No Energy

[Blue Eyes]

Tomorrow (Feb. 6) is day 14 of my Whole30 and I have almost no energy. I am very grumpy and irritable, I have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, and I have no ambition to do anything. I'm also incredibly frustrated because I have ZERO energy to workout. I was training 5-6 days a week before starting and now I start to feel very shaky, cold, and weak after only 10 minutes of activity. I know for a fact that I am eating plenty, I'm eating starchy veggies, salting my food, drinking plenty of water. I'm starting to think my body just runs better on carbs versus fat, which I've heard is very true for some people. Thoughts? 

[SugarcubeOD]

Even tho you might know for a fact you're eating enough, the only way we're going to be able to give you any directed help is if you list out a few days of what you've been eating including portion sizes, specific veggies, fruit, fat and protein, meal timing, fluid consumption... 

You need to become fat adapted to run on fat which would then be the most efficient way to fuel your body.  If you're eating a lot of fruit or a significant amount of starchy carbs you may be preventing yourself from becoming fat adapted which would mean your body is always looking for easy energy in the form of carbs/sugar.

[Blue Eyes]

Why is becoming fat adapted the most efficient way to fuel my body? The bodys' preferred source of fuel is glucose.

 

Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in coconut oil with Mini turkey meatballs, sautéed spinach, sweet potato, red onion, red bell pepper, and fresh basil.

Lunch: Either a green smoothie (Avocado, Spinach, 1/2 cup strawberries and black berries) and a handful of nuts or left overs from dinner. 

Dinner: Meatloaf, veggies (broccoli, sweet potato, green beans, etc.) and some olives.

Snack: Apple with some pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

 

I know smoothies aren't compliant, but I don't get to bed until late so I wake up between 11:30-noon and I'm really not hungry for a full meal before dinner time. I usually eat breakfast by 12:30. Lunch is usually around 3, dinner around 6, and a snack around 9. I drink slightly less than 1 gallon of water per day. 

[SugarcubeOD]

There are plenty of articles online about becoming fat adapted and what that does for a person so I don't think I need to spend time typing it all out here when there are smarter folks than myself who have already said it.

That said, you're definitely not eating enough.  It was mentioned to you on your thread where you were dissatisfied with digestion that ditching the smoothie would probably benefit you and honestly that's the same feedback here.  Nuts isn't a lunch, smoothies digest at a much more rapid rate than chewed food.  Your breakfast and dinner look good, it's the lunch and 9pm snack that are likely not doing you any favors.  If you're awake for 12 or more hours, then you have the time for the three meals a day that are recommended.  If you're a night owl and you don't get up until noon and this is a habit that you want to keep, then the first meal of the day should be eaten within one hour of waking and then every 4-5 hours after.  So eat Breakfast at noon, lunch at 4/5 and dinner at 8/9.

Everything about what your original post said about being grumpy, no ambition, no energy is related to not eating enough.

[ladyshanny]

11 hours ago, Blue Eyes said:

Why is becoming fat adapted the most efficient way to fuel my body? The body's preferred source of fuel is glucose.

This is definitely what we've all been told over the years but if you think about it, glucose can't be stored, it has to be added in the form of food/beverage every 2-3 hours. This means that human beings would have been designed to always need to carry food with them and that's simply not the case if you look back at history. In times of famine or long journeys or scarcity, if we relied on glucose which has to come from food, we would have died out long ago.

Fat is simply stored energy. The body is miraculous because it can learn to easily switch between stored fat and readily available glucose. The thing is that we, in our western culture, eat SO much instantly available energy in the form of sugars, starches, grains etc, that our bodies have let the ability to switch back and forth lapse. What we want you to do on Whole30 is become "fat adapted" which means that your body can switch between energy sources as needed. It's not ketosis where your body runs only on fat, it's the ability to switch back and forth. This becomes the most efficient way because you will always have access to readily available energy whether it's the food you're eating or stored energy in the form of fat.

Also of note, the only organ in the body that actually NEEDS glucose to function is your brain and even if you ate an ONLY protein and fat diet for months and months, your body can MAKE the small amount of glucose needed for the brain. Glucose is absolutely not required for human function which makes it all the more sad how reliant we have all become on it.