NutritionWhat to Do About Low Calorie Brain Fog

You have either heard about brain fog from sustained low calories or have experienced it yourself, and it’s a very real thing.

Among the myriad of challenges that come your way from being on an effective weight loss program, brain fog seems to hit you in places you never saw coming.

Not only does the sustained low calorie brain fog keep your mind bogged down, but it also seems to inhibit you in all other aspects of your life. If you’re not careful and mismanage this inevitable stage of your effective weight loss program, it has the potential to be devastating. If you totally succumb to the fog it can severely, negatively affect your home and work life. 

The good news is there is a way through this. Feel free to say no here, but allow this blog post to be your guide through this challenging part of your weight loss journey. Getting through this short bit of information can help you navigate your way to longterm weight loss success and help you better understand how food affects your body in a common sense way that will put you in control of how you look.

…or you could just ignore this which could lead you to stumble, flounder, and make a ton of mistakes that you could have otherwise avoided. This could end up costing you a great deal of time, effort, and money. (Not to mention, embarrassment). 

This blog post is for everyone on an effective weight loss program, and is especially for those who are going it alone for the first time. You just don’t know what you don’t know, and being prepared for this unavoidable part of effective weight loss can mean the difference between failure and success. 

How about a story?

It was June 2017 and yours truly was at work. I was nearing the end of my weight loss program that was going to get me onstage for my first natural bodybuilding competition. 

The whole work day was planned out for my eating schedule as it had been before, however today was shaping up to go differently than I was expecting.

Sitting at the desk I was called by my supervisor on the company phone to do a few simple water storage calculations and then follow up with a contractor heading up an operation a few offices down the hall. As I listened to the details, the voice on the other end of the phone did not sound like it was speaking the same language I spoke. 

Trying to take notes at my desk, I kept asking for things to be repeated over and over again; my brain was failing at piecing together the words coming into my ears and I was unable to translate those words into coherent sentences.

This was super embarrassing for me, and very troubling to my boss.

So troubling, in fact, that I was called to drop everything I was doing and meet him in his office. 

Knowing my extracurricular bodybuilding activities, he was wanting to know how much I had eaten before work, and the answer I ended up giving seemed to be unsatisfactory in his opinion. 

My supervisor gave me a justifiable ultimatum: either eat right now (my schedule be-darned) or pack-up and go home.

I ate.

Like a bolt of lightning, I was back to my old self. My brain was piecing together the information it was being given and I could actually be useful to the company paying my wages. 

I was in disbelief of how quickly that food had helped me. It was nearly instantaneous! I had never experienced something like that before and it had taught me a lesson that I will never forget.

Lessons Learned

Here’s where my boneheaded mistake will benefit you…

No one told me about low calorie brain fog, it just happened to me one day. It also happened at a very detrimental time where, if it had not been for an understanding and gracious boss, it could have costed me my livelihood.

It looks like a list of “Do’s” and “Don’ts” are in order to help you combat the inevitable low calorie brain fog: 

Don’t think that you can avoid it entirely. If you’re in an effective weight loss program and working to achieve your goal weight, you’re going to experience low calorie brain fog.

Do know the low calorie brain fog is coming and prepare for it.

Don’t think you can outsmart it in the overuse of caffeine. The writer of this blog post used this strategy a few years ago and it ended up doing more harm than good. At one point, 1400 mg of caffeine was cruising through me on a daily basis. Needless to say, the caffeine weening process was absolutely painful and brought challenges worse than those of the low calorie brain fog.

Do tactically and intelligently use caffeine to your advantage. For example, if you know you’re going to need to pick up the pace halfway through your work day, shift your caffeine use to that time and omit the caffeine from a different part of your day.

Don’t get stubborn with your eating schedule. Tactically plan when you eat around the time you must be most productive. If your productivity time lasts longer than the average work day then you’ll have to prioritize as best you can. Also, if you’re working with a professional who is actively helping you better understand how food affects your body in a common sense way, you’ll be better able to adjust your eating schedule for higher and lower output days and keep yourself in a caloric deficit in order to meet your weight loss goals.

Do get plenty of sleep and take naps if your schedule allows. Though it can be more difficult to sleep during an effective weight loss program, getting adequate sleep will help minimize the low calorie brain fog, not to mention getting enough good sleep will help with your overall weight loss goals.

Don’t put your home life or work life at risk for weight loss. Though getting to an optimal weight increases markers of overall health and may help you live a longer life, if you lose your family, friends, and livelihood you’ve simply jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. Remember, if you need to eat a little more to get you through a particularly challenging day, do it. You can always make up for the excess of calories another day, it’s not worth risking the really important stuff.

Do get help. If you have a weight loss goal, especially one that is lofty, it is best to get a guide who has navigated through the waters you’re about to sail into. Hiring a professional guide who is able to help you better understand how food affects your body in common sense way that will put you in control of how you look will save you a ton of time and money.

At Cornerstone Weight Loss we help you better understand how food affects your body in a common sense way that will put you in control of how you look. In order to get in touch with a professional who can help tailor your weight loss plan to you, click below, fill out the information, and a member of the Cornerstone Weight Loss team will reach out to you to get the results in weight loss you deserve.