Been Keto for 5 Wks- Still Hungry and Foggy Brain


#1

Hello Awesome Keto Community,
I’ve been on the Keto diet since the day after Mother’s Day, 5 weeks as of today. Stats- I’m a healthy 39 year old working mom of 2 kiddos. I’m 5’-7” and currently 157 lbs and 34% body fat (Dexa scan taken 3 weeks ago). Starting weight was 162 so I’ve lost about 5 lbs.

I’ve listened to probably hundreds of podcasts, read extensively Jimmy Moore, Maria Emmerich and Jason Fung’s books. I’m in Ketosis, keeping my carbs below 20 grams a day, tracking my macros, etc… But I’m still Hungry and Foggy.

I’m consumming at least 3-5 extra grams of salt per day and drinking bone broth at least once a day. I’m constantly tired, hungry, nauseous.

I think it’s worth mentioning that I’ve had historically low blood pressure and my fasting glucose was last around 71 (Early May- my last bloodtest pre Keto - up from 69 in November of 2017). This has lead me to believe that I need way more electrolytes, which I’ve been taking, as well as some mineral supplements etc. I love the effects of a 1/4 tsp of salt on my hand but the effects only last about 15-30 mins before I drop off again. Other than this, my bloodwork has always been fairly normal although I am on 1/4 grain nature thyroid for a sluggish thyroid.

If it’s right for my body, my goals for Keto are to loose another 15 lbs +- and get into the 25% body fat zone if possible. Most of the weight loss so far was lost within the first two weeks, so was it mostly water?

For the most part I’ve been absolutely in love with the Keto lifestyle, I’ve been released from my fear of fat and the satiety of eating fat has felt inspired and healing. I have been attempting a modified 18/6 with BPC in the morning around 7 am but still pretty weak/tired by 9/10 am. And when I start eating, I find I either stay hubgry for the whole window or I eat too much and quickly become nauseated.

I have done hot yoga for years 1-2 x per week which I’ve continued to do pretty regularly through Keto. I’ve had one workout where I felt like super woman but mostly I’ve had to be very gentle on myself since the electrolyte/low blood pressure issue makes Keto hot yoga a little challenging for me stamina-wise.

I’ve gotten back in the kitchen in a big way and am really enjoying making healthy Keto meals for myself and my family (modified for my kids where needed). So wondering where to start. Am I still in Keto adaptation stages? Pretty tired of feeling like this.

Thanks for any help!


(Raj Seth) #2

At 5’7” 157lbs doesn’t really sound so high. Do you eat enough now? History of calorie restriction? Do tell your typical diet for a day. Sounds like low intake could be a culprit


(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

You might be overdoing the protein. Try cutting back the protein and eating a bit more fat for a week or to, and see if that helps.


#4

Hi Rajseth,
Thank you for your reply! It’s definitely possible that I’ve been eating lower calorie consumption since going on Keto. Per my tracking it looks like I’m getting around 1500 cals per day. 20-25 grams carbs, 40-60 grams protein and the rest of my calories in fat. (I didn’t track previously so don’t know exactly how many calories I was consuming)

Breakfast - Bullet proof coffee w/1 tbsp each of cream, coconut oil and grass fed raw butter
(I used to not eat breakfast much at all or just picked off my kids plates of eggs and gluten free waffles :see_no_evil:)

Lunch - 3 oz tuna salad w/mayo. Arugula w/olive oil, maybe a few walnuts or macadamia nuts
(Similar to how I used to eat but I’ve since added more fat, less carbs and left out the sweet treats)

Dinner - 3 oz steak with fat on w/grilled asparagus. Maybe some coconut manna and/or an oz or 2 of hard grass fed cheese.
Usually 2 additional tablespoons of HWC in the day in some form of calorie free hot beverage and a cup of bone broth thrown in their. The ulta electrolyte drink mix I take has stevia but otherwise I try and stay away from any artificial sweeteners. Occasionally I’ll have a fat bomb but not every day.
(Not terribly far from how I used to eat meals, however I used to snack all day long)

The nausea and brain fog is definitely the hardest part. I’ve never had high blood glucose, hba1c, triglycerides or any of these types of markers for disease, however I have had adrenal fatigue, low blood pressure and thyroid issues (like I mention above). I wonder if Keto mixed with the IF I’ve been doing could be an issue for my system, maybe too much to adapt to too quickly?

I was overweight as a child and have a history of disordered eating that began in middle school when I started my first calorie restriction diet. I have worked for many years of my life to finally successfully arrive a place where I no longer do any harm to my body. I don’t want to under fuel or un-do any of this healing by further slowing my thyroid or damaging my adrenals with IF. But I definitely don’t have the “energized by my own fat” feeling when I do the 18/6 IF.


(Erin Wilson) #5

@Ketomama2, It took me a good 4 months to be fully fat adapted. I was in ketosis LONG before that, but wasn’t feeling that “energy” everyone talks about. Instead, I was cold ALL the time, tired, brain-foggy. I just thought this was the new normal until one day I just realized how ridiculously good I felt and finally I understood! FWIW–I started keto with IF (read The Obesity Code before I’d ever even heard the words “ketogenic”), so maybe that had something to do with it.

Also–I recently figured out that Stevia has the WORST effect of all the “approved” sweeteners on my blood sugar.

My history is very similar to yours. I had a RMR test recently that put my metabolic rate (at total rest) at 2400 calories a day. This is after keto and IF pretty strictly for 6 months.


#6

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the suggestion, my protein has been between 60-70 grams per day. I have 100 lbs lean body mass. This already seems rather low-ish to me, but what do you think?
Thanks again for your response


#7

Hi Erin
Thank you. It is reassuring to hear that this happened to you and you came out of it on the other side feeling better. Any tips for how you made it 4 months like his would be greatly appreciated! Also, if you were trying to loose weight, how did that go? Slow and steady or rapid? Or?
Thanks again!


(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

A hundred pounds is 45.5 kilos, so you might want to cut back to 45.5 grams and see if you feel better. I only suggest it because Dr. Phinney’s recent video on keto troubleshooting says that symptoms such as you describe can be caused by too much protein. Give it a whirl and see what happens. If it helps, great, otherwise we’ll figure out something else to try. Please keep us posted.


(Raj Seth) #9

Seems high to me - but there is debate on the protein issue.
I don’t track or target anything, but your meals seeem too small and lean to me.
I make a cheesy creamed spinach which is 2 lbs of chopped spinach with 2 sticks of butter, 24 Oz of heavy cream, a cup of Romano and a cup of mozzarella or cheddar. Serves 5. 900 kCals each - 88% fat, 7% protein and 5% carbs. It is so fatty and delish. That’s my kinda food - side dish for a fatty ribeye!


(Erin Wilson) #10

Like you, I have a history of dieting and disordered eating, starting at about age 10. After years of therapy, having my own daughters, etc, I had come to the conclusion that my body was going to just be whatever weight it wanted to be and there was no way I was going to “diet” any more.

My change of mind started about 10 years ago when a nutritionist I worked with taught me about the science of dieting–what it does to your body: slows metabolism (we discussed the Minnesota Starvation Study at length) and basically demands that your body become overweight in order to protect itself. This particular nutritionist (Evelyn Tribole) is a specialist in “Inutitive Eating.” At this point I just realized that I could never damage myself further by doing any sort of extreme dieting or calorie restriction.

I’m 5’4" and when I went into treatment for the ED I weighed about 145 lbs. At the time I was upset because I had just dropped 40 lbs (from 185) and was upset I wasn’t able to control myself enough to get to my goal of 125 lbs. The therapist and nutritionist took one look at me and said, “Your weight is not your problem.” After going into treatment I gained 30 lbs pretty quickly, got pregnant, gained another 30ish lbs. I maintained between 195-215 for a year or so. When I got pregnant with my second child (she’s now 10) I just could not eat much. I didn’t feel sick; I just was never hungry. For the first time in my life I was not a slave to sugar and carbs. I didn’t gain a single pound during that pregnancy and 2 months after delivering I was down to about 185 lbs.

In the past 10 years I have maintained in the 180-190 range without too much difficulty. I did a couple of “whole food/balanced macros” programs, but nothing extreme or “diet-like” in any way and felt really amazing when detoxed from carbs. I have also had gut issues over the last 5 years and went through a full elimination diet to try to figure out the culprit.

Well, fast forward to about a year ago–a mom friend (also a doctor) was talking about The Obesity Code book with another friend when I chimed in something about eating balanced macros every two hours to keep my blood sugar stable. She looked at me and said, “No. That’s not true.” So, I just shut up and listened. I immediately got The Obesity Code on Audible and spent the next two days glued to my headphones.

All of the pieces fell into place for me–I finally had hope that my metabolism could be repaired from the 20 years of hard-core chronic dieting and calorie restriction. I started IF pretty much immediately and researched LCHF diets, before learning enough about keto to start to dip my toe in the waters, so to speak. This was all happening August-September 2017.

I guess what kept me going from October to March was the idea that I could help that little girl deep inside of me who was always hungry in every way.

I lost 20ish pounds pretty quickly, within the first 4 months. The last 15 have been a lot harder. I weighed myself today and found myself 10 lbs down from last Monday, when I was 10 lbs up from the Monday before that. I’ve learned the scale is not to be trusted! One thing that was really motivating was two DEXA scans I had about 8 weeks apart. I learned what I thought was 9 lbs of weight loss actually turned out to be 12 lbs of fat loss and 3 lbs of lean muscle gain. I also stopped taking my antidepressant (Zoloft, which I’ve been on for 20 years) on fasting days. Then, I started to realize that I was forgetting to take it on MOST days. Before, if I wouldn’t take it I would feel very definite side effects. The ketones clearly agreed with my brain.

The comments I started to get from friends were really interesting. Like, “You’ve lost weight and you look amazing; you’re glowing; you are thinner, but you don’t look sick; you look so healthy…” I could go on and on.

I listen to podcasts almost EVERY day: Two Keto Dudes, KetoWoman, Healthful Pursuit, The Obesity Code. I’ve listened to or read: The Big Fat Surprise, The Case Against Sugar, The Lore of Nutrition, Why People Get Fat and What to Do About It…I’ve fully immersed myself in this world and learned so much about why I developed the ED in the first place. In short, I trusted the process that this WOULD work.

I weigh about 155 lbs at the moment. I don’t have a goal weight in mind. I’d like to be about 20-25% body fat and still be able to fast to get the health benefits.

I know that was a LONG response. Hope it helps.
XXXOOO, Erin


(Erin Wilson) #11

Also chiming in about the protein–I have 99 lbs of lean body mass and aim for 50g of protein a day, per the 2KD suggestions. I just relistened to the “Protein” Podcast episode and it confirmed this for me.

One difference between us seems to be that I made 36-40 hour weekly fasts my first goal. The first few months I would supplement with bone broth, but now I don’t even need to do that. All the science points toward this length of fasting being the “thing” that’s keeping my BMR high and is literally transforming my fat into lean muscle.

I also eat a LOT of calories at one time. On a non-fasting day I generally have a 1000-2000 calorie dinner. I don’t plan it this way–that just seems to be how it goes.


#12

Hi Erin
I’ve been wanting to respond to this incredible message all day when I had the proper time to do so. Of course now, at 11 PM is when there’s time. I wanted to start with a most sincere thank you. Thank you for sharing your journey with me, I felt like I could have been reading my own. This is the magic of these Keto communities I think.

Yes, I am totally in agreement about stopping the diet cycle and so thrilled about the hope that you and so many other people here exhibit. I think I still do have a problem with fully eating to satiety (also there’s a nasea issue). It feels hard to really feast, which makes fasting hard, which makes me worry that I’m harming my metabolism with these 16:8 fasts including BPC… But I’ve just signed up for Jason Fung’s IDM program to help with my fasting regimen. Support is definitely going to be the thing that keeps this a healthy shared lifestyle and not a diet.

I’m going to look into the 2KD podcast on protein, and keep calm and Keto on. Again,
I thank you for your amazing response.


#13

That sounds yummy. I’ll try and up the feasting on the fat. Thanks for your thoughts