[era28]

I have been doing a low carb/ calorie counting/ vegetarian diet. Last night I got horrible sick and puked my guts out all night. TMI, but I have been having diarrhea all week, and tummy aches. I figured it may be just a change in diet, since I recently started restricting my carbs majorly. I am afraid to put anything in my stomach that is in my fridge or cupboard. I thought about almonds, but that may really hurt going back up. My other options are tuna, eggs, cheese, spinach, tofo, stirfry veggies, fake meat taco salad. All of those sound horrible after a night of vomiting.

I feel like my stomach is so acidic and needs to absorb something. So far I can't hold anything down. So would it really matter if I ate a piece of bread at this point? Who knows if that will even stick.
I have been doing so good, I don't want to stop dieting but my stomach is killing me.

Does anybody have any ideas for something light/ low carb that would ease my tummy and not break my diet.

[JerseyGyrl]

If you are wanting bread, you could make some oopsie rolls. They are low carb and can be toasted.
http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.co...rb-oopsie.html
Hope this helps and you feel better

[chubbybunny29]

Personally, I think that all bets are off when you're not getting any nutrition. I'd have a piece of bread and see if it helps, and then switch to maybe scrambled eggs as soon as your stomach feels more settled.

[kaplods]

You haven't bee restricting fat, have you? Combining low-fat and low-carb can make you sick (it's called rabbit starvation or sometimes protein poisoning - though it's not the protein it's the lack of carbs or fats - you don't need both, just one or the other)

I'm not sure it's possible to get rabbit-starvation on a vegetarian diet, but possibly. It could be a soy allergy/sensitivity - or something else entirely.

If it is your low-carb diet, you might try increasing your carbs. If you didn't have diarrhea and vomitting, I'd suggest gradually increasing carbs, but since you're already pretty sick, I'd suggest a significant increase -say at least 15g from an easily digestible carb like winter squash, sweet potato or even rice - though I'm a bit prejudiced against grains).

If you get the symptoms to disappear with an additional 15g of carbs, once you're feeling better you can decide whether to keep your carb level there, or gradually decrease it.

I've had to do traditional low-carb "backwards" (gradually reducing rather than gradually increasing) because I get quite sick on very low-carb.


I will do a very low-carb (under 30 of carbs) a few days at a time to get rid of water weight (such as I did this week to get rid of some vacation water-weight).

I didn't just stick to a few days though, because I thought "hey maybe my insulin resistance has improved to the point that I can try induction again - as it's meant to be done." It was a very failed experiment. By day 4, I was intensely sick. For me, gradually reducing carbs has worked better than starting very low and gradually reintroducing carbs.

This strategy may or may not be compatible with your plan, but it can work.

[era28]

kaplods- What you are saying makes sense! I think I have been doing low-carb low-fat, not on purpose. But I ate a ton of cheese on this diet before and this time around I havn't been eating cheese or meat because I have become a vegetarian. I thought I had a lacto allergy at one point so I tried eliminating cheese and switchede to soy milk for a couple weeks, I found out I wasnt allergic but I havnt started eating cheese or drinking milk like I used to. Maybe more dairy is the solution.
Yesterday I had:
A hard broiled egg for breakfast
tuna on lettuce for lunch
and an amy's organic for dinner, which had 40 carbs and 5 grams of fat. I have been trying to keep my carbs under 50 a day.

Before that my diet was similar this week starting with a hard broiled egg for breakfast, a salad at some point with low-cal dressing and trying to fit either fish or protien in my diet somewhere for lunch or dinner.

So far today I have been drinking a ton of water. I think I am going to have a low-carb tortilla for lunch with some soy meat and cheese and lettuce.
Spagehtti squash sounds really good to me right now maybe I will have some for dinner.
Thanks for the fake bread recipe Jerseygirl! I am definitely going to try it!
Thanks everyone for your advice! I hope I feel better too.

I didnt remember getting this sick when I did the adkins before and I was really successful on it, but like I said that was when I ate meat and lots of cheese, so this time around it's a whole new ballgame.

[kaplods]

Originally Posted by era28

Yesterday I had:A hard broiled egg for breakfast
tuna on lettuce for lunch
and an amy's organic for dinner, which had 40 carbs and 5 grams of fat. I have been trying to keep my carbs under 50 a day.

Before that my diet was similar this week starting with a hard broiled egg for breakfast, a salad at some point with low-cal dressing and trying to fit either fish or protien in my diet somewhere for lunch or dinner.

Yikes - that's not nearly enough food. You're not only eating very little fat, you're eating very little of anything.

What you've listed comes out to like 325 to 350 calories, 500 at most (unless you're eating a super large can of tuna AND it's packed in oil not water).

VLCD's are associated with a TON of health problems that can cause severe illness from hair loss and flu-symptoms to organ damage (especially to the heart).

I'd recommend more calories, more fat, and DEFINITELY more non-starchy veggies.

You also might consider a vitamin C, vitamin D, and folic acid supplement in addition to a multi-vitamin supplent (again, I'd highly recommend talking to a dietitian who has experience with veg*n and reduced carb diets).

From my own experience, if I were eating like you're eating, I would not only be experiencing IBS (painful diarrhea and/or constipation and cramping), I'd also be nauseous, light-headed, weak as a kitten, and probably passing out.

If I eat fewer than 30g carbs and less than 1000 calories, I get extremely, extremely ill. In fact, this past week I tried to do Atkins Induction level to get rid of some vacation water weight. I didn't manage induction level (because I absolutely had to have some greek yogurt - didn't want it to spoil, and it's my favorite). Even though I was eating about 30 to 40g of carbs and about 1500 calories (quite a bit from fat, and veggies). I still had to increase my carbs because I got so weak, I could hardly move - and the headaches were absolutely killing me. I know from past experience, that for me, "induction flu" isn't temporary or insignificant. It doesn't disapear over the first two or even three weeks. The symptoms just keep getting worse and worse until I actually get sick and weak enough to actually pass out.

Don't try to do low-carb, low-fat, AND very low-calorie. It just will backfire on you in so many ways.

[era28]

I did snack on a bunch of almonds throughout the day too. I usually snack on almonds and veggies throughout the day which ups the calories. I track my calories with my fitness pal and they came out that day to be 850. Which is low, but its hard to eat alot when you are running to the bathroom with diarrhea and have an upset stomach. Usually I am around 1200-1300 calories a day, some days it even gets up to 1600. But this the last few days I have been feeling awful so its hard to choke down anything.

I am pretty religious about tracking calories and don't usually go under 1000 ever because I am a hungry girl when I am feeling good

Today I have had a 2 egg omlette with cheese and have had to run to the bathroom already, but I dont feel like I am going to vomit so that's an improvement I guess.

I will try to take more supplements and see if that helps. I'm going to try to keep my carbs under 70, but in no way am I trying to go for less then 20 because it's too hard with being a vegetarian. I will also try to eat more today. Lots of water really helped me out yesterday. I think I am really dehidrated too which is part of the problem.

[mysleepingdragon]

When the body is hollering, stop feeding it. If you are puking and have diarrhea, give you body a rest and let it balance itself. When sick, I throw a whole chicken in the crockpot with a bit of salt and chopped parsley and let it simmer. While it is cooking, I have a chance to let the body fast a bit with plenty of water and hot tea.

I get fabulous broth and start with that. It which really goes down well. When I think I can add more, I give the broth a splash of double cream. When I am up to eating, the chicken meat is a lovely thing to digest.

Crackers will never do as well. Try it!

[seagirl]

when I get a puke bug, I give my body whatever it wants when it starts to feel hungry again. Sometimes that's toast or crackers, sometimes it ginger ale and doritos (instant influx of calories and salt), sometimes its sushi - soothing rice, and more salt.
usually by the next day its back to normal, or just lighter eating.

[TiffNeedsChange]

Everyone has given awesome suggestions. If you don't want bread/crackers b/c of the carbs try eating some canned pumpkin, a sweet potato, banana, applesauce or something like that. Also, you may want to start with some broth and tea and once you hold that down without issues then introduce solids.

In general, it sounds like you may need some professional guidance on being a vegetarian on Atkins. One way to boost your fat is to dress your salad with some nice olive oil vinagrette.

[kelly315]

Vegetable soup possible? That would be an excellent choice (and you need the salt and liquid since you're losing so much).