I definitely did, but thankfully not for 3 weeks! I definitely had a full week, maybe 1.5 wks that I felt completely fatigued and had to push myself through every second of every workout. I still have days, but for the most part my body feels like it wants to move, and I crave the exercise.

I've experienced all and am currently experiencing No.5! It's been a few days now and I am not happy with it. It makes it hard to eat what I'm supposed to b/c I'm not really doing anything. I'm almost dizzy I'm so exhausted. I hope it passes soon. This morning feels hopeful, though It seems to come and go in small waves though out the week.

Definitely gone thru all of them and #5 lasted a couple weeks where I caved and lowered my calories a bit because I freaked out. Thankfully I came to my senses and upped them again.

Oh gosh, that is me. I'm at #5 now, Ive been taking rest days from workouts and I feel so drained and exhausted. Still trying to keep up eating 1500 calories, but sometimes I'm hungry and sometimes I feel so stuffed. And I thought it was depression again, lol, but I'm not sad, just tired.

In retrospect, I did both...ate more and cut cardio. For the two weeks prior to my post about being tired, I was eating more than I really wanted to, but I was soooo hungry. It was an average of 200 cals a day more that I had really planned. Then I posted about being tired and was encouraged to take time off. When I took the time off from exercise, I was able to get the eating back under control (~1900/day). So, for me, a combination of the two.

I think it all boils down to listening to our bodies.

This is crazy. Before reading this post I didn't realize my lack of energy could be due to eating more - but I think the past two weeks have definitely been due to that. I thought it was because of a ton of other things! I'm glad to hear that this is a short phenomena and that it'll go away soon. Totally stuck on #5 right now though.

Oh, and in case you guys wanted the info - last week I did pretty much no exercise (too tired) and the past 6 or so days I haven't been able to sleep well at all. I don't know if that is due to Step 5 or not, but the correlation would be interesting to investigate.

This is so interesting. I've been eating at a higher calorie level (doing low carb/high fat before I found this group) for about a month I guess and this past 4 days, I have been knackered!

I fell asleep at my desk yesterday (employee of the month or what?), had a nap on Saturday and Sunday (very unusual for me) and my sleep patterns are definitely disturbed. (Woke at 3 this morning and was "twitchy" all night)

I prescribe myself some dark chocolate! *wink*

I think I might be going through # 5.
I thought it could be stress and lack of sleep but even over the weekend I felt tired n hungry. Today I feel a tiny bit better. Hopefully it goes away soon

So what do you think the solution is for people going through the stage 5? Eat even more for a short period of time? Or maybe plan more sleep and cut cardio until the initial reset is complete?

I think there is alot of people who skip on sleep or give it a low priority in regards to their health goals. I might start collating information on studies to do with sleep deprivation and its relationship to obesity , muscle gain, and other health impacts for Lucia in case she thinks its worth a stickie post for the forum.

I experienced #5 for a few days in Week 3. I didn't skip my workouts completely but defintely didn't give it my all. I NEVER thought it had to do with eating more! I just thought my body needed rest. So I didn't "fight" with my body~ I took it easy on the workouts and got a lot of rest in the afternoons.

This is so interesting......Thanks for posting this, now I'll pay attention to it. (must admit, I'm still (after a month) rarely hungry)

Those findings are also very similar to what was discovered during the Minnesota Experiment. It was a study where the men ate under BMR for an extended period of time, went into starvation mode, and then were documented throughout their refeed process as they rebuilt their metabolism. They had to OVER eat for an extended period of time (months) before their body stabilized.

I always try to encourage all EM2WL members to read this, to really understand the process, and why I recommend doing metabolism resets, but one of the last paragraphs was especially important.

an excerpt from the end (which is pretty much picking up at stage 2 mentioned above, though stage 1 was documented as well):

"Upon returning to their normal eating habits, the men seemed to have out of control eating, feeling like they could never get enough. It took many of them five months or more before things finally begin to level out (metabolism/energy levels) and they started to regain normalcy to their eating (though some continued to have an eating disorder frame of mind when it came to the food, for even longer). Strength levels took more than three months to return to normal. The studies found that the men needed to over eat in order for this rehabilitation to take place, because the body had been in such short supply of nutrients needed, it essentially needed an "over-dose" for months, in order to get it back to normal. In lieu of the over eating then men had to gain 10% more than their original weight back, but the weight came back in different proportions. The regained weight was mostly fat, and their lean body mass recovered at an extremely slower pace. With unlimited food and unrestricted eating, their weights plateaued and finally, about 9 months later, most had naturally returned to their initial ("healthy") weights without trying.


Dr Keys (who performed the study) concluded this regarding why the "over-eating" was a necessary evil in BMR rehabilitation:


"Our experiments have shown that in an adult man, no appreciable rehabilitation can take place on a diet of 2,000 calories a day. The proper level is more like 4,000 kcal daily for some months. The character of the rehabilitation diet is important also, but unless calories are abundant, then extra proteins, vitamins and minerals are of little value."



So essentially, these men had to eat double the amount of food to make up for the newly deemed "starvation mode" that they'd just subjected their bodies to. And note that they needed FOOD, supplementation alone, without the extra calories, was not enough to rebuild their BMR. "


As I said before, I encourage all to read that post, in its entirety...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/31prvrbs/view/the-starvation-experiment-208077



~Kiki

Yes i definitely had the over tired part for a while.. i was falling asleep on the subway on the way home and so drowsy at the end of the workday. and that was defiantly not normal. These days i feel great.

Great post Kiki, I have read that article.

What interested me is that I hadn't had a restricted diet beforehand apart from about 3 weeks at 1200 when I first started as a weight loss newb before I raised them. No other previous history of restriction. So while I had read that article I thought at the time that it being a long term study the physiological changes described would not have too much relevance to me. I am changing my mind on that one.

So if my metabolism raised noticably with increasing calories after a short term restriction and I think it did, then people saying that short term restrictive calorie diets (4 weeks or less) don't lower your metabolism are inaccurate. At least in my case and I dont think I am a special snowflake.



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I tend to agree w/you on that. That's why even now, at the high cal deficit that I already have, I take a diet break every 4 weeks, rather every 8-10 as usually suggested. I've found that my body will adapt right around that time, if I don't. So...maybe we're both special snowflakes

Okay this MAY be off topic BUT it's worth thinking about. Do any of you ladies have Endometriosis? I have a VERY severe case. The past year I have been close to pain free b/c I cut out soy completely and most wheat and most dairy out of my diet. WELLLLL, I have been exhausted for the past 2 weeks and THOUGHT I was experiencing number 5. BUT, I have also been in a lot of pain throughout the past few weeks, too. Yesterday I limited my wheat (only brown rice) and only dairy I had was 1 c in my shakeology and 2/3 c cottage cheese. My pain wasn't AS bad and I feel like I have a bit more energy today. ? Just my observations. I know upping cals is affecting my hormones, so this could also be the culprit. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who suffers from this awful disease.

GOTTA add, when My endo flares up, it drains me and I'm left pretty exhausted. I'm hoping I can get a handle on this soon.

Okay this MAY be off topic BUT it's worth thinking about. Do any of you ladies have Endometriosis? I have a VERY severe case. The past year I have been close to pain free b/c I cut out soy completely and most wheat and most dairy out of my diet. WELLLLL, I have been exhausted for the past 2 weeks and THOUGHT I was experiencing number 5. BUT, I have also been in a lot of pain throughout the past few weeks, too. Yesterday I limited my wheat (only brown rice) and only dairy I had was 1 c in my shakeology and 2/3 c cottage cheese. My pain wasn't AS bad and I feel like I have a bit more energy today. ? Just my observations. I know upping cals is affecting my hormones, so this could also be the culprit. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who suffers from this awful disease.

GOTTA add, when My endo flares up, it drains me and I'm left pretty exhausted. I'm hoping I can get a handle on this soon.

I have endo. Extremely severe. I've had the laparoscopy done a few times, and then told to just have a hysterectomy (which I have not done) because most of the scar tissue is located on my kidney and they can't laser there. So the surgery is pointless because it comes back within a few months.

I've been taken off of dairy, gluten, soy, meat, coffee, chocolate, and just about anything else you could think of :ohwell:

I've been able to slowly add them all back in moderation, as nothing proved to be "the" thing, but I do monitor the dairy and certain foods (and ANYTHING cold) the closer I get to TTOM. Although I do keep the dairy low key, I triple my calcium/magnesium/vit D supps, because they are still a HUGE help in regards to the pain.


~Kiki