If you don't eat red meat, you may need to add more eggs into your meals for the fats, and you should also check your hemoglobin/iron levels, they could also be low.
Hope you find out soon and get feeling better!

Liana

Hi All,

I thought I'd give you an update.

I continue to be lightheaded/have headaches and just low on energy in general - I feel weak. This has made it hard to stay on phase 1.

In my 7th month, here is how Feb went.

I went off phase 1 for 6 days and gained 20 pounds.
I went back on for 8 days and got dizzy/no energy while on a golfing vacation.
I am weak - for any golfers out there, I have lost the equivalent of 2 club lengths in distance - this is very troubling to me.
I went back off for 3 days then back on for 2 then off 1.
This week I have been OP on phase 1.
Right now, I am up 3 pounds from my lowest weight on Feb 3 before I deviated at all from phase 1.
That equates to a total of 10 days off phase 1, pretty much having what I want to eat, and 16 days on phase 1 during the month of Feb.
I will tell you that the trade-off was worth it as I am about the same weight and have enjoyed the splurges but more enjoyed the self-restraint to get right back on. After many significant yo-yo episodes in my life, this is a big deal to me as I have never got back on a diet so quickly. I have always let myself go and wouldn't start again until I gained it all back and then some. With this program, due to loss of more inches and immediate bloating by going off phase 1 abruptly, I find it motivational to get back OP much more quickly.

Now, what to do about the headaches/light-headedness and loss of strength...
I have testing scheduled for next Saturday - it consists of a whole health screen plus resting and active metabolic profiling. I am anxious to get this data as I think it is important for transitioning/long-term maintenance. I would like to lose another 20 pounds but not at the expense of energy and strength so I think this testing is a good complement to this program to figure out how to fix my issues - this is the 6th week of continual headaches, light-headedness with the realization of strength lost. I'll let you know how it goes. As I expected, my coach was no help - just the pat answers about vegetables, adding a restricted etc, which isn't helpful as I have had these symptoms even when I deviated from phase 1 for the days that I did. There are working theories about low blood pressure, low blood sugar, drinking too much water causing electrolytes to be flushed out to low iron.

I'll let you know what I find but also what program we come up with for me to add strength training (reformer Pilates and free weights) and have energy to do my favorite activities especially with Spring-time approaching while continuing to lose fat.

Thanks for the update, Ro22. Good idea to get thoroughly checked out, and good for you to go beyond the IP coach to get good help. Looking forward to hearing you are back on your game!

Glad to hear you're getting a full set of panels, that's a great place to start when there are no obvious reasons for the symptoms you're having.

Hope they can find something that is causing the problems and then you can fix it and focus on the longer term maintenance plan.

Thanks for the support.

I am down another pound so only 2 away from my lowest at beginning of month. I think I'll be back there by Monday.

I recalculated and updated my post as I realized I have been off phase 1 fewer days than I listed - it should have been 10 days off this month and 16 days on - that is from the light-headedness causing my math to be off :-)

I am very committed to sticking to a program right now so I think the deviations helped with diet fatigue - I can easily see myself continuing now to lose those 20 pounds, but I don't think phase 1 is the right way to go about it at this point due to how I am feeling so I don't know if another phase is appropriate or another approach. I don't want to go more weeks being told I can't workout feeling this low on energy. In the past, I was doing my own program of 1200 calories with 40/40/20 % mix between protein, complex carb, and healthy fats so I am leaning towards something like that as long as I can be assured it won't cause a rapid gain or undue the overall purpose of this program of fixing the pancreas as I have read about the importance of phase 3. When I was following that program, I had great energy and strength and good results - I just felt I could get better, faster results on this and I have - I never hit a plateau on this where I would have to overcome those on my own program. I have never been in a size 8 or 10 and this is my size now depending upon the brand so this has been good to me up to this point and achieved what I wanted from it. So, I am in search mode for what is best now knowing I also want to fix the yo-yoing which inspired me to follow IP. If I wasn't worried about that, I would simply switch to 40/40/20. We'll see what I learn in the next week or so.

One additional thing I wanted to share is that I questioned the head of fitness at my gym about my weakness. I told him IP was designed to maintain/increase lean muscle mass but I must have lost muscle due to my loss of strength so I feel I was duped (even though all my fitness numbers indicate I did maintain/increase muscle mass). He told me this is not contradictory - he said it is quite reasonable the program did exactly what it said it would do in spite of my strength lost. He said muscle needs to be conditioned for strength and not working out for 7 months after doing it for years for 6 days a week, I have lost the conditioning and that when I start again, I will get it back and get it back more quickly due to muscle memory. So, I am anxious to start this. He told me the testing will tell me how much muscle I have added as I have all my measurements since I started so he'll be able to use those with the testing they are going to do.

I felt better when I heard that from him. It was also comforting mentally that he wasn't disparaging this program - we are just approaching this scientifically. This was different than the manager at GNC that I encountered yesterday that says this is a bad program. I don't feel that way at all in spite of my recent troubles - I just feel I am at a stage now with most of my weight/fat loss achieved that this may not be best to take me to finish line all things considered. My family thinks I am obsessing too much - they think I look ideal and should just transition so getting conflicting advice so that is why I feel good about the testing to do this objectively.

Good going on being serious about getting everything checked medically Ro22! So many people just try to tweak things around or 'ignore the problem til it goes away' (I think mainly due to medical costs in the US). The problems you have been having are not usual for IP or anyone in general. I'm glad that the head of fitness knows what he is talking about at your gym... so many places are run by people that don't really have enough expertise in the field. I would make sure that once you find out your results you latch on to that person, in tandem with whatever docs you need to help you through this. Make sure you sign a paper that allows them to share info with each other so that they truly can work as a team.

Keep us updated

Liana

Thanks, Liana. I am really frustrated with my coach right now as he doesn't seem open to any of this. He tells me the personal trainer (he made the assumption I am working with a personal trainer when in fact it is a team approach of nutritionist, doctor and exercise physiologist) will push that weight loss must come from major activity - that was not the case - if anyone is being close-minded, it is my coach. I cannot get it through to him that my goal is 1) being healthy 2) having the energy to do activities I enjoy 3) having the strength to do the activities I enjoy the best I can possibly do them and 4) weight loss only if 1-3 are met. His sole focus is on 4 without the qualifier. My problem has always been maintenance/transition and boy that is no truer than now when I have a coach just keep pushing weight loss and therefore phase 1 when my needs aren't being met. He said this is a medically supervised program - I haven't been medically supervised so I don't know what he is talking about. Maybe he meant medically designed instead of supervised but I emailed him 6 weeks ago or more to let him know my symptoms and no adjustments have been made.

Ro22 - If it helps at all, my symptoms which including dizziness and fatigue seemed to have cleared up. I think for me it was related to stress and now that I have the tools (like you) I know that I am going to add back in more food and more importantly I know which foods that would be if my body is telling me I need more. So sorry about your coach. I think my coach really helped me thru my episode which also included diet fatigue and she was not so strict with P1 or even IP. I think sometimes with the coaches they go to the easiest explanation which he/she is assuming is your personal trainer without listening to the whole story.

Thanks, Shasta10. They have been going on now every day, all day for 6+ weeks. I think something has happened that has built up following this for 7 months like low blood pressure or low iron or electrolytes or something. I'll know soon hopefully. In the meantime, I'm following phase 1.

So, I went to the doctor today. I really liked the place. I have found that it is difficult to find all-in-one location of a medical doctor, exercise physiologist, nutrition/dietician and I have found all that in the location I went to today.

The fact that they are familiar with ideal protein as well as other diet programs was a nice bonus.

We did a couple of tests today:
1 - blood pressure and heart rate are good 118/75 with a resting heart rate of 57
2 - BIA (body impedance analysis) - gives all kinds of data about body composition - more accurate than the Omron hand-held device my clinic has been using - bad news is it says I am 1% body fat more than my clinic but it is what it is right now. It also included resting metabolism calculation.
3 - blood draw for lots of panels to be done including full iron panel, magnesium, thyroid function, and other electrolytes but he specifically added the ones I noted based upon my symptoms (I don't know if ketone testing is included - I forgot to ask when I was there so I sent a follow-up email as I read this is a source of energy so if on a very low cal diet and not in ketosis, that could explain low energy).

I'll let you know what I find. They said this is not typical to have symptoms like this so far along. The various tests take different # of days to complete with thyroid taking the longest but they said they would call as early as tomorrow if the early results come in that is a red flag.

I don't know if anything will show up in blood test, but I feel like I now have a proper support system (and further comforted that it is via a medical doctor - an internal medicine doctor) in this that will help me through it, which is a relief in and of itself. We are going to figure out whether I should continue in weight loss mode and how as well as what my strength training/fitness program should be - they were adamant that I should have the energy and green light to strength train so I am also happy about that so we'll see what the test results reveal and go from there.

I am happy I moved up my testing from Saturday to today. I will still do the active metabolism test on Saturday.

One other piece of good news is that I was down another pound which puts me at my lowest weight to date which means I have now lost everything I had gained from my numerous deviations from p1 in the past month plus another pound.

I'll let you know what the blood tests reveal as well as their overall recommendations on next steps. As they note, their services are not cheap and are for people that are serious about their well-being so hopefully folks here will benefit from what I learn as well making it an even better value.

Congrats on finding the 'jackpot' Ro22! It's so great to have all those resources in one spot, and it will be worth it to regain your strength & health! We are rooting for you, keep us up to date, and let us know what they suggest once all your results are in.

Liana

I'm glad you found a good well rounded office to figure out what is going on. My MIL was just referred to a similar office by her cardiologist. She didn't even realize it was the same diet that I've been doing and is very gung ho to get started once she realized that she could make the same progress as me and it was sanctioned by her doctor. She's obviously older and in pretty great health but will benefit from the expertise of the various doctors. She did say that I gave her way more information then the ideal protein girls that explained the protocol. She said that the doctor's office also referred her to this site.

Thanks! Isn't it amazing how much collective knowledge we have been able to compile? We should all become coaches because we know way more than the ones that are actually serving in that official capacity :-). I have numerous family and friends doing this now as a result of my success and I feel an obligation to figure this out and not fail them by encouraging them to follow a program that may have throw off their electrolytes, etc. I am hoping for my sake and theirs that I get answers soon because headaches have gotten worse over the last week.

Well, I got my results today. I go Monday to speak to the internist about them.
My electrolytes are fine but thyroid and adrenal system are not.
I have extremely low T3 and extremely high TSH (I think it is) but basically my thyroid is significantly under-performing. Also, I have adrenal system abnormalities but the PA told me that I have to speak to the physician about that so that has me a bit rattled.
The PA said the doctor suspects I have had an under-performing thyroid for a while but why my symptoms became so pronounced about 6-8 weeks ago to the point that I couldn't avoid them is that is when they believe the adrenal system couldn't compensate any longer. Don't really know what that means. I will get all of this explained to me on Monday and understand the treatment plan but wanted to share because if you are feeling the way I was, I suggest getting a blood test. The doctor had anticipated these problems based upon my symptoms and ordered extra tests so that he had all the data rather than seeing some abnormalities and having to order more blood tests so make sure that you get the more elaborate testing if you find yourself in this situation.

I'll let you know what this all means in terms of the diet, exercise, etc. I feel that I am in very good hands (although, I will get a 2nd opinion) - I am anxious to feel better. My headaches are awful and I am tired of dragging myself around.

Ro22
The throid/adrenal issue pretty common for people who have been an extremely low carb/low-fat diet for quite some time. I found quite a bit of literature about it. I believe Chris Kresser (among others) has some info online about it as well.

It did not happen suddenly, however you may just have started feeling some of the effects. Most people rebound pretty quickly from that problem when they phase off. I did not. I am currently following phase 1 (again) except I add a little bit more fat to try to help support proper thyroid functioning.

I also will not stay on phase 1 for more than four weeks at a time without cycling through phase 3 and then back to phase 1. The extra carbs and fat in phase 3 will also help support proper thyroid functioning. After a year and a half, I am off thyroid medicine but not completely healed from that issue.

At the time the doctor I had consulted said I had to be willing to gain about 25 pounds back to restore my thyroid functioning. That didn't quite happen, although the weight regain has been very frustrating. I'm willing to do what I need to do to be healthy but I also know being overweight/obese is not healthy. There absolutely must be some kind of happy medium for that somewhere.

I'm scheduled to consult two more doctors this year. One has just ordered testing and another one I can't get an appointment till August.

I started out at 260 and unhealthy. I lived in pain. So the fact that I've had some struggles along the way to me is just part of the journey of restoring my health.