Feeling jittery and weak

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julanig612
julanig612 Posts: 40 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 36, female, need to lose 25-30 kgs, and I am eating between 1350 & 1500 calories a day depending on daily activity. I have been eating 1200 for 2ish weeks and felt fine. Since increasing I find I have dizzy spells as if I have low blood sugar to the point that I have to stop what I am doing and lie down. Nothing much has changed in my diet except portion size. I have sugar but not a lot and I am not diabetic.

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  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    What is your height and weight? What is your daily activity or exercise? Those calories are pretty low.

    Do you have a menstrual cycle, and have there been any changes there?

    Any chance you'd be willing to temporarily make your food diary public?

    Regardless, dizziness is one of those things you really should get checked out. While it could be related to something where you are pushing too hard, it can also be a symptom of something medical.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    julanig612 wrote: »
    I am 36, female, need to lose 25-30 kgs, and I am eating between 1350 & 1500 calories a day depending on daily activity. I have been eating 1200 for 2ish weeks and felt fine. Since increasing I find I have dizzy spells as if I have low blood sugar to the point that I have to stop what I am doing and lie down. Nothing much has changed in my diet except portion size. I have sugar but not a lot and I am not diabetic.

    How much are you trying to lose and how fast? When is the last time you have been to the doctor?
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    Do you mean that you started feeling dizzy on the lower calorie intake, or that you started feeling this way when you increased your calories?
  • RealWorldStrengthLLC
    RealWorldStrengthLLC Posts: 552 Member
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    I may just have a skewed perspective but your calories seem INSANELY low.
  • julanig612
    julanig612 Posts: 40 Member
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    Height 1.68m
    Weight 87kgs
    I was on Noom for a few weeks and they only allowed me to have 1200 calories a day. I have upped it on MFP when I read that it is too low. There is nothing medically wrong with me, I was just wondering if there is some sort of transition phase that could explain the feeling of unbalanced bloodsugar. I feel worse on more calories than I did on less. I am disgustingly unfit, which is why I don't think I should be allowed more food at this point 🙈
  • julanig612
    julanig612 Posts: 40 Member
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    Diary is now public. Today was not a very healthy day.🐷
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
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    I'm curious how your diet changed when you added more calories. Did you add lots of carb? Sometimes we don't get enough protein and I know when I splurge I tend to eat carbs to the exclusion of protein. Because carb digests quickly especially if fat is low I seem to feel hungry faster. I would take a look at your macro split and see if it's a bit unbalanced.

    I know you say you are healthy but there's nothing wrong with having a check with your doc cause it could be something completely unrelated that just happened to pop up at the same time you changed your calories. The dizziness could be low blood sugar or even low blood pressure. Are you dehydrated? Lots of things could be causing it. If it were me I would get a checkup just to be sure nothing else is going on.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    julanig612 wrote: »
    Height 1.68m
    Weight 87kgs
    I was on Noom for a few weeks and they only allowed me to have 1200 calories a day. I have upped it on MFP when I read that it is too low. There is nothing medically wrong with me, I was just wondering if there is some sort of transition phase that could explain the feeling of unbalanced bloodsugar. I feel worse on more calories than I did on less. I am disgustingly unfit, which is why I don't think I should be allowed more food at this point 🙈

    I noted your comment about being unfit - are you doing any sort of exercise, and if so, what % of the calories you earned from exercise do you eat back?

    What's your goal weight and what weekly rate of loss did you select? With 25-30 kg to lose, you are right in the middle of 1.5 - 2 pounds per week being your ideal goal, so perhaps try 1.5

    If undereating/underfueling is not the issue, then it could be what you're eating. Does this happen after any particular meals? Since your diary is public, you can say things like "Saturday after lunch."

    Speaking of after lunch, I have seen a good amount of threads on here by people going too long between lunch and dinner. If your snacks are in the afternoon, and you are crashing after them, try some higher protein snacks.
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
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    I took a peek at your diary and it doesn't seem that you are missing your protein so I doubt that is it. It does seem like your calories go high and low though. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that but your body may be reacting to it. It seems that you went from 1200 to 1800 back and forth. That puts you at an average of around 1500/day. That's a reasonable amount of calories so I would still say have a doc take a look and see if something else is going on. Check your blood pressure if you get a chance. I get the feeling you might be in the UK so I don't know if you can just pop into a drug store and use a machine or not but it might be worth taking a look to see if it's dropping or too high for that matter. You never know. Hope you get it sorted out.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
    edited October 2019
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    Plugging in the stats you gave to a random internet tdee calculator. 36 years old, female, 168 cm, 87 kg and moderately active(the middle of 5 choices, because you didn’t say), they give a tdee of 2447 calories/day. If you cut 1000 calories per day for a loss of 2 pounds, you get 1447 calories goal + intentional exercise calories. You may still be undereating.
    Are you getting adequate hydration?
    How much have you lost over how long a period?
    I usually think people on MFP are pretty quick to say “see your Dr.” but in your case, I think they may be right.
    ETA take your food diary with you to the Dr. He may see something that will help.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    julanig612 wrote: »
    Diary is now public. Today was not a very healthy day.🐷

    No judgement from me :smile: Nothing jumps out, other than your protein might be a little low, but I doubt that would be the cause. Personally, I would get a checkup if at all possible. Blood pressure and blood sugar fluctuations can cause dizziness, which can be a symptom of something else. Could also be the flu, dehydration, heat stroke, stress. Hope you get it figured out!
  • ktekc
    ktekc Posts: 879 Member
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    Had any ear infections lately? i had one and didn't know about it and spent 2 weeks with it before i got tired of being dizzy and went to the Dr. I assumed it was just vertigo which i get when i wear earplugs a lot at work. She said my eardrum looked like a stop sign.. I had no pain at all. Was told that ear infections in adults tend to get bad because they rarely hurt just make you dizzy.

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