All right in the past 19 months.. yikes.. of being l/c (of varying varieties of strictness) I have never had any sort of energy boost of being l/c.
And now, I find myself being chronically exhausted.

I guess I keep to lower than 30-40 carbs a day, generally less. Very little a/s, no alcohol since the end of May( I could see being tired if I were hungover all of the time, as usual)
-supplements- fish oil, D-3, B complex, multivitamin, cranberry extract, magnesium.

But there are several problems with my lifestyle that I cannot currently change.

-I work odd hours, at least two days of 7a-5p and three days of 3pm to 1am at a minimum.

-I sometimes get work related calls in the middle of the night.

-I move around at work enough and lift and move heavy objects, or repeatedly lift light objects which covers my exercise needs

-I need to mentally sharp from minute one of work, to 10 hours later. I have not been able to give up caffeine.

I'll take melatonin or Valerian root to put myself down sometimes when I cannot sleep, which seems to work for about an hour. But then I'll wake up a few hours later, and then spend the rest of the night trying to get back to sleep.

I find I just am whipped on my day off, I fall asleep halfway through, and then struggle to be productive for the rest of the day.

I am not sure what I am seeking, but I really have no ideas on what to do to fix. Maybe I am just complaining.

Go see your doctor and get them to check your thyroid. It's rarer for men than women but both genders do have issues with thyroid.

I struggle with fatigue too. I hope you get some answers! Good luck

How much caffeine are you using? For me, I am always tired when I'm using it. Quitting caffeine was the best thing I ever did for my energy. I had to take some time off work to do it because I had such a strong withdrawal.

When someone is complaining of being tired and they are using caffeine, I see it as a "well, duh" situation. And I say "using" because it is a drug. It has a detrimental effect on the adrenals over time (among many other negative effects). It's fake energy and doesn't allow one's own energy to thrive.

Also, how much fat do you eat? I get a great deal of energy from increasing healthy fat.

This http://www.paleonu.com/get-started/ might be of some interest to you. It's on the PaNu blog, by Dr. Kurt Harris.

I recently cut out grains and legumes and started keeping Dr. Kwasniewski's P:F:C ratios and my health is much improved.

I know it can take a bit of searching and trying things to find what works.

All the best to you!

I know this might sound weird, but I would suggest increasing your carbs to 50g per day and see if this improves the insomnia situation. Are you still losing?

I cant offer a solution for you but can empathize. I am a shift worker without a routine, repeated schedule and work horrendous hours. No one knows what it is like until they do it! It definately shortens our lifespans.

I find my energy is very often affected by my work hours. To combat it the best I can I try force myself to wake up or rest (its not sleep!) in a pattern that will suit the days ahead. It is often painful and I hate it, but it is what I have to do to get through it. I purposely drag my butt around exhausted so I will crash/sleep that night. Dont sit down in front of the TV. Recipe for a nap that ruins the whole plan! There is a lot of forcing going on to stay awake.

It may not all be about diet, but rather the life-sucking affects of shift work. When I find a solution I will let you know!!

Thanks all for getting back to me on that... I was just being frustrated.

As for medical tests... can't be done at this time due to work reasons.

Yes, I'm still losing... some plateaus, but general downward trend since I got back to cleaning up the carb creep. I am not sure I *could* go up to 50 a day these days.... I just don't have a desire for what that would entail. I had an avocado mixed with 4oz of cheese combined in with leftover radish hash for my only meal that I had time for today. And that was under thirty, and I am stuffed. Plenty of calories in it, and 80% fat, so that's not a worry.

As for caffeine addiction, probably. Easy access to that. Maybe it's because I don't really have any on my days off that I end up breaking rhythm on it. But I don't have the withdraw headaches that one would expect with two days of not having any. As for taking time off to break it, at one time that might have been easy and possible... but those days are long gone.

And yes, the soul sucking nature of shift work is what remains.
But hey, at least on l/c I can look better doing it! I try to keep things separate and have long since given up on the warming glow of TV.

Thank you all for all your insight, definitely stuff to chew on.

Hi Orionsdale,

This is just a thought, and I hope I don't offend you in any way, but I am just thinking from personal experience....do you think you could have depression? I have had it all my life and I know that when I'm in the midst of it, I am soooo tired, yet I am an insomniac. I tried a plethera of drugs for it, but I have found that 5HTP works the best for me. You can buy it at the drug store. As long as I take it with meals or it will cause nausea. Just some food for thought. BTW, congrats on your success so far!

If you fight against nature, don't expect to win. Change your job.

I have gone through major bouts of depression in my life, but this really isn't one of those periods. I've finally got my life somewhat back together, and am probably the least depressed I have been in at least 7 years.... I feel good, for the most part right now. Maybe that has something to do with it. *shrug*
I was taking St. Johns wort for about a year, but ended up stopping that in May to reduce my supplement intake (I felt that I was just going through too many of them with little result)....
Although if it persists, I will think about the 5HTP in the fall... I just want to see if some other changes I make will alter it.

As for quitting my job... I am more of a believer in the educational filmstrips like "Man vs. Nature: The Road to Victory"....

But....
I woke up at 3 this morning, I didn't have to be up until 0615. I didn't make it back to sleep. Hopefully I can push being awake as long as possible, and settle in this night....

I did some shift work where I'd be overnight a few nights then back to days. I was tired all the time too. I came up with this little cocktail that helped me flip my sleep times around. I'm not saying this safe okay, I was desperate to go night-night.

Ashwaganda, melatonin, 2 benadryl, choline-inositol mix. Also time release melatonin helps me stay asleep better than the fast-acting one.

I take half of my melatonin before going to bed and when I wake up a few hours later I take the other half. Works for me.

Consider adding B-12 to your daily supplements. You might need to mess with the dosage to get what works best for you, but I went from being chronically tired to feeling pretty good at 2000mg a day. I think it took about 3 days for it to kick in for me and whenever I miss a day I can totally tell.

My husband works graveyard (4 yrs now)...he does not eat healthy or exercise (although the nature of his job is pretty active in a sprinting sort of pattern) or get his vitamins (but thats a whole other thread lol).

He was found to have extremely low testosterone - his MAIN symptom was never having any energy and being able to sleep his life away if I let him...not exactly conducive to family life with 3 young kiddos so I kicked his butt into the drs. His levels were similar to that of a 17 yr old menstruating GIRL. And I think he would kill me for sharing this on a public forum but I think it could be of help to someone .