determining when you need rest

pecan · 03-23-2009, 02:52 PM

hi forum,

i'm hoping someone can help me answer this question. i've been eating right and working out 6 days a week for 11 weeks now. today, i seemed to hit a wall. i've felt like CRAP the whole day, and not in the sickness kind of way, in the way of...something being very wrong. it's felt like low blood sugar (nausea without vomiting, chills) but no matter what i do, i can't get rid of the feeling, in spite of eating plenty.

since i tried to workout and literally had to lay down, i can accept not working out today, but does this sound like i need to take more than one day off? or, can you think of another reason i might be feeling this way? lastly, do you think i need to visit a doctor? i JUST canceled my insurance (money constraints) so i'm trying to avoid this, but...le sigh. if i have to, i guess. :|

thank you so much for any thoughts on this subject.

scmaxwell · 03-23-2009, 03:28 PM

I felt like this when I was dieting and exercising a lot on top of taking a small amount of caffeine supplement.
I would suggest taking a couple days of rest and seeing how you feel after that. Just give your body some time to recover itself. If you’re still feeling bad after a couple days of relaxation then I’d suggest seeing a doctor. If the rest helps, maybe try a 3 on 1 off 2 on 1 off workout rotation instead. Just my opinion though.

freebirdmac · 03-23-2009, 04:42 PM

Have you been scrimping on the carbs and not doing refeeds?

pecan · 03-23-2009, 06:37 PM

i don't think so. my macros are usually around 40/35/25 c/f/p and i eat 1800-1900 calories on average.

freebirdmac · 03-23-2009, 06:43 PM

Even at that you could still need a refeed. It could also just be a virus. Give yourself a few days off and see what happens. I hope you feel better soon.

Linds33 · 03-23-2009, 07:03 PM

I have been feeling the same way kind of...

I think for me it could really be a lot of things such as work plus going to the gym and possibly my eating habits.

I was doing a very low carb diet there to try and lean out and i stopped after two weeks (we are talking protein shake only diet). I am in the gym 4-5 days a week as well plus i work a 10 or 11 hour day so it can take a toll on your body.

It is okay to give yourself a couple days of rest. In fact sometimes i think we put such an importance on going to the gym and working out that we forget rest is just as important as activity.

pecan · 03-24-2009, 08:44 AM

thanks again freebirdmac. i have one more question for anyone that can answer: when eating at maintenance, what kind of refeed would be useful? would it just be a change of macros (ie. 50/20/30?) or a slight caloric increase or what?

freebirdmac · 03-24-2009, 09:03 AM

If I think my body is telling me to "refeed" I just eat more carbs that day. Cals will go up accordingly. I don't worry about cals and macros that day. Usually I start to feel better as soon as I load up. That's what clues me in that I really did need more carbs and it wasn't something else. Weekend before last was like that. I ate over 4000 cals and 450 carbs in two days! Bloated up like the dickens for several days but I felt better

nurseerikam · 03-25-2009, 10:53 AM

SHAKE ONLY QUESTION:

I read up on the shake only diet thing and my NPC buddy told me that this is JUST NOT HEALTHY. It seems like a great way to keto and drop some weight (which I oh so desp need at 168 and 5'7) but how do you feel? You mentioned not so good? Are you whole milking your shakes or water? I am trying to get a feel. I wanna go it, but DURN it seems a little extreme.