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Ending Week 3, Still No Energy?


Kattz

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So I am coming up on the end of my 3rd week of my first round of Whole30. I know that there is a patch where you will have an energy drain in the beginning, but I'm wondering how long that lasts? I've had an issue with being overwhelmingly tired where I could sleep 12 - 14 hours at a time, longer if I let myself. After a battery of tests which all came back negative, the cause of the extreme sleep is unknown. This was one of the reasons I turned to Whole30, wondering if what I was eating at that time was the cause.

I will say, that since the first week, even though I am so tired I could sleep for 12 hours, when I'm awake, I am awake. I don't have the fog, or disconnected feeling I would frequently get which I think is a huge improvement. I'm just curious if the lack of energy could continue for the whole 30 (no pun intended) days?

Typically, my breakfast is 2 hard boiled eggs, a mix of carrots/mushrooms/onions and fruit (an apple, orange, pear, mango or banana). Lunch could be chicken breast/lean beef/lean turkey cooked with onions green peppers and mushrooms, and fruit. With dinner typically the other half of what I made for lunch, or could be an omelette with fruit. Protein portions are the size of my palm, with double the amount in vegetables. I'm not a snacker, but on the rare occasion I have that urge, I'll usually snack on a cup of vegetables or fruit.

I'm planning on doing a second round after this one finishes, only because I'm actually enjoying it a lot and really want to make sure that I'm clean before I start to slowly reintroduce things. Just want to make sure that at some point, the need for 12hrs of sleep or more will go away lol

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6 minutes ago, Kattz said:

So I am coming up on the end of my 3rd week of my first round of Whole30. I know that there is a patch where you will have an energy drain in the beginning, but I'm wondering how long that lasts? I've had an issue with being overwhelmingly tired where I could sleep 12 - 14 hours at a time, longer if I let myself. After a battery of tests which all came back negative, the cause of the extreme sleep is unknown. This was one of the reasons I turned to Whole30, wondering if what I was eating at that time was the cause.

I will say, that since the first week, even though I am so tired I could sleep for 12 hours, when I'm awake, I am awake. I don't have the fog, or disconnected feeling I would frequently get which I think is a huge improvement. I'm just curious if the lack of energy could continue for the whole 30 (no pun intended) days?

Typically, my breakfast is 2 hard boiled eggs, a mix of carrots/mushrooms/onions and fruit (an apple, orange, pear, mango or banana). Lunch could be chicken breast/lean beef/lean turkey cooked with onions green peppers and mushrooms, and fruit. With dinner typically the other half of what I made for lunch, or could be an omelette with fruit. Protein portions are the size of my palm, with double the amount in vegetables. I'm not a snacker, but on the rare occasion I have that urge, I'll usually snack on a cup of vegetables or fruit.

I'm planning on doing a second round after this one finishes, only because I'm actually enjoying it a lot and really want to make sure that I'm clean before I start to slowly reintroduce things. Just want to make sure that at some point, the need for 12hrs of sleep or more will go away lol

Eggs when they are your sole source of protein are as many as you can hold in one hand without dropping.. you can probably hold 3 or 4, or eat the two and add some leftover dinner protein.  You have no fat in any of your meals which I am going to say is probably a very likely contributor to your tiredness.   I would also suggest that you add veggies to your omlette meal and potentially reduce the amount of fruit you're eating overall as it seems that it's contributing to you not eating more veggies.  If you have to snack, we recommend protein and fat, not fruit on its own.

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Your sleep/awake NSV is great! PIggy backing on what sugarcube said, W30 changes your body over to fat burning and if you're not giving it any fat to use for energy then you're going to be exhausted. Another thought is that because you came in with a significant fatigue issue -more than average - it might take a longer, like a W45 or W60 for you to get the big bump in energy (compared to your baseline) that you're looking for. I think rolling into another 15 or 30 days might give you want you want, especially if you add in fats. 

Good luck!!

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17 hours ago, SugarcubeOD said:

Eggs when they are your sole source of protein are as many as you can hold in one hand without dropping.. you can probably hold 3 or 4, or eat the two and add some leftover dinner protein.  You have no fat in any of your meals which I am going to say is probably a very likely contributor to your tiredness.   I would also suggest that you add veggies to your omlette meal and potentially reduce the amount of fruit you're eating overall as it seems that it's contributing to you not eating more veggies.  If you have to snack, we recommend protein and fat, not fruit on its own.

I can hold 3 comfortably in my hand, or 3 if I am really stretching and spreading my hand out. It is why I do the 2 hard boiled in the morning, and if I do an omelette I will do 3 eggs. I am not sure I would say Eggs are my sole source of protein. If I have chicken for lunch, I have it for dinner, or ground turkey or beef etc. sometimes with sweet potato from the awesome recipe in the Whole30 book (btw, love the cumin rub). I definitely don't have 5 eggs every day (2 @ bf, 3 @ din) I would say this is more of a ... twice a week thing at most.

My apologizes too, when I put omelette, I had originally put that I add chopped vegetables (spinach/onion/mushroom/tomato/red potato) but I restarted that line and seems to have been left out. I will say that yes, I don't probably get a lot of fat. In my avoiding butters, I may be avoiding everything 'fat' associated. I do cook with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, but other than that... I might have a 1/4 of walnuts once a week ... maybe?

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1 hour ago, RandiW said:

Your sleep/awake NSV is great! PIggy backing on what sugarcube said, W30 changes your body over to fat burning and if you're not giving it any fat to use for energy then you're going to be exhausted. Another thought is that because you came in with a significant fatigue issue -more than average - it might take a longer, like a W45 or W60 for you to get the big bump in energy (compared to your baseline) that you're looking for. I think rolling into another 15 or 30 days might give you want you want, especially if you add in fats. 

Good luck!!

Thanks! That was along the lines of what I was thinking in terms of it may need to take longer because of how bad it was. It is what I'm hoping for at least. I am realizing after your response and Sugarcubes, that I am definitely not getting the fat amounts daily that I should be. I'm going to start working on that next and see if that helps any. 

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2 hours ago, Kattz said:

I can hold 3 comfortably in my hand, or 3 if I am really stretching and spreading my hand out. It is why I do the 2 hard boiled in the morning, and if I do an omelette I will do 3 eggs. I am not sure I would say Eggs are my sole source of protein. If I have chicken for lunch, I have it for dinner, or ground turkey or beef etc. sometimes with sweet potato from the awesome recipe in the Whole30 book (btw, love the cumin rub). I definitely don't have 5 eggs every day (2 @ bf, 3 @ din) I would say this is more of a ... twice a week thing at most.

My apologizes too, when I put omelette, I had originally put that I add chopped vegetables (spinach/onion/mushroom/tomato/red potato) but I restarted that line and seems to have been left out. I will say that yes, I don't probably get a lot of fat. In my avoiding butters, I may be avoiding everything 'fat' associated. I do cook with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, but other than that... I might have a 1/4 of walnuts once a week ... maybe?

The egg thing is 'sole source of protein in a meal', not overall.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, today marks my last day on my first round of Whole30 plus a week. I actually decided to stay on it an extra week because I wanted to time the 'completed' with my husbands birthday and a couple family events that are happening in the next couple weeks. It is my way of showing him that I greatly appreciated his coming on board with this after being a source of issue in the beginning. During the next week and half, I'm still going to be following Whole30 mostly, but this way when we go out for his birthday dinner, he can have whatever he wants without feeling like he is teasing me, and I can have a little more options. Once that week and half is done, it will be back to Whole30 full time to try and get my energy kicked up finally.

My victories over the last 30+ days. Well, the one everyone always asks, I've dropped 12.8 pounds as of last week (was before I decided to continue another week), I haven't weighed myself this week yet, that will be tomorrow. I don't feel as bloated all the time like I was before, and I've had zero.....yup exactly zero issues related to my lack of gallbladder. It is the first time in years that I have gone longer than a week without having to make runs to the bathroom after having just ate something that my body no longer likes without knowing what it was that triggered it in the first place. That to me is a huge positive which only someone else with a similar issue could truly understand. While I haven't had the energy boost, and I could still sleep 12+ hours a day if I allowed myself, I also don't have that fog once I am awake that makes me want to roll over and go back asleep. Considering the long time I've had energy issues, I do think this will eventually work itself out which is another reason I will be doing a second round. Cumin, omg I love cumin which I had never had until doing this. I read the chicken run in the Whole30 book and have used it for everything at this point it is so good.

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