I am a 115lb 5ft5 female, recently lost 20 pounds. I eat about 1700-2000 cals a day. I have a very active workout schedule, but about a month ago, and a few times since then, I have woken up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain in my calves. It hurts tremendously, then it it just sore the whole day. Am I lacking in potassium or iron? Or what can be the cause of this? Please help
-Magnolia
That's happened to me before. I've heard that potassium helps prevent muscle cramps, so whenever I get those calf cramps late at night I make sure I start eating more bananas! It seems to help; sorry I don't know much more than that, but I'd be interested in finding out the cause as well.
Wow... I had the same thing like half a year ago! I can't remember exactly what happened but I remembered that my calves were sore and when I slept at night I woke up with a nightmare where my calves were hurting like torturement...then when I woke up they felt soooooooooo painful like I can't remember cos it's so long ago but I just felt like I was gonna die or something lol... well my calves were...well you know what I mean... so weird, next morning they were kind of sore as well indeed. Weird... must have had the same problem, I guess.
I guess you could eat it raw, just like you could eat spinach raw. Personally I like to either boil it or steam it (on the stove or in the microwave), and add a little butter and salt/pepper and maybe even garlic to it. You could also sautee it in a stirfry-type dish.
I actually just ate the boiled chard, and found it marvelous. It tastes just like spinach, but slightly sweeter. Chard is the highest potassium source, 933 mg, which is 27% DV. I am going to eat this more often, I think it was the potassium I was lacking. Also, has anyone ever had frozen bananas? they taste just like ice cream, maybe better
I have had this too, and I believe that a possible cause is dehydration. Especiaally since you are very active, I would try to ensure that you are drinking enough water.
