Help/Advice? Changed diet, now feeling sick

What do you mean by feeling "sick?" I get shaky, nauseated and headachey when my blood sugar drops too low. If you're eating a low calorie target, especially if you stop eating early in the evening, it could be that.

A whole fruit or vegetable is much more than the sum of its vitamins. A vitamin C tablet, for example, doesn't replace eating an orange.

By feeling sick I mean I feel nauseous, and in the past week I have actually been sick twice. However this has always been on an empty stomach and only once in the morning. After I have eaten I feel fine, so perhaps it is something to do with blood sugar. In addition to feeling sick I also feel quite headachey, tired/faint.

Obviously, there are a lot of other things it could be, but you're describing how I feel when my blood sugar drops, especially since you say it only happens on an empty stomach. Could you try eating something small right after you wake up (maybe 100 calories, but choose something with some carbs like a couple of crackers or a few berries) and see if that helps?

I didn't really look at your diary, but one thing that I am wondering is if you are taking that multivitamin on an empty stomach. They can cause some abdominal distress. Plus certain vitamins (A, D, E, and K) are fat soluble and need a bit of dietary fat so that your body can absorb them. Just my initial thoughts.

As for the headache. Are you eating back at least some of your exercise calories? It is important if you are working out that you fuel that exercise with enough nutrition. Do you drink lots of caffeinated products? I drink a lot of tea, and I occasionally wake up with a headache which goes away with my first cup. If I don't get that morning cup, I'm pretty tough to be around.

Hope this helps :flowerforyou:

Hi Netmegoro,

Thank you for your response. You know you might be right - I often just take my multivitamins as soon as I'm up and awake so perhaps that's the issue. I will make sure to eat them after breakfast now!

I'm not sure what counts as a lot of caffeinated products. I might have 1-2 cups of coffee a day, and the thermopure I have three days a week contains caffeine too. I suppose that would count as a significant amount?

Calorie wise I'm not really sure. In a week I tend to burn off about 3 1/2 days worth of food by eating a little under my basic metabolic rate and exercising. So say I burn about 5250 calories in a week and I consume around 10500.

If you are consuming 10500/week and burning 5250/week in exercise, you are netting about 750 calories/day. That's really low. At the very least you should be eating at your BMR. Perhaps try eating BMR plus 1/2 exercise calories. MFP tends to estimate exercise calories on the high side. Your deficit seems way too steep. Headaches and nausea are not uncommon when you cut too much. The fact that you feel better after eating says a lot too. Try upping your calories for several days and see if that helps you feel better (stay of the scale for a few days too, you will retain water when increasing calories, this is just water weight not fat).