Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I've been working on a 90/10 compliant paleo diet with IF with a once-a-day evening meal for about 4 months. In general it has been working great, my weight is down 27 lbs and is still dropping. However, every once in a while I notice that I get into a hyper-focused state where I have NO tolerance for stupidity, and I feel like that I would love to pick a fight and beat the stuffing out of someone. I don't act on this, of course, but it is somewhat alarming as it isn't really my nature. A good evening meal usually mellows me out, but I am curious as to why this occurs. I really don't get hungry until the evening and overall feel really good during the day with consistent energy and focus.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any tips to tame the beast?

flag	asked Oct 10 at 23:31 Man With A Middle 280●7

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It might be a blood sugar issue. If you go hypoglycemic, those feelings can be a side effect. – MathGirl72 Oct 10 at 23:41

I thought I was the only one! At the end of almost every fast, I feel like "killing" someone, I'm looking forward for other people's answers. – Alvaro Oct 10 at 23:50

It's hard to explain, but I just feel ultra-serious and my brain is sharp as a razor. Not a bit of hunger or lightheadedness, but I feel like leading a battle, like every epic scene in the movie '300'. – Man With A Middle Oct 11 at 1:38

maybe its coincidental and you have something unrelated to your diet happening. – sage_ Oct 11 at 2:37

bethaneyjayne · Answer 1 · 2012-10-10 23:53:34Z UTC

hell yeah I get that! I can feel my heart pounding through my chest literally like my "fight or flight" response is over-reactive. I think I simply have issues, lol. But I have noticed it happens the day after sugar binges, so now that they are not so frequent my mood is a little better.

crightfunnylol · Answer 2 · 2012-10-11 00:10:02Z UTC

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i remember feeling cranky and was irratated easly when my family was eating in front of me and i was fasting

answered Oct 11 at 0:10

crightfunnylol
838●3●10

Leannmean · Answer 3 · 2012-10-15 20:02:28Z UTC

I too had the same thing happen with IF after about 4 months. I would happen to me in the evenings.

My normal personality is completely opposite from how I would feel, but I would literally feel like ripping someones head off. It scared me because it was starting to affect my relationship with my girlfriend. I would find myself incredibly angry with her about nothing.

I found that eating about 200kcal would calm me down somewhat, but in the end it just wasn't worth it for me to feel so angrily irrational. In the end, I decided to go back to eating three meals a day.

I found that taking a 2 week diet break at maintenance calories reset me and allowed me to continue IF for another month without this issue cropping up again. However, it did come back after a month, so that's when I decided to end the IFing.

DePaw · Answer 4 · 2012-10-11 00:06:33Z UTC

I get this too, I guess it's the body is hungry and wants you to hunt, but there's nothing to run so you lash out at people. But I also have bipolar disorder so might be part of it. But blood sugar issues makes a lot of sense too as ketosis smooths my mood a lot, so hypoglycaemia may cause the mood episode.

Dave · Answer 5 · 2012-10-15 18:02:05Z UTC

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I do find my levels dip and rise, since staring the Eat Stop Eat plan http://www.eatstopeatresults.com/

I have been experimenting with good fats within nuts and seeds to help.

SIS Rego range is good also.

answered Oct 15 at 18:02

Dave
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	Come to think of it, fat might be something to look into. I was eating pretty lean a few weeks ago (protein and veggies mostly). When I get "hangry" I make a point to have a good fast-breaking meal which probably carries more fat than I usually use, which might be why the mood tends to be episodic and not chronic. I'll pay more attention to getting some fat in and see how that works out. My weight has been falling off steadily and otherwise I feel better than I have in years. I'm really liking this routine and I hope I can tweak it so it is good for the long term. Thanks all! – Man With A Middle Oct 17 at 0:58
	I'm back in the IF routine and have noticed that supplementing with magnesium has had a good effect on my sleep and overall mood. I had been supplementing with magnesium over the summer but decided to drop it. Bad move, it seems to be something of a deficiency with me. Anyway, back to losing fat and feeling good. – Man With A Middle Nov 7 at 3:06

Man With A Middle · Answer 6 · 2013-01-17 02:06:19Z UTC

A bit of a follow-up: some recent blood work, web searching and reading has caused me to experiment with supplementing with tyrosine.

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/tyrosine-000329.htm

Recent blood work indicated that my TSH was borderline high but my thyroid hormones were borderline low, suggesting a deficiency in the precursors (tyrosine or iodine). I had been running cold, low energy, etc. and have a family history of thyroid issues so I had those levels checked. Also, several years ago I was diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder and was put on a course of Wellbutrin (buproprion) which is a dopamine-reuptake inhibitor. I responded well to it, but after a time I decided that I did not want to be on meds and discontinued their use. Supplementing with vitamin D helped somewhat during the winter, but I read that tyrosine is a precursor to dopamine. It seemed that tyrosine was a common factor in all these issues, so I decided to try supplementing with it.

I've been on tyrosine for two weeks and must say it has brought about a night-and-day difference in mood, even while in deep ketosis and exercising hard in the middle of winter. I'm warm now, energy and enthusiasm are both good, and I am finally seeing exercise as a joy instead of a chore.

I'm continuing on the supplements for now, but tyrosine is an amino acid found in meats, eggs, dairy, nuts and wheat, so in theory I should be able to get a sufficiency through food. I think the problem may have been that I was restricting too much and pushing too hard while not eating enough meat and eggs to fill a chronic tyrosine deficiency. I think I will remain on the supplements while I am still trying to lose weight and then try to phase them out when I reach maintenance.

Tyrosine is apparently something that has been known about by bodybuilders trying to cut:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/tyrosine.htm

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6 Answers