Diet Post 4: In Which I Discover The Obvious
I’ve hardly done anything over the last couple of months. That includes things as simple as keeping up with folks on Twitter and writing for this blog. I’ve spent some time of late navel gazing trying to work out what’s wrong. Is it campaigner burnout? Have I got a bug? Has my condition changed? Am I messing up my pacing? Is it a mental health flare up? Yet none of the above seemed to cover it. Then it hit me; the malaise started at about the same as this new highly restrictive dietary regime.
Newsflash: YOU NEED CALORIES TO BURN FOR ENERGY. YOU NEED ENERGY TO DO STUFF LIKE THINKING, TALKING AND STAYING AWAKE.
Every human body needs calories to survive. Even if you were just to lie in bed all day you use calories to power your organs and everything else that keeps them going. It varies from person to person depending on height and weight but there is a minimum amount of calories the body requires just to do the basics (often between 1600 and 2200). The value is called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Therefore, even if you sleep all day if you don’t meet the requirements for your BMR you will feel; tired, weak, your appetite vanishes and apparently your metabolism slows down. Most dieters work out how much their BMR is + the average amount they burn through exercise then subtract 500 from it.
My BMR is pretty high because I am a giant of a human and this diet is leaving me about 1000 calories down on that figure everyday. It was leaving me 1200 calories down on it but I kept falling asleep in the middle of conversations so they gave me an extra 200 to play with. I’m still exhausted by everything and I feel like my limbs are made of overcooked spaghetti. I’m also starting to have some extra issues with my joints.
Is it worth it? At the moment I tell you it doesn’t feel like it is. I went out the other weekend and ate food and felt so full of energy and life it was like I had been spiked with hardcore stimulants. Seriously. I was alert, attentive, happy and better able to manage my conditions.
I have a appointment tomorrow and I plan to chat to the dietician about it. If they want me to loose weight to see if that magically fixes me/improves my quality of life then that’s cool for them, but I can’t keep doing it like this.
pseudoliving 
Ugh, that's awful. Srsly, they need to let you have enough calories to stay awake and do the things that you want to do and that make you happy. The dietician ought to know that starvation diets do not make for long term, sustainable, weight loss, let alone health. All the good stuff I've read on the web suggests that building muscle is the way forward, but I have no idea how appropriate/possible that would even be for you, so I'm going to shut up.
I hope they listen to you properly, but I suspect that's unlikely, so jedi hugs in advance.
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