Flu or junk detox?
 

Hi All,

This week I've been very good about clean eating, staying within my calorie budget, and exercising. However, increasingly throughout the week I've started to feel worse and worse. Today I feel like I might be coming down with the flu! Could this just be my body "detoxing" from the junk I've been feeding it since Thanksgiving? My diet is pretty balanced, but I have reduced my simple carb consumption and drastically reduced my refined sugar consumption. I've had many "get back on track" weeks before and felt not so great, but this seems worse. Has anyone had this happen to them? And, unfortunately, yes, I do realize that I could just be getting sick. I hope not though...taking my two year old daughter to see Santa for the first time tomorrow!!

Thanks all!! :)

Google "carb flu". It's infamous amongst low carb aficionados as something that can affect people when they very first go low carb. Not everyone gets it, and not everyone gets it to the same extent. The way to tell for sure if it's carb flu is to eat some carbs and see if you feel better. If you do, it's carb flu. If you don't, you're actually sick. You've got 2 choices on carb flu- either push through it, or up your carbs and then reduce them more gradually.

Carb flu can also be caused by low-blood sugar or too-low a calorie level. In the case of very low-carb diets that are also very low in fat, it can also be the start of "rabbit starvation" also called "protein poisoning" (caused when very lean protein is eaten without significant amounts of fat and carbs).

In my case, carb flu symptoms do not get better after two weeks (as most low-carb books authors such as Dr. Atkins promise). In fact, they get progressively worse, to the point that I will actually pass out.

I have blood sugar issues (insulin resistance and borderline diabetic), so this may account for why I can't do "induction" level carbs without getting sick.

Eating more frequently, increasing calorie (but not carb) intake, and increasing carbs in small, gradual increments until the symptoms subside or are tolerable all can help.