Weird Extended Induction Problems

[Zolgor]

Firstly let me say I did Atkins a few years ago for 6 months and lost 70lbs with none of these problems which is why it is odd to me.

About a week ago I was waiting at the supermarket in line an tilted my head back for a second streching and started to become unbalanced and dizzy, this was really scary so I got out of line and started to walk down an asile and it felt like I was very drunk and had a hard time walking straight. I slowed down a little and after about 5 minutes or so I felt better and was fine up until about 4-5 days ago.

4-5 Days ago I noticed I was getting really tired all the time, almost in the same way I was when I used to stuff all kinds of bread and candy down my mouth before I started atkins but I still feel almost dizzy like last week but not really totally unbalanced just like maybe I had a few drinks and I am walking a little funny.

I am now in week 6 of induction and I am a bit puzzled as to what I am doing wrong and wanted to see if anyone else has expereinced this before this late into Atkins as before I had no induction flu or anything and it was great.

My daily menu goes as follows EVERYDAY the only thing that changes is my meat types and they are all plain cooked meat with no BBQ sauce or anything on them. The other thing I change sometimes is my 'night' veggie I have with dinner which is 1 cup.

Breakfast
1egg
2 peices of cheese
3 strips of bacon
either 10 pepperoni slices or two sausage patties (no fillers)

Lunch
2 cups of romaine salad
1-2oz cheese (usually sharp)
1-2 slices of bacon
Either 2 burger patties, chicken breast, big steak or a can of chicken salad with mayo

Dinner
Meat of some kind usually up to 16oz
1 cup of either broccoli, squash (yellow one allowed), eggplant or cauliflower

For water I drink atleast 128oz a day, I sometimes just do right under 100oz but most of the time I make it.

My doctor gave me a prescription for a blood sugar monitor a few months ago so I am going to pick that up toorrow and make sure my blood sugar is not too low. He wanted me to keep checking it because it was high (before I started) atkins and had warned me about getting diabetes very soon which is one reason I jumped back on atkins.

I do not cheat ever, I are some swedish meatballs at ikea two weeks ago out of ignorance even though it had sauce which probably was not allowed but other then that I have not cheated at all besides maybe overdoing it on cheese or perpperoni a little.

I do not take any vitamins right now and I will probably also pick some of those up tomorrow when I get the blood sugar monitor but I doubt that could have such a effect on me. Also I do take water pills daily (furisomite) in the morning and pee all day long but again I do not think that would have that much of an effect.

Sorry for the long winded post but I am kind of freaked out a little and though maybe someone else may have had this happen.

[Tamster158]

There was a thread last week about this sort of thing. It seems like many of us have experienced this sort of thing at 5-6 weeks. Look through the threads to see if you can find it -- I felt much better a week later, I hope you do too!

Tammy

I haven't updated my "ticker", but I've now lost 15.5 pounds!

[dcs1771]

i have the same trouble as you. As a matter of fact, reading your post was as if I was writing it. I agree the water pills wouldnt do it because I am not taking any meds, Yet i get that drunk icky gonna pass out feeling whenever I stretch. I have no choice but lay down. I have attributed it to a body change that I wont be seeing much of a difference in until I lose so much weight. But I wont know until I get there.

[Zolgor]

Well not the be mean but I am glad at least someone else is having these same feelings. I read a few other posts where people drank juice of ate bread and felt better but I am not going to go that far unless I really feel I need to.

I have eaten since my first post and do feel better and a little more 'stable' so maybe it has something to do with my intake. The odd thing is that I ate about 5 hours before I ate an hour or so ago so it is not like I am going 10 hours without eating.

I am still going to get my bloos sugar monitor and do it for 2-3 weeks and keep a log of it to show my doctor then, I have been stalling going to him because I am very afraid of him putting me on diabetes meds and I hope that me loosing 40lbs or so in the two months I have seen him and hopefully my sugars will be low.

I was literally eating 3-5 sandwichs a day (gotta love pb&j) and eating 3-6 candy bars a day on top of mcdonalds, wendys, pizza etc so hopefully being clean this long will have lowered it a bunch.

[Moochiecat]

I think that monitoring your blood sugar, and keeping in contact with your doctor is your best course of action.

You also might try and spread your foods out more through the day and have 5 or 6 smaller meals instead of just the three...that has helped me SO much when it comes to low blood sugar episodes. (I've had the jelly legs, partial loss of vision in one eye...weirdo stuff, pre-Atkins).

Or have a small snack between meals...a proten/fat combo snack is best.

Just a note about your menu...switch one of the cups of Romaine for spinach, or peppers, or radishes, or whatever salad veggie you like so you get a broader spectrum of nutrients. :yes

Again though, keep in contact with your doctor :yes

[Effie]

Everyone else had good advice, but I just wanted to add my anecdotal advice:

Sometimes I get that dizzy feeling (though not as bad as you), and then I realize it's because I'm hungry. The reason I never felt this pre-atkins is because I was always eating. I don't think I went an hour without eating unless I was stuck somewhere. Now 4 hours can easily go by without me noticing it. It's kinda neat to see how the other half lives.

[eireanngobrach]

Zolgor,

Here is a thread I started last week b/c the same damn thing happened to me, although I had this for 24 hrs along with crazy heart palps

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=75669

[FightingTheFight]

I do not take any vitamins right now and I will probably also pick some of those up tomorrow when I get the blood sugar monitor but I doubt that could have such a effect on me. Also I do take water pills daily (furisomite) in the morning and pee all day long but again I do not think that would have that much of an effect.

That stuck out at me, because it most certainly would have an effect. You arn't supplementing with vitanutrients then you are taking water pills. Your electrolytes could be out of whack due to the fact that this W.O.E. has the diuretic effect.

also, how many calories are you getting in? Whats your exercise look like?

[Squeaker]

Exactly the same thing happened to me night before last. I got up from sitting went to reach up on top of a cupboard, the world went crazy and I pulled a t.v aerial on top of my head nearly knocking myself out.
Was fine yesterday except for the headache.

[sadie147]

I do not take any vitamins right now and I will probably also pick some of those up tomorrow when I get the blood sugar monitor but I doubt that could have such a effect on me. Also I do take water pills daily (furisomite) in the morning and pee all day long but again I do not think that would have that much of an effect.

That stuck out at me, because it most certainly would have an effect. You arn't supplementing with vitanutrients then you are taking water pills. Your electrolytes could be out of whack due to the fact that this W.O.E. has the diuretic effect.

also, how many calories are you getting in? Whats your exercise look like?

This jumped out at me too. Why are you taking the water pills are they prescribed for a medical condition or just for water retention? If you drink the proper amount of water, you shouldn't need these for water retention. Also vitamins are very important!

I agree with moochie as well..swap out some of your veggies for more nutrient packed ones (lettuce isn't a nutrient packed veggie), keep in contact with your Dr, and eat smaller meals (i do this and it works great for me).

If you are getting in the proper amount of veggies, you're keeping your %'s in line and your calories high enough, you should not be getting lightheaded from your diet IMO.

[Zolgor]

Yes I know I was bad without the vitamins, I am going to go pick some up today and I take the water pills because I had a surgery about three years ago and after that started to retain water so they put me on water pills.

They said if I loose a bunch of weight I probably wont need them anymore but for now I have been taking them, I also took them in 2003 when I did atkins.

Also thank you for the link to the other thread it was helpful, one thing I find odd is unlike when I was a carboholic when I wake up and get going I usually feel great it is just sometimes during the day I fell a little 'off' or really tired.

One thing I did change was that I was always eating my salads for lunch around 2pm and I have been eating my dinner meat and veggie at that time and saving salad till 6-7pm now so I am going to switch back today and see if I see any improvement.

[america57]

You guys scare me because some of the symptoms you describe were what I had before I was finally diagnoised with Multiple Schlorosis. I'm not saying that you have it, but the first symptom I had was really bad vertigo, especially in big places like grocery stores & parking lots. Then I lost sensation in my left hand, that lasted for a week, then, I couldn't feel my arm, then I lost the sight in my left eye for about a week. I had to visit several specialist before I was diagnoised with MS. Just keep an eye on it and keep it touch with your doctor, this is nothing to play with!

[Brook]

Something that comes to mind for me is lower blood pressure. I have low blood pressure anyway, but during the first few weeks there were times when I'd get light headed/icky feeling - the initial changes in my diet aggravated it a bit.

I'm with Moochie on this one. A lot of the things mentioned here are easy enough to address, and some aren't, but still need addressed. Go see your doc

[cajunthunder]

Something that comes to mind for me is lower blood pressure. I have low blood pressure anyway, but during the first few weeks there were times when I'd get light headed/icky feeling - the initial changes in my diet aggravated it a bit.

I've always had low blood pressure and two weeks after I started Atkins, I started going to a personal trainer. The first day she took my blood pressure and it was lower than it had ever been before - 70/54.

I haven't checked it recently - guess I ought to just to see. I think the lowest it ever read at the doctors office was 90/54 and the nurse kept asking me if I felt okay - I'm like, yea, I feel fine, why? LOL!

[eireanngobrach]

I am low BP too. I am low everything though ( except weight). My doctor even called me a hyper-hypo. I have hypotension and hypoglycemia and a very low body temp. It didn;t occur to me that the LBP could be the reason I was feeling icky