Not hungry and it may be a problem?

[Asclepius]

Gman you may very well be my gustatory twin. YUMMY!

[Asclepius]

MommaRuthie brings up a good point. Might you be taking any meds which may be contributing to the mix?

[rhiannonwins]

Gman...no, I was doing ZERO exercise other than occasionally walking my dog prior to Atkins. Well, lots of other "cough" unmentionable exercise, but let's not go there. hahaha!

So yeah, I just jumped RIGHT into that pool, LITERALLY!!

Mommaruthie, I have a screamin' meemie of a migraine this morning so I was thinking of going for my migraine shots today so maybe I do go get my electolytes checked afterall. I had a really good caloric day YESTERDAY though after making the post because we had NY strip streaks and a good batch of fauxtatoes and I had my pumpkin/creamcheese and cinnamon blend. I kept just making myself eat.

I have been hypoglycemic in my DISTANT post...like 20 years ago but that went away after I had my daughter 10 years ago.

Oh and Asclepius, the only meds that I take daily are:
.5 mg of Klonopin and 300 mg of Topamax.
I am diagnosed Bipolar but have been "stable" for about a year...due to the meds. Could those be affecting any of this? I know Topamax decreases appetite but it really only did so for about the first year I went on it. Hmmm

thanks so much for all input!!

[not2late]

Originally Posted by rhiannonwins

OK, here's what I had yesterday....and I warn you, I KNOW it's bad...but it's all I could make myself eat...I wasn't hungry at ALL.

16 oz coffee with 2 tbsp cream and 1 Stevia
2 scrambled eggs with 1 oz. Cheddar and 1 tbsp. Sour cream

1 1/2 cup steamed broccoli with 2 oz American cheese
a 2 oz roasted boneless turkey breast

120 ounces of water approximately

that's it. *sigh*

I know I didn't get my veggies in...I know. But that's typical of my appetite lately.

I AM munching on jicama right now though even though I'm not hungry...so that's a plus!


EDIT: This was a particularly low day...some days it's much better because I add 5 carbs worth of pumpkin with cream cheese and cinnamon...I just didn't yesterday. But still, not a lot of calories there either.

Just eyeballing your menu, it looks like you are getting about 8 net carbs from non-vegetable sources and about 5 net carbs from vegetables---that’s not OWL Rung 1. That’s not even Induction, according to the book, because during Induction (and the rest of the diet for that matter) the majority of your daily carbs is from veggies.

I also see you are drinking 16 ounces (1 pint) of coffee with your breakfast daily. That’s quite a bit of liquid. In fact, that amount of liquid might be filling up your stomach so well, you don’t have the room to eat real food. Remember the old weight loss trick: drink water or some other liquid before your meals so you won’t eat as much? How are you spacing the 120 fluid ounces of water you drink daily?

Not counting the cheese and heavy cream, how much added fat are you eating? Fat has more calories than protein and carbs combined.

[rhiannonwins]

Megs - I know...and I haven't been....this was just the menu from two days ago and like I said, it's not a typical one since MOST days, I do eat pumpkin and cucumber to beef it up but they aren't high in calories. But when I do, it adds about 9 carbs to my total.

I drink about 64 ounces of water before 1 pm and the rest throughout the day until around 9 pm.

According to fitday, my fat percentages are right where they need to be...maybe even a little higher, but yeah, that may be due to cheese and cream...although I do add butter to my eggs when I cook them daily and use olive oil alot when cooking chicken, etc. So that's good too, yeah?

[not2late]

Vegetables aren't very high calorie, in general. So you need to add fat to them: dips, mayonnaise based dips/sauces, butter, even olive oil.

If you choose to eat lean meats, like turkey breast, you need to add fat to it.

The fat percentages are essentially meaningless, because if you are eating 100 calories a day, you can still have the 65/30/5 ratio and be on target in regard to the percentages. Whatever added fat you eat, it is counted towards your daily calories.

[gman]

Three magic words: blue cheese dressing. It's my ketchup in the 21st Century.

[Asclepius]

Originally Posted by rhiannonwins

Well, lots of other "cough" unmentionable exercise, but let's not go there. hahaha!

Haha! You make me giggle. You can be dang sure I count that in my activities section for calories burned that day! Fitday has got it all broken down for me, baby!

Originally Posted by rhiannonwins

I have been hypoglycemic in my DISTANT post...like 20 years ago but that went away after I had my daughter 10 years ago.

Oh and Asclepius, the only meds that I take daily are:
.5 mg of Klonopin and 300 mg of Topamax.
I am diagnosed Bipolar but have been "stable" for about a year...due to the meds. Could those be affecting any of this? I know Topamax decreases appetite but it really only did so for about the first year I went on it. Hmmm

thanks so much for all input!!

Glad to hear you're not on Lithium as your stabilizer because that rules out a lot of culprits. Obviously I'm not your official medical advisor, but here are my rambling thoughts in terms of drug associations:

1.) I know you didn't mention BCPs as a med you're taking but just in case - be sure you're not preggo. Topamax is well known for reducing oral contraceptive efficacy.

2.) Be SURE you are drinking enough water! Without increased water intake Topamax can cause some ammonia, calcium, and bicarb to build up leaving you feeling crappy in general on top of being at risk for kidney stones. Flush flush flush!

3.) As for the "anorexia" aspect, 24.5% of folks at your dose experience it long term. I know you've been on the med for a year but I wonder if as you lose weight, your dosage is in effect becoming more potent.

4.) Your dose of Klonopin is quite low (the lowest available pill actually) so it's not very suspect. Sometimes when folks are on high chronic doses we do a blood (CBC) and liver (LFT) workup just to make sure everything is as it should be but in your case something like that is unlikely to be considered. One possibility (as in the case of the Topamax) is that you're feeling the sedating effects of the drug more as you lose weight, assuming your system hasn't developed a tolerance.

5.) The hypoglycemia connection here is that you're already on 2 drugs that sedate in addition to burning more calories than typical. If your caloric intake is such that your blood glucose level is dipping, the combination will knock you flat. I really would reccomend checking your blood sugar the next time you're feeling so woozy and altogether blechy. You've got to make sure your blood glucose is where is should be since no fuel equals no energy and eventual comas are generally accepted as a bad thing. If you don't have a moniter or know someone who does, hit Walmart and snag their $12 version. It comes with 5 or 10 test strips and doesn't require programming. It's as easy as crustless sugar free key lime pie... which really just sounds like pudding to me... but I digress. Given your calories in vs out ratio on top of the low carb WOE, hypoglycemia really is a strong possibility here and luckily is the easiest to remedy. Hitting the fruit rung may be the key.

6.) Check your blood pressure and make sure it's not crazy low. Increasing your water intake will help in that regard as well. Question: are you noticing your heart beating harder at times at all?

The meds you're on really are good meds so I don't want you to think they're demon culprits or something and flush them down the toilet or attempt to feed them to the birds that keep landing on your lawn (true story!). So much physiology is changing in your body right now that it would be a game of shoot the moving target if you began wildly adjusting the variables. My thoughts would be to start with the simple, likely candidates (Calories, blood sugar, water, voodoo) and move along the logic algorithm. If you're not feeling any sort of improvement in the next couple days as you make the changes then there's certainly no harm in getting in to see your regular doc if you have one and she or he may be able to better put all of the peices together.

[gman]

By the way you should be seeing someone for that cough.

[MommaRuthie]

I want to reiterate from my earlier post. Please go get a check-up with blood labs drawn.