Weird headache since start of diet
 

Hi chicks! I hope someone here might have some experience/knowledge about this issue.

Since I started my diet (64 oz. of water daily, five small meals every 2-3 hours, 1200 calories) I have been experiencing a weird headache. It doesn't really hurt, but I can definitely feel a dull ache right at the top of my head.

The last two days my exercise has comprised of 30 min walking and an hour playing with the Wii Fit (a balance of yoga, strength training, exercise). I took a break today to get my garden ready for the Spring growing season. So nothing strenuous, but enough to make me sweat and get the muscles burning.

Any reason why this could be happening? This is not necessarily alarming I am not sure what the micronutrient breakdown of my diet is but here is a record if it helps at all...

**4/18**

B - Oatmeal (150), craisins (70), two plums (62) = 282
S - Yogurt (100), cereal (50) = 150
L - Edamame (50), 1/2 brown rice (100), tuna (120), one almond (7) = 270
S - Yogurt (100), cereal (50) = 150
D - Bok Choy with bacon and onion (100), slice of pizza with no crust (245) = 345

Total = 1204

**4/19**

B - Oatmeal (150), two plums (62) = 212
S - Yogurt (150), craisins (35) = 185
L - Turkey slices (90), bok choy with onion (100), wheat thins (100) = 290
S - Yogurt (150), craisins (35), turkey bite (20) = 205
D - Curried celery soup (132), turkey slices (67), wheat thins (105) = 275

Total = 1187

**4/20**
B - Oatmeal (150), Yogurt (150), craisins (35) = 335
L - Turkey slices (90), bok choy with onion (100), wheat thins (100) = 290
S - Yogurt (150), craisins (35) = 185
S - Two plums (62)
D- Probably 300 calories worth of chicken adobo and rice.

Thank for you help, chicks! :)

Likely your body is detoxing. Pretty normal, but certainly see a doc if it persists for too long.

Did you eliminate sugar from your diet? If I'm detoxing from sugar, I often have headaches similar to what you've described.

Not that much sugar
 

My diet never really had a lot of sugar in it to begin with. My blood sugar might be readjusting or something... I usually ate three times a day, sizable meals. Now I am getting in a smaller, more constant trickle of food.

Maybe it is having a similar effect as cutting out sugar? :dunno:

Or Caffeine withdrawal? In my experience (and I've had plenty of experience) the headaches can sometimes be severe. But everyone is different.

Do pain relievers help? Caffeine withdrawal headaches don't usually respond to them.

LR

Not Caffeine?
 

I did not have high caffeine intake either. I did have tea every once in a while, but not a lot. I did not drink coffee or tea regularly either...

Haven't tried a pain reliever yet. I will do that now and see what happens.

Maybe you're not eating enough. When I started my journey, I was eating 1200 calories and always had weird headache. After I increases my calories, the headaches vanished.

I went through this. I had a consistent headache for a few days...maybe even for a week...at the beginning of my journey (and during any mini restarts I've had). I never really had a lot of caffeine either so I always figured it was some sort of detox thing as was stated above.

My headaches didn't last forever and they never responded to pain relievers.

ncuneo and Cali Doll:

I think there may be something to the detox theory. I am definitely not taking in the things I have before, like juice (but then again the lack of juice can be cutting out sugar, hmm...) and the number of refined carbs is way down.

I ate an extra two hundred calories tonight to zig zag and see if it would make any difference. Still feeling this weird not painful, but positively noticeable headache.

Some websites I have read say that dieting can lead to electrolytes and fluid levels "re-balancing" and this can sometimes cause a headache. This could go hand-in-hand with detoxing, I reckon. ^_^

Chubbypanda, that sounds about right and makes total sense to me. I know it's food related because I always had to ride them out and they always appear whenever I cut my calories dramatically.

I'm with you. I've been at this for 3 months, but over the past 10-14 days or so I've had a headache almost constantly in my forehead. It's very much like you describe - not particularly painful, just there and annoying. Like constant pressure. It does not respond to pain relievers (though I haven't tried more than 1 Advil at a time for it, as it's not very painful). I haven't changed anything about my food intake in the past two weeks (well, with the exception of Passover the past few days, but the headache started well before that), so I'm not sure why it would show up now, but I hope my issue is the one you described:

I had head aches for the 1st couple of weeks and the docsaid it was a detox head ache, i took painkillers to help.

Your diet is fantastic by the way I will have to try it I like the 5 small meal idea

Good luck the head ache will go in the end

Eating less calories means your hormones get out of "ballance" (what they used to be for a heavier bodyfunction) to get energy for your organs from your fat-storages.
Hormone changes like these can have multiple symptoms, headache being very common.:)

I stick to about 1400 calories because when I was at 1200 I always had a dullish ache in my head and behind my eyes... Not sure but the extra 200 calories seemed to take care of that. I do notice if I eat too many carbs I'll have the headache again the next day... Everyones bodies are different, maybe experiment with calories and/or changing up your diet a little?

Hm...
 

I went over 1400 the night of the post to see if it made any difference, and I did not really feel any different. Maybe if I make my first mini goal (four lbs. lost by May 1) I will make a decision about the number of calories I get daily. I want to see how my body is reacting to the current plan. And maybe by then I will see how persistent the headache is.

I took ibuprofen tonight just to see if it will work at all. It has been just a few minutes since then, though :)