Tiredness all the time

[Babydiscus]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I've started Cohen Eating Plan 7 weeks ago. Didn't experience any hunger pangs, tiredness, headaches or any discomfort at all for the first 4 weeks. However, I've been getting very tired, sleepy and cranky from the 6th week onwards. I felt a little better after doing some light exercise but for someone who never naps, I now crave naps during weekends. Anyone experiencing this? Or am I the only one?

I started off at 59kg. My goal weight is 48kg - 51kg and I'm currently at 52kg at the 7th week mark. Is this a sign of needing refeed?

I don't feel particularly hungry during weekdays but was constantly looking forward to lunch during weekends. I felt very hungry about 1 hour prior to lunch even with my crackers. Maybe it was because I don't have work to distract me over the weekends.

[Jem_HA]

Hi there,

Definitely sounds like it's time for the Refeed Plan as generally you can order this around 1-2 kgs out from your goal weight range. While you complete refeed you may experience a little further weight loss as your body adjusts to the gentle introduction of new foods and new quantities and then you'll find yourself exactly where your body wants you to be for optimum health.

Congratulations on your weight loss achievement so far and best of luck for reefed. Let us all know how you go!

[Donzie]

Hi,

I'm about 4kgs off my goal weight and I'm feeling very tired at the moment. Not too bad when I first wake up but by the afternoon I'm pooped. I'm hungry all the time, I've actually started adding a little extra veg onto my meals and an extra cracker to just get by. I think I'm looking pretty skinny too.

But I really want to reach 65kg (currently 70kg). But I think it's time to start getting ready mentally for the shift onto refeed.

Let us know how you go. Good luck.

[Jem_HA]

Donzie,

That is truly awesome! Sounds like you body is telling you the same as babydiscus. Start getting ready ladies - you're about the endure the wildest part of this ride

[Babydiscus]

Thanks, folks! I'm starting to eat crackers as early as 5.30am nowadays and had to eat another round of crackers at 9.30am. I'm due for my weigh-in next Wed. Will probably order the refeed plan in case I go out of whack and start deviating big time.

[Tes]

Wow Babydiscus - 48 kilos you must be teeny tiny - definitely sounds like refeed time is here for you. See what the consultant says - up those vitamins too if you need to. Bet you are cold too.

[Babydiscus]

Hi Tes. I'm staying in Singapore. The weather is hot! So, I don't feel cold because of the diet. Weekends are a torture to me though as I've to run after my toddler. I felt hungry and sleepy all the time on weekends because of all the exercise.

The last time I weighed 48kg was when I was 14! Most of my life I was floating around 51-55kg until I ballooned last year. I'm really short at 155cm, so I guess 48kg is an ok weight for me

[Jem_HA]

Hi BD,

Did you order your reefed yet? I hope all is going well for you.

[Babydiscus]

Hi Jem

Yep. Weigh in on Wed and my consultant ordered the refeed plan in view that I'll be going away for a short vacation in end May. She'd rather I do the refeed and enjoy my holiday than trying to get down to the lower limit and deviate midway through refeed because of my vacation.

The plan should be ready end of next week. Hopefully I'd get down to 49kg before I start my refeed. Still not feeling particularly hungry so I'm a little worried about starting too early.

[Babydiscus]

Hi there. Just to close the loop. Started 17 days of refeed on 9 May 2016 at 50.4kg. Never felt so good. Glad that I did not wait to go down to 48kg before starting refeed. Felt so much better the first day of refeed already. My headache went away and my brain fogginess disappeared immediately. Never thought the difference in a small amount of food can make so much difference.

Ended refeed at 50.0kg. 1 day into maintenance, my weight dropped to 49.2kg.

Perhaps my body was crying out for more food. Strangely, unlike what my consultant said about weight loss can continue for the first 10 days of the refeed and then stopped. My true weight loss actually started on the 11th day when I started introducing carbo. The first 10 days was up and down trying to stabilize. Apparently carbo agrees with me.

I will tiptoe into maintenance as what SMS suggested. I'm still measuring my food as a rough gauge. Not to the exact grams but plus/minus 10 grams of the end of refeed amounts depending on how much food I have on hand. Too much of a hassle to throw away the remaining 10 grams or to cut another piece of meat for the extra 10 grams imo. LOL.

I've quite a number of events lined up this month. Will eat clean for the days where I have no dinner/lunch appointments and hope to maintain my weight or get down to the lower end of 48kg in maintenance land with clean eating going forward.

Good luck to all of you still on Eating Plan! This plan works and so do the Refeed Plan. Don't worry about the large amount of food on Refeed Plan. They improve your well being and you can still lose weight with the increased amount on Refeed!

[Cohen Warrior]

Hi Babydiscus and everyone who has contributed to this thread..im currently having some thoughts/mental struggles about when i should be starting my refeed.

I started off at 67kg and my goal weight set by Cohen's is 48-52kg. I am in week 12 now and i am currently at 55.5kg. As of the past week or so, i think i have been experiencing 'refeed symptoms' - getting hungrier more easily, not feeling satiated even after a meal, feeling cold most of the time (even though i live in sunny Singapore too!) and worst of all...getting grumpy and snappy easily (feel so bad towards my poor boyfriend who has to suffer all my mood swings!)

I have also missed my TOM for 2 months now so im getting a little worried about my health. Im wondering if i should i just order my refeed now (even tho im still abt 3kgs away from the higher end of my goal weight) or should i still continue to wait till i hit at least 52kg before i start the refeed?

Actually I am a lil doubtful if i can even be within that goal weight range bcos ive always been a chubby girl since birth and the lowest i hv ever been was 55 kg when i was having some slight eating disorders..(which i have since recovered and dont wanna ever go back there).

As such, i would really love to hear and get some advice/feedback from fellow cohenites out there !

Sending love and positive energy to all ~~

-Cohen Warrior

[allie_82]

Hi Cohen Warrior!

Congratulations on your wonderful weight loss so far! When I got close to refeed and was starting to feel hungry my consultant suggested I spread the fruit allowance across the day... so have 1/2 fruit 4 times a day. If you are worried about missing TOM though then I would definitely suggest speaking to your consultant and see what they recommend. You are very close to the top of your goal range so you may be able to order refeed now and who knows, you may be within the 48-52kg by the time it arrives

Good luck!! Let us know how you go

Allie

[Babydiscus]

Hi Cohen Warrior

Hope you are going strong! I think you will have probably start refeed by now.

Just to share my progress 6 weeks into maintenance. Post refeed, I've been through 2 buffets, 4 birthday celebrations, 2 short trips. Yes, June was a hectic month for me!

I usually go up 2-3kg over the weekend and drop back over the weekdays. So I'm usually lightest on Friday mornings at around 49-ish and heaviest on Monday morning around 51-52-ish. I will then eat relatively clean over the next 4 days to lose the water weight gain. I continue with my carbo intake, in lower amounts of course (usually 2 pieces of bread + 6 crispbreads + 100gm of nuts or half cup oatmeal) but my weight will still go down. However, I can go up 1.5kg in a single meal whenever I dine out.

I realized over the last 6 weeks that my body isn't sensitive to carbs but extremely sensitive to salty and sweet food, which means every single meal out will guarantee a weight increase. That show how much sodium there is in Singapore hawker food!

When I cook at home, I can eat tons (end of refeed amount) plus nuts and carbo (oats, noodles, rice) without any weight gain. So I still bring my home-cooked meals to work everyday. I leave Fridays as social days with colleagues and weekends as social days with family and friends.

Wish you good luck in your journey ahead!

[Cohen Warrior]

Hello Allie & Babydiscus! Thank you both for the encouragement and replies!

I weighed myself this morning at 54.3kg and I just ordered my refeed today with the clinic as I have been unwell the past week. I came down with a very bad E Coli bacteria infection which subsequently developed into a UTI Must have been some unfresh fish i ate ! I hv never been so ill before in my life..almost thought that was the end of me! lol. Anyway i must say that my immunity system has definitely deteriorated after losing so much weight..so ive decided to stop losing further and order my refeed already.

Will also be going for a dental surgery end of this week to extract a cracked tooth before i develop ANOTHER infection... (dunno how that happened but i think my teeth are also becoming brittle).

Hopefully going into refeed will help my body recover and bring my immunity system back up again!
Looking forward to receiving my refeed plan next week!

Just a quick question to both - what kind of bread do you eat ? im thinking if i should hunt for some ezekiel bread/sprouted grain bread, but hv no idea where to buy these in spore. I dont quite like the idea of eating heavily processed wholemeal bread from the supermarkets.. any advice will be much appreciated!

Babydiscus, thanks for sharing your maintenance lifestyle, i will take some pointers from you! Eat clean on weekdays and cheat on weekends! So basically for maintenance, you are now using the food weights from your refeed plan?

Wishing everyone good health !

[Babydiscus]

Hi Cohen Warrior

I think you are right in ordering your refeed. Your health needs to come first. Anyway, you will continue to lose weight during reefed and you are within 2kg of your upper limit, so you will still get there.

I was lucky in that I never missed my TOM, fallen sick or felt cold during the diet. However, I only realized towards the end of my refeed that I have been accidentally deviating with my fruit allowance throughout the entire 9 weeks I was on the diet! I never weighed my fruits - I ate 1 whole mango, 1 whole solo papaya and large Korea Fuji Apple for each of my fruit intake. Towards the end of my refeed, I got curious and started weighing my fruits and realized that if I did weigh my fruits, I would have been consuming 5 servings of fruit per day throughout the eating plan!

No wonder my weight loss was relatively slow compared to the rest on the forum! My consultant assured me it was because I wasn't big to begin with which accounted for my slower weight loss but now I knew it wasn't exactly the reason :P

[Cohen Warrior]

Hi Babydiscus!

haha, wow ! you actually ate a whole mango and a whole solo papaya..im so envious! hahhaa, no wonder you didn't feel tired or cold the whole journey! Anyway, you only took 9 weeks! thats amazing!!

I think i lost most of my weight by the 12 week and now im into my 14th week..Do you remember how long it took for the refeeding plan to arrive? I ordered mine on Monday and i cant wait to start cos im getting hungrier by the days...

Did you experience cravings for non-cohen allowed foods towards your goal weight/before your refeed?? im so hungry these days i am so tempted to cheat..

[Babydiscus]

Hi Cohen Warrior, it took about a week

[Cohen Warrior]

Hello Babydiscus!

I just got my refeed plan today and im so excited to start. Ive deviated a little over the past week, due to the dental surgery..had some milk in my coffee/tea cos i thought my body needed some calcium!!!

Argh..anyway i spoke to the consultant about it and she said..ok wait a few days. Anyway im still stuck at 54.3kg this morning and i think ill wait till i hit 53kg before i start my refeed !!

But i intend to start next Monday anyway, so im gg to pray very hard and stay very determined and focussed over the next couple days and probably do more exercise , just so i can hit 53kg when i start refeed on monday!

Anyway, i have a question about bread - What kind of bread did you eat? Im not a fan of commercialised bread we can find in the supermarkets and i was thinking of buying sprouted grain bread from the organic stores which is apparently higher in protein level and lower in carbs..but not sure if this is allowed on refeed or will it just screw things up with the protein/carb mix?

Any advice would be much appreciated!!

Sending love & positivity to all - Cohen Warrior**

[Babydiscus]

Congratulations, Cohen Warrior!

If your weight remained stagnant for over the last 2 weeks, it can be a signal that you have reached your equilibrium weight.

I ate Fairprice wholemeal bread on refeed. I have been eating that all along and it was my family favourite bread so I just continued with it. In fact, it is recommended to consume normal white/wholemeal bread on refeed rather than buying special bread so don't worry about it!

[Cohen Warrior]

Hi Babydiscus!

Thanks for sharing. Just wondering, did you have any bad reactions after taking bread? Ive read on the forum that some ppl reacted adversely to bread, like they put on alot of weight after they ate bread..am now thinking if i shld even eat bread at all..maybe just eat crackers all the way? Or is that a bad idea?

Anyway, i asked the consultant about ezekiel bread and here is what she said:
"Not to worry Dr Cohen has advised on the healthier choices of bread as long as it does not contain multi grains and as long as it does not weigh more than 30 grams per slice. "

So i guess i will be buying ezekiel bread then! Woo hoo!

Also, did you find the portions too much at any point of time? if so, its prob better to cut down on the old protein/veg and keep the new protein/veg weights, correct?

Thanks in advance & so happy to chat with someone from Sunny Spore!!