High fluctuation in energy levels/mood after coming from carnivore diet

hering

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Joined
May 4, 2021
Messages
24
Hello fellow people,
as the title says - Im coming from the carnivore diet. I also read the threads that have already been posted, I hope this new thread isn't against the rules.
I did the carnivore diet for over a year now and ate mostly beef and beef liver from a pretty much perfect source - a little farm that's only 10 minutes away from my home.
I started to feel really good and felt the need to work out. After 6 months I was able to become really athletic, my body looked as good as never before. Here and there I incorporated carbs into my diet, but only occasionally, mostly on workout days - I ate fruit, milk and honey. It wasn't more than 50g of carbs in total/day probably.
Then the fatigue/brain fog began. On some days I felt quite normal, on others I was really fighting with sleepiness and fatigue. It also became harder and harder to improve my strength and mass - which is not quite my goal, but I noticed it.
2 weeks ago I read about the thyroid and carbs debate - I was sleepy again on that day, so I ate some dates and banana chips. I almost immediately felt better, euphoric and energetic.
Because of this experience I started the next day with eating some dates again, snacked on some banana chips and drank more milk (I've been drinking milk while doing carnivore, too).
It felt really great, I had superior mood and energy, was really aware and didn't feel sleepy at all at day time. In the following days I started to incorporate OJ, more milk and dates, honey and some other sources of carbs (maple syrup, other fruit/juice). I also didn't notice a negative impact on my digestion, just some farts. I also drink coffee in the morning (which I have been doing while eating carnivore, too - on and off). My mood was really good, I was super productive and my energy was skyrocketing.


After my short "carb incorporating time" im now eating around 200g carbs, 130-150g protein an 100-150g fat.
I am 180cm (5'11) and weigh 165 lbs (75kg). I only take magnesium, creatine and beef gelatin as supplements. (also eating the raw carrots/carrot salad)
My calorie intake is around 2000-3000.

EDIT: My metabolism seems good, as far as I can tell. I often feel warm, poop 2-3 a day and my temperature measurements were around 36.7-37-5°C. This improved fast as I started eating carbs again. Before I felt cold way more and pooped one time a day.

After some days of experimenting and feeling simply great, like 100% great, I did a workout with the following exercises (4 sets each):

weighted pull ups
weighted dips
normal pull ups
ring rows
different variations of push ups (the one with legs on a chair and normal ones)
some ab exercises (ab roller, knee raises)

I really like these exercises, but after the workout I felt really exhausted and wasted. (It took 1/1.5h)
My sleep was also really bad that night, I couldn't sleep in as fast as normal and I woke up in the night feeling restless.
After that day the feeling of energy and great mood was gone.
It has now been like 5 days and I still don't feel good again. My sleep is also not as good as in the first days.

I think it might be the work outs - since then I'm trying hard not to work out and get more rest. Maybe I depleted the liver glycogen and I should do shorter work outs with less intensity. But Im not sure if it also could be something else, like the coffee, the carbs or anything which I didn't notice yet. Or my body might be healing or learning the carb-oxidation again.
Sometimes I feel moments of the energy that I had before the workout day. I didn't notice that when I was still carnivore, but I also didn't have that great of energy while being carnivore. EDIT: I also started to notice twitching in my right eyelid.

Do you guys have any ideas how I can gain that energy and great mood from the beginning of the experiment back?
 
Last edited:
P

Peatness

Guest
Hello fellow people,
as the title says - Im coming from the carnivore diet. I also read the threads that have already been posted, I hope this new thread isn't against the rules.
I did the carnivore diet for over a year now and ate mostly beef and beef liver from a pretty much perfect source - a little farm that's only 10 minutes away from my home.
I started to feel really good and felt the need to work out. After 6 months I was able to become really athletic, my body looked as good as never before. Here and there I incorporated carbs into my diet, but only occasionally, mostly on workout days - I ate fruit, milk and honey. It wasn't more than 50g of carbs in total/day probably.
Then the fatigue/brain fog began. On some days I felt quite normal, on others I was really fighting with sleepiness and fatigue. It also became harder and harder to improve my strength and mass - which is not quite my goal, but I noticed it.
2 weeks ago I read about the thyroid and carbs debate - I was sleepy again on that day, so I ate some dates and banana chips. I almost immediately felt better, euphoric and energetic.
Because of this experience I started the next day with eating some dates again, snacked on some banana chips and drank more milk (I've been drinking milk while doing carnivore, too).
It felt really great, I had superior mood and energy, was really aware and didn't feel sleepy at all at day time. In the following days I started to incorporate OJ, more milk and dates, honey and some other sources of carbs (maple syrup, other fruit/juice). I also didn't notice a negative impact on my digestion, just some farts. I also drink coffee in the morning (which I have been doing while eating carnivore, too - on and off). My mood was really good, I was super productive and my energy was skyrocketing.


After my short "carb incorporating time" im now eating around 200g carbs, 130-150g protein an 100-150g fat.
I am 180cm (5'11) and weigh 165 lbs (75kg). I only take magnesium, creatine and beef gelatin as supplements. (also eating the raw carrots/carrot salad)
My calorie intake is around 2000-3000.

EDIT: My metabolism seems good, as far as I can tell. I often feel warm, poop 2-3 a day and my temperature measurements were around 36.7-37-5°C. This improved fast as I started eating carbs again. Before I felt cold way more and pooped one time a day.

After some days of experimenting and feeling simply great, like 100% great, I did a workout with the following exercises (4 sets each):

weighted pull ups
weighted dips
normal pull ups
ring rows
different variations of push ups (the one with legs on a chair and normal ones)
some ab exercises (ab roller, knee raises)

I really like these exercises, but after the workout I felt really exhausted and wasted. (It took 1/1.5h)
My sleep was also really bad that night, I couldn't sleep in as fast as normal and I woke up in the night feeling restless.
After that day the feeling of energy and great mood was gone.
It has now been like 5 days and I still don't feel good again. My sleep is also not as good as in the first days.

I think it might be the work outs - since then I'm trying hard not to work out and get more rest. Maybe I depleted the liver glycogen and I should do shorter work outs with less intensity. But Im not sure if it also could be something else, like the coffee, the carbs or anything which I didn't notice yet. Or my body might be healing or learning the carb-oxidation again.
Sometimes I feel moments of the energy that I had before the workout day. I didn't notice that when I was still carnivore, but I also didn't have that great of energy while being carnivore. EDIT: I also started to notice twitching in my right eyelid.

Do you guys have any ideas how I can gain that energy and great mood from the beginning of the experiment back?
Could increased carbs require more thiamine?

Refeeding Syndrome in the Context of Thiamine Deficiency - Hormones Matter
 
OP
H

hering

Member
Joined
May 4, 2021
Messages
24
Thanks for your input. I already sourced some Thiamin HCl and niacin, will probably order some and try it out.
 

Blossom

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Messages
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Location
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Your body probably is healing and getting used to using carbs again. It’s also been discussed on the forum that people are often tired or low energy at first if they have had high stress hormones like cortisol or adrenaline. Sometimes people will feel similar when they start thyroid.
 
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H

hering

Member
Joined
May 4, 2021
Messages
24
Thanks for your answer. I will keep on going then and probably go easier on the workouts until that phase is over.
Do you have an idea why the first carbs I added made me feel that great for the first days, though?
 

Xisca

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Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
2,273
Location
Canary Spain
Thanks for your answer. I will keep on going then and probably go easier on the workouts until that phase is over.
Do you have an idea why the first carbs I added made me feel that great for the first days, though?
If you have taken ENOUGH thiamin, I think you should be doing good now! yES?
I can answer.... You got better 1st on carnivore because you removed carbs that was taxing your thiamin, and then you asked too much energy from your body and it could not follow, and you might have had not enough fats and too much proteins too. Thiamin also affects proteins metabolism.
Then yes it taxes the thyroid if you don't have enough ketone and your body goes on saving mode.

Then you increased carbs and used this energy but you pushed too much and crashed because you still do not have enough B1, and also because using up your stores of B1 wastes the cofactors.

If you had followed the link on hormones matter website, you sure had the right information there...
 

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