When people try new diets, or detox plans, they often complain of a lack of concentration, irritability, and weepiness. It strikes me that being able to overcome these undersirable effects would probably generate a great deal of extra income for the diet industry.
Not being scientifically-minded, my question is whether these effects are due to the fact that calorific intake is too low (in which case the industry can’t counteract it) or whether they are the result of deficiency in vitamins/minerals/other nutrients (in which case it might be possibly to create a supplement which would alleviate the side effects of dieting).
This isn’t scientific, but I’d wonder how much of those reactions were due to variations in blood sugar levels. I’ve tried various diets over the last couple of years and can remember feeling like that on a couple of quite different occasions. First, I tried the restrictive portion of a low-carb diet for a couple of weeks–not as restrictive as Atkins, but almost. Although I was eating plenty of calories and was not objectively hungry, I did feel tired and irritable after about the third day. I kept it up anyway and had adjusted by the second week.
The other time was due more to straightforward calorie restriction and was manifested in lightheadedness, growling stomach and just plain old hunger.
So, I don’t think vitamins would have much effect. What seems to help is eating in a way that avoids higher than average variations in blood sugar levels.
Thanks Cher3, that’s interesting. I think that’s more what I was getting at - I rather suspected that on diets like Atkins people probably aren’t going hungry.
Though it’s possible to get all your vitamins on low calorie diets it is hard. Once you get below 1500 calories a day you are in territory whereas you need to plan every bite to get your recommended vitamins and minerals. 1200 and below it’s nearly (but not) impossible.
That is why nutritionists recommend a good multi-vitamin for diets below 1500 calories/day.
It isn’t that it can’t be done, but rather it is hard enough to do so most people won’t bother.
Since carbs are the first thing used by the body as energy it is normal to lack energy on the Atkins diet till your body depletes all it’s carbs and goes into fat burning mode. This is why panic attack sufferers often have trouble with Atkins. The symptoms of low energy will bring on a panic like feeling. Then when the fat burning mode kicks in you get too much energy at once. (Well it feels like it does)