I went off the Atkins diet 3 days ago, and I woke up this morning with the worst headache I have ever had. I took almost 2000 mg of tylenol and excedrin this morning and drank lots of water, but it didn’t help.
I know it’s common to have headaches during the “induction” week, when your body starts getting low glucose levels, but like I said, I’ve been off it for a long time.
My husband always tells me I don’t drink enough water. I usually drink soda or juice and hardly ever water.
The other thing is that we have been sleeping on an air bed. My husband weighs 60 pounds more than me, so I spend all night trying not to roll into his dent, but we keep the mattress soft because otherwise it lifts me up when he lays down.
Also, I feel like my head is pointing down the way we have the bed set up. (he took it down today and set up a regular mattress for me) He had a bad headache today too, but it went away late afternoon and mine just got worse.
Which one of these things is causing my horrible headache? Is it all of them together? And what can I do to get rid of it?
I took 2 excedrin migraine pills about 1 hour ago and they aren’t helping yet. I feel nauseous.
I’d say it’s a combination of the air mattress and the diet. I’m doing Atkins, too, but in my case not drinking soda and juice helped end my migraines to some extent.
Don’t drink a lot of water all at once. You need to drink lots of water all day long, spread out over the course of the day. Keep well-hydrated.
You can have some caffeine; a cup of coffee or tea (or even two) once you’re past the induction is fine. Just no sugar. You can use Sweet & Low if you need it sweetened. You can even use real cream.
When I cheat, and have something with lots of sugar, I get a headache and I feel sick.
For me at least, the partly-inflated air mattress with my head lower than my feet would give me a raging headache. I need a firm mattress. If you’re spending the night trying not to roll into your husband’s “dent” then you’re not getting enough sleep. That would cause a headache. Get rid of the air mattress and use a regular one.
How big is your bed? My husband and I need a Queen-size. We just need the room. Some people like the closeness of a plain old double, but we couldn’t get any sleep in a double.
You say you went OFF the diet … how, exactly? Did you down a lot of sugar? I’ve had major dizziness/headache issues the few times I’ve gone off (fresh squeezed orange juice is the worst … might as well do crack!).
Don’t keep mixing the Tylenol and Excedrin. Excedrin has Tylenol in it already so you are getting a double dose which isn’t good. Also, Excedrin has caffeine in it. For some people caffeine helps when they have a headache. For other caffeine makes a headache worse. I get nauseous if I take Excedrin on an empty stomach. The aspirin can be rough on your tummy. I always try to eat a little something when I take it.
You said that your husband had a headache today too? This might be silly but do you have a carbon monoxide detector in the house?
Sleeping with my feet above my head would also probably give me a headache. My body never likes my head to be below the rest of it for very long.
I think the key here is that you went “off” the diet. The Atkins diet requires you to go through the stages and gradually increase your carbs. If you went from induction one day to completely “off” the diet the next day, you’re asking for all kinds of problems.
I’ve been on the diet since January, and have had nothing but positive results in many areas, not just weight. Except that one day I was at a wedding reception, and decided to blow it, just for that day. I ate anything I felt like eating, including several desserts. Well, the repercussions from this lasted about 4 days, including indigestion, lack of energy, and headaches.
It’s a wonderful diet, but not one to play around with.
Firstly - most soda and juice is totally forbidden on Atkins, especially in the first Induction phase.
Most diet sodas are forbidden (a) for caffeine, and (b) for aspartame. Many people report bad reactions to aspartame, it’s also suspected of making Atkins dieters “stall.”
Atkins also insists on very significant water intake, 64 fl oz/day, IIRC.
As others mention, caffeine withdrawal could be a an issue. It’s also interesting that many longer-term Atkins followers report bad side-effects like terrible stomach ache if/when they suddenly lapse and ingest a load of carbs.
I did an earlier version of Atkins (very low carb, all the fat you can stomach).
And this is what happened after a few weeks:
Gradual slide into severe depression
No periods
Anorexic-type obsessional thinking about food 24 hours a day (yes, I even dreamed of pasta and bread)
After three months I was suicidal and had developed a totally distorted body image despite losing a couple of stone. I never had any tendencies toward anorexia before or since.
Then I ‘broke’ the diet and ate some spaghetti with a friend. I felt as if I had taken cocaine - a huge euphoria. The depression lifted overnight and the diet was abandoned.
My periods, however, did not return for about 8 months and I developed a craving for sweet stuff that lasted for about a year (I normally hate sweets).
My view is that severe restriction of carbohydrates had dangerous effect on my mood and general wellbeing.
Atkins is based on the observation that carbohydrates and fat are normally eaten together. If you cut the bread, the theory goes, there’s a limit to the amount of butter you can eat, so you eat less. If you cut the potatoes, there’s only so much steak you can gorge on, and so on. It is just a contorted version of calorie restriction. There is no mystery about losing weight - if you eat less than you burn off as energy, you lose weight. It’s not rocket science, though the diet-peddlers do their best to mystify matters.
Sorry to sound off, but from personal experience, Atkins is a terrible diet.
i just started a diet where the foods you can eat are decided by your blood type. Certain foods make me lose weight since i’m an A, like pineapple and grapefruit. And I’ve also learned that fruit should be eaten 1/2 an hour before the meal or 2 hours after or you don’t get any of the benefits. Don’t exercise much but i’ve already lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks.
Someone on another board (a low-carb board) posted about experiencing gut-wrenching headaches while ON Atkins. So another posted suggested he take vitamin B, niacin and magnesium and that helped quite a bit.
Someone else also suggested potassium which helped her.
mrsface - given that your experiences are of a diet that is clearly not Atkins (Atkins does contain some carbs, and it is certainly not unlimited fat intake) I don’t think “chuck this terrible diet” is very helpful advice. It sounds like you too severely limited your carbs.
ANY diet which causes a woman to stop menstruating is a major problem.
[quote] Atkins is based on the observation that carbohydrates and fat are normally eaten together. If you cut the bread, the theory goes, there’s a limit to the amount of butter you can eat, so you eat less. If you cut the potatoes, there’s only so much steak you can gorge on, and so on. It is just a contorted version of calorie restriction.
[quote]
This is very, very wrong. Atkins theory relates to insulin levels and blood sugar regulation. The main reason one usually ends up eating less calories as well on Atkins is because one is less hungry, due to not having blood sugar spikes and lows.
It also warns against any form of gorging - you are supposed to eat in moderation: healthy, satisfying amounts, but not unlimited.
And if you eat too few carbohydrates, it warns that your body will go into starvation mode, and weight loss will probably stall.
I was just going to hop in to say the obvious: no one on the message boards, no matter how well-meaning or how well medically educated, can tell you what’s causing your headaches based on a message board post.
For cryin’ out loud, folks, CALL YOUR DOCTOR when you have some unusual medical symptoms. The best doctor in the world would rightly refuse to make a diagnosis based on a posting like this.
Jersey, I’m sorry to hear the results, but I’m very glad that you went for a check up rather than relying on Message Boards.
