Reduced energy

[Kitcheninspo123]

Hi,

Looking for some advise please. Started low carb on Monday, less than 50g a day. Also low calorie and high protein. I'm not overweight - 150lb at 5'8 and fairly muscular but want to shed 7lb of body fat.

Today (day 4) I have done some strength training, and attempted a jog but quickly became a walk / run as I felt so flat. Is this normal?

Typical day this week has been:

B - 3 boiled eggs
L - chicken, salad, little bit of cheese
D - chicken, broccoli & cream cheese
S - skyr with berries
Teaspoon of peanut butter or a few almonds.

Comes to about 1400 cals / 50g carb / 140g protein

Do I just need to ride it out? Will I get used to it?

As a muscular, person at 150 pounds who exercises I think you have over - restricted your energy requirements so low that you are basically more like a controlled fast territory. No wonder you feel tired.

Eating such low carbs (I actually think you might be eating less than 50g) means your body is going to be using a lot of the calories you eat from the protein as energy to keep you alive rather than repair, tissue / muscle building.
eating a more balanced diet including a bit more carbohydrate and other food groups would help your energy levels. Your glycogen stores in your liver and muscles would be very depleted by now. I think you may be in muscle burning territory as well as fat potentially.

your diet being so low on carbs means you are not getting sufficient fibre / wholegrains too, this is really important for some nutrients but also fibre and your bowel function. Unfortunately, you can’t decide to just lose fat. (Not that you need to actually lose weight anyway). The safest way to do it is slowly and really gradually so you spare your lean body mass. I’ll be honest, I think your diet is unbalanced and you need to consider whether some form of disordered eating is at play? carbohydrates are not the bad guys - they give you the energy to fuel your muscles, vital organs etc, if your muscles are tired - you won’t be able train as much and hence it will affect your fitness and training goals as well as making you feel a bit rubbish I should think. Listen to your body- it knows what it needs!

@Mrsbunnychops thanks for your reply. No need to be concerned, I have a really balanced diet usually. As I said in my post I've been doing this since Monday - but I didn't mention it was a short term thing.

Basically i've over indulged a lot lately, and some holiday / foodie weekends coming up so wanted to have a really lean week. Thought I'd try Keto as I hear it gives people energy, so my post was really about understanding if my lack of energy was my body adjusting. I eat a lot of carbs usually (my downfall)

Thank you for you reply 😊