Wed, Mar-17-04, 09:57
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Registered Member
Posts: 1,182
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Plan: SPII IS/BOAG
Stats: 186/136/140
BF:A lot/18%/20%
Progress: 109%
Location: Jackson, MS
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ItsTheWooo
I should mention that my lifestyle has been rather hectic lately; I've been living on less than 7 hours sleep for the past couple weeks, often as low as 6. My body naturally craves about 9 hours of sleep to feel truly rested, but because of the LCing I have been able to go without sleep for a long time without feeling exhausted. Also I have been under a lot of stress.
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Speaking from personal experience, I think it's the sleep/stress that's your problem. I've noticed a correlation between lack of sleep and weight swings, and it certainly explains the mood swings and period troubles as well. I lead a pretty hectic life as a general rule, and one thing I've noticed is that if I'm going to be strict on my eating and keep up with my workouts, I've GOT to get enough sleep. If I don't, I very quickly wind up showing overtraining symptoms -- which, BTW, are caused by cortisol, AKA the "stress hormone". You might find some helpful information in this thread about cortisol.
I'd recommend you take a short break from exercise, if you're not already, and that you eat at maintenance levels until you can come out from under. Eating for weight loss represents a big stress on your body, and so does exercise, and so does lack of sleep. I can go on for a good long while with two out of those three, but after a couple weeks of all three of them, I go kaput. This happened to me late last summer, and I didn't realize what was going on for a while, and I tried to bull-head my way through it instead of listening to what my body was telling me. It took a couple weeks for me to give in and wise up, by which time the damage was done -- I got really sick three times in as many months, nearly landed myself in the hospital the last time with a secondary sinus infection that wouldn't go away. I've just been through the same thing quite recently, but this time I was smart enough to take a week off sooner rather than later, and I am feeling much better.
More sleep is the key for me, but if you can't do that, eat a little more food. You've mentioned in another thread that you've been having big protein cravings, and sometimes it's not a bad idea to listen to those. Sure, you may stop losing weight for a little while, but trust me, that's better than where you go if you keep trying to push yourself too hard!
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