opti low carb diet and headaches

*Meghan* wrote:

Nat - Give caffeine free Pepsi Light a try. I find it really yum :)

Thanks Meghan, I have been having that at home.

At work, we can buy cans and the options were coke zero and max.

I try and avoid coke zero, I heard that it has triple the amount of sweetner than the others. And, I found when I drink it, I feel sick. With the Pepsi Max I dont.

Ill have to take some cans to work when I exclusively do Opti

Keriwdyn Have a think back to what you where NOT eating during optifast and just after surgery. Then do an elimination of them and see if you can find the guilty trigger. I would suggest things like yeast and glutton of the top of my head as they wouldnt be in that few weeks diet. But it could be anything. My grandma gets them from coco can eat white chocolate fine. Took years to work this out she thought she was alergic to chocolate itself.

applesauce

My migraines which I have had since the teens and can be pretty severe were better on Opti and early post op. Sadly a year out they are back to about the same as they have always been. I have never been a coffee drinker I am a cup of tea girl. I have however had issues with caffeine rebound as a medication for migraines called I think Ergotamine (or containing it) actually caused it. It was taken off the market.

Nat - Give caffeine free Pepsi Light a try. I find it really yum :)

His name is Eric, so I guess he's a viking.... He is somewhere out of Laverton gold peospecting with a mate, he has gadget that sends me emails daily showing me a satelite view of the place his at, doesn't show me much except an arial view of the earth lol.. But I do have his co-ordenants. I told him not to come home unless he's bringing me a giant nugget...........I live in hope.

nimue wrote:

...my husbands gone treasure hunting...

Sounds fun, is he a Pirate or a Viking???
- Carrie

Crap.

I think thats how I got through today so easily, i had 2 cans of Pepsi Max.

The rest has just been water, havent hit the 2 litres though

Caffeine is a diuretic. You need to keep up your fluids on optifast to wash the waste products of ketosis out of your system. So flushing them through with caffeine isn't really the best idea.
My dietician didn't expressly forbid caffeine, but she did tell me to minimise it and drink an extra glass or two of water for every glass of caffeinated drink.
I have been going cold turkey because
a) it's better for me
b) I don't want any sort of withdrawal while I am recovering from surgery
c) I REALLY can't drink any more!!!

some surgeons like you not to have them. if you consume large amounts of them it really is a smart move to stop before surgery so you do not suffer caffine withdrawal after surgery.

if you drink non caffine or it is just the odd glass it should be fine.

I was drinking more than 2 litres a day pre sleeve and suffered giving up hehehe

applesauce

Can you not have diet cola/ coke on Opti Fast?

My hubby tells people I drink fortnight tea (2 week tea). I'm on the herbal teas at the moment.

I got no headaches at all this time but I am a 1 diet coke a week sort of person and weak as water tea drinker these days. nor am i a carb junkie like i use to be.

applesauce

I've done the low carb thing several times and I usually get headaches, I did it gradually this time, cut out caffiene/carbs before starting on opti, and I agree it was much easier. Terri

that's really interesting. And it might explain why my opti headaches were not as bad as I had feared.
I have never been a big caffeine drinker (hate coffee, drink cola occasionally, but certainly not addicted)
I have kept up my 8 glasses a day of water (or more!) except for yesterday. I am on track today.
I even minimised the amount of carbs I was eating in the lead up to optifast (practiced eating my protein first)

I had minor "brain fog" which wasn't pain, but could have been the switch over into ketosis, it also came with 24 hours of lethargy.
But other than that and weight loss I haven't really had any physical side effects like I was warned I would.

For those of you who haven't worked it out yet.......I'm killing time......my husbands gone treasure hunting, and I'm counting down the days till my op (don't work) lol. Any way I've been reading alot about peoples struggle with opti mostly hunger but also headaches, dizziness etc, I though this might help Terri

"Strict "no carb" phases of low carb diets have developed a reputation for giving dieters severe headaches. Dietitians have identified a number of different factors that could cause these headaches. They vary from person to person.
One of the factors is caffeine. Most low carb diets prohibit caffeinated drinks because they cause fluctuations in blood sugar, which can potentially jeopardize the efficacy of the diet. The Atkins’ diet suggests that dieters begin scaling-down caffeine consumption before they start the induction phase of the diet to minimize unpleasant withdrawals.
Another factor is wheat and sugar addictions, which can be the byproduct of reliance on refined carbohydrate products for a quick boost in blood sugar levels. If you snack to increase your blood sugar level, you may be addicted to carbohydrates, according to Dr. Atkins. Again, you may want to begin scaling-down your snacks before you start the induction phase to minimize withdrawal symptoms.
The last factor is dehydration. If you are losing weight rapidly on a "no carb" initial phase, you are also losing a lot of water that is bound-up in your carbohydrate reserves. In fact, you are actually losing four-times as many grams of water as you are grams of glycogen (or stored carbohydrates).
In addition to preventing dehydration, your body needs to replenish all of the water it loses daily to simply maintain organ functionality, flush out toxins, replace electrolytes, and promote good skin health.
Most low carb dietitians suggest that you consume 8 eight-ounce glasses of water each day. This is especially important if you are losing more than the average amount of water each day, so make sure you are sticking to the "8 x 8"--or whatever amount you can drink comfortably each day--so you don’t become dehydrated during the first phase of your low carb diet.
The key to preventing low carb diet headaches is to make sure you are consuming enough water and to scale-down your potential "addictions" before you start." taken from http://www.howdoidiet.com/diet/how_to_treat_and_prevent_low_carb_diet_headaches.html