about 1900 /day, reduced carbs to 30% macros, changed workout regiment ... everything you can think of with no results; that is until a friend of mine told me about intermittent fasting.

While to most the concept seemed drastic, to me it made a lot of sense, in my early years (back in high school to be more specific at 10% BF) I would often train fasted, mostly to the various sports activities I was involved in. Morning football, afternoon weight training, evening boxing, weekend soccer, all done before consuming the vast majority of my calories. Thus I thought I might give it a try, after some research of course, to see just how well it could benefit my desire to lower my overall body fat percentage.

I was amazed to say the least, the first 3 days were remarkable, I had increased focus in the gym, higher intensity workouts, increased strength, more energy, and best of all more time in the day. My day consisted of waking up at 8 a.m, drinking 32 ounces of water, taking a pre workout supplement (trying to get off this garbage) and an early gym session (45 minutes, high intensity lifting, 30 sec intervals on light weight, HIIT cardio 3 times per week), eating a large 600 cal breakfast, 600 calorie fruit, veggie, protein shake, and a 600 cal dinner ending at 5 p.m and beginning again at 12 pm the next afternoon, and I must say it was great to not only feel better, but start to see results again.

However, as mentioned earlier I decided to limit my pre workout supplements necessity in the morning as I'm trying to gain most of my energy, nutrients, from naturals sources, thus this morning (the fourth day of my intermittent fast schedule) I decided to do without. From the get go I could feel something was off. on my way to the gym I experienced:

-shortness of breath
-blurred vision
-lack of concentration
-weakness
-headache

While I was able to complete my workout adequately, these symptoms remained well after I began to eat again, and while they are almost gone now, I fear for the causes, and hazards that it may suggest, forcing me to reconsider the fasting and revert back to my regular 6 small meals a day eating schedule.

Any questions, advise, suggestions, or a serious kick in the *kitten* would be greatly appreciated, I look forward to hearing your thoughts and hopefully gaining some insight on the issues at hand .

P.S sorry for the long post XD

Replies

  • STC1188
    STC1188 Posts: 101 Member
    Are you joking? You admit you scaled back on a potentially stimulant-laden preworkout (where withdrawals would cause the EXACT symptoms you describe) and think it may be IF?

    I would do this scientifically: eliminate the stims and go back to normal eating, or do IF with the stims. Basically, to determine what is causing it, you need to control one variable at a time.

    However, my big vote goes to the PWO reduction causing withdrawals symptoms.
  • Well the pre workout was my main suspect, but as it was only one day without, and I stayed to the recommended dosage I wasn't sure if I would witness such drastic symptoms so quickly. Plus I have worked out before without a pre workout and have never witnessed such effects.

    I am not blaming IF, quite the contrary, I love it and want to continue it, however, I know there are hazards for hypoglycemic individuals, diabetics, and a host of other groups and wanted to hear individuals thoughts on whether these symptoms sounded familiar or fit a category.

    I guess I will try the IF schedule again tomorrow, and see whether the symptoms persist. if they do I will try determining the variable as suggested, thank you for the reply. :3

    P.S THANKS FOR READING MY SUPER LONG POST! X3
  • Bump

    Anything anyone else can suggest would be greatly appreciated. xD