Hypoglycemia?

Lately whenever I eat carbohydrates I get kind of a weird reaction. My chest gets tight, I don’t feel I’m getting enough oxygen (but my breathing is fine), I get sleepy and I feel as if my heart rate and blood preassure go up. I’m thinking my diet has something to do with it. Basically during the day I eat a high fat high protein diet. But after my workout at about 4 pm I eat high protein, high carb. Then I feel like shit. I feel good during the day and have no problems, but after I eat carbs, I feel aweful. What do you guys think? I’m planning on going to the doctor, but was wondering if these symptoms sounded familiar to anyone. Thanks

spe - i know just what you mean. generally speaking when i go on a mass cycle and consume higher quantities of food (esp. elevated carbs) i feel VERY lethargic, i could care less about anything except for sleeping and my breathing becomes deeper, quicker and heavier even while at rest. i feel like i exist in a cloud of fog, mentally unsharp almost like i am slightly medicated. my resting temperature increases as does my perspiration and i become much more vascular.

i don’t know what causes this persay, but i have a feeling that it is a response to a flood of insulin that we are not accustomed to. it might be that we get such a good insulin response to carbs that it takes very little to get us anabolic, so it is easy to over do it.

i feel my best when i am feeding at or just above maintenance with a pronounced post workout overfeeding. the only times i can easily get away with overfeeding is right after my workout, but once my muscle glycogen stores are full any excessive overfeeding gets stored away as fat at an alarming rate. so i have to be very careful while topping it off between workouts. usually i try to keep my carb intake in check while i bump up the protein and fats to increase my calories for overfeeding.

i really don’t see the need for you to go to the doctor for this, but of course this is just my opinion. i think it is just a matter of dialing in your diet to suit your particular needs at the time. good luck. kevo

I recently started feeling the same thing. I did switch my meal pattern around about two weeks ago and that’s when it started. I know what you mean by the tight chest, I feel it between my shoulder blades, also. To me, it feels like anxiety or panic. I may go back to my old meal pattern and see if it goes away.

Hey Greig, that is exactly what it feels like to me too, a panic or anxiety attack. I know it isn’t though. What did you switch your diet to, and what was it before?

SPE- I am actually eating pretty close to the same foods that I ate before, I’m just eating them at different times of the day. I follow JB’s massive eating and I used to alternate P+F meals with P+C meals. When I read his latest suggestions I switched to P+F up until my workout(6pm) and then all P+C meals. The first day I did this, I felt like I was going to faint for about 25 minutes(roughly 1 hour after my second post workout P+C meal). That particular reaction hasn’t happened again, but the panic/anxiety feeling remains. I’m thinking of going back to my alternate meal pattern. I don’t think it will affect my gains to such a great extent.

I may have figured it out! Today after I worked out I decided to skip the maltodextrin (high glycemic) and go with just oatmeal and whey. Well, it happened again! I am now fairly certain that whey causes a HUGE insulin release. I’m now cutting it out of my diet to see what happens.

Diabetes runs in my family and I’m basically hypoglycemic. I used to get really tired during the day, all day. I would just sit with my head on my desk instead of studying like I should’ve been doing. I switched to basically a Diabetic’s diet… food every 1.5-2.5 hours, only complex carbs like whole wheat, oatmeal… and well, that’s it. add some all bran for regularity. Anyway, it was just a matter of eating better carbs for me… all day… I’d pass out if I went from morning to night just on protein and fat. but that’s just me… oh yeah, and I started sleeping more. that might’ve helped. And I stopped eating fruit except for a little here and there…but not much.

SPE- where do you buy your protein? I buy mine from The Protein Factory. I am sort of leaning to this as the culprit. If you’re buying their whey, too, then maybe it’s case closed.

YES! I do buy mine from protein factory, and only use the whey protein concentrate. I never knew it could cause a big insulin response. I wonder if it’s just theirs, or all WPC?