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I used to wake up early without any problem , now I'm in my 4th week of paleo and it's getting harder to sleep less then 7 hrs. Everything else is OK, except that sometimes I feel weak most of the day, like my muscles are tired. I tried few times to do a workout in the morning as I used to, but couldn't get out of bed. Had to shut the alarm and go back to sleep.

I try to be orth paleo and mostly succeed (except some dark chockolate once or twice a day). I'm deffenately no low carb as I eat around 200gr carbs a day (I know that thanks to fitday.com). But I'm sure it was much higher as I ate lots of bread,rice and pasta. I had a rough time with headaches and dizziness but it seems to be over now.

I had an ingury and couln't workout for 3 months, now I'm better and want to start training again it's very difficult.

What am I missing ? Thanks.

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4 Answers

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I felt like this about 6 months through paleo, and it lasted for a while. But 6 months later, I have never been waking up easier and definitely don't feel tired/weak.

The only thing that really changed was my life, not my diet.

(FYI, right now zero carb)

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carbs would have helped fix the problem a lot faster due to their anti stress properties. – cliff Oct 10 2011 at 13:31
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Maybe your more balanced body is telling you you should be getting more than 7 hrs of sleep per night.

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 That was my thought. Until this last century it wouldn't have been strange to sleep upwards of 10 hours. Optimal is supposedly 7.5-9 hours. – Happy Now Oct 8 2011 at 0:37
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 Agreed. 7 hours is usually considered the minimum for a "full nights" sleep. – FED at LiveCaveman.com Oct 8 2011 at 13:30
Will try to up my sleeping hours, but it won't be easy with 2 little kids ;-) – Izzy Oct 10 2011 at 8:39
Saturday....it is this mama's coma day. I can totally make it through the rest of the sleep deprived week if I have Saturday. Hubbie knows that I will be much easier to live with if he keeps the little guy occupied until mid-afternoon. – Happy Now Oct 10 2011 at 9:45
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It might be helpful to describe what your previous diet/macronutrient intake looked like.

Without that information, I can toss out a few possibilities that may or may not be relevant but here goes...

Inadvertent calorie restriction - When you cut out grains, beans, processed foods, etc. it is very easy to underconsume calories as you are still figuring out what is or isn't "paleo".

Insufficient fat intake - Many people new to paleo try to do LFP (low-fat paleo) and end up eating a lot of lean protein and a small amount of unsaturated fat from things like avocado, nuts, etc. Upping your fat intake can help energy levels. If tolerated, coconut oil is a good option, as are the animal fats.

Paleo has nothing to do with it - It's possible that some other lifestyle factor is out of whack.

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More info: I weigh 120lbs, very skinny, moderately active. My daily calorie intake is around 15% protein, 25% carbs, 60% fat. I eat between 2600 to 3000 cals a day. – Izzy Oct 7 2011 at 23:02
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 If you're "very skinny" coming off of a diet previously high in bread, rice, and pasta you are probably not insulin/leptin resistant. In that context, you may do better increasing your carbohydrate intake, as cliff mentioned, or, you could try going in the opposite direction. If you want to see how you respond to being "fat adapted", you could drop your carb intake even further (to ~100gms a day) for week or two to see if you can adapt to burning fat/ketones. – FED at LiveCaveman.com Oct 8 2011 at 0:49
funny how going in the opposite direction usually doesn't work for active people long term. – cliff Oct 8 2011 at 3:19
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200g of carbs is still pretty low for active people, sounds like your body feels starved. I'd up the carbs until you feel normal and refreshed.

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Thanks. Any suggestions? safe starchs? after I eat a meal with sweet potatos I feel heavy, as opposed to when I have other vegs such broccoli, assparagus, etc. but it's hard to get to big doses of carbs that way. And one more thing-isn't that what's paleo all about? make your body use fat instead of carbs? – Izzy Oct 7 2011 at 22:35
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 Exercise is a lot better for getting your body to use more fat as energy than a low carb diet. It's not a paleo thing it's a low carb theory. Every paper on paleo shows a varied carb intake with all groups showing the same signs of good health. – cliff Oct 8 2011 at 0:30
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 200 grams of carbs is high, read dr. lutz: life without bread – Lisa Oct 8 2011 at 2:33
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 I agree that 200g of carbs is high. I am very active and I wouldn't eat that much. – peter Oct 8 2011 at 3:06
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 Carbs are paleo. if you don't want to eat that much fine but i think active people should eat over 200g of carbs. if your active and you eat less than this your doing it at the detriment to your health imo. show me one shred of evidence that over 200g of whole foods carbs is detrimental to health. – cliff Oct 8 2011 at 3:17
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