I've been having mood swings since I started dieting. My mom says people get short-tempered when they're hungry or have low blood sugar. I've found this to be true. Fortunately, my low blood sugar hasn't acted up (when it acts up I start sweating profusely and get dizzy... I thought it was completely random because it didn't happen every time I was hungry, but then I found it was more likely to occur on Saturday afternoons... maybe I ate too many carbs for lunch on Saturdays?). I'm mostly irritable at night because I'm sleepy (my sleep pattern has changed), tired (from working out so much), and hungry, but on top of that my sexual appetite has completely vanished, and tonight I couldn't even enjoy going out. I used to LOVE clubbing and now I feel like I can't enjoy anything anymore. I don't understand why. I'm starting to feel sluggish at the gym although I don't allow myself to skip any workouts. Has anyone experienced this and what can I do to fix it?

Off topic - when I came home tonight, my bf pointed out that my whole wheat bread had mold on it. I ate a slice for breakfast and lunch! That's gross but what's worse, isn't it cancerous?

I'm no expert... but I think you're overloading yourself....

Is this the way you want to feel all the time? I mean, the changes you make in your life in order to lose weight have to be sustainable, or else, when you stop whatever period you've defined as "dieting," you'll start to gain the weight back by living like you had before you lost the weight.

Feeling irritable, lethargic, and not being able to enjoy what you used to (going out, sex), are NOT signs of treating your body right. That's just my opinion, but obviously, the standard caveat applies: I'm not you, everyone is different, you should know what works for you..... but I know that if I felt the way you do, something would have to change.

Anyway, that was my $0.02... I'll wait for someone else to give you more helpful suggestions

sounds like you need to pace yourself more, if your working out more, have you allowed your body more food to be able to help the workout, i have been told several times if you work out you should be eating a bit more. again im no expert but maybe you should look into that.
Maybe you need some time to relax more, stop working your body so hard.... weight loss should happen slowly and naturally. If you feel its going to quick, your body could overload and suffer.

On the off topic mould - it isnt cancerous but it probably isnt all that good for you either :P Remeber the original penicilin antibiotics came from the mould on bread lol. Not a good enough excuse to make a regular occurence of eating it though!

As for the rest - I have to agree with the above two posts. You shouldnt be feeling tired all the time, you definitely shouldnt be feeling hungry all the time - those two together sound like you still aren't eating enough.

If you're feeling TRUE hunger then EAT something. Even if it is just a small snack like a handful of nuts or a piece of fruit. Your body can't sustain itself if it isnt being given enough to fuel you through the day.

Carbs wont make you lethargic...I eat A LOT lol between the bread, fruit & vege I get through and it's never made me tired.

Your body is very good at telling you what it needs - we just happen to ignore it most of the time. Give yourself a day off from working out - do something light like a nice slow walk. You need to time to rest and recover because if you overwork you'll stress your muscles and body and that is counter-productive.

Ease into a lifestyle change - there are no prizes for coming first so there is no point in rushing and hurting yourself in the long run.

Livi

I agree with all of the posts given.

You should be feeling better if you are making the correct food and exercise adjustments to your lifestyle - thats the point isn't it? To feel better and lose some weight along the way?

If you want, how about posting a sample of your day and we can see what we can do to help you? When you say "dieting" it instantly sends up a red light for me that you are depriving yourself of something that you need.

Here's what I had yesterday:

B - one cup oatmeal in soy
S - one slice ww bread
L - chicken breast, cooked veggies (mostly greens)
S - one handful boiled peanuts in shell, one slice ww bread
D - fish, cooked veggies

I didn't feel too bad yesterday. I was really hungry while I was exercising before dinner though.

You can see what I usually eat in FitDay, but it's not very accurate because I eat Chinese foods that they don't have so I usually guess. I also don't measure how much I eat so I try to (over)estimate.

It doesn't seem like I'm eating too little but maybe I was eating way too much before and now my stomach isn't used to a "normal" diet?

sorry - i didn't notice you had fitday

i did the calculations to figure out your BMR and based on your age, weight and height your BMR is 1413 calories. That is how many calories you burn on a day of rest.

Now adding the fact that you are very active, in order to maintain your current weight you need 2190 calories per day (i consider you to be active to very active).

To lose 1lb per week you need to deduct 3,500 calories from your diet. Stay with me .

Multiply your caloric needs per day (2190) by 7 days of the week = 15,330 calories per week. Deduct 3500 calories (1lb) and you get 11,830. Divide this again by 7 days of the week and you need 1,690 calories per day.

Now this is just a rough estimate (i am rushing) but comparing this to your fitday you are below 1200 calories per day. With the amount of exercise you are logging I am not surprised you are feeling off and moody.

Check it out anyway. Jump online and have a look at the BMR calculators and do the math - but I seriously feel that you might be doing more damage than good if you don't increase your calories at least to 1500 per day.

I've been feeling better the last couple days. It might be because I've started taking a Centrum multivitamin everyday. I've started having trouble falling asleep though. If I don't get enough sleep, I don't have energy so it is equally important as what I'm eating right now.

I thought 1200 calories was the best way to lose? Most of the time I'm having trouble distinguishing when I have a craving or want to eat out of boredom and when I'm actually hungry and need food. Whenever I want to eat something, I stop and ask myself whether I'm really hungry. I'm trying out just giving myself a little bit of what I want when I want it to satisfy the craving. I wonder if I'm so restrictive about what I can and can't eat that everything sounds so good right now and that's why I get lots of cravings.

Today I had half a peanut butter sandwich. It sounded so good and someone kept mentioning it on the forum. When I told my coach, he was like "peanut butter is fattening, try not to eat it". Isn't peanut butter considered healthy? I'm trying to win the weight loss camp but they not only look at your weight loss, they also look at your body fat percentage. I went from 33.4 to 29.5% in two weeks, but there's a big guy in our class who went from 36.5 to 29.9%! I think it's going to be almost impossible to beat him. Should I avoid fat foods like peanut butter to help lose my body fat?

You NEED fat to lose weight - peanut butter is full of healthy fats.

You don't need saturated or hydrogenated/trans fats though. You DO need lots of Omega 3 and 6, which will help you lose weight.

Omega 3... I had a cup of low fat yogurt last week that had Omega 3 added, it was expensive though.

No offence...but your trainer sounds like he needs a crash course in nutrition!

Have you checked his qualifications?

And weightloss is not a game and it is not a competition

Everyone is different and everyone will lose at different rates! Do NOT push yourself just to beat some other person - you'll end up harming yourself

I totally agree. Everyone looses weight at different paces and it should not be a game or competition. Trying to loose it too fast is not safe or healthy. Think about it you didn’t put it all on at one time you can’t expect to loose it all that way. I think this is especially important if you are planning on trying to keep the weight off (which I’m assuming is your goal). Do you have a long term plan for eating? Do you think what you are doing now you can keep up for the rest of your life? It sounds like to me you aren’t eating enough or eating the right foods. You might want to try and find a new coach one that has better understanding of long term weight loss. Your body needs fat just like it needs protein and carbs if your coach doesn’t know that then I think he is negligent.

Here's my suggestion. Have dessert! That will make you happy. There are so many low fat desserts these days: ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, etc. My fav are the Weight Watchers chocolate sundae cups and the Weight Watchers chocolate ice cream cones (i obviously love chocolate). This could give u a boost at night.

Unfortunately they don't have many low fat options here in China. Most of the foods don't have nutrition info so it's hard to decide what to eat.

Last night I binged. Whenever I come home to my dad's, I end up eating all the junk that he buys while watching TV. I need to stay away from here! I had a big dinner around 6:30 then I binged on the following at around 10:30:

* 1 Orange
* Dried seaweed, wasabi flavored
* 1 Cup roasted peanuts in shell, no salt
* 3 Rice cakes
* 1 Individual package of saltines and digestive crackers
* 1 Slice whole wheat bread

If my measurements are correct, that's about 820 calories! And all I did was 100 jumping jacks yesterday! I'm feeling so bad right now!!

Oh, yum, that sounds really good! (Note: 0 sarcasm right now; I love wasabi flavoring) I wonder if I could find that anywhere over here in the States.