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cattyjane

New User, Becoming EHEALTHy

Joined: 04 May 2008
Posts: 2

reactive hypoglycemia energy levels Posted: 05-04-08 12:26pm


I have recently been proven to suffer from reactive hypoglycemia. I am 19 years old and was a previous athlete and now a coach. If I don't eat within 1 to 1 1/2 hours I don't have the energy to continue working. I have been told to go on the atkins diet to eliminate cabohydrates so that my symptoms dissapear and they have got alot better but i feel i am eating way too much and am starting to gain weight as i am eating maybe 10 to 11 times a day. I also have no idea what to snack on when i am working as i have no time to sit down??? I would appreciate any help on whether I am on the correct diet and what snacks would be good for both the atkins and my condition. I really feel for people with this condition as it has affected my lifestyle and i am now unable to compete in competition. Thankyou

VictoriaGB

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Joined: 25 Apr 2008
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Location: Wales, UK

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Posted: 05-07-08 11:18am


First of all, Atkins is ridiculously low in carbohydrate, far too low for any person in my opinion. Look to be on around 90g of carbs minimum, any lower and you'll find yourself in ketosis and feeling rather crappy. You'll need to play with this value a little, if you're ok with 90g then add on another 10g, and keep adding on 10g until you've found the maximum carb you can tolerate before symptoms return. As you're active, the more carb you can get away with the better. 90g - 120g is normal for a low carb diet and should be fine for you, unfortunately everyone is different in how much carb they can tolerate, so you will have to play a little. Get your carbs from veggies and some fruit rather than bread/rice etc until you know what you can tolerate personally. Stan has a general guide in a sticky that you should check out. I assume as a sports person you're already aware of the importance of protein. Make sure you're getting enough in so your muscles can repair sufficiently - but bare in mind that excess protein is converted to glucose, your body will only use what it needs. So don't go mad with it. Fat, as I understand it is encouraged on the Atkins diet. Be careful. Make sure your fat is coming from good sources, like extra virgin olive oil, when possible - stay away from the lard and saturated fats. And please don't try this new 'high-fatting' fad where Atkins dieters are eating 80% of their calories from lard Eating every 1-2 hours is fine given your active lifestyle, eat as often as you need to, just keep a check on your calorie intake if you're concerned about weight gain. Bare in mind that fat has 9kcal per gram, so if you are high-fatting and not counting calories, that would explain the weight gain. One thing the low carb fads are good for, is recipes. Have a search for low carb recipes. A good idea before training is something like peanut butter - have it on celery sticks, with ham or cheese, you can even mix it with protein powder and roll it into balls. Peanut butter is priceless for the active person, if you like it then stock up! Chicken and tuna are also worth their weight in gold, you can do so much with the stuff plus it's high in protein and not much else. Eggs also make a good pre-training snack, as do a handful of nuts. If you enjoy cooking there's a lot of recipes out there for things like protein bars for pre-training that are made with peanut butter for example, rather than sugar and honey. You can also take these things to work and eat on the go. Cook up bowls of tuna salad, chicken salad etc, to keep in the fridge so you'll always have something to hand at home. You can also pack similar meals into those plastic containers and take some to eat in work. Also bare in mind that a lot of fitness buffs and body weight trainers are on a similar diet of meat/fish/eggs/veggies (plus peanut butter!). Training while on this diet is perfectly do-able, if not actually better for you. If you want to monitor your dietary intake, I recommend Fit Day. It's very basic, but a priceless tool. Enter in your diet and the program displays various reports and charts of your intake, taking into account your total calories, protein, fat, and carbs. It makes it very easy to see exactly how much of what you're putting in your body. I'm currently on a protein/carb/fat percentage of 35/25/40 - on 1500 calories that works out to be 131g of protein, 94g of carbs, and 67g of fat per day. That's a nice ratio to aim for but as you're much more active than me you'll need a higher calorie intake, so may have to adjust those percentages slightly. How long have you been on this diet? As I said, a lot of people in the fitness world follow a similar diet and find that they feel much better for it - so give it some time. Your body needs to adjust to using other sources (fat) as well as glucose for fuel, so you'll feel pretty bad at first. But give it a few weeks, you'll feel better in no time.

Stan

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Joined: 01 Jan 2006
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Posted: 05-10-08 09:46am


Wow, V, sounds like you've learned a lot thus far! I wanted to comment that it is eventually pretty easy to work out on this diet. I am currently training and can run miles and such with no problem. If you eat a lot of protein before you work-outs (about 2-3 hours before), you'll be fine, and then have some carbohyrate afterwards like an orange.