His body is used to running on very fast burning, high glucose.  Making
the switch over to the slow, inefficient process of burning fat and
converting protein to fuel can leave his body feeling short of fuel for
a while.  Low potassium, too, made me feel very heavy legged, brain
fogged, headachey and fatigued.  The potassium alone could be the problem.

He could try taking about 500 mg of potassium or the equivalent in lite
salt in water and see if that helps.  It kicks in really fast, like
20-30 minutes.  Try that a few times per day, with magnesium.

Susan

Sound as if he is just going through the throes of adapting to LC...try to
get him to hang tight...things should improve.

This doesn't have an easy answer, especially with a very overweight
diabetic. I had a lot of trouble with energy when I was very
overweight and losing, and I toughed it out out of desperation -- but
I learned some tricks along the way. One is -- right, eat more. More
protein, definitely. More fat could help also, for different reasons.
Look at calories -- if they are far too low for bodymass, it's just
going to result in fatigue.

Carbs run on a whole feedback loop that moderate almost every hormone
in your body, and therefore *every* hormone indirectly. That means
that as the body switches over from sugar burning to fat burning, an
entire cascade of hormonal responses have to change direction. You're
rewiring yourself, and while it might feel like you are doing
absolutely nothing, your body is just flipping out, trying to find
homeostasis. There is also the question of toxicity -- if your husband
has a hidden food allergy, the first thing the body will do while it
detoxes is drag around, complain and get headaches.

Then there are electrolytes, as Susan brought up in another post. I
remember a handful of potassium resurrecting me from the dead within
only a few hours after I had spent an entire morning staring at the
wall, trying to remember to remember the thought I was working on
having.

Anyway, that changeover period is tough. The best prescription is more
food and more salts -- and more water. So try these things -- smaller
meals at smaller intervals, more calories,  and a bottle of potassium
pills from the drugstore. There are other products out there too to
add electrolytes without sugar. Also, if you're not eating a lot of
red meat you guys might want to try extra iron or b vitamins. Both of
these have worked for me when I was ready to cash it in.

Also -- if your husband was losing weight on 50 - 80, and he felt
healthier, there actually isn't any reason to go lower. We all have
our carb levels, for him 50 might be just fine.

c
Food never used to be this tiring...

"Nina"

Hi Nina, it takes a little while for the body to switch gears. Your husband
made a partial effort to cut carbs and that's dragging out the symptoms. (My
guess, anyway.) -- Mike