Why Do I Feel Better When I Don't Eat? Maintaining Weight On 1000 Calories A Day

[ATP]

I have been struggling with severe fatigue for a while now and when ever I eat something, regardless of what it is I feel worse. I am always bloated regardless of the food and if I eat any starch I blow up like a ballon (more than usual) and have blood in my stool. My eyes are always blood shot and my skin dry with acne, clearly they are a sign of bad health.

The more I eat the worse I feel, for example when I eat 2500 calories. When I eat as low as 1000 calories I feel better. The weird thing is at 105 kgs and over 6ft I can maintain weight at 1000 calories a day.

Obviously my metabolism is extremely slow and I have a gut issue. I don't know how to increase it. I have tried everything I know of with no improvement.

I am hoping someone could shed some light on this issue. My quality of life at the moment is nonexistent.

 

[DankMemes]

I've been in your position and I know how torturous it can be.

Have you tried any antibiotics? Doxcycline may be beneficial by reducing endotoxin load while increasing calories that way you can kickstart your metabolism without worrying about increasing digestive distress.

You may benefit from doing a super refined starch, low liquid, high salt diet. I did this in the manner of Matt Stone style for a few months. I don't think it's something you want to subject yourself to for a long time, but eating grilled cheese sandwiches, cookies or pizza for a while really got my guts moving.

 

[Jayfish]

Definitely an endotoxin/serotonin issue. Fasting makes me feel better as well but you need enough calories to ever actually get better.

Personally starch and high fiber foods are the worst for me. I stick to high saturated fat foods like meat, dairy and eggs and supplement a lot of sugar and easily to digest ripe fruits.

Does sugar and/or pure saturated fat make you feel bad? You might try to get extra calories frim those sources.

 

[ATP]

I've been in your position and I know how torturous it can be.

Have you tried any antibiotics? Doxcycline may be beneficial by reducing endotoxin load while increasing calories that way you can kickstart your metabolism without worrying about increasing digestive distress.

You may benefit from doing a super refined starch, low liquid, high salt diet. I did this in the manner of Matt Stone style for a few months. I don't think it's something you want to subject yourself to for a long time, but eating grilled cheese sandwiches, cookies or pizza for a while really got my guts moving.

I have tried a couple different antibiotics over the years and nothing has changed unfortunately.
I did try that kind of diet but any starch including most fibers exacerbate my symptoms.

 

[ATP]

Definitely an endotoxin/serotonin issue. Fasting makes me feel better as well but you need enough calories to ever actually get better.

Personally starch and high fiber foods are the worst for me. I stick to high saturated fat foods like meat, dairy and eggs and supplement a lot of sugar and easily to digest ripe fruits.

Does sugar and/or pure saturated fat make you feel bad? You might try to get extra calories frim those sources.

Yeah I have tried all different macro ratios and nothing really changes except for when I go really low carb/sugar, then the next day I feel almost catatonic.

Yeah I think you're right about getting enough calories. Ray's whole view of the organism is that it needs enough energy to heal itself. The more I eat the worse I feel and the fatter I get. Any from of exercise wipes me out for a few days after as well.

 

[Giraffe]

During a time of severe mental stress I couldn't tolerate any solid food. I was fine with orange juice, milk, coffee and coke though.

For people who maintain their weight on a low calorie intake Ray Peat recommends to have two quarts of milk and (at least) one quart of orange juice. Have you tried to get the bulk of your calories from those two foods?

 

[ATP]

During a time of severe mental stress I couldn't tolerate any solid food. I was fine with orange juice, milk, coffee and coke though.

For people who maintain their weight on a low calorie intake Ray Peat recommends to have two quarts of milk and (at least) one quart of orange juice. Have you tried to get the bulk of your calories from those two foods?

I did try that recommendation from Ray. Two quarts milk one quart orange juice and two eggs. My blood sugar was all over the place, no other noticeable differences whilst doing that though

 

[Giraffe]

I did try that recommendation from Ray. Two quarts milk one quart orange juice and two eggs. My blood sugar was all over the place, no other noticeable differences whilst doing that though

Have you measured your blood sugar? What symptoms did you have?

 

[PeatThemAll]

I have been - and still am - in a very similar condition.

What works/helps:
- Low(er) fiber, and watching out for FODMAPs. I need some fiber, to get things going, but not that much.
- Simple carbs (a la GAPS/Gotschall line of thinking).
- Niacinamide, 750mg (timed release).
- Caffeine (overall, doesn't help for appetite, but quite helpful in taking care of the sugar intake and blood sugar swings, just don't overdo it).
- Aspirin (again, working up to tolerance).
- Creatine (1 scoop/day, after a couple of weeks of loading at 3-4x ).
- Seeing food and drink as medicine: to be taken at a regular pace, whether one feels like it or not, taking some in is the lesser (metabolic) evil (something you hear in the loss of hunger/thirst signals aging circles).
- Lateroflora (one type of yeast killer bacteria).
- Boiling fruits and veggies (still some fiber, but easier to process mechanically).
- Keeping fat to a minimum. Fat tends to slow down transit time in my case. The lesser, the better.

Questionable results:
- Multivitamins (hits too many targets, sends too many signals to the body).
- Glutamine.
- Gluten-free grains (still better than gluten-containing, though, but my gut lets me know something's not working, generally in the lower left quadrant part).
- Bifidobacteria.
- Protein powders (vegan better than whey, personally).

Never really helped:
- Lactobacillus and/or lactic acid (yogurt).
- Inulin / FOS (hello gas).

 

[SarahBeara]

Blood in your stool? Go to the doctor man! That is a really serious symptom of diseases not easily treated by faffing about with supplements and diet.

Have you been tested for coeliac, crohns or ulcerative colitis?

These are diseases people die from without proper treatment. It COULD be nothing but get checked out to be sure first.