Losing weight...not feeling great!

Question
Hi Tanya,

I am a 31 year old wife and mother to 3 young children.  My youngest daughter is almost 5 months old.  When I delivered her I was 308 sickening pounds!  I have been obese my entire life.  After my daughter's birth I vowed to lose weight, and today I weigh 260 pounds.  I am on a self directed diet of about 1200 calories a day.  I eat lean meats, fish, and chicken.  I eat a ton of veges.  I don't cut any major food groups from my diet.  I eat sensibly and stay within my calorie budget.  I keep a food journal online that helps me keep track of my progress, water intake and exercise (which I do at least 3 times per week).  The thing is...

I FEEL SICK!  Almost since I've started I've had diarrhea, stomach pain, and headaches.  I barely have any energy and my body aches all over.  I'm not sick with anything obvious.  No colds, flu, etc.  I just feel crappy. One weird thing that has happened is that I've noticed that my hair has been falling out like crazy.  Sometimes I feel like this is my body's tactic to get me to eat and store yet more fat.  But I am stead fast to getting healthy once and for all.  Do you think I should see my doctor for this.  Or is it normal for this to happen with weight loss?
Thanks for your time.

-Tanya

I feel sick!  Almost since I started losing weight I've had di

Answer
Dear Tanya,

Looks like your body isn't happy with your "self directed diet of about 1200 calories" - maybe because the calorie deficit you had to endure to lose 9.6 lb a month - while nursing?!

Maybe the foods (lean meats, fish, and chicken... ton of verggies) are not exactly right food for lactating mother and something is missing, most probably, essential fats.

Anyway, in my experience, if a plan calls for extraordinary willpower, it eventually fails - and not because of a lack of willpower but because the willpower overrides your body's sense of what's appropriate for this phase of one's life.

Your body is trying to follow its own idea and its arsenal is huge and out of your control. Hormonal balance is changing, the way how energy resource are distributed is changing, thus sluggishness, thus even the hair is considered (by the body) very low priority!

Because of all this, I'm a firm believer in body's own ways and I know of only one method to help it switching into a better mode. This is switching from running on carbohydrates to running of fat by-products (ketones).

I feel comfortable enough to recommend this approach because:

1. Since 2004, several thousands dieters succeeded on the program I developed;

2. Right now, I participate in a project (by the Mediterranean Institute of Neurobiology) concerning the role of ketones as almost universal protectors of bodily functions;  

3. You can join our group online, free of charge, at
http://dietandbody.com/plan


Tanya Zilberter

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