My Side Effects to Dr. B. Diet Plan

I decided to recap my side effects with my Dr. Bernstein Diet, just to give an idea on what to expect not only for the positives – which there are of course – but also about the negatives and having a better understanding on what this Diet Plan could cause.

Usually in the morning I'm always starving, but the Ketosis is basically this: making your body in a starvation mode so the ketones will send messages to the brain to use the stored fat to save the whole system.

Since I'm dehydrated in the morning, extremely hungry and weak, I can barely walk to go to work. I use to walk to go to the clinic the first week, after that I decided to take the streetcar, definitely too long walk for my weak strengths. So Weakness is one factor that it's constant in my Dr. B. Diet experience, I'm usually a super active woman, I have – outside this plan – the energy of a 5 years old. But not now with the little amount of Calories that I take every day. I go to sleep way earlier than normal; I'm slow in doing almost every physical activity, maybe due to the low sugar intake. For this reason but not only, having a regular workout is out of discussion.

If you're a woman expect to have your period messed up, most likely absence of ovulation. It is obviously normal; the human body is a perfect machine so there's no chance to prepare the system for a pregnancy when it's in starvation trying to survive!

Hair loss is another common factor of malnutrition, although is medically supervised this Diet allows an average intake of 500/600 Calories, it can be considered malnutrition so your hair may fall down quicker than usual, fish oil could help to prevent this, but it's just fish oil and not a miracle pill.

Less relevant - but still not a pleasant experience for me - are the bruises. Three times a week injections will causes you bruises here and there from time to time, especially when the body fat starts to be less.

Dizziness is another random side effect that I experienced during this Diet Plan, it is clear for my body, that it happens when I'm physically tired, hungry or I simply didn't have my supplement pills yet. I did not find a logic explanation for that, rather than the malnutrition.

I feel always cold, although it seems an unrelated symptom to the Diet, I noticed that lots of people following this Plan had the same issue. I'm not sure if it's the lack of body fat, lack of energy for the body to produce heat or something else.

Overall they're all bearable side effects; the only one that makes my life a bit different is my lack of energy and strengths. It prevents me to do many things I used to do and I enjoy; like hiking, running, going for long walks on the lake, and so on.

Bernstein Diet - Day 2

Today I went to the clinic (with my urine sample) for my double shot injection and the weigh-in. So far I lost 1.8 lbs – of course… I'm not eating anything - but the positive part is that my ketones are good (dark strip) so I'm burning fat and not muscles.

I mentioned my side effects to the nurse and she told me that could be due to my lower sugar intake, now I've to take 2 additional pills of Potassium and see how my energy level changes. Hopefully I'll feel more energetic with these 2 extra pills, last night I went to bed at 9pm!

Next appointment will be on Tuesday since Monday is holiday here. I'll have a single shot on Tuesday and again in on Wednesday for a double shot. Both days I'll need to bring with me my urine samples, apparently the Monday one is the most relevant. I started to have a sort of discomfort/pain to my back since yesterday; it seems that the muscles at the base of my neck and down are getting tired almost instantly, when I sit on my chair in the office. It might be due to something else, I don't know but I'm definitely not feeling myself in the past 2 days or so!

Today the nurse suggested me to buy some tofu noodles that are in the Bernstein Food List. The noodles are a lot and can be prepared with anything else to add flavour. I might give it a try and see if it helps my hunger, which I still have so far, although not crazy but there.

During the evening I'm reading the recipe book that they gave me, it's pretty good and I may try the French toast one with strawberries. Somehow all the ingredients are the same, as well as the quantities so it becomes very easy to find in your fridge whatever you need to execute a recipe, so I'll say go for it.

Side Effects

It's just a couple of days that I'm in this Dr Bernstein Diet plan but I'm learning every day about it. I did lots of researches before deciding to take this program and I read comments regarding side effects such as: hair loss, period disappearing, headaches and so on. I have to say - I believe it's all true.

Human body is a perfect machine, if something is in an emergency mode, something else will be affected.

Dr Bernstein Diet has a great formula though; it makes you in a starvation-mode so your body will start to use those fat deposits that you so much want to get rid of.

It's normal for anyone's body having side effects when drastically your diet switches to an 800 calories daily intake. All those supplements, as well as the water, help you not to feel the hunger too much. Nobody mentally sane can follow a diet that makes you feel starving all-day-long. The injections – on the other side –should give you the energy that you need to carry forward this type of low-calories regiment.

Since Day 1 I decided to take the Fish Oil they suggest, to avoid any hair loss; I have very sensitive scalp and my hair follow exactly my level of body stress usually – so I'm assuming I'm a candidate at risk for this. I think it's wiser to take the pills anyway, even if you don't have any hair problem so far. The odd thing is that your Multivitamins daily intake will be doubled if you take the Fish Oil. I'm not yet clear why.

For a woman missing her period with this type of diet I think is obviously normal. How the hell your body can even think to have a normal ovulation/pregnancy when it's fighting to survive itself?!

Today I don't quite feel myself, nothing major of course, but I'm dizzy often when I walk to go to the washroom, and my energy is a bit low today. Again, I don't think is because of the food, I spent days in the past working like crazy without having time to eat anything but still feeling with lots of energy. I'm sure it's for my supplements and I still have 5 pills left to take for the day! It definitely put you down but I hope it will get better with the days.

Overall it's a strict diet and I am definitely not worried about how I'll manage such little food intake as opposite I'm wondering on how these side effects can impact, on a long term,  my body health.