So I just made some pretty radical changes to my diet in a renewed effort to lose my body fat but every time I go out for a run now I feel like I get tired much faster than I used to. My legs almost immediately feel like led when I try to move them. My diet lately has consisted of eggs, vegetables, lean meat, nuts, water and a little fruit. I've been cutting way back on the carbs and sugars. Could it be that I'm not eating enough carbs to fuel my exercise?
I know that I have this problem sometimes and it's usually a lack of energy. Try some jelly babies while you're running. I know jelly snakes give me an oompf when I need to get up a hill. So I'd say something in your diet isn't giving you energy.
Sometimes when you eliminate a lot of the carbs and sugar from your diet (which is a good thing), it takes a while for your body to adjust, and it's natural you will feel tired. You need to replace those carbs with healthy fats so that your body will become fat-adapted and use fat (not glucose) as its primary energy source. I had this same problem when I first began eliminating carbs and sugar from my diet. It lasted a few weeks, and then once I became fat-adapted I found that I had more energy than ever before. So what you're describing sounds quite natural to me and not necessarily a bad thing. Give it some time and see how you feel after adding more fat to your diet.
Mark is my favorite source of information on things of this nature. His entire website is full of great nutritional info. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/low-carb-flu/#axzz2pwtux25u
It's NEVER the carbs that are a problem. It's what you put on/in those carbs (fats & sugar) that make you gain weight. Don't know why people don't get that. the poorest people in the world load up on carbs and they are still skinny. That's cause they can't afford the fats, meats and sweets that are typical of a western diet. You can eat all the rice, wheat, potatoes, oatmeal, etc. you can and never gain weight. Just don't add anything else to them. Don't deep fry stuff, don't soak em in butter or rich sauces, etc. Those missing carbs are what is causing you to lose energy. Complex carbs take longer to breakdown and so can keep you going longer than sugary treats or drinks. Make sure you're eating whole grains, not processed white flour or white rice. Another big advantage of eating carbs is they fill you up! So you're not so tempted to pig out on fats and sweets (but this takes awhile to get used to). Otherwise, your diet sounds great! I just thought of another issue: your digestive system. Yes, it does take awhile to adjust when radically changing your diet. Also, completely eliminating a whole food category from your diet whether carbs or dairy or meat can alter the biology of your digestive system. One thing that can happen is your body may stop producing certain enzymes as they are no longer needed. Then when you again try to eat the banned food, you end up with digestive problems (gas, pains) cause your body no longer produces the enzymes required. To help restore the enzymes you can either take supplements, which will help you fully digest your food for maximum benefit, or just recreate a beneficial bacterial system by eating yogurt with as many different strains of bacteria as you can find (Greek yogurt is good for that!) The bacteria then create the enzymes needed to digest all sorts of foods. Result? Less gas, bloating and pain. As you get older too, you lose the ability to create enzymes. Some scientists think this is what leads to aging and other systemic problems: a deteriorating digestive system. Some of the oldest ppl on the planet made it so long (100+) cause they eat lots of yogurt (often without any medical care!) Your big brand yogurts don't offer so many strains (sometimes just one or two!) Another thing! As you burn body fat thru exercise, you release a lot of toxins, and your body will suffer a bit while it eliminates them because they flood your blood. But as you get used to exercise, and the toxins are eliminated, you feel better and can exercise longer without the toxicity.
To me, eliminating carbs has more to do than with simply weight, but I don't suggest anyone restrict them completely. Me, personally, I follow a high-fat/low-carb ketogenic diet, so I keep my carb intake to under 50 grams a day. But when it comes to carbs it also depends on the type of carbs. Carbs from non-starchy vegetables are fine with me, and I will eat them in endless quantities without paying much attention to the amount consumed. When it comes to stuff like bread, pasta, grains (esp. wheat), potatoes, high-sugar fruits, etc. that is a different story. The reason I tend to avoid most carbs is because they are converted to glucose and result in an insulin response. While this does pose a problem for anyone looking to lose weight (since insulin causes the cells to store fat), it also poses a lot of other problems as well. And when it comes to stuff like whole wheat, etc.. well, there is a lot of evidence that shows it just is not healthy, contrary to a lot of the mainstream health information out there. There is the gluten factor, of course, but many people don't realize that wheat is full of phytic acid which leeches vital nutrients from the body. As far as energy, a person only needs a certain amount of carbs until they become fat-adapted. Fat is actually the preferred fuel for the body's cells, and once a person replaces a lot of carbs with fat, the body becomes conditioned to run on fat. I would never be able to fast for 20 hrs per day on a high-carb diet, partly because my blood glucose levels would be out of whack and I would become hypoglycemic. When your blood sugar spikes and drops, you become hungry. You simply don't have this problem when you consume half your calories from healthy fats. I would also disagree that carbs fill a person up. Fats are far more satiating, and you tend to eat less. I have found that high-carb diets often equate to frequent hunger.
rat, where did you read about "fat-adaptaption?" you know that in order for your body to use fat as an energy source, it HAS to be converted to glucose right? at least i'm pretty sure... i think the only way that your cells can create ATP (energy) is with glucose as a starting material. but i'm not disagreeing that getting your glucose from fat is probably better in some way than getting your glucose from straight glucose.
That actually isn't true. Look up ketosis and ketone bodies. When you restrict carbs and consume fats, like from coconut oil, your body produces ketone bodies, which are used as an alternative "fuel" to glucose. In fact the health benefits to ketogenic diets are quite staggering, from curing epilepsy to even cancer (since cancer cells are fueled by glucose). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet
ok, looks like you are right. long chain fatty acids get converted into acetyl-CoA, which can directly enter the Kreb's cycle - the 2nd step of cellular respiration (and skip the first step, glycolysis, which requires glucose) so you end up fueling the same process, but i guess you skip the insulin response which is what you're going for. very complicated process that i admittedly don't understand very well. what about ketosis, rat? if you have too many ketones in your blood. from wiki: sounds like you need to be able to secret a baseline level of insulin to ketosis. so not a big problem for "normal" people. more from wiki: so does ketosis just happen if you eat a shitload of fat? like way too much? nevermind, i am answering my own question. finally, what about gluconeogenesis? i'll have to read about it later...
To achieve a state of ketosis, you would generally restrict your carb intake to under 50 grams per day, then replace the remaining carbs you might normally consume with fats. This trains your body to produce ketone bodies as the primary fuel for the cells. It also trains your body to more effectively burn off its fat stores while in a fasting state. This is why a high fat/low carb diet is optimal for anyone looking to really lose weight and tone up, as well as normalize their blood glucose and insulin levels, though I am sure the high carb/low fat crowd will vehemently disagree. Gluconeogenesis, in simplest terms, is when the liver makes glucose from amino acids (protein, etc.) In other words, your body does not need carbs to make glucose, since your liver produces any glucose the body needs, even in the absence of said carbs. There is some concern about the body breaking down muscle during gluconeogenesis, but this is not a problem if one consumes adequate amounts of protein. Gluconeogenesis is very much a natural part of your body's metabolism, and is by no means a bad thing in and of itself.
