Am I eating enough!?

Jimmy240424
Jimmy240424 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys

I know it’s a weird one. Been getting heart palpitations since December time when I stopped eating out of control. Probably went from around 3500/4000 calories a day for years down to like 1500-2000 and been eating healthy since. Had Heart monitor for 24 hours came back normal but I didn’t get many symptoms when the machine was on, typical. It’s a strange one l can’t work out if it’s diet related or not. I’m weight training 5 days a week and active. Am I just not eating enough which is causing the problems? No other issues just the heart skips a beat then thuds hard and it starts beating normally again. It varies time of day also. I don’t consume caffeine.

Any help / info would be good. Thank you

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,748 Member
    Hmm.. good one. Stress can cause palpitations. They are usually benign, thus not really a reason to worry. The problem with them is: people start to worry and notice them more, and then get stressed and get more. It's a bit of a viscous circle. Another thought: do you happen to have reflux? Oddly, reflux can cause this by somehow annoying the vagus nerve or somesuch. Might be bro science, and me, and lots of people I know get palpitations when having reflux.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,475 Member
    If you're weight training 5 days a week and generally active, then 1500 is incredibly low. I'm assuming you're male from your user name, but without height/weight information it's hard to know just how low that calorie level might be. I can tell you though that MFP won't give men a calorie goal of less than 1500 ever. Are you eating back exercise calories? How are you determining that you're eating 1500- 2000 calories a day? Is that a total number or net?

    Just for reference, I'm a 5'6" middle aged woman who at 165 maintains weight at about 2300 calories. At 2000 calories I'd lose weight steadily. In about 2016 I lost 60 pounds and have largely maintained that loss since. I've never taken my calories down as far as 1500 even when I was losing. It sounds miserable in every conceivable way.

    There's a post you might find interesting: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10761904/under-1200-for-weight-loss/p1

    1200 is the lower threshold for women, so if you check out that thread, you'd just think man instead of woman and 1500 instead of 1200. The effects are the same.
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,723 Member
    That's what I was thinking as well, your calories are set too little for your activity level and being a male. Plus, are you drinking plenty of water? Dehydration can do that too.
  • Jimmy240424
    Jimmy240424 Posts: 5 Member
    edited April 2022
    I’m 6ft 2 and weigh 215lb

    I do have gerd symptoms Iv had it for years although it’s easing now I’m exercising and eating clean

    I haven’t changed anything in my daily life apart from diet and exercise as per my first post.

    Working out wise I do weights 5 x a week and each session lasts roughly an hour.

    Should I eat more and the symptoms may potentially go? Not expecting it to go overnight it might take a while i guess?
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,941 Member
    I’m wondering if you’ve already seen your doctor about this. The 24hour heart rate monitor suggests you may have?

    If the problem hasn’t resolved then go see him again. I’ve only once had palpitations and it turned out to be an infection in the heart muscles (I’d ignored a strep throat in the run up to Christmas in the years I had 4 small children) - It was easily fixed by a course of anti-biotics and I’ve never had any further issues.
  • Jimmy240424
    Jimmy240424 Posts: 5 Member
    For me to gain 1lb a week I need to consume 3700 calories a day as per MFP app!!!!

  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 950 Member
    Are you trying to gain, lose, or maintain your weight?

    If using a default age of 30 (since IDK how old you are)....your TDEE (to maintain your current weight) with your current stats and activity level you should be eating like ~3000cal/day dude.

    1500 or 2000 is way way way too little.

    I'm not sure that has anything to do with heart palpitations (talk to a cardiologist???) but aside from that concern...that's not enough food.
  • Jimmy240424
    Jimmy240424 Posts: 5 Member
    westrich20940 wrote: »
    Are you trying to gain, lose, or maintain your weight?

    If using a default age of 30 (since IDK how old you are)....your TDEE (to maintain your current weight) with your current stats and activity level you should be eating like ~3000cal/day dude.

    1500 or 2000 is way way way too little.

    I'm not sure that has anything to do with heart palpitations (talk to a cardiologist???) but aside from that concern...that's not enough food.

    I’m wanting to maintain so yes that’s correct circa 3k calories per day. This is a lot of “healthy” clean food to consume day in day out. I’m wanting to change my body composition but don’t want to be big and heavy if that makes sense.

    1500/2000 is really low if I’m bashing out hard workouts as well.

    Honestly I can’t work it all out what’s going on. Like I say never had an issue up until December when I literally stopped everything overnight and ate clean.

    Maybe my body is struggling with low cals and hard workouts.

    Iv had 24hr monitor and results came back fine, I might try and eat more closer to 3,000 calories for a few weeks and see if it clears up, might even take longer than that I’m not sure.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 15,661 Member
    edited April 2022
    I am utterly and thoroughly confused

    If as an inactive male you're eating 1500 calories of super clean or incredibly dirty food you're still crash dieting regardless of the food you're eating.

    If you're an active male you're compounding that.

    I'm past my mid-50s, not even 5ft 8", fairly active but don't even win most of my Fitbit challenges, and years worth of data say that I maintain in the mid-2900 range. I went from obese to normal weight while eating 2550 calories a day on average.

    If you're trying to maintain start eating what you need to maintain. Once you've got your calories in the bank then start worrying about how clean your food is. You don't win by under eating your needs.

    Beyond that I'm not sure if you're paying your doctor out of pocket. But you can't use a lot of your money 6 ft under. And an ambulance ride and emergency room visit costs more than just a doctor's visit. So now that we've established that it makes financial sense to visit your doctor, when you visit, why don't you ask about the heart issues?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 38,021 Community Helper
    If "clean food" (whatever the heck that means to you) is too filling, eat some unclean food. Undereating is a bad plan. Adequate calories are the foundation of health. Yes, nutrition is important, but not more important than calories.

    If you insist on "cleanness", then eat something "clean" but not as filling, like peanut butter, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy foods, cold water fatty fish (all those nice Omega-3s!), extra olive oil on salads & veggies, etc.

    Frankly, once you have enough grams of protein, enough grams of fats and plenty of veggies/fruits on board for the day, it's fine to eat a treat. Dark chocolate is good for you, and even ice cream or some baked goods aren't going to hurt you. It's not like they cancel out the broccoli, y'know?

    Nutrition is more about being sure to get all the necessary good things into your eating, vs. trying to get "unclean" things out of it.

    And I say that as someone who thinks nutrition is very, very important. I eat protein in excess of one gram per pound of estimated lean body mass, fats in excess of 0.35 grams per pound of body weight (making sure to get plenty of MUFAs/PUFAs, and considering O-3/O-6 balance), eat 10+ servings of veggies/fruits most days (usually exceeding all my MFP micro goals daily, and always doing so averaged over a week, before counting supplements). I'm even vegetarian, have been for 47+ years.

    After all that good nutritional stuff is dialed in, primarily from what many people would call "whole foods" or "clean eating"**, if I have calories left, I will eat some chocolate, or some ice cream, or a cookie, or . . . gasp! . . . even drink a beer. (** I don't like terms like "whole foods" "clean eating", etc. Too vague, often misleading, often a tangent to getting good overall nutrition.)

    I'm not big and heavy. I'm 5'5", in the 120s pounds . . . and I eat literally hundreds of calories daily more than you're eating, despite the fact that I'm also female and age 66. (I'd lose weight rapidly eating 1500, over a pound a week, too fast for someone my size.)

    Definitely see your doctor. Don't mess around with heart stuff. But I'd say odds are pretty high that you're undereating (which would be a heart risk, y'know? among other risks). Even if you hit your macro percents, you may not be getting enough total grams of protein and fats, or the full complement of micros your body needs, when undereating, let alone the lack of needful calories.
  • Jimmy240424
    Jimmy240424 Posts: 5 Member
    If it’s definitely that Iv been under eating and over exerting myself since December, once I start eating more how long do you think symptoms should take to clear? Maybe hard to say, could be weeks I guess. Highly doubt a couple of days will clear it.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 38,021 Community Helper
    Jimmy240424 wrote: »
    If it’s definitely that Iv been under eating and over exerting myself since December, once I start eating more how long do you think symptoms should take to clear? Maybe hard to say, could be weeks I guess. Highly doubt a couple of days will clear it.

    You can't start eating more (i.e. enough) yesterday (unless you already did), so start today.

    I feel like stressing about how long it will take to see improvement, or being hypervigilant about whether the symptoms are gone yet, may not be a help. It might even make things worse.

    Attention-wise, maybe focus your on improving health habits: Eating enough, getting good overall nutrition, learning some stress-management techniques, improving your sleep quality/quantity if that's sub-ideal, dropping any intense exercise you may be doing now for a while in favor of something more moderate . . . rather than focusing on symptoms and stressors?

    Of course, notice symptoms if they occur, stay in touch with your doctor if they persist . . . but don't make them your focus? (I get that that's hard.)

    Let us know who things are going, as time goes on, if you feel up to it - update this thread with progress. (Think of me as your concerned old internet granny who really cares, because I'm old enough to be one, and I do care.) Progress will happen, if you invest in it.

    Sending positive health-rays your way.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    Jimmy240424 wrote: »
    If it’s definitely that Iv been under eating and over exerting myself since December, once I start eating more how long do you think symptoms should take to clear? Maybe hard to say, could be weeks I guess. Highly doubt a couple of days will clear it.

    I'm anemic and when it is uncontrolled I get heart palpitations. Looks like undereating can lead to anemia. Are you eating red meat?

    When you follow up with your doctor, you could ask for your iron levels to be tested.

    https://www.healthline.com/health/iron-deficiency-inadequate-dietary-iron

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