12 replies to this topic

[The Immortalist]

I'm trying to cut down from 220lbs to 170lbs. I've been dieting for a month on 1500 calories a day and I have lost 12 lbs. The problem is that my cognitive function is much worse when I'm dieting. How can I not feel tired all the time and increase my mental performance? How do you calorie restrictors keep your cognitive abilities on your low calorie diets? I feel tired much earlier in the day than usual and I feel sleepy at 7:00PM and feel I need much more sleep than usual.
I just can't imagine going through university like this and I feel I may actually have to stop dieting before I achieve my goal of 170lbs to keep on top of my study. If there is a way to stop these side effects of calorie restriction than please do tell me!

My goals are very different from most if not all of yours. I want to keep as much muscle as possible while getting as lean as possible. I have been eating 200g of protein everyday to help prevent muscle loss while losing fat. The rest is just 700 calories of a mix of fat and carbs from whatever I want to eat to make a 1500 daily calorie total. I eat vegetables whenever I can and avoid processed food.

Edited by The Immortalist, 29 May 2012 - 11:50 PM.

[Hebbeh]

I'm trying to cut down from 220lbs to 170lbs. I've been dieting for a month on 1500 calories a day and I have lost 12 lbs. The problem is that my cognitive function is much worse when I'm dieting. How can I not feel tired all the time and increase my mental performance? How do you calorie restrictors keep your cognitive abilities on your low calorie diets? I feel tired much earlier in the day than usual and I feel sleepy at 7:00PM and feel I need much more sleep than usual.
I just can't imagine going through university like this and I feel I may actually have to stop dieting before I achieve my goal of 170lbs to keep on top of my study. If there is a way to stop these side effects of calorie restriction than please do tell me!

My goals are very different from most if not all of yours. I want to keep as much muscle as possible while getting as lean as possible. I have been eating 200g of protein everyday to help prevent muscle loss while losing fat. The rest is just 700 calories of a mix of fat and carbs from whatever I want to eat to make a 1500 daily calorie total. I eat vegetables whenever I can and avoid processed food.

One possibility is to bump your calories up and lose the excess weight slower. 12 lbs in a month is about 3lbs per week....shoot for 1-2 lbs per week instead. You could probably bump your calories to 1800-2000 per day and still lose weight over the long haul. When you get closer to your goal, you may plateau and then need to decrease back to 1500 to lose the last 5-10 lbs...but slow and steady is the healthier option plus you will find it easer to hold the muscle when shedding the fat slower. There are other little tricks too like intermittent fasting and/or scheduling meals around exercise.

[cheezeweezel]

I'm trying to cut down from 220lbs to 170lbs. I've been dieting for a month on 1500 calories a day and I have lost 12 lbs. The problem is that my cognitive function is much worse when I'm dieting. How can I not feel tired all the time and increase my mental performance? How do you calorie restrictors keep your cognitive abilities on your low calorie diets? I feel tired much earlier in the day than usual and I feel sleepy at 7:00PM and feel I need much more sleep than usual.
I just can't imagine going through university like this and I feel I may actually have to stop dieting before I achieve my goal of 170lbs to keep on top of my study. If there is a way to stop these side effects of calorie restriction than please do tell me!

My goals are very different from most if not all of yours. I want to keep as much muscle as possible while getting as lean as possible. I have been eating 200g of protein everyday to help prevent muscle loss while losing fat. The rest is just 700 calories of a mix of fat and carbs from whatever I want to eat to make a 1500 daily calorie total. I eat vegetables whenever I can and avoid processed food.

Are you getting all (or almost all) of your RDI of vitamins and minerals from food (not pills)? After about 2 months of such a diet, my craving vanished and my energy levels ramped up on calorie restriction. Eating became an (enjoyable) intellectual puzzle in how to get all nutrients with available foodstuffs, keeping everything fresh, unprocessed, and organic as possible. A caveat is that I haven't yet hit steady state, I've only been doing this for about 5 months, so I'm not sure about long-term results, and I wouldn't consider myself on CRON unless I've successfully achieved steady state.

It is tricky on a diet of 1500 kcal (I'm closer to 1800), but doable, with a zone-ish protein/fat/carb balance. I haven't tried to see if it is possible when >50% of cals are from protein, though. Sounds tricky.

- cw

[scottknl]

Several CR practitioners have reported mental clarity when restricting carbs. Of course to keep things isocaloric, you'd then need to add more fats. On the other hand lots of people on ketogenic diets report "fuzzy thinking", so you don't want to go that far. Something in the middle should work just fine. The exact balance probably depends a lot on your insulin levels and possibly other hormones. It will improve, but cutting is never fun.

[DR01D]

My memory increased noticably after I started CR.

I eat piles of raw vegetables and eat very few processed foods so that may have something to do with it. But I think improved memory or mental clarity is a common side effect of CR.

Make sure you have a healthy, balanced diet with lots of veggies and stick with it!

[The Immortalist]

One possibility is to bump your calories up and lose the excess weight slower. 12 lbs in a month is about 3lbs per week....shoot for 1-2 lbs per week instead. You could probably bump your calories to 1800-2000 per day and still lose weight over the long haul. When you get closer to your goal, you may plateau and then need to decrease back to 1500 to lose the last 5-10 lbs...but slow and steady is the healthier option plus you will find it easer to hold the muscle when shedding the fat slower. There are other little tricks too like intermittent fasting and/or scheduling meals around exercise.

Good advice. I thought that to start off with 1500 cals a day would be fine since I was 30% bodyfat when I was 220lbs. I thought that it would be ok to lose weight faster at a higher bodyfat level without sacrificing muscle.

I've now just bumped up my calories to 1700. When I keep getting leaner I will slowly bump up the calories until I am at 7%, then I will keep the calories at maintenance.

[The Immortalist]

down to 202 lbs.

[The Immortalist]

down to 202 lbs.

Down to 196lbs, my waist was 38 inches at 220lbs and now it's 35ish inches. My BF% is now about 22% from when I started it was 33%. I lost 6 lbs in 20 days rather than 18lbs in 19 days the last time because then I was cutting at 1500cals and when I hit 202lbs I started to eat 1800cals a day.

Edited by The Immortalist, 08 July 2012 - 12:52 AM.

[avelez]

My wife is doing the same and she finds it hard to focus at work because of the calorie restriction. Her BMR (basic metabolic rate) is 1,500 calories (how many calories her body burns daily just to survive) so she allows herself a calorie allowance of 2,000 calories as she does have to work and do other things. In order to lose however, she restricts herself to a 1,200 calorie diet daily. She's slower, and crankier - I would definitely know about the latter. -_- but as she continues on a routine, her body has been getting somewhat used to it and its not as bad as before. - Oh and coffee helps.

[chung_pao]

Just increase protein and essential fatty acids.
Protein will cause a big enough rise in blood sugar due to glucagon; releasing glucose from fat-cells. So this shouldn't be a problem.
(slow protein sources, vegetables, essential fatty acids and monosaturated fatty acids; such as meat, nuts, legumes, eggs)

I've had my times of best mental function during cutting and caloric restriction. This is due to the lower levels of prolactin; the molecule inhibiting dopamine.

[Heh]

After the first few days, you should be mentally sharper, not the opposite. This means you are likely in need of a cleanse, or are doing things improperly. A few tips:

• Taper down to the new daily calorie intake in 500 calorie steps
• Ensure that your diet is actually high quality and not filled with junk (lots of vegetables, cooked, raw, or Vitamix'd, good cuts of meat, organic cold pressed quality oils, etc)
• Ensure your diet has the proper ratio of fats, proteins, and carbs (30%-30%-40%, or 20%-40%-40%)
• Ensure that you are getting enough vitamins, minerals, etc.
• Drink enough water
• Eat within an 8 hour window everyday
• Lower the number of meals across which the calories are spead
• Eat your largets meal after your workout, or workout before your largest meal

For the muscle thing, if you are consuming enough protein to throw the protein-fat-carb ratio off, then the protein will end up being burned very inefficiently to give energy (not build/maintain muscle), and you won't achieve the desired effect. Your protein intake, in grams, should match your lean body weight (weight * (1 - bf%)), in pounds, and you would simply use the 40-40-20 ratio to maximize the amount of protein you consume. It would be 80% of this value if you aren't actively working out. The ratio of carbs to proteins to fats is very important.

So, if you weigh 196lbs at 22% body fat, then that's a lean body mass of 153lbs (196 * (1 - 0.22)). The 40-40-20 ratio refers to calories, so 153g protein becomes 4*153 calories, leaving the number of calories as 612c-612p-306f or 1530 total. The 40-30-30 ratio (slower, but easier) gives 816c-612p-612f or 2040 total. You can work down to this number in 500 calorie steps, then adjust it down further, if necessary, by working out.

Edited by Joel, 10 December 2012 - 04:25 PM.

[lifebuddy]

Interesting that you say that one should reduce the number of meals rather than increase them. I was under the impression that balanced energy levels are more easily obtained from eating a larger number of smaller meals, rather than a smaller number of larger meals.

[chung_pao]

There's no rule to this. It's strictly individual. A lot of people have success either way.
The right number of meals is whatever you're comfortable with.

I myself sometimes compress all calories in one meal, but usually space them out in three.
But spacing my calories out in 6 meals would be a fking pain in the ass.
I can't imagine interrupting work/study sessions right when I'm at peak productivity (2-3 hours into it) just to eat and feel the subsequent prolactin inhibiting my dopamine.

In the bodybuilding community, there are practitioners of IF (intermittent fasting) which only allow eating during 4-8 hours of the day. And a lot of people are very successful with this concept, and intermittent fasting is also a great form of hormesis.

The number of meals is individual.. The right frequency is whatever promotes you to expend the highest amount of calories.


For most people though, this is 3-4 meals/day. That way you can frequently replenish amino acids for your neurotransmitter-dependent energy levels.

Edited by chung_pao, 11 December 2012 - 07:40 PM.