IH -- need some advice

IH,

For the past week and a half, my shedding has increased a ton. I literally wake up to a hairy pillowcase every morning. Looks like I'm shedding 15-20 hairs just when I'm sleeping. This isn't normal for me. I've never noticed hair on my pillowcase like this.

During this time period, I've switched the PACE program you sent me for cardio/fat loss and I've stopped eating bread completely.

Could the dietary shift be causing me to shed? I haven't changed anything else in my regimen so I'm wondering what could be causing this.

Stress levels have been fine and I'm taking my Sensoril 2x a day anyway.

Just seems like a lot of long thin hairs are falling right now. Even when I towel off, they are coming out easily and the weird thing is I have almost no scalp inflammation. My inflammation is at the best it's been in a long time. No itchy-ness or dryness.

If it is the shock to my system that changing my diet has caused, how long does this type of shed last? Is there anything I can do to try to slow it back down?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hadrion, did you cut calories?

hadrion - It could be a temporary reaction to the diet change or the change in exercise. I have found at least personally, then the first 6-months of of anything can be unpredictable with a few surprises in between. Shedding periods for example, it's probably temporary.

I've definitely cut calories.

In the past 5 months I've given up all soda, diet and otherwise, chips, pretzels, refined grains, sugar, caffeine (except what's in green tea) and now bread. I dropped the bread thinking it would help me lose my belly and it's already working....apparently, hair is accompanying my belly into the ether.

I'm not low carbing though -- I'm getting carbs from veggies, sweet and regular potatoes and some fruits and the occasional brown rice.

I had been exercising vigorously for the past 5-6 months, but I'm really getting strict with my eating right now.

Just sucks that it might be causing me to lose hair I can't afford to lose right now.

I guess I have to ride it out since I want to keep getting lean and healthy.

Just surprising that I have virtually no scalp inflammation, at least visible, accompanying this.

hadrion - Just a guess, but during the higher oxidation rate could be responsible for the loss. That is, higher combustion of visceral fat could be releasing cytokines as a consequence of removing.

hadrion wrote:I've definitely cut calories.

In the past 5 months I've given up all soda, diet and otherwise, chips, pretzels, refined grains, sugar, caffeine (except what's in green tea) and now bread. I dropped the bread thinking it would help me lose my belly and it's already working....apparently, hair is accompanying my belly into the ether.

I'm not low carbing though -- I'm getting carbs from veggies, sweet and regular potatoes and some fruits and the occasional brown rice.

I had been exercising vigorously for the past 5-6 months, but I'm really getting strict with my eating right now.

Just sucks that it might be causing me to lose hair I can't afford to lose right now.

I guess I have to ride it out since I want to keep getting lean and healthy.

Just surprising that I have virtually no scalp inflammation, at least visible, accompanying this.

Hadrion just ride it through, but it sounds like you are really stressing your body. Eating a low calorie diet and exercising a ton is what drove my cortisol levels through the roof. Eat when you're hungry, and when you're not hungry... don't eat! Long walks make for good cardio and hit the weights 2-3 times a week. As EIC has pointed out consistent low calorie dieting will drop insulin levels to the point where the body just cannot do it's job.

That's actually the hard part -- I haven't cut calories intentionally, but when you take bread and chips and garbage out of my diet, I get full faster on fish and chicken and veggies so I'm not eating as many calories as I was. I'm definitely not crash dieting.

I was at minimum a 2 slice a day bread eater. Sometimes double that.

I'm only eating when I'm hungry and eating just enough to satisfy the hunger. I'm trying to take the emotion out of eating. It looks like I'm averaging 4-5 small meals a day including my use of whey isolate protein powder.

That actually worked for me in the past when I was trying to burn fat and it appears to be working right now in addition to the cardio change I've made.

I'm not sure if I'm stressing my body. The PACE plan IH sent me cut my cardio time down by 2/3'rds. I only hit the weights 2-3 times a week, but when I do hit them, I go hard.

It definitely could be the breakdown of the visceral fat releasing crap into my system.

It just sucks that I'm doing things to get healthier and in the process causing hair to fall.

I'm sure it will stabilize, but I've never woken up before in my life with a pillowcase covered in my hair in the morning.

Maybe the increased oxidation from exercise? Try taking an anti-oxidant before your workouts.

Also, if you are replacing bread with potatoes, you aren't really making a difference, because starchy veggies have a high glycemic load. Stick to green veggies.