Chronic Fatigue and Weight Loss
Summary: Chronic fatigue is a sign that you need to slow down. It is also a sign that you are not supplying your body with enough nutrients especially if you are trying to lose weight. Treat the fatigue first, support your body with adequate nutrients and your weight loss goal can be much more realistic (and healthy!)
Most people do not relate chronic fatigue and weight loss together. Often times when you start to lose weight you feel MORE energy. However, if you lose weight on a restricted calorie diet (and not enough nutrients), the low calorie diet can actually cause chronic fatigue. I think it goes unnoticed after a period of time because waking up tired becomes the baseline. You just ‘deal with it’ instead of listening to your body when it says pump the breaks or just fuel yourself with coffee and continue to ignore it…
On a side note I know how annoying it can be when people say ‘listen to your body’ because what does that really mean? And is it different for everyone? Yes it is, BUT I can say fairly confidently that if you are waking up every day feeling like you got hit by a bus, or don’t have even an ounce of energy before your coffee, your body is telling you to slooooooow down. Feeling fatigued is not your body failing you. It’s your body forcing you to rest.
Here is a typical scenario I see with clients. The client comes to me because they want to learn how to have more energy and eventually lose weight. We go through their history, and we find that over the last several years they have tried a variety of fad diets— Whole 30, beach body, weight watchers, low carb, Keto— you name it they tried it.
Disclaimer: I applaud anyone who has tried any of these things with the intention of bettering their health. I do not shame anyone who has ever tried these because 1) That would make me a hypocrite because I have tried them all 2) You don’t know what you don’t know. If you had no idea that these weight loss programs could effect your adrenal health and make you chronically tired, then you definitely can’t blame yourself.
I then explain to the client when you go on a low-calorie diet and do not consume enough nutrients (like magnesium, fiber, vitamin A, copper and more), your body starts to conserve energy where ever it can. Then you start to get tired. Then you start to doubt your ability and decide to eat less calories (more stress) and workout harder (more stress). The body’s stress bucket is filling up more and more as you continue to eat less nutrients and work the body harder. All of this together continues to raise CORTISOL, the stress hormone.
Cortisol is your friend when the HPA Axis is functioning well. However, when your stress bucket is full and cortisol keeps rising from all the lifestyle choices, it gets harder and harder to lose weight. I explain this in a little more detail over on my IGTV (@nutritionwithkels). I post new videos on a weekly basis and try to answer common questions about functional nutrition. This was a hot topic because so many have struggled with the merry-go-round that they didn’t even know they were on.
Weight loss is not a bad thing. What I believe to be a bad thing is when you are not fully educated on how to support your body during weight loss. There is more to your success than just calories in verse calories out. If it were that simple I’m thinking I would be out of a job :) If you want to learn more about how to lose weight with the functional nutrition approach, message me on instagram or apply to my 1-on-1 program. The link is here and here.
Kelsey, Passionate Dietitian
