Welcome to the McDougall Program and the McDougall forum community.
I hope you will be a part of both for as long as possible
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Here are some potential thoughts for you or anyone experiencing similar issues:
1) If you're on any medication, especially those that involve addressing high blood sugar or blood pressure, that may be worth considering first.
The McDougall Diet is incredibly effective at reversing both hypertension and insulin resistance to a degree where the McDougall Program physician team seems to routinely stop any medications related to these two issues for patients beginning the program. If these medications are not stopped, or at least adjusted, people following the McDougall Diet can experience issues as their blood sugars and blood pressure normalize on the diet. Once that rapid normalization happens, their medications for these two health markers now push new McDougallers down into unsafe levels, resulting in hypotension (low blood pressure) or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Both of those conditions could result in significant low-energy episodes (or fainting).
Thus, I would make sure any potential medication-related issues were looked at first, ideally before beginning the diet.
2) The McDougall Diet, especially for those following the Maximum Weight Loss (MWL) version, which is often considered the "Maximum Health Program" and the version of the McDougall Diet most likely to rapidly improve one's health, is likely much lower in calorie density than anything people have experienced before.
Thus, there's a good chance those following the McDougall Program, especially for the first time, may not be taking in enough calories, especially if someone consumes the same volume of food as they were before implementing the program.
Symptoms of insufficient caloric intake could include low energy and low blood sugar, despite sufficient sleep, and would also likely include difficulty maintaining a BMI in the healthy range of approximately 18.5 to 22, based on the evidence.
With insufficient caloric intake, I would also expect some symptoms of hunger. However, maybe the highly satisfying nature of a starch-based diet is preventing hunger pangs from being an issue, even if insufficient caloric intake could explain the low energy symptoms you have shared.
We had some recent discussions on the forum about how to increase caloric intake in a healthy manner for someone who seemed to be falling below the healthy BMI range, which might be helpful:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 34#p629534Notably, increasing caloric intake through calorie density can potentially interfere with weight loss efforts.
Thus, if lowering BMI is one of your goals with the McDougall Program, you might want to pay closer attention to your weight as you experiment with increasing calorie density to make sure that you're not overdoing it. However, even if you were, you could easily just adjust the overall caloric density of your diet back down to help you settle at the healthy BMI you're aiming for.
Ultimately, I hope that insight helps you and your husband find ways to be more successful following the McDougall Program and addressing the low-energy issues, as I think finding ways to properly implement and stick with the program is definitely worth the effort.
In addition, please feel free to stay active on the message boards to share your experiences and maybe help others who hope to follow in your footsteps
Thanks for your efforts to take good care of yourself and set a good example by following the McDougall program (and, by doing so, help animals, the environment, and our public health system.)
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(More on the MWL program and how to follow it, for those who may be interested:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 14&t=58229 [^ From one of the pinned posts at the top of this forum.]
More on Calorie Density:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewt ... 22&t=48602[from one of the pinned posts on Jeff Novick, MS, RD's forum. Importantly, I would highly recommend all of those pinned posts to anyone interested in learning more about the McDougall Program and how to implement it successfully.
In addition, Jeff Novick, posting as JeffN, has generously made over 9,400 posts [as of this message] on these forums in a volunteer capacity, and all those messages can be searched using the "Search for Author" function of our forum's Advanced Search feature.
A general advanced search for "JeffN" brings up all of Jeff's posts in reverse chronological order, which can also be further searched by keyword(s):
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/searc ... mit=SearchI would also highly recommend searching through those posts for help with any issues you're facing while following the McDougall Program, as Jeff has likely covered it, and covered it extensively. If not, you might consider asking him on his forums to see if he's willing to provide additional perspective.
I also enjoy routinely checking that reverse chronological "JeffN" posts page to learn from Jeff whenever he's kind enough to post here
. [Thanks, Jeff! ]
More information on Healthy BMIs, also from Jeff:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=6916... and another entry from Dr. McDougall on how to increase caloric intake in a healthy manner for those who think they are getting too thin:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/education/i ... ot-joking/Notably, Dr. McDougall has said in some of his recent free YouTube videos that his wife, Mary, seems to settle a little below a BMI of 18.5. However, for her or those like her with lower BMIs while following the McDougall Program, Dr. McDougall seems unconcerned as long as they are otherwise healthy.)
