For the past couple of month i started going on a low carb diet to shed some of the extra lard i have, but for some reason , whenever i go on a no sugar diet shit starts to hit the fan. you name it :
dizziness
light headed
sleepy
chest feels weird, like my heart is hung by a thread sinking “dunno how to describe it”
when i try to sleep , i can feel my heart sinking into my stomach
i get the urge of wanting to move my hands or myself, never want to sit,stand in one place.
panic attacks
anxiety
dunno , it is a very weird weird feeling, i check on my blood pressure it is normal 120/80 ,glucose 90 - 95 in the early morning
The moment i eat something sugary i start getting better, or it might take up to 12 hours until i feel fine.
Friend of mine told me i might have sugar addiction, and these are withdrawal symptoms ,and should go on a sugar detox.
I have no idea how should i tackle this if it is truly sugar addiction, should i cut off all carbs ,sugar cold turkey or take them out of my diet on a step by step sequence.
From my understanding you are transitioning from relying on carbs for your energy source to relying on fats for your energy source. Ive read many different opinions, but apparently this transition can take 5-10 days(some say longer) to occur. All of those things are you are experiencing are normal.
I have been trying the low carb approach lately and have experienced some of those symptoms. I am undecided if I want to continue and thinking of going back to carb cycling.
Assuming you have a clean bill of health, just tough it out.
You’ll eventually switch back over to that same ‘fat-adapted’ metabolism that we’ve happily functioned with for our entire species’ history, basically.
[quote]chillain wrote:
Assuming you have a clean bill of health, just tough it out.
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Out of interest, does anyone think that this ultra low carb approach could work for an athlete playing sports such as football or basketball or martial arts etc?
I play football and have have tried a higher fat, lower carb approach but can not do it longer than 10 days before I feel like completely ruined.
^^ I’d suspect that a long-term low carb is absolutely sustainable for sports like futbol and hoops (ie. sports w/ heavy cardio component). For example, Steve Nash and Grant Hill made news for cutting out sugar (and gluten?) some years back and they were ahead of the curve in this respect. And both continued to play at a high level before Father Time eventually won out.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t expect it to work well in those sports with strong anaerobic/glycogen-depleting component. Football, rugby, frequent lift/sprint sessions, certain track events, maybe MMA as well.
[quote]chillain wrote:
Assuming you have a clean bill of health, just tough it out.
[/quote]
Out of interest, does anyone think that this ultra low carb approach could work for an athlete playing sports such as football or basketball or martial arts etc?
I play football and have have tried a higher fat, lower carb approach but can not do it longer than 10 days before I feel like completely ruined.
tweet[/quote]
I wouldn’t think so; not for sports that require a lot of sprinting, anyway. I reckon it could work for endurance type stuff but for something like football I reckon there’s too much high intensity sprinting required.
Well, firstly to the OP, what is your training like and what do you mean by low carb. Its kind of a general statement that could be different for anyone. You mean like ZERO carb? Just cut them completely? Or 50g everyday? Or sub 100g? And what is your activity level like? If you just dropped carbs to nada and tried to keep up all activities, especially training just like it was before then yes, your symptoms are as to be expected because there was no adaptation period and maybe youre just not able to do that to your body.
What also is to note is your fasting glucose is kind of high. So I dont think this is a good mix to just cut cold turkey. You should probably progressively come down to a lower carb level, and then cycle. This is just first guess w/o assessment. But if youre saying a little bit of sugar brings you to normal, after experiencing a pretty good amount of negative physiological symptoms, I going to say youre dropping blood sugar too low and its fucking you up.
As far as athletes running low carbs, Ive seen it a few times but usually there is a carb ramp up at some point. Even Keiffer used his carb back loading with an athlete running a marathon and got pretty solid results. A lot of it hinges on adaptation though but Ive even seen extremely low crossfitters, strongman, cyclists, soccer players etc but they would use refeed methods. Nash and the other athlete listed above went a paleo approach but they kept in starches.
OP - theBird and chillain are bang on. In addition you have years (likely) of eating crap and your body has made a routine out of it. It’s going to take some time (the Bird said about 10 days I think). I’d guess in your case it could take upwards of 2-3 weeks. Most people will change things up (diet/routine) and bail after a few days to a week saying it’s not working, when they haven’t given it the opportunity to work. Try to stick through it for 3 weeks and if you still feel like crap all the time, then try to slowly re-introduce carbs/sugar. I say “slowly” so you can keep an eye on what is going on with your body and how it responds - keep track of time of day/quantity/etc.
Personally, I prefer a low carb diet.
Now are you also restricting your calorie intake?
When I cut bodyfat in the spring/summer by reducing carbs (oh my precious bread where art though?) and cutting calories, I become an PITA (pain in the a$$) according to my wife. My buddies at the gym don’t seem to mind as I’m pretty focused and intense, but around the house I’m a bear waiting to rip someones head off.
[quote]hipsr4runnin wrote:
Well, firstly to the OP, what is your training like and what do you mean by low carb. Its kind of a general statement that could be different for anyone. You mean like ZERO carb? Just cut them completely? Or 50g everyday? Or sub 100g? And what is your activity level like? [/quote]
Combination of Weightlifting and cardio, during my training days “5 days of training every 10 days” i go on 50% carbs.
On my off days i go on 60 grams carbs ,and rest is a combination of p/f.
i just drop the carbs on non training days. what do you mean by Adaptation period to go off carbs?
Always thought 90-95 glucose levels are within normal range.
heres my question, is the way i feel directly effected to my physiology or is it just pscyhologically?
I think best way to know is when i start feeling like shit , i should check on my glucose lvls.
If someone to run a marathon , could this person do it just on 20% carbs 80% p/f.
[quote]Smallfry69 wrote:
OP - theBird and chillain are bang on. In addition you have years (likely) of eating crap and your body has made a routine out of it.[/quote]
when you say routine do you mean amm addicted to it?
during these 3 weeks , should i stay on minimul of 50 grams carbs , and when i start feeling shitty , will it just be my psych/mental or will i be hurting myself physiologically?
will be trying this , again the dizziness ,light head and sinking heart feeling is fucking me up big time.
OP, at as high of a bodyfat percentage as you say you’re at, you should be able to start leaning up while eating plenty of carbs still. No reason at all to drop them to the point where you’re feeling dizzy. That’s end of contest prep feeling, not beginning of a casual cut. Just make a small enough drop in your daily intake to get the ball rolling, then once fat loss seems to stall, either take out a little more food or add in a bit of cardio. Make gradual changes only as necessary, nothing drastic
I have a few thoughts. First, your low carb diet (60g/day plus a refeed) isn’t really low enough that you should be suffering from adaptation to ketosis. There is a link between carbs and serotonin that you could look explore, though, if you wanted to follow that particular path.
I would suggest you first start by looking at your salt consumption. It is common (well, common enough to be mentioned in the literature) that as one transitions from a typical American diet (highly processed foods, high in salt) to a low carb diet (eliminates processed foods almost by definition), ones salt consumption can dip too low.
Combine that with the diuretic effects of a low carb diet and that could explain some of your symptoms. If you’ve eliminated processed foods and are not salting your food otherwise, I would shoot for 5grams of salt per day (approx 3g of sodium). You may find that your symptoms subside afterwards.
Good luck.
<------------------ Not a Dr., but have been eating VLC or LC for nearly 3.5 years.
