Vegetarian Troubles

I've been ovo-lacto veg for almost 45 years. I concur with the idea of asking your doctor to test for vitamin or mineral deficiencies, or hypothyroidism. Make sure your doctor knows you're vegetarian when deciding what to test.

Over-restricting calories will cause fatigue, as will (of course) insufficient sleep, or too-frequent HIIT-style or other very intense exercise.

If most of your protein is plant-sourced, you might want to consider either being careful that you're getting complete protein (through individual complete sources, by combining foods to complement, or by getting extra protein from diverse sources to create a bit of margin for error). I doubt protein is the fatigue problem, though.

I'd add that IME there seem to be a few people who just don't thrive on a vegetarian diet, though I don't know why (i.e., whether it's an inherent problem for certain people, vs. the ones I've known with problems were deficient in some way).

samathes wrote: »

Thank you! I went to my doctor the other day and told her of my recent dietary changes. She said she wasn't planning to do labs on me despite this factor. I may find another doctor...

I had to really coax my doctor to run at least some bloodwork (they said they were no longer doing yearly bloodword, and only ran it if there was a concern). I mentionned being more tired and after a bit she agreed to send me for limited bloodwork.

and yes my B12 was low but not crazy low so she started with recommending B12 supplement and rechecking in 6months.

What’s your height, activity level, and calorie goal? It’s far more common for us to see people here who are tired because they’re eating too few calories, rather than because they’re deficient in something.

If you’re new to being vegetarian and also still eating some animal products, it seems unlikely that you developed a B-12 deficiency that quickly unless your body has difficulty absorbing B-12.

Iron deficiencies are more common, but again, it seems unlikely that you developed one that quickly unless you already had low iron or anemia before you stopped eating meat.

samathes wrote: »

apullum wrote: »

What’s your height, activity level, and calorie goal? It’s far more common for us to see people here who are tired because they’re eating too few calories, rather than because they’re deficient in something.

If you’re new to being vegetarian and also still eating some animal products, it seems unlikely that you developed a B-12 deficiency that quickly unless your body has difficulty absorbing B-12.

Iron deficiencies are more common, but again, it seems unlikely that you developed one that quickly unless you already had low iron or anemia before you stopped eating meat.

Yes, it has been only a couple months, so I do agree that it's unlikely that I've become deficient in that short of time.

To answer some questions, I'm 5', 148 lbs and worked my way down from 180. I'm active anywhere from 3-5 days per week and take in an average of 1200 calories daily. It isn't but any means a crippling fatigue, but one where I could easily go to bed at 7:30.

I suppose one could associate these symptoms with stress and general fatigue from not getting enough sleep. I wouldn't doubt this might be the problem, but I was looking for some insight.

If you’re active, then 1200 net is too few calories. You should be eating all your exercise calories if they’re calculated correctly. If you’re not sure whether they’re calculated correctly, then start by eating half your exercise calories and adjust depending on what your weight does.