Afternoon crash and not urinating much

#1

Hi there.
Just some curiosity questions … I know I’m still early in the game (3 weeks) and that lots will probably change in the next month or two:

  • I feel AMAZING for the first half of the day… I am clear-headed, energetic, and in a great mood. Then it seems when I go home for lunch and get back to the office, I am totally drained. I start pumping coffee just to finish the day. Does that have something to do with me fasting for 14 hours and then finally eating?

  • I’m drinking the same amount of water but not peeing much… actually a lot less than I used to. My urine is clear so I know I’m not dehydrated. That seems odd to me… am I maybe using too much salt?

  • Is it safe to assume the science behind keto WOE is a lot different from Atkins? I did Atkins about 15 years ago and lost a lot of weight fast and then started losing more slowly, but on Keto I am barely losing at all… fluctuates between 3-4 pounds total in the 3 weeks. Can someone offer me reassurance and hope l by telling me that once I become fat adapted I will see some weight loss? The 3-4 pounds I’ve lost are probably water.

That’s it for now… thanks for being here.
Sue

(Cathy) #2

Hi Sue. I have a lot of questions for you. The number 1 is, what does a typical day’s menu look like? How much weight do you have to lose? How do you know that you are urinating less and less than what? Are you taking any meds including o.t.c. types?

Atkins is not different from keto in the first little while of induction in that the whole point of Atkins induction is to get you into ketosis and going forward, probably stay there for ongoing weight loss. The primary difference is that Atkins did not limit protein and keto usually does but not always.

The lack of energy might indicate that you are swinging back into glucose burning after lunch. It takes up to 3 month for some people to become fully fat adapted. You may need to reduce your carbs and protein…

(Marie Dantoni) #3

Hi Susan, Your body is healing and rebuilding. The scale is a poor measure of progress. It will get better. Just stay the course and tweak as needed. You can do this !

(CharleyD) #4

Welcome aboard @Susan777!

I’m about 11 months in and relative to carb-burners I’m bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after lunch, but I do still drink coffee.

I don’t think you’re going to over-do it on salt. Are you getting more than 5,000mg in per day?

Keto is different from Atkins in that we deliberately moderate protein intake to around 1g/kg of lean body mass. We’re happy getting the least amount of carbs in as we can and don’t feel like we need to reintroduce them, since we’re happy to let the liver do that for us :smile:

My impression is that you’re still adapting to using your own fats. You may need to eat more at your meal or when you’re hungry.

Hope this helps! You are going to be ok!

KCKO!

(CharleyD) #5

Also to tack on to @Marigrace if you were prone to osteopenia at all, once you get your carbs and insulin down, the protein will be used to remineralize your bones, which doesn’t help what that vicious liar the scale says, but then @Brenda can back me up, you’ll be leg pressing several dudes in no time.

#6

Thanks, everyone. Actually, last year’s bone scan came in as osteoporosis. Low end, but officially out of “penia” and into porosis. Doc was trying to get me to take meds for that but I told her that she needed to let me try fixing it by myself first. I’m walking more, doing some yoga, and I was eating all the foods that are suggested to reverse osteo. It would be WONDERFUL if this WOE could help my osteo!!!

My typical weekday menu is: BPC for breakfast. Lunch is either a hot dog or hamburg patty and 1/2 avocado. If still hungry, I have a chunk of fresh coconut meat. When I get hungry a few hours later I either grab a stick of cheese of a handful of cashews. Dinner has been some sort of meat and a veggie (no starchy veggies, though). Dessert at night is either some whipped cream cheese with heavy cream and sweetner or, the pat few nights, a fat bomb. The only difference on weekends is I have eggs and bacon around noon instead of a BPC.

In the past I would have to get to the ladies room to pee about an hour after I got to the office, then again before lunch, probably again during lunch, and another time or two before I left the office. At night, that pace would continue. Now, I find myself going home for lunch without having visited the ladies room at work at all, and then probably once in the afternoon. But your question about meds may be the clue: I was taking a corticosteroid for my colitis and have weaned just about off of them. I believe they used to stimulate my bladder so maybe?

Cut back on carbs and protein, huh? Wow - I still have a hard time with filling myself with fat… old habits die hard. And since I try to limit dairy, getting enough fat is often challenging. Thanks for the comments - you guys are awesome!
Sue

(Mel Soule) #7

Susan sounds like you are getting things under control. Notwithstanding the minor energy dip after lunch. At 3 weeks into this a reasonable expectation is to see a progression of that energetic morning mood spreading throughout the remains of the day. Over the next few weeks you will probably notice the dip hitting later and later in the day. Also important to allow for circadian rhythms, at this time of year with days getting shorter a dip in energy in the afternoon may be perfectly okay. SAD or seasonal affective disorder is a real thing, I know having lived it growing up in Boston I hated this time of year. Now living in DC I know about it and force myself outside every day for 30+ minutes in the bright sunshine. The Winter Solstice December 21 is wonderful day in my book as the days are getting longer from thereon.

You mention 14 hours fasting before your eating window, should I assume that means a 10pm bedtime? When do you stop eating in the evening? Also what is your fat loss pounds goal? How about your inches goals? The scale is a cruel master IMHO for tracking progress while the tape measure zeros in on the action areas. Any idea where your waist, hips and thighs were at the start? Have you measured them since? Any blood sugar issues? Do you measure?

I have found this one of the best things for smoothing out my energy throughout the day. Especially when done at the end of my 18/6 IF fast. Welcome to the gang, we’re all glad you are here.

#8

Thank you for the reply and kind words, and encouraging predictions! I make sure I don’t eat anything past 11:00 p.m., then try to head up to bed around midnight. I don’t eat lunch till 1:00 or 1:30 pm so that’s usually about 14 hours.

Ahhhh yes, SAD. My husband actually bought me a light for that several years ago - maybe it’s time to dust it off and use it again. I have a severe fatigue issue twice a year… when the weather starts to get cold and when the weather starts to warm up… guess I don’t handle changes very well.

I’m 5’5" and started at 177 pounds. I would LOVE to lose 30 pounds but would be thrilled with 20. No, I haven’t taken my measurement in years, maybe I should do that. But when I drop or add just a few pounds I can always see it in the mirror and while in the shower. And clothes are a good gauge, too.

I have had my BG levels tested and they are always normal, but I strongly suspect that I was a reactive hypoglycemic, I would rise and fall so quickly before I gave up carbs. I do have a monitor and used to check it regularly because I know what it feels like to have that rapid drop but the numbers were never really out of range. But your body KNOWS regardless of what the monitor says.

Also, I have no thyroid and changed doses of Synthroid 8 weeks ago (since my TSH shot up through the roof) so it’s time to have blood drawn to see if I’ve lowered it yet or if I need to increase the dosage even more.

Thanks again for replying, and for the good thoughts. I’ll stick with this because even if I don’t take off weight, I FEEL better!
Sue

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #9

You might want to work on increasing the amount of fat you eat. Fat has more calories per gram than either carbohydrate or protein, so it’s a great energy source, and it has the least likelihood of stimulating insulin production. I find that despite a long-term problem with fatigue and lack of stamina, I can go for quite a long time now before collapsing, and I don’t get nearly as hungry between meals as I used to. Also, I do seem to recover better after those times I mistakenlyI push past the limit. (It used to take two or three days of sleeping round-the-clock to recharge, in the bad old days.)

Beware your scale! I find that mine seems to vary randomly within a ten-pound swing, not only that but how I stand on it affects the weight it registers. And something for you to be aware of is that women who have consistently shorted themselves on calories over a prolonged period often find that they put on lean body mass when they go keto, even though they are losing fat at the same rate as everyone else. This means that the weight on your scale might not decrease the way you want it to.

The best measurements to go by are how your clothes are fitting. When I started eating keto, I was barely able to button my 42-inch trousers (and they were the stretchy waistbands, too!), and now my 38-inch pants, which I just bought, are starting to fall off my butt. I have to keep drilling new holes in my belt or my pants won’t stay on. The best I can figure is that I’ve lost about fifty or sixty pounds, but even during those times when the scale says I weigh a bit more, my waist keeps shrinking.

(CharleyD) #10

My Rx is sun and steak :sunglasses:

#11

That would make a great T-shirt. :sunglasses:

(Cathy) #12

I would guess that thyroid has everything to do with your troubles.

(Donna ) #13

I would read the ingredients list of your hot dog. There’s probably high fructose corn syrup and MSG. One hot dog doesn’t sound like enough, but I’d not eat a hot dog, anyway. How about two chicken thighs? Maybe try cooking some chicken thighs over the weekend and having that, instead? Or a pot roast? Basically, any meat in the crock pot, save it, and have for lunch all week.

I would also add more fat to your diet.

(Jen ) #14

Hey Susan!

My mom has no thyroid and when her TSH goes up or down she will either gain weight or drop a ton.

My guess is that once your Synthroid is regulated again, you’ll stop hitting the wall. It’s amazing how intricate and fussy your thyroid (or lack therof) controls so much in your body!!

Congrats on 3 weeks! I am 3 weeks today. :blush:

Jen

(CharleyD) #15

One of the ladies at my taekwondo school is 38 with a synthroid and is fully keto. She says it’s the only WOE where she doesn’t gain weight but it is really hard for her to lose any.

Really tough momma of 4 there :slight_smile:

#16

Hi there.
My colitis food sensitivity tests came back showing that chicken has an inflammatory affect on me so I try not to eat too much of it. The hot dogs are organic, no preservatives, etc. but I will read the fine print when I get home. Yes, I will try to think of other meats that would be convenient for a week’s worth of lunch, but for starting out, grabbing and nuking a hot dog for 30 seconds has fit into my busy lunch nicely.

Thanks for the ideas.
Sue

#17

Thanks, Jen… and congrats to you, too! I think next Tuesday will be four full weeks, but who’s counting? LOL

Yes, the thyroid controls SO MANY things in our body… even after all these years I’m still surprised by what it does to and for our body. I have never had the fortunate encounter with dropping a bunch of wait… when I was hyper-active I was starving all the time and eating all the time. I didn’t gain, but I didn’t lose. I am dying to have my TSH checked now to see if that’s the problem but I really think I’m still in transition from this way of eating and am trying to hold off another 3 or 4 weeks. THEN when I have blood drawn I will be able to see where my TSH level is on this way of eating and adjust accordingly.

Let’s stay in touch on this journey since we’re on the same timeline. :slight_smile:
Sue

#18

Good to know… I have no doubt that I’m feeling better on this WOE but if I could drop the weight that some of the others have success with, I will be happier than I’ve ever been. Of course I need to be happy with just feeling good, too, but weight loss would be such a nice bonus. Maybe once I’m fat adapted. . . .

(CharleyD) #19

My pleasure! Yes once you adapt, you come into an ability to chew away at the fat itself if you want.

I don’t envy y’all your regular hormonal cycles though, and thyroid issues on top of that will just make the journey to a ‘weight loss’ goal take a bit longer.

Maybe make a few goals that will be more bite sized and easier to attain. Once I could fit into just a Men’s Large shirt, and dropped a pants size, and then two!, I felt like a million dollars! Now I don’t dread heading to the clearance rack at the clothes store and just seeing how things fit now.

My NSV lately is to buy a few pieces of clothes and then taking that bag and stuffing it full of my disgusting fatbody clothes and donating it.

#20

Thanks, Charly. Smaller goals? Hell, I’d be thrilled to have lost more than 4 pounds in 4 weeks! I’m not asking much, just a loss and a continued one, even if it’s tiny. But I’ve been holding steady at the 4 pounds for about 3 weeks. Waiting for someone to flip the switch!
Sue