I feel terrible...
DuaneBarbour
Posts: 9 Member
Ok,
So I'm on day 3 of my weight loss and overall healthy eating journey and since day 1 I've felt like crap.
Got a dull but consistent headache and a huge lack of motivation and energy.
My first thought was my hydration was wrong so increased my water intake and it has not helped.
I'm consuming about 1500 cal per day and according to the app I'm hitting my daily protein and carb targets as well as most of the vitamin targets.
I don't know what to do and I don't know how much longer I can suffer this... I even took a taxi to work today because I couldn't face walking for my train like I always do.
As an example of my daily food:
Day 1
Breakfast consisted of a cup of hot water with lemon and ginger, a bowl of oatmeal with 180ml whole milk and 2 hard boiled eggs.
Lunch consisted of a large self made salad with various dark leafy greens such as baby spinach and kale with baby tomatoes, spring onions and bell peppers with a very light splash of an olive oil and vinegar mixture.
Dinner consisted of a whole grilled chicken breast (about 120g) with some herbs and spices, 1 cup of cooked wholegrain brown rice and 2 cups for steamed broccoli.
An hour before bed I had another bowl of oatmeal and between breakfast and lunch I had a juice consisting of 4 carrots, 2 oranges and a large piece of ginger from my coldpress juicer.
I'm drinking 2-3 litres of water with no additives per day and urinating like a race horse.
What can I do to feel better and stop this headache and energy drop?
Many thanks!
So I'm on day 3 of my weight loss and overall healthy eating journey and since day 1 I've felt like crap.
Got a dull but consistent headache and a huge lack of motivation and energy.
My first thought was my hydration was wrong so increased my water intake and it has not helped.
I'm consuming about 1500 cal per day and according to the app I'm hitting my daily protein and carb targets as well as most of the vitamin targets.
I don't know what to do and I don't know how much longer I can suffer this... I even took a taxi to work today because I couldn't face walking for my train like I always do.
As an example of my daily food:
Day 1
Breakfast consisted of a cup of hot water with lemon and ginger, a bowl of oatmeal with 180ml whole milk and 2 hard boiled eggs.
Lunch consisted of a large self made salad with various dark leafy greens such as baby spinach and kale with baby tomatoes, spring onions and bell peppers with a very light splash of an olive oil and vinegar mixture.
Dinner consisted of a whole grilled chicken breast (about 120g) with some herbs and spices, 1 cup of cooked wholegrain brown rice and 2 cups for steamed broccoli.
An hour before bed I had another bowl of oatmeal and between breakfast and lunch I had a juice consisting of 4 carrots, 2 oranges and a large piece of ginger from my coldpress juicer.
I'm drinking 2-3 litres of water with no additives per day and urinating like a race horse.
What can I do to feel better and stop this headache and energy drop?
Many thanks!
11
Replies
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Add table salt to your food, yw.7
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Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.10
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Up your calories. 1500 is the minimum you should be eating and is likely too little. And add more fat in.8
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If you were eating a lot more, let's say 3k calories before this, it may be too drastic of a change. Some would suggest slowly converting to your new calorie goals would be a way to not shock your system too hard (lowering your calorie goal for the day by 100-200 per week until you get to 1500). If this new lifestyle change you are doing is too drastic, it could cause you to quit.2
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Did you cut off soda, energy drinks, or coffee?4
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MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?2 -
This is not based on any science, but if you have been eating a lot more than 1500 a day, it may be too big of a deficit too quickly. It could be a shocker to your system. When I started, I was also uncomfortable at 1500 cal/day and I just had 10 # to lose, now it is a lot easier and I feel good, even when I workout. MFP tend to underestimate how much you should eat. It put me at 1200 but I lost easily at 1500-1600 cals/day.1
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DuaneBarbour wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?
You are probably going through caffeine withdrawal. But you are also undereating. It sounds to me like you are set to lose 2 lbs per week, but unless you have like 75-100 lbs to lose, that's pretty aggressive. Switch your goal to 1.5 or 1 lb per week and have a diet coke and I bet you'll feel better :drinker:28 -
You are probably going through caffeine withdrawal. But you are also undereating. It sounds to me like you are set to lose 2 lbs per week, but unless you have like 75-100 lbs to lose, that's pretty aggressive. Switch your goal to 1.5 or 1 lb per week and have a diet coke and I bet you'll feel better :drinker:
YES! Caffeine is the friend of headachy people, I use it intentionally and daily and have tried to stop before in the name of some elusive "purity" -- well, when I was pregnant for one -- and boy, does caffeine withdrawal hit hard and fast and long.8 -
DuaneBarbour wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?
Quitting caffeine cold turkey can absolutely cause headaches and low energy. In which case the only options are to go back and cut down slowly, or tough through it. Also 1500 like others said is probably too much of a deficit, wagering a guess you picked 2lbs/week loss and were given 1500 which is the lowest the app will go for a man.6 -
Caffeine withdrawal is no joke and it's probably why you have a headache.
Add some protein and fat to your lunch, get rid of the juice and have the fruit and veggies instead.22 -
That menu doesn't look like it would equal 1500calories.
I would feel terrible if all I had for lunch was a salad without any protein.
Your protein for the day looks like it consisted of two eggs, 120gms of chicken and whatever is in the milk.
Looks like to me you need to up your calories and you need to eat back some or all of any exercise calories, get some extra protein and good fats.
16 -
You have the symptoms of hypothyroidism from cutting out iodine in your diet. Headaches, weakness, mental fog. I'm fairly positive, go ahead and add salt and see if there's no improvement, what's the worse that can happen, bloating?DuaneBarbour wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?35 -
If you really want to cut caffeine completely, give it like 2-3 weeks. Deal with the headaches for now, but thats how long it usually takes to completely withdrawl from it. I do agree you should add a little more food, like maybe some protein during lunch with your salad. For breakfast try to make your food more flavorful like, eggs/spinach/bell peppers/onions, or Toast with all natural peanut butter topped with sliced banana and or strawberries. Try half cup of rolled oats with 1 cup coconut almond milk, topped with organic maple syrup, cinammon and banana or strawberries.4
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Thank you everyone for the super quick responses! Appreciated.
General consensus appears to be 'too much too fast' so I guess I'll relax my restrictions a bit and see how it goes.DuaneBarbour wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?
You are probably going through caffeine withdrawal. But you are also undereating. It sounds to me like you are set to lose 2 lbs per week, but unless you have like 75-100 lbs to lose, that's pretty aggressive. Switch your goal to 1.5 or 1 lb per week and have a diet coke and I bet you'll feel better :drinker:
Yeah my goal was to lose 54-70lbs as quickly as possible but with realistic expectations of 8-12 months.
I'll relax a little and have another meal per day and adjust my target loss for a while.
Thanks everyone!
10 -
Caffeine and diet coke do not have calories. Tea has very few. Coffee a few more. What you put in them more still.
You can use a little bit of milk and artificial sweeteners and reduce either or both gradually if you feel that you're spending too many calories on your hot drinks.
When you're living in caloric poverty juice calories are a luxury. Eat the dang fruit.
16 -
tirowow12385 wrote: »
You have the symptoms of hypothyroidism from cutting out iodine in your diet. Headaches, weakness, mental fog. I'm fairly positive, go ahead and add salt and see if there's no improvement, what's the worse that can happen, bloating?DuaneBarbour wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?
I'll look to add more salt too! Thanks for this!1 -
Quick is not always better. You want your loss to be sustainable, now is the time to set the habits and way of eating that you can stick to long term so that when you get to your goal weight you're more likely to stick to it.2
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tirowow12385 wrote: »
You have the symptoms of hypothyroidism from cutting out iodine in your diet. Headaches, weakness, mental fog. I'm fairly positive, go ahead and add salt and see if there's no improvement, what's the worse that can happen, bloating?DuaneBarbour wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?
Looks like classic symptoms of caffeine withdrawal to most of us.16 -
This happened to me for the first 4 days. Ibuprofen didn't do anything to help the headache. By day 5 I felt fine.1
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You're doing great! Welcome to detox... seems unfair right? It will all be worth it in the end. Surround yourself with people who will cheer you on.30
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nutrofight wrote: »OP, I think it might be the feeling you are going like a race horse. You're mentally framing yourself as something without enough brains to hold human thoughts which is constraining your thoughts leading to tension. Try thinking you have to go like a person who drinks a lot of water instead.
Uhh, what?
Unsure if sarcasm or troll, lol9 -
Update, just ate my salad for lunch (too late to change my meals for today, I'm already in work) and I washed it down with a can of Sugar Free Irn Bru (coz I'm Scottish, its what we do, lol) which has about 30mg caffeine per 330ml and I can already say I'm feeling better than before... I don't want to smash my head off the desk any longer! Woop!49
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You should definitely reconsider your calorie goal also. I'm 5'9" 190lbs and can lose regularly on 2200 with 3 5k runs a week.1
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You should definitely reconsider your calorie goal also. I'm 5'9" 190lbs and can lose regularly on 2200 with 3 5k runs a week.
This is part of the problem.
I'm ex-military and been recovering from injuries to both legs for the best part of 10 years now. During this time I have been completely sedentary and eating and drinking junk from boredom.
Finally had the last surgery required to get back active again so running 5k is a bit of a long range goal for me.
Currently on a run-walk program to build up to that kind of sustainted exercise and beyond.
So at the moment I'm walking about 30 minutes tops. I'll get there though!
But yeah, I'll still reduce my weekly loss target to 1 or 1.5.
1.5 looks like I'll be sitting at around 1800 cal per day... That sounds doable.19 -
Glad to hear you're (1) slowing down your weight loss, and (2) reintroducing a little caffeine. I think you're going to find that the MFP program is much easier to tolerate making these changes.3
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tirowow12385 wrote: »
You have the symptoms of hypothyroidism from cutting out iodine in your diet. Headaches, weakness, mental fog. I'm fairly positive, go ahead and add salt and see if there's no improvement, what's the worse that can happen, bloating?DuaneBarbour wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?
No he doesnt.
People do not get hypothryroid after 3 days of different food
He most likely has headaches and low energy from a combination of eating too littlefor his needs and suddenly stopping caffeine containing products
OP - re consider your calorie level - and if you want to stop caffeine (although from a weight loss point of view, no need to do this) , either do it more gradually or be prepared for few days of feeling headachy.9 -
paperpudding wrote: »tirowow12385 wrote: »
You have the symptoms of hypothyroidism from cutting out iodine in your diet. Headaches, weakness, mental fog. I'm fairly positive, go ahead and add salt and see if there's no improvement, what's the worse that can happen, bloating?DuaneBarbour wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Two questions, one did you happen to cut out anything like caffeine, and two what are your stats? It may be that your deficit is too extreme for your stats.
Yes, I've stopped drinking tea and coffee and coca cola etc.
I'm 6ft and 238lbs, male.tirowow12385 wrote: »Add table salt to your food, yw.
I thought adding too much salt led to water retention and bloating? Is the natural salt in food not enough?
No he doesnt.
People do not get hypothryroid after 3 days of different food
He most likely has headaches and low energy from a combination of eating too littlefor his needs and suddenly stopping caffeine containing products
OP - re consider your calorie level - and if you want to stop caffeine (although from a weight loss point of view, no need to do this) , either do it more gradually or be prepared for few days of feeling headachy.
Already on it, thanks! Weaning myself off the caffeine with low dosage drinks and I'll be relaxing the cal restrictions (details in my posts above).6 -
Good - sounds like you are on the right track OP
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Another vote for caffeine withdrawal. It seems your diet is pretty balanced but might need a bit more protein.
I simply cannot live life without caffeine. I'm down to just one cup of coffee a day. Without it I will get a migraine that will last for days and I just feel awful in general. Not worth it for whatever supposed benefit cutting caffeine is supposed to give you. For some reason I need the coffee. Have tried switching to tea (with caffeine) and it still doesn't cut it.1
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