No energy on induction, need advice

[Anne50]

Hi all, I spent 4 days on induction eating less than 20 carbs/day, no caffeine, diet soda, coffee or tea. I lost like crazy, but was so tired I could barely move. Finally, yesterday I ate bread and an apple and immediately felt better.

My question is: Does anyone else have this problem, and what is the minimum carbs I can have get rid of this tiredness problem, but still lose relatively quickly?

I appreciate any advice anyone can give me. Thank you.

Anne

[cin21629]

Hi Anne,
I have did the atkins diet before ,, however i am just beginning again starting yesterday.. I had a baby ,, so now i am back at it lol .. anywho hehe.. I noticed when i was on it before that I was tired alot too ,, but i would push my self to exercise everyday and it seemed like after I would exercise , the more energy I seemed to have.

I have never been much for exercise , I guess thats why I need to lose weight to began with besides my eating habits ,, but it did amaze me how much better i felt when i pushed myself to exercise

[2big4mysize]

Atkins is about more then just eating below 20 grams of carbs. If you are tired and have no energy Dr Atkins says to eat more food total. If you wrre eating your total intake of food too low for your needs you could be tired and fatigued.

Also mnay folk as they switch from primarily burning gucose to primarily burning fatty acids for fuel go through what manyrefer to as induction flu for a few days as their bodies build up the needed enzymes cofactors transporters and increase the factories ( the mitochondrias) in their cells. Our bodies with healthy foods eatten on Atkins will quickly create the needed stuff. Were you eating your carbs as mostly from your veggies? There are some supplements you can add See DANDR for the list to help you metabolize fatty acids better if your food choices are poor. Try a restart and give it a few days to see if your energy levles pick up. I know on day 4 for me the world changed. I has so much energy my todo list was never smaller then during induction eating.

Happy low carbing

[ixtapacheryl]

Originally Posted by Anne50

Hi all, I spent 4 days on induction eating less than 20 carbs/day, no caffeine, diet soda, coffee or tea. I lost like crazy, but was so tired I could barely move. Finally, yesterday I ate bread and an apple and immediately felt better.

My question is: Does anyone else have this problem, and what is the minimum carbs I can have get rid of this tiredness problem, but still lose relatively quickly?

I appreciate any advice anyone can give me. Thank you.

Anne

The reason you felt better after the bread and apple is because you fed your body carbs. Bread especially is absorbed very quickly and I know apples have a lot of carbs.

After three days you should have started feeling better. I normally have headaches and am very tired the first three days but after that you can't keep me down. I need hardly any sleep and my headaches disappear.

If you felt lousy beyond those 3 days you might have not realized you somehow got more carbs than you desired. Something is wrong with feeling the way you have been. Re-evaluate what you've been eating. Feeding yourself bread and fruit is counter-productive IMHO.... You are just stalling the inevitable! You will have to go through the initial detoxing.

[ixtapacheryl]

Anne50: 2big4mysize has a good point. You might not have been eating enough of the allowable foods. Don't starve yourself ..... eat!

[Jean@125]

Originally Posted by Anne50

Hi all, I spent 4 days on induction eating less than 20 carbs/day, no caffeine, diet soda, coffee or tea. I lost like crazy, but was so tired I could barely move. Finally, yesterday I ate bread and an apple and immediately felt better.

My question is: Does anyone else have this problem, and what is the minimum carbs I can have get rid of this tiredness problem, but still lose relatively quickly?

I appreciate any advice anyone can give me. Thank you.

Anne

I felt really tired and weak the first week or so on induction. Especially walking up stairs and couldn't walk as fast or as far as I normally do. I think once your body switches over to fat burning for fuel it gets better.

[flourchild]

Originally Posted by Anne50

My question is: Does anyone else have this problem, and what is the minimum carbs I can have get rid of this tiredness problem, but still lose relatively quickly?

The lethargy is temporary but very common during this stage. The only way through it is...well, through it.

The carb limit for Atkins Induction is 20, as you probably know from your reading.

One of OWL's purposes is to find the maximum number of carbs one can have and still lose. It's an individual number so no one can tell you in advance what your CCLL will be.

I hope you give Induction another chance, and get through it cleanly. We've ALL been where you are now and lived to tell. Best wishes!

[Npnfeef]

Originally Posted by Anne50

Hi all, I spent 4 days on induction eating less than 20 carbs/day, no caffeine, diet soda, coffee or tea. I lost like crazy, but was so tired I could barely move. Finally, yesterday I ate bread and an apple and immediately felt better.

My question is: Does anyone else have this problem, and what is the minimum carbs I can have get rid of this tiredness problem, but still lose relatively quickly?

I appreciate any advice anyone can give me. Thank you.

Anne

I would go ahead and eat as close as possible to Atkins' 20 grams of carbohydrate (after deducting fiber) per day, and make the vast majority of those from allowable veggies! :-) Sounds like you're not eating ENOUGH carbs. Don't be scared of Induction-allowed veggie carbs, veggies are a great source of vitamins, they tend to be gentle on your blood sugar, and the fiber in them helps you "go".
Me, I like to buy bags of frozen veggies (especially stir fry mixes...but watch to make sure they don't have noodles or sauce added) and make a nice veggie scramble in the morning with a few eggs. The good veggie carbs give me a little pep in the morning.
One note about stir fry veggie mixes...they often have some degree of carrots in them, which are not technically induction-allowed, but I never had any problem with small incidental amounts of julienned carrots in things like stir-fry mix, cole slaw mix, salad mix, etc. I wouldn't snack on a bag of baby carrots, mind you, but I wasn't gonna kill myself picking little bits of carrot out of my bag of cole slaw mix! :-)
Try bringing up your carbs to that 20 a day, you will probably feel a lot better!

Nikki

[Anne50]

Thank you so much to those of you who made all the suggestions! I really appreciate it. It really helped. I am getting some of my carbs from appropriate veggies, but realized I was feeling VERY deprived without some sweet taste. So, I am allowing myself a couple of diet sodas a day made with aspartame, and maybe a cup of coffee with 1-2 Sweet n Lows (again, aspartame) and a tiny bit of nondairy cream, which I count as 2 carbs. I still stay under 20 carbs, so the balance seems to be working. Here is my progress to date:

General Stats:
Female, 42 years old
5'0" (short)
Starting weight as of 8/29/07: 75.9 kilos or 167 lbs.
Goal by 12/25/07: 50 kilos or 110 lbs. (or as close as I can get)
Exercise: Average of 45 minutes/day

Weight Loss Progess

8/29/07: 75.9 kilos or 167 lbs. Starting point
8/31/07: 73.8 kilos or 162.4 lbs. -2.1 kilos
9/1/07: 73.2 kilos or 161 lbs. -2.6 kilos
9/2/07: 72.4 kilos or 159 lbs. -3.5 kilos
9/3/07: 74.6 kilos or 164 lbs. -1.3 kilos binged on carbs/”induction flu”)
9/4/07: 72.6 kilos or 159.7 lbs -3.3 kilos (getting back on track)
9/5/07: 72.4 kilos or 159 lbs. -3.5 kilos
9/7/07: 70.8 kilos or 155.8 lbs -5.1 kilos

Thanks,

Anne

[2big4mysize]

wow you have dropped 21% of your needed to lose weight in just 10 days no wonder you don't have any energy. If I had done that I'd have shed 30 pounds. Make sure you are eatring enough to just be shedding fat nass and sparing your lean mass.

about all those drinks and sweetners have you read Dr Atkins books? he limits sweetners to 3 servings a day based on the manufactures serving size like a can of diet coke is 1.5 servings. try to cut down on your swwetners so you can kill that sweet thooth since feeding it help make you need to shed those pounds. As you progress along your journey you will be amazed at how sweet things taste naturally and you will not be wanting as much sugar stuff.

[Anne50]

Originally Posted by 2big4mysize

wow you have dropped 21% of your needed to lose weight in just 10 days no wonder you don't have any energy. If I had done that I'd have shed 30 pounds. Make sure you are eatring enough to just be shedding fat nass and sparing your lean mass.

about all those drinks and sweetners have you read Dr Atkins books? he limits sweetners to 3 servings a day based on the manufactures serving size like a can of diet coke is 1.5 servings. try to cut down on your swwetners so you can kill that sweet thooth since feeding it help make you need to shed those pounds. As you progress along your journey you will be amazed at how sweet things taste naturally and you will not be wanting as much sugar stuff.

I have not gotten Dr. Atkins' books in the mail yet, I ordered them from Amazon.com. I did read a few websites which gave the basics so been following their guidelines. I have energy now. I think it was cutting out too much caffeine, no sweetners, and being menstrual all at once. Am having 3 to 4.5 artificial sweetner servings (according to your calculations), and it is sufficing. I am not sure a sweet tooth can be "killed", and it was not really the sweet tooth that got me into trouble in the first place. It was emotional eating, which included many things other than sweets. So far there is nothing sweet on induction, except the artificial sweetners. Although cucumbers do have an interesting taste!

According to the WW guidelines, I am eating my minimum points, so technically I am eating enough. I am a small woman, and although overweight, need far fewer calories (bummer!!) to lose. I hope that makes sense. You are so sweet to warn me and let me know your thoughts. I really appreciate it. The support on this board is really incredible. Please take care and have a great weekend!!

Smiles.
Anne

[2big4mysize]

actually the total cals doing a ketogenic plan should be higher then on a WW carb plan because it costs the body more cals to process protein and fat from mouth to ATP ( body energy units) then it does carbs. Atkins gives us about 25-30% more burning just from metabolism. that is the atkins advantage. So a 1200 cal WW plan would work as well as a 1500-1560 plan, not saying you should be eating 1200 cals on WW was just giving you a comparative number.

Give induction a sweet free 14 days and those veggies and meats will taste sweet too. Emotional eating is a difficult road to over come. Uding food as a drug is a tough addiction to overcome. Are you keeping food journals with the Ws like who what when where why and how you were feeling before during after and 30 mins later so you can avoid trigger issues?

[Anne50]

Originally Posted by 2big4mysize

actually the total cals doing a ketogenic plan should be higher then on a WW carb plan because it costs the body more cals to process protein and fat from mouth to ATP ( body energy units) then it does carbs. Atkins gives us about 25-30% more burning just from metabolism. that is the atkins advantage. So a 1200 cal WW plan would work as well as a 1500-1560 plan, not saying you should be eating 1200 cals on WW was just giving you a comparative number.

Give induction a sweet free 14 days and those veggies and meats will taste sweet too. Emotional eating is a difficult road to over come. Uding food as a drug is a tough addiction to overcome. Are you keeping food journals with the Ws like who what when where why and how you were feeling before during after and 30 mins later so you can avoid trigger issues?

Hi Two (do you have a name I can refer to you by other than two? ),

I am not doing the WW carb plan, just staying within the point range I used back in 2002-3 when I lost the original 107 lbs., of which, as of 9/7/07 I had gained back about 45 lbs. I am just choosing low carb foods, and watching the caffeine and artifical sweetner intake. I am also working out about 45-60 min/day and that is working. I mix up the calories day to day so keeps my metabolism high. I also drink a lot of water with lemon juice which helps keep water retention down as lemon juice is a natural duiretic (sp?).

When I did WW for that year period, I figured out what my emotional eating triggers were, but was not motivated in the last year or so to care. I care now, so is working. I am finding the low carb easy to do..after I check the weigh in Monday, I may try adding calories to see if I can eat more and still lose. I really do appreciate your thoughts. I cannot wait to get the book and read it. The suggestions you have given me are really helpful (such as the artifical sweetner allowance). Thank you so much!
Anne

[2big4mysize]

thanks most fok just shorten it to 2BIG

I know you are not doing the WW plan I was just givng you the info on the addtional cals Atkins low carbers burn just getting the food metabolized cause many folk who couldn't lose on anything more then 1200 cals high carb plan according to them will then be under nurishing their bodies doing 1200 on Atkins

remeber even though we all want it gone yesterday this is about a life long marathon of getting healthy by eating healthy to shed oourexcess bdy fat. please don't burn yourself out sprinting to goal weight.

[Anne50]

Hi Two,

You are correct, I may be able to eat more calories on the low carb diet...i will know more after Monday which will be the next weigh in day. I am only on day 11 of the induction period, so after day 14, I will reevaluate to see if I can eat more carbs and calories. I am actually finding that I am having to force myself to eat the calories alloted for a particular day. What I am eating is so low density it is almost too fulling. I think my stomach has really shrunk! LOL...Well, take care and have a great evening!

BTW..I got the Ketostix in the mail today and tested, and I am in moderate ketosis...

Anne

[2big4mysize]

good for you about being in ketosis. if you are following the plan then you should be in ketosis the rest of your life as defined by Dr Atkins as the burning of fats for fuels even if your stix don't show a high enough concnetration of ketones in that urine sample to detect.

You can help yourself by making nutrtionally denser food choices so you get all your vits minerals needed fats EFAs proteins and carbs in with smaller amounts of foods too.

[DizzyUpTheGirl]

Just stick with it! I felt sooo sick and blah the first whole month that I did Atkins.... It was really hard to stay with the program as I felt sooo weak and nauseous and tired.. but the results made me keep at it and my body finally adjusted to the low carb shock! You can do it!