Help, dieting making me unwell

[jiggingon]

Hi

im trying to lose weight. I’m doing calorie deficit and so far seeing a slight improvement but I’ve only started this properly 2-3 weeks ago. But being in calorie deficit seems to make me feel really lightheaded and tired all the time. I feel like I’m permanently hungry and sluggish because I just want to eat. I also feel a bit faint and just not right

is this normal with a diet? I recently had my folate, b12, vitamin levels and iron and other blood tests which were not even close to low, they were very comfortably normal. My other bloods were fine too. Eating food helps me feel better and on the days I have cheated and broke my diet I felt so much better- not lightheaded, tired, or sluggish at all. I’m not even in that much of a deficit, it’s only a small difference

is this normal for a diet? Has anyone else experienced similar? Thanks!

You might feel this way if you’ve cut out sugar/caffeine , and were addicted.
Its best to reduce these things slowly, and maybe one at a time, rather than go healthy/low calorie all in one go.
Aim for eating healthy long term, rather than reducing calories short term.

Maybe look at trying slimming world instead. There are lots of foods that are 'free' so you don't have to go hungry

just for extra context- I used to be a dancer as a teen and was terrified of being fat. But this is not me thinking im fat and actually I’m underweight, my BMI is overweight now and I know I need to lose a bit. But because of my past, I’m aware of how unhealthy some diets can be and I’m absolutely not doing any of them- I’m not fasting or starving myself I’ve only cut out junk food as often as I was letting myself eat it and I’m only in a slight calorie deficit

just not sure if this is all normal and part of the course when dieting and hopefully it passes as my diet continues

What does your diet look like?

How many calories.
No, it didn't make me feel unwell. Cold and bit tired first few days , but i enver went too low

Post your food and drinks for the day and what your calorie intake is. It could be your food choices aren't filling or good for your blood sugar or it could be your calories are too low for you right now.

You could get a dietician to help you or a nutritionist, plenty do online consultation.

Try intermittent fasting with 2 good substantial meals a day combining protein, veg and small protein of carbs. Include small amount of fat like butter and olive oil.

So I dieted a lot to answer your main op through out my life and sometimes I felt bad but it was because I was suddenly cutting out sugar like PP said (keto flu) or because I was eating stupidly low (500 cals a day) or because I used up my calories on unfilling processed food.
When I used my 1500 calories on things like fish, chicken, some olive oil, some complex carbs, plenty of veg and a bit of fruit I felt fantastic. I have a history of ED so I had to come at it from a health and lifestyle change instead of weight loss. I can't do restriction, I try to educate myself to do the better food choices from a health point of view rather than weight because it just triggers a binge if I say I can never have pastry or crisps for example but if I bargain with myself would I rather this big healthy salad or 1 packet of crisps it makes sense to go for the big salad and on days I choose the crisps, I enjoy it because I budgeted for it and I'm eating it intentionally not in a binge-coma.

Look at volume eating. Focus on protein and veg. With calorie counting you can fall in trap of eating crap as it’s under cals but if you are eating very little but high cal or all processed stuff you’ll feel awful.

Bleugh to diets!

Eat a more normal (but not excessive) amount each day then go for a 1 hour brisk walk every day.

Use a fitbit watch or similar to check you're walking at a suitable pace go keep your heart rate up. You'll lose weight but it will do your brain good too!

Also have you done a few tdee calculators and are on sensible cals.

Slimming world has been scientifically proven not to work.
Does more harm than good

What are you actually eating? Have you just cut out junk food?

Sounds like you are eating sensibly but maybe try to increase the amount of protein in your diet?

definitely stay away from ultra processed “diet” foods.

What are you eating? We can't give our opinions unless we know.

Personally I lost 5 stone on slimmingworld and it’s available via nhs if your bmi 30 plus in many areas.
Calorie Counting isn’t for everyone.
I felt so much better within days that it spurred me to carry on. But I cook from scratch and focus on eating lots of protein and veg.
Tracking protein if you are cc can be helpful.

Back in the day of MiniMins webforum where people posted their Slimming World menus the ones who lost well and good were either very obese or you could see from their daily food log that their calories were actually very low. It's possible to overeat or undereat on SW. It gives you good ideas for low fat recipes but you still need to exercise portion control and if you're all or nothing mentality their 'eat as much as you want free food' was like a challenge to me like 'really? OK I will really eat as much as I like' and I ended up eating even more than I ate before. So no I don't rate SW at all, it's just a glorified overcomplex low fat low calorie diet that makes you lose weight.

Hubby did SW and did lose some weight, but because they had "free food" he could basically graze on all day, it created really bad eating habits. A year or so later, he was constantly eating and weighed more than when he started.

We both did the Fast 800 and lost a couple of stone each. Poor eating choices since have seen the weight creeping back on, but we have both said enough, and gone back to it this week.

The most helpful bit of this diet, as opposed to SW is no snacking. It's not a thing, and we need that.

We were only eating around 800 - 900 calories each day, but because it was based around high protein and good quality fats, we genuinely weren't hungry or felt unwell.

Have a look at the Fast800 plan by Michael Mosley. You can read the books and follow it yourself, and there are informal support groups on Facebook and MN.

If you are drinking much more water than usual you could be flushing your body of too much electrolytes, hence the lightheadedness, so try adding some small sprinkles of salt to a meal daily.

Depending on what you’ve cut out your body could be craving carbs, sugar, all sorts.

Would snacking help?

Fad diets are really awful mentally and physically. Look up James Smith, Ben Carpenter and Shaun academy for non bullshit information on weight loss. The only way to
lose weight is be in a calorie deficit. Slimming world world if you can moderate yourself but in my mind it’s like ‘I can eat this full roast chicken…challenge accepted’

I’m a dietician and see this all the time. It can be your body detoxing from junk ie sugar/caffeine/alcohol and it can often feel like mild flu, you are not eating in a way that keeps your blood sugar balanced that being the right combination of protein, carbs and fat at regular intervals, you are dehydrated or you are not eating enough calories the minimum required is 1200 a day if you do no exercise at all.