tl;dr:
Has anyone out there struggled with feeling light headed and/or getting really bad food comas while trying intermittent fasting? Were you able to find a solution to them or did you just have to deal with it?
long part:
I have been intermittent fasting for the last 2 months by not eating Breakfast, trying not to eat lunch, and just eating dinner. I drink water and black decaff coffee to keep my hunger at bay.
I have seen some decent progress, but not as much as I would have liked. My gut has decreased significantly, but is not gone. There is still a stubborn 1/2 of an inch of flab. While I would like to eventually move to a consistent 20-4 intermittent fast (fast 20 hours, eat for four) and can now usually do that or better on Saturdays, I have run into two problems.
1) I get light headed. Unfortunately, my work requires that I stay mentally sharp so I usually have to break my fast at no later than 1:30 PM on weekdays, only a couple of hours into when my body feels like it is consuming body fat (I feel the skin on my face and lower legs and arms tighten).
2) If I do break my fast later than 1:30, I get a really bad food coma. If I wait until 5 or later its usually so bad that I have to lie down for an hour. Once the coma is over I get a weird headache for the rest of the day and feel off. I am guessing this is because all of the blood in my body from my head to my stomach in search of calories.
For some reason, when I plow through on Saturdays I generally don't have these 2 problems, but then by early Saturday evening I am not doing anything too intellectually challenging. When I try again on Sunday, I run into the 2 problems above.
I would like to emphasize that hunger is not the issue. By drinking lots of brita filtered water, I rarely struggle with it. I usually break my fasts because of feeling light headed, not hungry.
Are there any tricks for dealing with this?
Has anyone out there struggled with feeling light headed and/or getting really bad food comas while trying intermittent fasting? Were you able to find a solution to them or did you just have to deal with it?
long part:
I have been intermittent fasting for the last 2 months by not eating Breakfast, trying not to eat lunch, and just eating dinner. I drink water and black decaff coffee to keep my hunger at bay.
I have seen some decent progress, but not as much as I would have liked. My gut has decreased significantly, but is not gone. There is still a stubborn 1/2 of an inch of flab. While I would like to eventually move to a consistent 20-4 intermittent fast (fast 20 hours, eat for four) and can now usually do that or better on Saturdays, I have run into two problems.
1) I get light headed. Unfortunately, my work requires that I stay mentally sharp so I usually have to break my fast at no later than 1:30 PM on weekdays, only a couple of hours into when my body feels like it is consuming body fat (I feel the skin on my face and lower legs and arms tighten).
2) If I do break my fast later than 1:30, I get a really bad food coma. If I wait until 5 or later its usually so bad that I have to lie down for an hour. Once the coma is over I get a weird headache for the rest of the day and feel off. I am guessing this is because all of the blood in my body from my head to my stomach in search of calories.
For some reason, when I plow through on Saturdays I generally don't have these 2 problems, but then by early Saturday evening I am not doing anything too intellectually challenging. When I try again on Sunday, I run into the 2 problems above.
I would like to emphasize that hunger is not the issue. By drinking lots of brita filtered water, I rarely struggle with it. I usually break my fasts because of feeling light headed, not hungry.
Are there any tricks for dealing with this?