I have a question?

[ILOVEJESUS]

Ive been on this diet twice and both times around my 14th day,i would feel like i was going to kill over,i felt as my blood pressure was very low!
just wondering why and if anybody else felt that way.i can not get past the 14th day,and my heart started flutering would not stop.this really stressed my body out!

[SunnySmile501]

Your blood pressure probably was very low. Are you taking supplements? This diet makes you lose a lot of water weight and with it goes a lot of sodium, potassium and magnesium. Those are the electrolytes that you need to function. Try taking magnesium & potassium and eating a little more salt--natural sea salt if you can get some.

Also, increase your veggies some. You are eating your veggies, aren't you?

[Georgiana]

I had never read of anything like this on the Board, but maybe others had. In any case, it is not something a healthy person should experience. Did you discuss the problem with your doctor?

[ILOVEJESUS]

I was taking vitamins,but i did realize that the vitamins did not have potassium in them.and i wonder,and yes i am healthy.

[IrishIrish]

Why don't you post an example of your menus and activity for a few days? Also, you don't mention your beginning weight or the result you had with your weight loss and your age. Those are helpful factors for those who may want to give a response.

[momonmission99*]

It could be your potassium, but obviously I'm not a doctor. I had some similar symptoms once on this diet and ended up in the ER because of a VERY low potassium. Another symptom I had was a totally numb upper lip. I couldn't even smile. They thought it was a possible stroke at first. Almost a whole night and lots of tests later, I had the dangerously low levels of potassium. Quite an experience.

This time around I'm totally fine as I'm looking for this in products I buy. I'm also going to buy some potassium supplements.

[dr.a]

Could be that you were feeling weak because your weight loss was going too quickly. Dr. Atkins mentions something like that (it's chapter 9, doing the strict level of the atkins diet at home and at work, in my 1996 version). Increasing the amount of carbs/day with more vegetables should take care of that.

[kibskix]

if my fats are too low or i go longer than 4 hours without eating i get light headed and my energy is low. gotta keep that metabolism up!

[ILOVEJESUS]

Thanks alot i really feel like it was my potassuim,i indeed did lose alot of weight quick,14 pounds both time in 14 days!

[SunnySmile501]

Low potassium is nothing to fool around with. You should make sure you are getting enough and you also should slow down the losses a bit. Are you eating veggies? You can get Morton's Lite Salt and use it until you feel better. It is pure potassium salts. The potassium pills are only 99mg and are poorly absorbed.

My daughter (when she was 16) decided to lose some weight before going to the beach with friends for spring break. She was very tiny to start with and chronic low potassium runs in our family. She didn't eat very well the first couple of days while being very active and she got dehydrated and had a heart attack from loss of potassium. She spent the rest of spring break in CCU (coronary care unit) at the hospital in Virginia Beach.