Is my new diet/regime making me depressed and grumpy?

As a lot of people do, I've used the start of the New Year as a start to a "new me" etc etc.
 
The latter half of 2011, I was only training 2 times a week and playing football 1 time a week. My diet was actually ok, but not enough food being consumed to add muscle, and too much sugary foods adding up around my stomach and lower back.
 
Training was an upper body workout one a week, and an arm workout once a week plus football once per week. I also ride my bike to and from work everyday. (I would like to add that I have trained for about 4/5 years now, using various splits. 3 day, 4day and 5day, so im not a complete newb)
 
My diet was roughly this :-
 
Breakfast (one of)
4-5 weetabix with semi-skimmed milk
or
Muffins with poached eggs
 
Lunch (one of)
Vietnamese Beef and Rice
Naked burrito - beef
chicken Escalope with mozarella pannini 
Pret chicken Sandwhich
 
Dinner
Chicken with Pasta, rice or potato - with sauce
 
Snacks
Mango, apple, banana
biscuits (i know i know)
peanut butter and ryvitta
chocolate
fruit yoghurt
 
Drinks
Orange Juice
Orange Squash
Ribena
7up
Diet coke
Tea w/ milk and sugar
 
NEW TRAINING AND DIET
25mins fasted SSCV every morning 
 
Mon - OFF
Tue - Back/Bi's
Wed - OFF
Thu - Chest/Tri's
Fri - Legs
Sat - OFF
Sun - Shoulders/Abs
 
8am
Omega's, Multi-Vit, Green Tea Extract, CLA, L-Cartinine
80g Oats & 50g Whey shake (sometimes porridge with water and whey in shake seperate)
or
2 whole eggs & 4egg white scambled on Rye Bread
 
11am
Chicken or Beef
Rice / Pasta / Sweet Potato
 
2pm
Chicken or Beef
Rice / Pasta / Sweet Potato
 
5pm
Chicken or Beef
Rice / Pasta / Sweet Potato
 
PWO
75g Vitaro
50g Whey
10g Glutamine
 
8pm
Chicken or Beef or Fish
Green Veg
 
11pm
Omega's, Multi-Vit, Green Tea Extract, CLA, L-Cartinine
CNP Pro Peptide
 
Drinks
Water
Green Tea
 
I'm basically eating very clean, with NO sugar, which is quite drastic compared to my previous diet.
 
My mood has worsened over the last 2-3 weeks I've been doing this. I'm very grumpy with little patience, and gradually feeling more and more depressed. I am by nature, quite short tempered and moody, and have suffered with depression on and off for years now, but before Xmas I was feeling ok and have noticed significant changes in my mood since starting this diet. It is affecting my personal life as well as work. I do not want to go out, and am very anti-social and snappy at work... 
 
I have read that significant changes to diet can raise stress hormone production as well as depression amongst other things.
 
Does anyone have any light they can shed on the subject? Should I make changes to my diet/training? Is it too drastic?
 
I'm not happy with my physique, therefore I want to change it. But this new diet/regime is not making me happy at all - I know there has to be sacrifice to get results, but I can't judge which is the best move.
 
If anyone has had similar experiences, would be great to get your input!
 
Thanks in advance
 

bump

I don't know what the portion sizes are but it looks like your diet has plenty of food.
 
I am always moody when cutting :( just a fact of life for me, usually worse in the morning but levels out in the afternoon. Is this similar  for you??
 
Maybe reduce cardio volume slightly and see how it goes.
 

When I've cut carbs significantly, or completely, I was really bad...
 
I think it may be tiredness. The nighttime shakes are causing me to need toilet every night around 1am... last night I didnt have the shake as i ate late, so a full nights sleep and feel a lot better today.
 
think im just going to have to suck it up... 

i get the same feeling in the morning but add some fruit maybe to get a bit more energy and sugar in your diet, we read all the time how sugary foods have all these addatives that are there to comfort you and get you happy and hence want them more so thats why you were as you say okay.
 

Yea I really think its the tiredness... Yesterday I woke up, and immediately felt groggy and knew I hadn't had enough sleep. The day then went on to be a nightmare, and was in a terrible mood.
 
Today I felt fine and have been fine in mood.

couple of questions /points you might want to consider
 
if your tired ...
 
ditch the 25 mins cardio pre breakfast and have 25 mins more in bed. may be doing some cardio after your weights
 
id ditch the green tea extract before bed. i would nt get sleep taking that at 11pm
 
is the number / volume of carbs making you sleepy?
 
is eating the same thing day after day making you depressed? it would me. vary it.
 
dont appear to be eating much fruit or veg? 
 
anyway i hope you start to feel better mate....well done for trying to make a positive change - although is too much change all at once?

i would put it down to your serious lack of fats in your diet bud

Cant remember the exact science but carbs make your body produce serotonin (some kind of precursor in your stomach) which many believe helps mood. This is why you can feel sleepy after a high carb feast.  Cutting out lots of simple carbs could be lowering your serotonin levels, though I would of thought this will balance out given enough time. It could also be caused by having elevated insulin levels in your blood as people get this when they cut out sugar, its like a kind of withdrawal and can last for up to to 3 weeks.

Lucky_jim

couple of questions /points you might want to consider
if your tired ...
ditch the 25 mins cardio pre breakfast and have 25 mins more in bed. may be doing some cardio after your weights
id ditch the green tea extract before bed. i would nt get sleep taking that at 11pm
is the number / volume of carbs making you sleepy?
is eating the same thing day after day making you depressed? it would me. vary it.
dont appear to be eating much fruit or veg? 
anyway i hope you start to feel better mate....well done for trying to make a positive change - although is too much change all at once?

 
1. I'm doing 20-25mins SSCV in the morning and the same in the evening... I am thinking of adding in HIIT PWO on training days
2. I don't actually have the green tea before bed, just first thing
3. Carbs seem fine actually
4. Yea its kinda boring, but im actually getting used to it now. It's limited when eating super clean
5. I'm having green veg, brocolli mainly, some fronzen soya beans and sometimes cabbage... No fruit due to sugars
6. and yea thanks mate, maybe it was a bit crash, but i feel like im stabilizing to it now. Thanks for your input!!

stealthy

i would put it down to your serious lack of fats in your diet bud

Yea it seems you are right - There are purposefully low fats in the diet im following, and apparently it can make you tired, slightly brain dead!
 
makes sense... feeling ok at the moment, so going to persevere, but if it affects life too much, i'll start throwing in PB, almonds and EVOO

The Truth


Cant remember the exact science but carbs make your body produce serotonin (some kind of precursor in your stomach) which many believe helps mood. This is why you can feel sleepy after a high carb feast.  Cutting out lots of simple carbs could be lowering your serotonin levels, though I would of thought this will balance out given enough time. It could also be caused by having elevated insulin levels in your blood as people get this when they cut out sugar, its like a kind of withdrawal and can last for up to to 3 weeks. 

yea this makes sense too - I did used to enjoy a fair ammount of sugar in my diet. Fruit and Fruit juices, cordials, yoghurts, tea(w/ 1 sugar), then all the pitfalls biscuits, choc, sweets etc., fizzy drinks.
 
So to go from that to none of it is going to take some adjustment!

Get yourself some Udos Choice mate and mix it with your oats or protein shakes to up your fat intake :-)