Feeling Light Headed and Dizzy

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ckeeling2018
ckeeling2018 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My husband has decided he wanted to lose weight and I offered to join him in his journey. The only concern I have is that in the past I have felt light headed and dizzy trying to meet my daily calorie goals. Even on days where I would have exceed my maintenance goal I would feel sick. We both use a food scale to try to get as accurate entries as possible. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to help me. My husband thinks that maybe I need to eat foods that make you feel fuller (but we're both not sure if that even exists). Has anyone else had similar experiences?

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  • ckeeling2018
    ckeeling2018 Posts: 2 Member
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    psuLemon wrote: »
    ckeeling2018 wrote: »
    My husband has decided he wanted to lose weight and I offered to join him in his journey. The only concern I have is that in the past I have felt light headed and dizzy trying to meet my daily calorie goals. Even on days where I would have exceed my maintenance goal I would feel sick. We both use a food scale to try to get as accurate entries as possible. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to help me. My husband thinks that maybe I need to eat foods that make you feel fuller (but we're both not sure if that even exists). Has anyone else had similar experiences?

    Dizziness is often related to electrolyte imbalances. Do you dramatically cut carbs and/or sodium while you diet? How many calories fo you aim to eat? And what does your exercise routine look like?

    No, I didn't really make any significant changes to my diet other than exercising for 5-10 minutes before bed each night. The only major change would be that I snacked less often. My go to snack is rice crackers.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,981 Member
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    You say you're joining him on his journey, but do you actually need to lose weight?
  • DupreeTheTRex
    DupreeTheTRex Posts: 105 Member
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    You say you're joining him on his journey, but do you actually need to lose weight?

    Husband here. Her original post wasn’t very clear on those details. She is a healthy weight but wants to lose a few pounds over a long period of time. We’ve set her goal for maintenance but she finds eating to maintain still causes her to feel dizzy. She’s just offered to keep a food diary with me while I’m trying to lose weight but finds that maintenance calories don’t seem to be enough for her.

    Perhaps our activity levels are higher than we set them. We both work from home and have about a fifteen second commute to our office every morning. I know a few people have mentioned to me that people have a tendency to select the incorrect activity level. We’ve both opted to err on the side of caution.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,127 Member
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    Choosing a wrong activity level can lead to an incorrect calorie intake. But also, these are just statistical averages that MFP uses. They work (more or less) for most people, but for some they might be of significantly.

    By looking at the evolution of your actual weight (preferably using a weight trending app to smooth out short term fluctuations) you can figure out if you're average or not. If calories are set to maintenance and your losing weight, then either the activity level setting is too low or you might have a faster metabolism than average (or both).

    Other option might be to NOT follow the calorie goal given by MFP and eat as you did when you were maintaining your weight and see how many calories you're logging then (or check how many calories you've cut out by cutting out those snacks).

    PS: for the light headed part: rice crackers are fairly high sodium, no? Perhaps try to eat more salt to compensate for not eating the rice crackers and see if it helps?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,392 MFP Moderator
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    DupreeTheTRex wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    You say you're joining him on his journey, but do you actually need to lose weight?

    Husband here. Her original post wasn’t very clear on those details. She is a healthy weight but wants to lose a few pounds over a long period of time. We’ve set her goal for maintenance but she finds eating to maintain still causes her to feel dizzy. She’s just offered to keep a food diary with me while I’m trying to lose weight but finds that maintenance calories don’t seem to be enough for her.

    Perhaps our activity levels are higher than we set them. We both work from home and have about a fifteen second commute to our office every morning. I know a few people have mentioned to me that people have a tendency to select the incorrect activity level. We’ve both opted to err on the side of caution.

    Perhaps she should get some blood work. But also tracking her intake naturally to start will give us a better understanding. Right now, there isn't much data to make a recommendation outside of talking to a doctor to see if there is a deficiency. She could try to eat a bit more salt to see if that helps.
  • whitej1234
    whitej1234 Posts: 263 Member
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    Cutting on junk is often cutting on carbs and salt which messes with water. Is she drinking enough/too much/too little water? Sorry for the TMI but changes in color/smell of urine should give you a clue if it is water.

    Every-time I try to go low carb (not keto but less sweets/snacks/bread/pasta/etc) I am feeling sick for a 2-3 days and then it goes away. On the times I was too restrictive this would happen longer (that's why I quit 5:2 for example), which is my bodies way to say I am overdoing it and should eat more. If it is beyond a couple of days would consider not going that low on calories/talking to a doctor.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
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    You'll likely need to consult your doctor.

    If you're experiencing dizziness without changes to your diet as you described, it is either unrelated to the amount you are eating, or is a result of prolonged eating things you probably shouldn't. Either way, unrelated to eating less.

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