I don't understand why this happens to me. Everyone else I talk to has bounds of energy doing low carb.
I feel weak, like deep in my body. In my legs mostly, but also my arms. It's almost a feeling like when you are starving and your body has zero energy!
I also work out 5-6 times a week, cardio and weight training every other day.
I eat A LOT compared to most people, I'm always hungry it seems. And I do get my veggies in. This happened last time I did low carb and it went away when I switched to the Body For Life way of eating. I decided to do low carb again to jump start weight loss (can't seem to get the scale to budge!) but it still hasn't moved much. I've been low carbing for 5 or 6 weeks this time around. What is the problem? Does anybody else have this feeling in their body?
I'm not sure exactly how many carbs I take in but I eat good foods and the only carbs are veggies, cream, cheese, etc. I usually have a low carb tortilla (or two) a day. I do eat some splenda every day and usually a diet soda or two. The weariness usually hits me full force between breakfast and lunch, even though I have a snack between. It seems to go away for awhile after I eat.
ughh...
any suggestions?
Sheri

I'm not sure what the answer is Sheri. I've started doing significant weight and cardio exercise. Since then, I've noticed that I feel more tired. I've increased my total calories, but my carbs are still under 30g per day. I may start slowly increasing my carbs, based on the exercise that I'm doing. I have the BFL book, but have not read it through yet. If I recall correctly, more carbs may be necessary for intense exercise in general. Maybe some folks in the BFL or exercise forums have the answer (I don't...LOL).

-Mike

Yes this sounds just like me! I am on my 6th day of induction and my legs especially feel so tired. I also have been exercising everyday, walking four miles every night. Maybe u are not getting in enough carbs to support all that exercising you are doing? The only thing I would suggest is getting rid of the diet soda and sticking to pure water. As for being energetic? A friend of mine told me the first two weeks she felt really tired, but after the initial phase, she was full of energy. Still waiting for all that energy to come to me.

First two weeks of low carb its perfectly normal to feel abnormal.

I did feel much more tired for quite a few months but lately that has been letting up as I enter my 2nd year of low carbing.

Give it a bit and your body will come out of it. My body snapped out of this silliness completely within a month

How many grams of protein and carbs are you eating? My suggestion would be to make sure you are getting at least 1 g protein per lb of body weight, and 50-100 ECC low glycemic carbs. I can do BFL on 50 and my lifting is good but my cardio suffers. At 100 ECC, both are good. My protein ranges from 180-250 g.

Also, what's your calorie level?

Cheers,

Friday

P.S. and if that doesn't work, try ditching the quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore. *ducks and runs*

I agree check your calorie level for tha tintense of working out. Also you will notice more fatigue in weight lifting because your muscles no longer have gluclose to burn.

You might also check to see if you are getting enough calcium, pottasium and magnesium.


Have you checked out the BFL forum on here? They mix Lc and the body for life exercises. They have more carbs then induction levels, but have them at certain times of day basedon thier workout. Itmay be more what you need.

Taking extra potassium really helped me out of a slump. I take 4 99mg pills/day now with some cal-mag. It seemed like a lot at first but this amount was recommended by the Eades in PPLP, and it is working!

I have the same problem. This is the 3rd time I'm doing Atkins and in 2nd week of induction. I feel unbelievably exhausted all the time. I went hiking last weekend and didn't think I was going to make it back and this is a hike I've done many times without problems. I take all the Atkins suggested supplements as well as extra potassium, B12, l-carnitine and glucosamine but have yet to see a difference in energy levels. The first time I did Atkins (1 1/2 yrs ago), I did nothing after work but sit on my tukus and lost 15 lbs the first 2 weeks and had plenty of energy. Now I'm working out 6 days a week and have lost only 7.5lbs and have no energy at all. I am hoping that this will improve over time.

Again, the first two weeks of Atkins you really shouldn't be pushing yourself. Takes the body awhile to get used to the change. Some people have a very rough time the first two weeks.

BFL+less than 50 carbs=IMPOSSIBLE for me. I mean I can do it....but I feel like I am hitting all "5's" and not "10's" and I feel like crap all day.

I second that about BFL and 50 carbs. I tried to do my BFL on about 25 ish, and I could carb up on free day(saturday) and bonk as early as Tuesday morning. 50 means my lifting is good and my cardio suffers a little, but not enough to justify the acne that comes with adding any more carbs.

Cheers,

Friday

Also, how long have you been at that exercise schedule? I know exactly the kind of tiredness you're talking about -- I call it "black hole" tiredness, because it's like I can't get enough food to fill up or sleep to feel rested -- and for me it's the first symptom of overtraining. If that's the case, or if you even think it might be the case, lay off the exercise and eat maintenance for one to two weeks, and see if you feel better afterwards. I know what you mean about feeling like you're eating a lot as is, because I'm a big eater myself, and consider weight-loss level to be roughly 1800 cals and 35-50g (plus 1g/lb protein); that's hardly starvation, but it's still a good bit below maintenance levels, which are more like 2200 cals and 80g for me. Make sure you're getting plenty of sleep, too -- one of the chief reasons I'm always struggling with overtraining and cortisol problems is inadequate sleep and excess stress. You can only stress your body in so many ways at one time, y'know? I can function on too little sleep, or I can push myself to the max in the gym, or I can restrict my food intake, or even two of those at once, but I can't do all three for a long time. I can get away with it for 2-3 months, but then I start to crash, and I have to take a few days off and then spend some more time working out but eating maintenance. I get the tiredness and hunger (especially for protein/red meat) first, and then start seeing performance losses in the gym. Does that set off any lightbulbs with you?

If you aren't willing to take a week or two off the gym, just raising your calories and carbs to maintenance levels for a while will probably help a bit. But I'd seriously encourage you to take a rest unless you're 100% sure it's NOT a cortisol management thing, because overtraining is *no fun*. If you keep trying to work through the tiredness, you will only make it worse, and you'll eventually wind up getting sick or injured -- I nearly wound up in the hospital last winter with a sinus infection that I couldn't seem to fight off, because I was just too worn down. Also, the longer you try to work through it, the longer you will eventually have to take off exercising and eat maintenance to recover, which doesn't do much for your weight loss.

This thread about cortisol understanding and management has a lot of good information in it about the signs and symptoms of overtraining.

Hang in, until your body adjusts to burning fat more efficiently. Seems to me like the body adjusts to big demands for a while, but then levels out fine. I had this problem on multi-day backpacks when I first tried them on low carb regimen.

Think how well those Eskimos did with just fat and meat to eat, and very harsh, demanding physical conditions.

You can do it if you want to, just takes a while. No need for more carbs and the resulting blood sugar spikes and demand for insulin. IMHO, of course.

How much water are you drinking ? I get like that if I drink too much water (or too little).

If you are drinking at the top end of water intake, drop it for a bit and see if it helps, if you aren't drinking enough, up it a bit.

If you are exercising such a lot, you may also suffer from mineral imbalance. Salt, Magnesium and Potassium should help.