Fatigue on starting

[chtraywick]

Hi:
We have read several books now including Maximum Weight Loss and Starch Solution. Am convinced this is right. We are in week 6. Have followed the plan, except for some avocado and occasional pure peanut butter on healthy toast. Daughter and I are doing this together. We both have increased fatigue. Our friend who is in month five and doing fantastic has increased energy. In the fall of 2021 at a craft show we were exhibiting at we picked up long covid. We did not get the shot. Am wondering if this is somehow contributing to the increased fatigue we are experiencing or if maybe we are detoxing? Everything we have read and people we know personally doing this plan report increased energy and wondering why we are not?

Would appreciate any feedback.

Thank you,

Chuck

[MikeyG]

I had some thoughts here that might be helpful:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 34#p635934

You may also want to spend some time learning about how the Maximum Weight Loss (MWL) free support group participants are finding success with the program, and just keep in mind that you might need to incorporate more starches, or more calorie-dense starches, into your meals to meet your caloric needs if maintaining a healthy, low BMI is not a goal for you:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 11&t=61210

Making sure your version of the McDougall Program is adhering as closely as possible to the MWL guidelines, and ideally participating in the MWL support group in order to help do so, is likely the best way to ensure that you're following the McDougall Program as it was intended to be followed. Many who have issues with finding McDougall Program success (or diet and lifestyle programs like it) seem to have trouble due to some misunderstanding about the program itself and how to implement it.

(Failing to understand calorie density also seems to be a common stumbling block, too.)

(More on potential reasons for McDougall Diet failure and how to avoid them here:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 71#p624671 )

You might also consider going to your primary care provider (PCP) and seeing if something else may be more likely to be contributing to your fatigue. Notably, with the continued lack of significant education in medicine for how to recommend and implement a healthy diet, I would not go to your PCP for dietary advice, as I don't think that advice is likely to be better than what you could get by understanding and following the McDougall Program.

Other interventions to try could include eating smaller, more numerous meals throughout the day to try to keep your energy levels more stable. In addition, I think replacing some of the higher-fat foods and flour products you mentioned with intact starches might be helpful, as I don't think higher-fat foods are typically associated with increased energy levels (especially when compared to carbohydrates), and I believe processed carbohydrates (like flour products) are often associated with less stable energy and hunger than more intact carbohydrate sources (like [sweet] potatoes, intact grains or legumes, or even fruits.)

[On food processing and satiety, insulin response, etc.: https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 7a#p419271 ]

You might also share what you're eating in a given day, or a sample of days, to see if our forum community might be able to identify some potential problems. (Participating in the MWL support group should help a great deal with this, too, however.)

One of our Star McDougallers, who posts on the forums as "geo", chronicled his eating and exercise each day for months at a time while following the program. You might see how his implementation of the program could help you find more success:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 21&t=27969

I hope that helps.

Please keep up the great work of trying to follow the program as effectively as possible, and good luck in your efforts to do so. Importantly, please don't hesitate to reach back out to the community if we can be of additional support

[Ejeff]

I agree, if you could provide what you eat for a couple of days it might be easier to assist. You have increased fatigue each week, like it keeps getting worse? That does not sound good. Are you both getting in a 30 minute walk each day? Do you notice fatigue just at certain times, like after eating a particular meal?

If you could provide a few more details that would be helpful.

Erin