Feeling sleepy, foggy, lethargic, lightheaded after meal

[Novidez]

I don't know if this is intended or not, but after having my meal (generally OJ + OO + Sugar + Fruits), I feel kinda sleepy, foggy, lethargic and lightheaded. Is this normal? Glad that I fast during the day and I only eat at night, because I just want to relax after xD
But should I be worried if I am sensible on any of those foods? Or is it just the spike of my insulin that makes me feel this way?

[RRM]

I don't know if this is intended or not, but after having my meal (generally OJ + OO + Sugar + Fruits), I feel kinda sleepy, foggy, lethargic and lightheaded. Is this normal?

Digestion takes away about 30% of your energy. So, yes, when used to feeling 100% during the day, it is a massive let down feeling only 70% energetic.
Maybe it helps to build it up gradually.
Start with some sips of juice only. Then gradually increase frequency and introduce more 'heavy' foods after the first hour or so.

should I be worried if I am sensible on any of those foods?

Probably not.

Or is it just the spike of my insulin that makes me feel this way?

Could be. You can try taking it very slow initially.

[Novidez]

Could be. You can try taking it very slow initially.

I reduced my sugar intake by half yesterday and today. Now I don't feel drowsy and lightheaded after eating. I mean, after all I'm not managing to do some exercise lately, so maybe the amount of energy I was ingesting was a little too much. But I will just pay attention to my body . For example, if I'm feeling without energy when I'm going to sleep.

[Novidez]

*so drowsy and lightheaded

[RRM]

What you are experiencing, is the the result of mistake #1 on this diet:
consuming too few meals per day, consuming too little energy in total.
You need to eat many more meals a day to ingest enough energy and yet not to eat too much in one sitting.

[Novidez]

What you are experiencing, is the the result of mistake #1 on this diet:
consuming too few meals per day, consuming too little energy in total.

I guess I was influenced by Ori when he says that the best hour to eat is at night.
I'm going to change my feeding window. The problem was that I have classes at 8:30 and I usually arrive home at 16h or 18h. What I was doing was not eating till I arrive home. This was a mistake... I'm thinking about grabbing some OJ + OO + Sugar with me in a bottle. Is it ok? Or it's better only OJ + Sugar?
I'm so dumb that I never thought about doing this before. Then what I did was arriving home and eat like a machine.

You need to eat many more meals a day to ingest enough energy and yet not to eat too much in one sitting.

Btw, if I sip OJ during the day but in small quantities at a time is the best way, because it isn't going to spike my insulin levels, right? These are some question that I have always in my head: spiking the insulin like crazy isn't healthy, is it? Has the OJ+OO+Sugar combo a high GI? Regarding fasting, I know that it isn't good to break it with high GI foods initially.

[Kasper]

Orange juice by itself has a GI of 43, combined with olive oil, probably lower, combined with sugar, probably higher, but not higher than 60.

[Novidez]

Orange juice by itself has a GI of 43, combined with olive oil, probably lower, combined with sugar, probably higher, but not higher than 60.

So not much as a burden for the insulin system (in small quantities)?

[RRM]

When you need the energy, consuming high GI food is NOT a problem.
You need the energy.
You can always drink as much juice as you feel like. When satisfied, you simpy do not feel like drinking more.
When afraid of spiking your insulin, you will underconsume energy.

Insulin has a function.
Insulin is NOT a bad hormone. It is essential.
Spiking insulin is NOT a bad thing. When a lot of energy is coming in, you need the insulin to store that energy (as glycogen) in your liver (and muscles).
For that, you need insulin.
If you are afraid to spike insulin, you are afraid to store energy.
This will lead to a lack of energy, causing your symptoms.

So not much as a burden for the insulin system (in small quantities)?

Please eliminate that thought.
Please eliminate the idea that you need to avoid spiking your insulin.
You NEED to spike your insulin to be able to store spare eenrgy.
Without storing spare energy, you will not have spare energy when needed.
Without spiking insulin, your daily activities are unsustainable.
Without any spikes in insulin, you need to lay down in bed all day, as in end-stage anorexia.

When is spiking your insulin actually bad?
Only once all glycogen stores have been completely filled up already.
That is about 1200 plus 400 kcal of sugars that needs to have been stored first.
Only then will extra spikes be harmful, because then it will become impossible to store any additional glycogen.
As a result, the extra incoming glucose or amino acids will remain in the blood, and need to be converted to fatty acids first prior to storage (as triglycerides).
But that may only happen after having consumed big meals that filled up your glycogen depots already.
With the symptoms you had, it is clear your glycogen depots are empty.
This means you need to listen to your energy needs very carefully constantly.
If you do not listen to your energy needs constantly, you will face the same symptoms, which will make this diet unsustainable.

Do not be afraid to spike your insulin.
You need it.

[Novidez]

Sadly, what I am eating is according to numbers and not by feelings/sensations. I still rationalize it a lot... And, of course, I have been influenced by information that spiking insulin to much is bad, etc. (but, for example, after fasting, we should be careful on the amount of food in a short period, right...? Or do I have to remove this thought too? )

I'm trying to shift to completely listen to my body. In all my life, this body of mine was a mere tool to just walk and to use it do what I have to do on a daily life. I didn't know that it 'existed' and I have never respected it after all.

[RRM]

after fasting, we should be careful on the amount of food in a short period, right...?

You should always be careful, as in: listen to your body.
Right after fasting, you may need to take it easy, or not...
Just listen to your body, and not the numbers.
The good news is that your body will quickly start talking to you again, once you have restored communications

[Novidez]

The good news is that your body will quickly start talking to you again, once you have restored communications

Thank you! :')

[Aytundra]

About 3 weeks ago, Novidez posted a link about Dr. Ede's web page on cholesterol in another thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3732

I think Novidez read from Dr. Ede's website, and I guess from there he derived his belief that insulin should not be spiked. ( Did i guess right, Novidez?)

Diets high in refined carbohydrate lower HDL levels and set the stage for high insulin levels, oxidation, and inflammation throughout the body, including in the coronary arteries.

"Diets high in refined carbohydrate lower HDL levels..."
I am having serious language issues with Dr. Ede's sentence here,
SetX high in ElementX lower SetY.
Dr. Ede, you did not give me a mechanism on how refined carbohydrate lowers HDLlevels.
Even if refined carbohydrate lowers HDL levels, who cares, I think you said HDLlevels are just garbage trucks, the important lipoprotein levels are the oxidizedLDL in your opinion. So why add confusion with HDL levels.
Dr. Ede, is SetY (HDL levels) good or bad in your opinion?
Dr. Ede said HDL levels are like garbage trucks, they are not important.
Than why do you want to associate SetY with a SetZ? SetZ being "and set the stage for high insulin levels (SetZ1), oxidation (SetZ2), and inflammation(SetAdj-Negative1) throughout the body, including in the coronary arteries (SetAdj-!1)." Dr.Ede, you are using fear-monger's-sentence.

High blood sugar and insulin levels turn big, fluffy, innocent LDL particles into small, dense, oxidized LDL particles, which are associated with increased risk for heart disease.

Please drop your adjectives Dr. Ede, they do not contribute to clear writing "fluffy", "innocent".
"High blood sugar and insulin levels turn big LDL particles into small oxidized LDL particles, which are associated with increased risk for heart disease."

Again Dr. Ede, you gave a verb "turn", without a mechanism/or proper statistics.
Hence, you are fear-mongering-speeching-again.
Actually one can reason that high blood sugar levels from eating processed-cooked-sugary-foods, leads to high sugar levels and high-processed-food-molecules, that is the confounding variable. You cannot say "high blood sugar", you are misleading, you should say "high food-molecules may be correlated with oxidized LDL particles".

High insulin levels turn on the cholesterol building enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, forcing the body to make more cholesterol than it needs.

Dr. Ede, so what if the body has more cholesterol?
Didn't you say that cholesterol is not important to cardiology researchers now?

The latest research suggests that diets high in refined and high glycemic index carbohydrates increase the risk of inflammation throughout the body, especially in blood vessels.

But is it the carbohydrates, or the other food molecules accompanying the carbohydrate food product? Like the AGEs formed in the making of the processed-carbohydrate food?

Cardiology researchers are now turning away from the notion that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. After all, how could saturated fat and cholesterol, which we have been eating for hundreds of thousands of years, be at the root of heart disease, which is a relatively new phenomenon? Cardiologists are finding instead that refined carbohydrate (such as sugar and flour), which we have only been eating in significant quantities for about a hundred years, is the single most important dietary risk factor for heart attacks:

“Strong evidence supports …associations of harmful factors, including intake of trans-fatty acids and foods with a high glycemic index or load.”

“Insufficient evidence of association is present for intake of…saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids; total fat,… meat; eggs; and milk.” [Mente et al 2009].

Imo, The shift of Cardiology researchers accusing sugar and flour, is a troublesome thought.
Rewording Dr. Ede's sample sentence with sugar and flour to replace saturated fat and cholesterol in the quotation marks ' ' :
Cardiologist may promote a low sugar and flour diet for the next decade, 'only to come back and conclude how could sugar and flour, that we have been eating sugar fro hundreds of thousands of years, be at the root of heart disease...?'
See, this is the reasoning that I am scared Cardiology researchers may fall into thinking.

[Novidez]

Not only her but other people that talk this way about insulin. For example, sentences like "We think of insulin as a blood sugar regulator, but its real job is to be a GROWTH HORMONE. Insulin is supposed to turn on when we need to grow. What do we need to make in order to grow? More cells. What do we need to form new cells? Cholesterol. So, at times when we need to grow (babies, teenagers, pregnant women), insulin turns the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase ON, which tells cells to make more cholesterol, so we can build new cells."I don't know if I am interpreting this right, but what I understand from this sentence is that as we age, the less production of insulin, the best, since we do not need to grow anymore as baby for example. But this is my beginner and shallow interpretation.

[Novidez]

Things like this too: Fruit upsets the blood sugar level and causes excessive insulin release. The relatively high sugar content of almost all fruit causes this reaction. This adds stress to the body, can cause weight gain or impair weight loss, and causes other imbalances deep inside the cells.
Many people are unaware of the high sugar content of most fruit. It can be extremely high, especially with fruit juices, dried fruit or fruit that is packed or dipped in sugar. These are even worse than eating fresh fruit. (Source: http://www.drlwilson.com/ARTICLES/FRUIT.htm)