Anyone on gluten free diet feeling extreme fatigue?

Why are you gluten free? Have you been diagnosed with celiac or a gluten intolerance? If you haven't then there is no reason to get rid of gluten from your diet.
Also you should NOT stop eating gluten if you are going in for testing because it could give you a false negative if you no longer have gluten in your diet.

Have you replaced gluten carbs with other carbs that will continue to fuel your body?

You muffin top is probably shrinking because of the calorie deficit not from removing gluten.

mt_nest wrote: »

I have read several blogs from people who have experienced feeling tired and having stomach pains. However, it seems that most people have only put up with withdrawal symptoms for a couple of days to a week or so. I've been gluten free for 2 weeks today and I am absolutely worn out. I have No energy, I seem to be in some kind of brain fog and I have a nagging headache. I'm not ready to give up yet because of all the positive things I've read about it, and because my mini-muffin top is shrinking.

Has it taken anyone else so long to get through the adverse symptoms?

When you cut out gluten, did you also cut out a lot of carbs? Sounds similar to what happens when people cut carbs a lot.

And cutting gluten won't have any direct impact on your stomach fat. Losing stomach fat comes from a calorie deficit and it doesn't matter where you cut calories from.

As others have said, is your calroies or carb numbers lower? That might account for not feeling well. Some people lose weight when they go gf because they exchange pizza and bagels for salads and fruit, leading to a calorie deficit, much in the same way just tracking food can cause people to eat less, simply because they're aware of it. GF diets don't cause weight loss, in fact a common sign of celiac disease is weight loss, and people gain once their body recovers. I was gluten free for 4 years, and I was at least as fat at the end as I was at the start. It isn't a magical cure.

I'm as gluten free as I possibly can be, with exception to the odd mistake...for 3 years since being diagnosed with Celiac disease. I actually feel hundreds times better than before, if only because the gut problems, headaches and skin rashes are practically non existent now. As for energy, I usually have loads of it, could have something to do with not eating grains, but probably has more to do with the copious amounts of vegetables I eat on a daily basis. Also, yes, my muffin top practically disappeared when I ditched the wheat and flour products. Connection, I'd say yes, as by ditching those I was also ditching the higher calorie foods in my diet. Everyone is different tho, Good luck!

Eileen_S wrote: »

I've been Gluten free due to celiac's disease for the past 4 years and the only time I experience issues like this is when I accidentally have gluten in my diet.

Exactly! And you know it's happened within minutes too, don't you?

OP, the headache and brainfog actually sound like you may have accidentally consumed gluten..it's hidden in so many products, in so many ways. For example, chocolate many times has gluten. Spices, gravies, so many things people wouldn't even realize. PM me and I'll send you a nice list of products to avoid, if you like!

Dang zombie threads!!!!

Ha, zombie thread. sigh.

But...since this sucker is up, for anyone else who might be going through the same thing. One possibility for folks who go gluten free is something that celiacs call 'gluten withdrawal.' Not everyone has this happen, but wheat, like sugar, seems like it may actually affect some people's body like an opioid. They would literally go through a physical withdrawal if they stop it cold turkey.

Very similar symptoms to the OP's. Length of time among those who describe it seems to vary from a few days to a few weeks, in the celiac community.

The actual research on this is still in early stages, from what I understand. So it's more positive results in animal testing and in vitro testing more than in actual humans, for wheat, anyway. But so far, the results have been upholding the theory.

Like this little snippet of research:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6099562


But as an aside, it's stuff like this which makes people think that gluten might sometimes have some possibly negative effects for some folks even if they aren't celiacs or gluten intolerant.