To get faint when I don't eat?

[moutonfou]

This may sound like a ridiculous question, but I know that a lot of people do the 5:2 diet now where they don't eat until teatime and even then only have 500 calories. Muslims even manage up to 14hrs in the summer during Ramadan. And I know that humans can survive weeks without food. Lots in the news lately seems to praise the benefits of sensible fasting for regulating blood sugar and digestion.

But if any of my meals are delayed by even an hour or two (say, work meetings overrunning, no chance to grab anything, etc), or I skip breakfast, I start getting faint. DH says I'm just being dramatic and I wouldn't actually faint, but I feel like I would.

I eat plenty of calories, decent meals, and am a healthy weight (around 9st).

Is this normal?

I used to get like this as a teen. If I went more than 2-3 hours without eating then I'd get shaky and faint. The sugar thing makes sense, I used to eat crap constantly but now day I have a slightly better diet it never happens.

Sounds normal to me, feeling lightheaded is always my first sign of hunger and I get a migraine if I go too long without food.

Same here! I have low blood pressure as well, and don't tend to eat a lot at meals, so perhaps skipping one has a bigger effect? The only times it doesn't happen is when I've overeaten the night before with huge meal, then I can go through to lunch the next day.

My brother is a complete shit when hungry, unfortunately my dc1 is the same, a total horror when hungry. We were one of those families who stuck rigidly to routines with him (and still try to when we can). I know the MN view is dc should be completely flexible the meal times, but it was a nightmare trying to be flexible with him.

I am like this. I don't do fasting, but a few days without sugary snacks really helps me go longer without getting faint. Also these days I generally don't eat anything after main meal at 6, so my body is used to having a 13 hour gap daily.

Like others I only get this if I eat too many refined carbs.

So if I ate croissants or cereal for breakfast, by 12 o’clock I’d feel faint and so hungry.
If I ate whole meal toast and peanut butter, or poached egg on toast, I’d be absolutely fine and could go till 2ish before eating. And I often do.

My DD is like it too but she won’t listen that if she tweeked her diet slightly it wouldn’t happen.

Thanks everyone, I think you might be onto something with the sugar/high carb diet thing. I do love my carbs.

My problem is what to replace them with. I could never imagine just eating a salad with only meat or something; I wouldn't even feel like I'd eaten.

I do, and if that starts and I don’t eat quickly, I then get really very nauseous. The nausea is a nightmare because I’m sitting there feeling faint and hungry, but once I’ve got food in front of me I have to nibble it and take deep breaths because I feel like I’m going to throw it back up.

I’m the same. I assume it is linked to PCOS (look at Syndrome X stuff). Keeping my blood sugar as stable as possible by eating in a low GI way as much as possible helps.

That's normal. You're not supposed to go without food.

I do. Not so much now that I have a bit of middle age padding, but in my 20s, I used to get terrible dizziness. I am a vet and mornings in surgery used to be awful. I could be mid-operation and nearly pass out. I used to have to get a nurse to stuff bits of broken biscuit in my mouth so I could get to the end of the op and then eat properly.

I checked my blood glucose on a few occasions and it was low. Don't ask for exactly values 20+ years later! I also have naturally low end BP, even when stressed, so I think it is a bit of a combination thing for me.

Ttbb yeah but this for me is usually between breakfast and lunch so no, you’re not supposed to go without food, but this is very quick to start feeling like you’re going to keel over. My husband sometimes walks in of an evening and says hmmm I haven’t eaten all day! Even now I’m starting to feel hungry and I ate at 12

I used to have this a lot, but some giving up sugar I've not had it once.

I usually feel cross and very focused on getting food, then feel shakey and faint if I don't get any. I'm on the upper side (but still within!)of a healthy weight so not thin, perfectly healthy in every other way, just can't cope with long spells between food. Dp can have half a slice of toast at 7 am then nothing until 4-5 pm. I'd feel ill by lunchtime.

DH is a chocaholic but can fast really easily. I barely eat sugar and I get the wobbles and migraines if I skip food. I can do all day if I have a massive US style omelette and home fries with ketchup breakfast but that's more than my usual toast breakfast plus salad lunch!

mouton you don't need to go without carbs. People only do that if they want to lose weight.

It is the refined carbs which make me hungry, dizzy and sick, so just make sure you eat wholemeal bread with your lunch, and try to minimise cakes and biscuits etc.

Agree with others this happened to me when i ate a lot of carbs. I was always normal BMI with lots of carbs, now I am at the lowest end of the normal BMI scale by scaling back on the carbs and the feeling sick/faint with hunger has completely disappeared.

I always have granola or porridge with fruit in the morning, soup or salad with eggs for lunch, then whatever I want in the evening usually strifry based. No snacks and not much the way in sugar, maybe on the weekends!

Try almond flour muffins or omelettes made with cheese for breakfast. You could have tuna with mayo, eggs, chicken, nuts, avocados with veg for lunch or a creamy soup. I have a similar reaction to you when not having eaten for a long time and it does go away when you eat low carb. You digest fat much slower so your blood sugar is stable and you also feel fuller for longer!

I used to get this way, but I am overweight (but 5 stone lighter now), and I suspect was pre diabetic. Had a few very nasty turns when I didn't heed the feeling quickly enough and eat something. Never ever happens now, and I do intermittent fasting (variation of 5:2), and feel great.

MIL is like OP. She slightly freaks out if a meal is more than 1/2 hour late. I am so grateful not to be like that. MIL doesn't eat a lot, & certainly not a lot of carbs.

I am more like "Why am I feeling so tired & faint?!... Oh wait, when did I last eat?"

I get this, as does my dad and brother!

None of us overweight, high metabolism combined with low blood pressure?

My son has it too, in him it can.trigger migraines.

The best thing is slow releasecarbs, basically very coarse brown bread, potato or sweet potato, oats, brown rice. Think they called it low GI food.

The fashion is now to cut carns, but that does not suit everyone.

Do you need to lose weight?

I used to, and so does my dad
I had porridge for breakfast one day about 6.30am, and 2 Jaffa cakes at 10am. At 11am my sugars were below 2 and I fainted
Got given a mars bar and glucose gel but stupid sugars wouldn't come up so ended up in hospital feeling a right idiot
Now I do 14:10 so fast for 14hrs at night and I'm fine

I'm finding this very interesting (I know, I lead a dull life).

My DH is a bit overweight, not slim, but gets weak and shaky if he gets too hungry.

Me...I'm overweight but very, very rarely feel weak from hunger - I must be able to call on my fat reserves! I do get a bit nauseous if I'm very empty, which I put down to acid, but it passes quickly and a sip of water will sort it anyway.

I can travel to a client on no breakfast, not even a drink, and get through an entire day on only water and still travel all the way home before eating an ordinary dinner.

I have felt a bit wobbly on just a handful of occasions, going all day doesn't bother me at all. I will of course be an utter savage irritable cowbag with breath like Satan's arsehole, and I'll probably eat my own bodyweight in kit kats the next day, but apart from that I'm grand.

I felt like this until I massively reduced sugar and carbs. I haven't given them up altogether but I've noticed a big difference if I avoid bread, pasta, rice etc. I'll never give up my porridge though!

I'm fuelled by fat and protein and can easily go 36 hours without eating. (Fasting has huge health benefits, as does avoiding carbs.)

Couldn't have attempted it before.

I used to get this in my teens/early twenties. I had low blood pressure and not eating seemed to make it worse. I remember once I ate a three pack of creme eggs in one evening so decided to skip breakfast the next day. I went out shopping and ended up fainting in the middle of Next! There was a big kerfuffle with first aiders and managers called. As a self-conscious teenager I was absolutely mortified and never skipped breakfast again.