Tiredness - is it the diet?

[MaryPlain]

I've been reducing my calories for 6 weeks, and have so far lost 11 lbs, which I'm pleased about as I was only a stone overweight (officially, but I want to lose another stone for the sake of my joints).

I've been exercising: for the first 2 weeks I continued with my usual cycle to work most days, then since I've been off work so have been swimming twice a week, walking and cycling further, and doing 10 minutes on a power plate with arm exercises every other day.

My diet averages out at about 100g carbs a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. I'm vegetarian so it's difficult to go much lower on carbs and full fat milk doesn't agree with me but I'm not deliberately reducing fats (my diet is probably naturally quite low in fat anyway). I've made a conscious effort to try and eat more protein, eg putting peanut butter in my celery and snacking on cheese and quorn slices as well as nuts.

The problem is that I'm struggling with fatigue. The exercise, particularly the walking and cycling, is really gruelling and I find that I'm using lower gears on my bike to get up hills that I previously didn't even notice. After my swim, I come home and all I feel like doing is collapsing on the sofa. Even climbing the stairs I feel like an old woman (I'm actually only 49!).

I read on here how people gain lots of energy when they exercise and lose weight, but I'm finding the opposite.

I don't think I'm anaemic as I take a multivitamin, and I'm on the maximum dose of thyroid medication, so I don't think it's that.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong?

 

[MaryPlain]

I think I've found out what it was that was causing it - just in case anyone else, like me, searches the forums for this in future.

I take levothyroxine for my hypothyroidism every morning on waking. I re-read the information in the packet and found the bit that says that calcium and iron tablets can interfere with absorption.

Since then I've been taking my calcium and multivit/mineral supplements with dinner instead of breakfast, and I do feel a bit better!

 

[Copepod]

Glad you worked it OK. If you'd said multivitamin / multi mineral tablets (instead of multivitamins) and mentioned calcium supplement in your first post, I might have thought of that, too.

"When in doubt, read the patient information leaflet" is a good rule of thumb 🙂

 

[MaryPlain]

Glad you worked it OK. If you'd said multivitamin / multi mineral tablets (instead of multivitamins) and mentioned calcium supplement in your first post, I might have thought of that, too.

"When in doubt, read the patient information leaflet" is a good rule of thumb 🙂

Yes, I suppose it's typical that we only mention things we think are relevant!

It's made me think - for those medications which we take permanently, how often do we re-read the instructions - I know I will have read this when I first started taking thyroxine, about 2 years ago, but I don't make a point of re-reading them. It was just that I thought they weren't working properly that made me go online and read about them again and that's when I found it.