@ally143 I have the same thing. I ran a half marathon in May and despite months of training didn't do so great and was utterly exhausted for a week afterwards. Went to doctor, blood tests were done, and I found out I had extremely low iron levels (< 5). I also had iron deficiency anemia.
Three months of supplements later, anemia resolved but I my iron was only 17. So, I'm currently still on supplements and getting checked again after Thanksgiving. I'm vegan though so I need to really make sure I'm eating enough iron which can be hard sometimes. I'm feeling way better though. My running has improved, I'm no longer napping every day, and I'm finally making progress with weight lifting.
@catqueen No, that's my iron. My hemoglobin is already back to normal. My doctor reduced my iron pill dosage and wants me to get my blood checked again in November to see if my iron has improved.
@rwadhwan I know this is old but for anyone reading this ferritin is completely different from iron and hemoglobin levels. I have very high iron levels and hemoglobin but my ferritin is only 11. Make sure to check you ferritin because doctors don’t always check for it
@gospelmusic I was just worried since my total iron is on the higher side that taking too much iron supplementation would push it over the limit. What mg did you use?
@noa7 You’d have to check with your doctor what the right mg is for you but I take 65mg. My total high is high and hemoglobin is over 15. I don’t have anemia at all but my ferritin just seems to be stuck at 11. Ferritin is one of the hardest iron markers to raise. Hope you figure yours out!
@rwadhwan oh my god the napping. I'm so happy I don't need to nap all the time anymore. Congrats! As mentioned above, my dietitian noted that with non-animal iron, it's important to make sure you have enough Vit C along with your vegetable-based iron sources to improve uptake
Also, legit my first bike ride after supplementing for a couple weeks felt like I'd doped legally. I could have won anything that day! ANYTHING!
@jarhead247 Yup - especially as I'm vegetarian-ish. They put me on the supplements regardless as the levels were so low, but the ideal would be to not take them, eventually.
One of the big questions is whether it is a diet issue or an absorption issue. I've seen a dietitian regardless, but the bloodwork next month will tell us a lot. My non-meat diet is pretty high in iron (woo lentils! woo oats!), but non-animal-iron is harder to absorb so there was a question around whether or not I was getting enough Vit C along with those iron sources.
@ally143 Did your dietician say anything about caffeine and oxalates? When I was still a vegetarian, I ended up needing to avoid caffeine around meal times so I could absorb non-heme iron. It helped...a little bit.
@fanna Yeah, caffeine, milk... freaking everything tbh. I try and take my supplement right when my alarm goes off in the morning, which means I have it on an empty stomach for at least an hour.
I only drink one coffee in the morning, so I'm pretty safe by lunch/dinner in terms of mealtime non-heme iron.
