Good Appointment with my Nutritionist

I had a helpful meeting with my nutritionist this morning.   I am very happy to report that my protein is now where it should be!!!
 
According to her scale, I'm now within 7 lbs of a BMI that is underweight, so she is in agreement that I should try and hold where I am for a  while.  She had some good suggestions about increasing my energy stores, so I don't get into the hypoglycemic and brain function issues that have been very common over the past couple of weeks when I exercise.   The suggestions included increasing some carbs before I work out, so I'll see how that goes.  I know that everyone here talks about minimizing carbs, but I have a variety of symptoms that all are increasing dramatically right now, (hypoglycemia episodes, reflux, sleep apnea), so I will try her suggestion for a couple of weeks.

Yea on the protein!!  and Yes - let us know how it goes.

Just be sure when you choose your carbs, they're GOOD carbs... I also have hypoglycemia and simple carbs will spin me into it.  Wheat, whole grains, veggies don't.  

I also will allow myself an Atkins bar - they don't seem to bother me if I get the low sugar ones.  

Did she suggest any particular type of carbs/foods?

Jody

Thanks for the watch out.  I have an inner carb monster, so I've already experienced the perils of carbs.  She said to add havewhole grain cereal like oatmeal or wheat chex or some fruit in the morning in addition to my shake, then another low carb shake after I work out.  We did discuss how crackers, pretzels, bread etc will not work.

I also know if I eat sweets, then I'll go into RH regardless of whether I exercise, and the RH causes me to eat more etc...  That's why I was going to the gym in the morning, and not doing any carbs before I went. 


If I can catch the hypoglycemia early enough at the gym, then I can eat a protein bar, wait 30 min, and I'm OK.  But if I don't catch it when I'm just a little shaky, and wait until I start getting lethargic,  the protein bar doesn't work.

It sounds like you have it a bit worse than me.  Mine onsets with simple carbs.  Nothing to do with exercise.  I can eat sweets/candy just a little.  In fact, I had a pack of dark chocolate in my purse while on vacation to get myself out of it. 

I hear you about eating more - all you want to do is "get out of it".. and I tend to eat until I am - not really giving what I've eaten time to digest.

Sounds like your nut has given you some sound advice. 

Sounds like good input.  For some, carbs are the devil, but usually it is the bad carbs anyway.  Not many folks have issues with veggies and beans or dairy carbs.  Just chose carefully and keep track so you can determine what works best. 

Eliza.....Your appt with Nut sounds very good...Yes to good carbs and increasing carbs before the workout...Glad to hear your protein is up where it should be!!! 

As an endurance athlete, I have found that I need to ingest carbs when I work out. But not very much any other time.

What I do is eat "bariatric" for my meals and snacks but I tend to have any carbs that I do have right before a workout. Maybe I'll have fruit or some raw veggies or maybe I'll just have a snack that has protein but more carbs than typical. It's a small snack just to top me off - 100-200 calories tops.

Then, during the workout, if it goes longer than 90 minutes, I eat and drink stuff that has a lot of carbs. Maybe a sports drink, maybe some candy (I eat PayDay bars on the bike), maybe a gel. I ingest about 200-300 calories per hour. For workouts in the 40-90 minute range, I just have water.

Once the workout is over, I always have a recovery snack which is 100-200 calories and has 3:1 or 4:1 carbs to protein ratio. I have it within 30-60 min after the workout.

But I don't do things like have oatmeal for breakfast or eat a lot of carbs when I'm not working out. I haven't found doing things like that to be remotely necessary. Also, the bariatric athletes I know who do eat a lot of carbs on the theory that they are an athlete and need them are all 50 to 100 pounds overweight. So I find their advice to eat carbs to be less than compelling, IYKWIM. 

Thanks for the insight.  It's helpful to get good advice from someone who has works out extensively, and what you say makes a lot of sense.  I will try your suggestions - however I will need to replace the PayDay bar with something that won't trigger my inner carb monster.  PayDays are a trigger food for me.

PayDay bars aren't required.

There are tons of good workout foods! You need to eperiment with what suits your tummy anyway as some people can only do gels and sports drink and some can't stand those things.