A newbie in need of some serious encouragement..dealing with some confusing physical symptoms and insecurities

(Katlyn Sarah) #1

I have a sour stomach and intense bloating and stomach cramping. I’ve been adhering to a keto diet for going in three weeks. I went through a phase of expelling excess water and experienced a positive change in my mood as well as increased energy, but this ended quickly and now I do not feel well. It’s discouraging and I doubt myself and the possibility of achieving any lasting results. I’m not unwilling to work hard at this, if anyone has any encouragement or tips for what they did in the very beginning, how long it took to get fat adapted and if anyone experienced the physical symptoms I mentioned I would be extremely grateful.

(Khara) #2

This sounds like a reaction to me, like what I get when I eat something that doesn’t agree with me. Have you started anything new that you didn’t eat pre-Keto? Or did you start anything new in between your feeling good period and now? How long has this been going on?
Hope you’ll be able to figure this out and experience the good that so many of us have found with Keto.

(Ross) #3

How is your salt intake?
Burnign ketones uses up more salt than burning carbs.

Do you have some nice bone broth or similar?
I like chicken but beef works too.
I like to add some exrtra sea salt to it to taste.

I also eat a lot of uncured bacon which also ups my salt intake. Bacon is the answer to most questions in keto.

(Linda Culbreth) #4

Up the pink salt. Up the water as much as possible. I use the salt in my water and also put some of the pink salt crystals under my tongue several times a day. More if I get sweaty.

(Stephanie Tebbs) #5

I started feeling weird and an upset stomach around 3-4 weeks (almost at 5 weeks so I’m still a newbie as well) and upping my salt really helped. I thought it was getting enough but now I put salt on my tongue a few times a day and I am feeling a lot better.

#6

I went through a similar phase at around 2 months of starting keto. It wasn’t as painful to me as it sounds it is to you and I was able to grunt through it. I do remember thinking that it was all the extra cheese and meat I was consuming and also the slightly lower quantity of veggies but I don’t know for sure. In addition to the cramps and bloating I got constipated. I also got lethargic at this time and seemed to lose that “walking on sunshine” feeling of the first few weeks. It felt like a delayed keto flu.

Eventually my stomach settled but I couldn’t tell you exactly what I did. I was always listening to the podcasts and adapting my keto regimen accordingly: upping salt, fasting, drinking lemon juice, taking a multivitamin, stopping counting calories and eating more fat. After a while the stomach discomfort just passed and I didn’t even notice.

I was advised here on the forums that it could be my electrolytes. So I worked on those. It’s really nice to know that cause of a problem but sometimes you just gotta throw everything at it and hope it irons out - that’s what I did. And apparently it worked and I think that’s probably when I got fat adapted.

The way I looked at it was - my body is rebelling against carb withdrawal. And the only hard work was eating more fat. :grin:

All the best to you!

(ManMythLegend) #7

When my electrolytes are low I feel the same. I get nauseous and crampy until I tuck some salt under my tongue to slowly dissolve.