Suddenly I feel sluggish and really hungry all the time? page

[Lerxst]

So I've been primal for about two months now and for the most part I've felt absolutely great. Aside from carb withdrawal for a week or two I've been feeling absolutely great. I've lost about 21 pounds so far, and everything seemed to be going absolutely great. But lately I've just totally hit a wall and I don't know why. Last week things started to get funky. I've noticed a marked decline in energy levels, and to top that off I'm hungry ALL the time now. Yesterday my muscles felt really weak, like I had done an intense workout the night before, but I hadn't worked out in 3 or 4 days. I've been pretty much 100% primal this entire time. I eat lean and fatty meats, grass fed butter, olive oil, eggs, and lots of vegetables (green/leafy/etc). No fruit. No carbs. I drink only occasionally and it's always just a glass of whiskey or something. Initially I thought "hm, maybe I'm just not eating enough", so I tried adding (a lot) more fat to everything, which seemed to do nothing. I also tried just stuffing myself absolutely silly for a few days, and still no change. And, to top it all off, my weight loss has dropped to a very very slow level. I lost about 20 pounds in the first month and a half, and now in the last three weeks I've lost only one pound. Has this happened to anyone else?

[fatisyummy]

I wonder if losing the initial bit of weight has caused a decrease in leptin levels, as can happen with dieting. Maybe try a day or two per week with a higher carb intake with things like sweet potatoes and rice to see if that can help? I've been experimenting with that myself, as I feel sluggish and hungry a lot too. It certainly sounds feasible, but in my case, spending a day eating sweet potatoes and sushi doesn't feel like it really accomplished anything. To be fair, I think I may have only reached something like 150g of carbs for that day and I'm not certain that is enough for a leptin response.

I hope some people here have some good ideas to help you. They're pretty smart.

[Omni]

We are also about 2 months in as well and feeling a similar effect, though maybe not as much, I have lost about 5lb, not that I was really trying to, have been doing a significant workout regularly, but did notice the last day or two feeling the same tinge of muscle weakness/soreness, yesterday no workout and woke up this morning and could feel some soreness in my legs, got up, walking around all fine, not like a workout soreness, sort of deeper, not as acute.
My partner had a bit of an out of character PMS burst, she went a bit past hungry yesterday and started raving about wanting some meat, I said there's the pork roast in the fridge, "what about tomorrow?" she said, "I need to know I have meat ready to go" anyway she bowled over some pumpkin soup from the fridge & a handfull of pork scratchings and was fine, then kind of wondered where the outburst came from, we joked about it the rest of the day.
She used to get a bit like this years ago and I think it is a nutritional deficiency outburst from her body, but not sure in this case what it is.
I wonder if this is some process of building more mitochondria in your muscles or something?
Maybe we need to up our protein a little bit more, we are still in the moderate range.

Hope someone else can gleam some more light on this type of feeling.

[Rosencrantz1]

I can't speak specifically to what you're experiencing, but I would simply recommend that you look at ALL the pieces of the Primal Blueprint: eating, yes, but also stress reduction, sleep, slow movement, play, etc. Perhaps there is something besides diet that is hanging you up?

[tradawg]

Are you hydrated? Getting enough sleep? If those are both good, I'd try eating some carbs! Nothing wrong with them as long as you stay primal-sweet potatos, white potatos, fruit, plantains...too much can stall weight loss for some, but I find I lose weight much easier when I include them and also have much more energy! Play around with your macros and see what works for you.

[teach2183]

Perhaps your body is working on healing some things after your initial loss. I removed wheat at the end of January, lost 12lbs until mid-May. I then was extremely exhausted for a full month. We're talking sleeping 9-10hrs/night plus a nap about 5 days a week. After a month of that and no weight loss but sticking it through, I lost a pound last week and my energy has returned to a normal level. Amazingly, I had 0 cramps during my last period which was a week ago. So I've decided my body needed the extra rest to heal something. Perhaps there's some damage your body is working on as well?

[sbhikes]

You need magnesium, sodium and potassium. The 5-8 week period at the start is usually when the water weight finally hits you and you flush out all the electrolytes your body had stored. You'll feel weaker than during any carb flu you might have had. You might get crampy. Perhaps even hunger is a symptom. Try the magnesium, sodium and potassium and if that's not the solution, well it'll help you anyway.

[Lerxst]

Well, I get at least 7 hours of sleep a night, usually closer to 8. I do a lot of walking, probably at least a few miles every day. Definitely make sure to keep hydrated always (within reason). It just seems weird because I haven't really changed much of anything but I went from awesome to bleh in the span of a week.

[Lerxst]

I've tried supplementing magnesium, all that happened was....a sudden bowel movement. I get enough sodium for sure (probably too much, but whatever). I take a multivitamin that has a good amount of potassium too so I don't think it's that.

[TTBlue21]

Do you train hard? Do you have muscle and joint soreness in the morning? I'm only 10 days deep, to my understanding I am about 99%/1% and was able to "cure" the carb flu with fruits/veggies.

However, I have your same questions. When I do any type of workout I am a mess in the morning. I've been lifting weights for roughly 15 years and have never experienced the lethargy and soreness from a 40 minute weight lifting training session the next day. I give myself one black coffee a day and I need it in the AM. I'm hoping my body is still adjusting.