Every diet day a finish with a bad headache. Normally I drink lots of tea but none on fast days. Could this be a factor?
This topic contains 22 replies, has 19 voices, and was last updated by Lavender12 7 years, 4 months ago.
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I wouldn’t be able to get through my fast days without regular cups of tea and coffee. In fact, half of my 500 calories are spent on the milk I use to whiten them, but that’s fine, I’d rather do that and have less to eat than try to get through the day without my beloved hot drinks! I find that headaches are rarely a problem, though I did used to get very sleepy on fast days.
I’m m not sure about the tea, but you need to make sure you drink plenty of water on your fast days. On my first fast day, a fortnight ago, I had the headache from hell all afternoon. From then on I kept a bottle of water on my desk at work and drank regularly throughout the day, and I have never had another fast day headache.
Hi guildford7 – It will be that on your fast day you are cutting out your coffee completely – try having one cup to stem the headache – do you have it with milk – if not it is calorie free anyways. I’m also a fan of water throughout the day – I’m drinking buckets of the stuff. It suppresses any hunger pangs and keeps the headaches away too. Good luck and keep it going
I suffered these for about the first 3 weeks, I have found that caffeine on a fast day gives me migraine, whereas usually it doesn’t. So on fast day I have decaf – problem solved for me. Also I only have 2 coffees per day now too. If you miss tea, try Rooibos tea, or Red Bush tea, black it tastes quite like normal white tea and is caffeine free.
Hi Guys – today is my first day fast dieting. I almost never get headaches – and yet I have a really superb headache around 10pm.(my evening meal was before 6pm)
It’s possible that’s just the result of no coffee, as I usually have two cups every morning. I’m going to try to drink more water and see whether that helps next fast day. It’s great to be able to read other’s comments so I can figure out what will work best for me.
I have been doing the Fasting diet for 3 weeks and am on my 7th fast day, but in spite of drinking only water or herbal tea, in higher quantities than normal, from midday I get the most awful headaches. I do not drink anything with caffeine on diet or non diet days, so that is not the reason. What else can I do to alleviate this debilitating side effect?
Hi smudgers and welcome:
You might try eating a bit more salt, that helps with headaches (and constipation, for those that have that problem). Here is some information that might help: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/
Good Luck!
thank you for all the suggestions above, really helpful. I munched on celery with salt last night and will give that a go on my next fasting day. My headache lessened after our supper of smoked cod yesterday evening and that was quite salty but as the evening wore on I could feel the headache returning, hence the idea of celery. Not a salt fan, very rarely use it in cooking.
I have been on the FD for some 4 months.
I always get headaches on my fast days. I do not notice that I drink and more or less tea or coffee than usual although I suspect more as I may have a black coffee ontop of my 3-4 cups of tea. I also drink a lot of water as this is always my go to solution for headaches.
I tend to not eat at all on fast days untill 5pm when I may have a small meal.
I find it hard to believe I can get salt deficiency in such a short period of time when my normal diet is like all westerners so high in salts and I get no cramps.
I would be interested in some science showing me the route cause? Any one?
I’ve been on the FD for 6 months and struggled with bad headaches each afternoon of the day I fasted, but felt fine the next morning after a good sleep. After reading this post a couple of months ago, I upped the amount of water I drank and tried adding salt, but it still didn’t seem to help. I don’t normally drink coffee, have only 2 cups of tea a day and don’t eat a lot of refined sugar so can’t think it is withdrawal effects. Then I increased lunch calories by cutting out the evening meal, keeping breakfast (berries and yoghurt) the same, plus drank a cup of hot water when I’d normally have a cuppa, and seemed to have solved the problem. I am thinking it might depend on when you eat as well as making sure you drink lots of water.
I’ve just started the fast diet and I thought I’d share some insights about headaches, albeit from a newcomer’s perspective. I’m somewhat an expert on headaches – I’ve suffered perhaps more frequently with them than the ‘average’ person.
1) Water. On my second fast day (today is my third) I drank about 2 litres of *cold* water and had a terrible headache all day. Today I just drank *hot* drinks and avoided cold ones and I’ve got no headache. Clearly not very scientific, but there is lots of evidence (including some scientific studies) that drinking cold drinks can give you a headache, perhaps more than being dehydrated. Google for ‘cold drinks headache’ if you don’t believe me. I notice from the last posting by JClare that they switched to a *hot* drink which made a difference. Sure, hydration is important, but unless you always drink cold water, then probably best to drink warm drinks.
2) Caffeine. It’s a huge factor. I gave up caffeine about 10 years ago because I was getting lots of headaches and read that caffeine is a trigger, and I had the biggest headaches in my life for about two or three weeks after giving up. After that my general headache levels improved a lot. Not very proud to say I now drink caffeine drinks again in moderation, but do notice that if I go without one day it can cause a headache. I think the reason is that caffeine dilates your arteries, so if you are used to that and change habits it will affect ‘usual’ blood flow. So I think it’s important to take the same amount of caffeine as usual on fast days.
3) Sleep. If I’m short of sleep I can get headaches – this seems to be perhaps amplified if I’m fasting. For me I don’t think it’s a strong a factor as cold water, dehydration or caffeine but it’s definitely a factor. I’m trying to get extra rest in the day before I fast. On my first two fast days I happily went to bed around 8pm to read/fall asleep (I find the absence of an evening meal very odd, much more so than the absence of breakfast). I’m fasting 36 hours from evening meal @ 7.30pm to breakfast the day after @ 7am, with one 500/600cal meal at lunch.
If I have any further insights about headaches, I’ll post them here – I think it should be possible to avoid them.
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