Thread: Ever look your best but feel like crap?

yeah workin out a ton and not eating maintenance will sap you, ever since i started eating more i have more spunk and am generally more happy, switch it up and go maintenance for awhile, if you are at a comfortable level. You also might have signs of overtraining too

Take a week off from dieting and training.

have you tried upping your calls a little bit? like..a couple hundred a day for a bout a week? See how that goes..adjust for effect.

I would up your cals a bit. it sounds like you are were you want to be but are still dieting. Try upping your cals, or maybe even cycling them and pay attentino to how you look so that you can try and maintain the physique your desire all summer. if you are getting a bit soft, lower cals a tad or throw in some cardio etc.

Whenever I diet down I feel like crap. Once my body gets down around 7 or 8% I start getting headaches, I feel like throwing up a lot, I am tired and really bitchy. Lucky for me I hate vanity so being that shredded doesn't matter. lol

The truth of the matter is the body is not really in a "healthy" state when it gets below about 9% bf for sustained periods of time. At these levels you are really taking a lot of risks. If you were to get in an accident and end up in the hospital or something normally of even less severe consequence got hold of you (a really nasty flu virus) you could literally be at risk of dieing. It’s amazing how the body will rapidly atrophy if you could not eat due to medical conditions. The body needs to have some reserves and a certain amount of fat will literally keep you alive.

Like most things in life I believe the principal of “risk and reward” is seen even in bodybuilding. Push the envelope too much for too long and things breakdown and you "go south" so to speak real fast. “Looking good” and “being healthy” are not always synonymous.

Like some of the others I'd also recommend getting out of it completely for a few weeks because it sounds like you are currently at or near a burn out stage. Just take a few days off and do nothing but lay at the beach/pool and read a few dime store paperbacks and relax.

-OD

I agree

Take a week off from diet, then continue low calories with a refeed every 3 or 4 days.

What OD was describing is the result of decreased leptin levels. Read up on leptin.

Thanks for the response. I've been eating more fat and carbs, and feel better. I'm now holding water and look smoother today...of course. I just didn't want to yo yo. Thought it would be beter to stay here. Learning.

Originally posted by Twin Peak
Take a week off from diet, then continue low calories with a refeed every 3 or 4 days.

What OD was describing is the result of decreased leptin levels. Read up on leptin.

ditto...


you can also do a net search on Lyle McDonald and leptin

I have read that anything below 10% body fat for men is not considered healthy. If you're not trying to compete, then I would stop cutting around that point and try to maintain.

Okay, let me speak from experience.
Last summer I got to my lowest BF % ever, which was around 5% (some days 4.5%). I was cranky, my sex drive was the lowest it had ever been, basically my girlfriend didn't find me to be very fun at all, haha. It also didn't help that I was thinking about food ALL THE TIME, so much so that it became an all-consuming obsession. What made things worse was my metabolism was absolutely shot from me being on a cyclical ketogenic diet for so long and not refeeding sufficiently to affect leptin levels.

When I went back to maintenance calories my carb sensitivity was terrible because my refeeds were so infrequent, my carb tolerance was at a point where carb ingestion would result in cold sweats, extreme fatigue, there was a time when I thought I was diabetic.

Slowly I overcame this, and was able to get back ingesting large amounts of carbs on my bulk (which ended a month ago, since then I've been on a very, very slow cut with the carb cycling plan). The cut was a nightmare from hell, though, I mean, I looked ripped as hell, but slowly I was losing muscle and my sanity trying to maintain that level of vascularity and definition.

Vanity does suck. Treat yourself right.

Peace.

Originally posted by Premo55
Okay, let me speak from experience.
Last summer I got to my lowest BF % ever, which was around 5% (some days 4.5%). I was cranky, my sex drive was the lowest it had ever been, basically my girlfriend didn't find me to be very fun at all, haha. It also didn't help that I was thinking about food ALL THE TIME, so much so that it became an all-consuming obsession. What made things worse was my metabolism was absolutely shot from me being on a cyclical ketogenic diet for so long and not refeeding sufficiently to affect leptin levels.

When I went back to maintenance calories my carb sensitivity was terrible because my refeeds were so infrequent, my carb tolerance was at a point where carb ingestion would result in cold sweats, extreme fatigue, there was a time when I thought I was diabetic.

Slowly I overcame this, and was able to get back ingesting large amounts of carbs on my bulk (which ended a month ago, since then I've been on a very, very slow cut with the carb cycling plan). The cut was a nightmare from hell, though, I mean, I looked ripped as hell, but slowly I was losing muscle and my sanity trying to maintain that level of vascularity and definition.

Vanity does suck. Treat yourself right.

Peace.

yeah man i was at the same point, i would be cranky like a disgruntled old man with the libido of one too, but ever since i started chuggin food down my energy has gone through the roof

The worse I look, the worse I feel

Originally posted by Premo55
Okay, let me speak from experience.
Last summer I got to my lowest BF % ever, which was around 5% (some days 4.5%). I was cranky, my sex drive was the lowest it had ever been, basically my girlfriend didn't find me to be very fun at all, haha. It also didn't help that I was thinking about food ALL THE TIME, so much so that it became an all-consuming obsession. What made things worse was my metabolism was absolutely shot from me being on a cyclical ketogenic diet for so long and not refeeding sufficiently to affect leptin levels.

When I went back to maintenance calories my carb sensitivity was terrible because my refeeds were so infrequent, my carb tolerance was at a point where carb ingestion would result in cold sweats, extreme fatigue, there was a time when I thought I was diabetic.

Slowly I overcame this, and was able to get back ingesting large amounts of carbs on my bulk (which ended a month ago, since then I've been on a very, very slow cut with the carb cycling plan). The cut was a nightmare from hell, though, I mean, I looked ripped as hell, but slowly I was losing muscle and my sanity trying to maintain that level of vascularity and definition.

Vanity does suck. Treat yourself right.

Peace.

Me and you both went through the same garbage.

Originally posted by CowPimp
I have read that anything below 10% body fat for men is not considered healthy.

untrue...you won't find many elite athletes who are over 10% body fat