Been on Keto 8 weeks, started recent intestinal cramping

(Greg Smith) #1

I started Keto in September and so far I’ve lost 33 lbs in about 9 weeks. I keep carb macros under 20 grams. I never had keto flu, take keto 1000 supplement as well as bouillon daily. Drink plenty of water. I’ve had “loose” stools or diarrhea most of the 8 weeks but tolerable. Around week 8 I started getting intestinal cramping and diarrhea worse around mid afternoon and seem to have to move bowels more frequently. I started adding chia seeds to my diet as I know my fiber intake was lower. Helped some with more consistency in stool but I keep having bouts of cramping and bad diarrhea that I hadn’t had for 7 weeks. Any thoughts? Other experiences?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

Welcome to the forums. I’m sorry that you were brought here by some unpleasantness.

Cramping such as you describe is not common on a ketogenic diet. I wouldn’t expect it to be the result of a well-formulated ketogenic diet.

I do, however, have a few suggestions that you might consider.

The first is to examine your fat intake. If you are consuming a lot of vegetable oil, cut it out of your diet as much as possible and use solid fats, such as butter, bacon grease, lard, and tallow, instead. Avoid seed oils and make sure that the oils you do use are fruit oils: avocado, coconut, or olive.

The second is to verify the cleanliness of your food sources. In the U.S., there are recurring cases of salad greens contaminated with E. coli and eggs with Salmonella spp. If this is a case of food poisoning (such as salmonellosis), I would expect vomiting as well as diarrhoea, but you may have a low-grade infection. Take such basic precautions as washing pesticides off your fruits and vegetables, and make sure that everything you eat is fresh. You might try eliminating all raw foods from your diet for a time, to see if that helps.

The other possibility is that you have unmasked a food sensitivity of which you were previously unaware. The way to identify this problem is to go on an elimination diet. Eat only beef and drink only water for thirty days, then slowly add other foods back into your diet, one at a time. It’s the only way you will ever figure out which food is causing the trouble.

Be careful with fibre, since many people report that, on a ketogenic diet, fibre appears to aggravate their irritable bowel or their Crohn’s disease symptoms. Perhaps your trouble is the result of too much fibre, rather than too little?

Also, be sure not to overdo salt, since an excess can cause bowel trouble (on the other hand, too little salt can result in constipation).

#3

Hi Greg!

What is in your electrolyte supplement?

Nothing gives me diarrhea as dependably as artificial sweeteners that end in “ol”.

I don’t suppose your supplement has artificial sweeteners or flavors, but I can’t find that info online. :butterfly:

(Greg Smith) #4

Thanks for the suggestions. For fats I use EVOO, Coconut oil, butter. No vegetable at all. I’ll try adjusting out some foods. My foods have been pretty constant the whole time. Mostly chicken and salmon for protein source sometimes beef. I have avacado once a day and for veggies asparagus, green beans, kale, spinach, cauliflower, usually rotating through the mix. I’ll make a cream sauce of CC, heavy cream and Parmesan to add to my kale or spinach. I’ll try some of what you suggest. Thanks again!

(Greg Smith) #5

Hi!
I take Keto K-1000, can get on amazon. It has 1000 mg of potassium as well as a nice balance of calcium, magnesium and chloride and sodium. It contains stevia and a natural orange flavoring.

(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #6

How radically different is your keto way of eating than the way you were eating before.

If way different, your gut biome is undergoing considerable modification because the little critters that were happy with your old way of eating may not be happy with the new way and their numbers will be adjusting as you go along.

As Paul mentioned, you are eating a lot of fiber, and while low in carbs, it is not the godsend that General Mills would have you believe… The fiber may tend to amplify the gut critters you would be better off without.

P.S.

Just a personal opinion, I would stay far far away from any product that calls itself Keto-" anything ".

They are just capitalizing on the fad aspect…

It looks like Keto 1000 is charging $3 an ounce for a few minerals that you could easily put together for a few pennies per ounce…

Sodium & Chloride = salt

Interesting that they choose to list the two elements separately in the ingredients list, since separately they are poisonous.

(Robin) #7

Hi Greg, I take quite a bit of magnesium citrate, powered form… probably about 600-700 mg. It keeps me regular and my stools loose. I am a-ok with that… before keto, I had quite the opposite problem. (Hard and constipation.) No stomach cramps tho. There is a lot of info on here about various supplements to take when on keto. If you can’t figure it out, you might want to get bloodwork done to check your electrolytes, just to see want’s going on. Good luck. And huge congrats for the 33 pounds! You got this!

#8

Are you using any artificial sweeter or eating any unsweetened candy? Those can give me issues / Same with too much collagen or gelatin. Sounds like something worth getting to the bottom of

(Laurie) #9

Hi Greg. Sorry about your troubles. I hope you find a solution soon!

I’ll throw a thought out for your consideration…

Over the past few months I’ve found that various vegetables give me discomfort or worse. Rather than figure out which vegetables were the offenders, or whether things would get even worse, I just cut out all plant foods (including nuts).

I eat some processed meats that contain small amounts of plant-based fillers, so I’m not a purist. But I don’t sit and eat a plate of vegetables either.

Good luck.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #10

What Paul said plus, too much broth can be an issue. Only time I have had your issue is when I did a week long bone broth fast. Usually I go the other way with :poop: issues.

Great results on the weight loss. Hope you get yourself sorted out.

(Greg Smith) #11

So I think my issue is caused by Avocado. I started adjusting things in my diet like stopping my morning bullet coffee (coffee w coconut oil), no change to my issue, then I stopped avocado and it took a few days but my cramps and diarrhea went away.

After a month with no issues I started by eating avocado again about 3 days ago and my cramping and extreme diarrhea started again.

I had eaten usually one avocado a day since I started keto or had the Wholly avocado singles. Never got cramps (but did have loose stools often). Both disappeared when I stopped eating avocado.

Has anyone else had an issue with eating avocado? I have no food allergies, am pretty tolerant to most foods I have ever tried. I’ve had guacamole on occasion in the past. Seems odd but the only thing constant with my issue. So no more avocado for me. Anyone else have avocado intolerance?

#12

Yes, I do.

I hadn’t grown up eating avocado, but I started eating it when I first did LCHF around a decade or so ago.

I ate them fine for around 5 years - I would routinely eat a whole one without any issues, and then one evening I remember having some guacamole and my stomach was a bit growly.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but a few days later I ate salmon, a whole avocado and some macadamia nuts a couple of hours before I was due to go on a hike and I started violently throwing up. The hike, alas, was called off.

At first I assumed I was ill, then I assumed my fridge was on the blink and the salmon was at fault - but after a while, I worked out that avocado was the cause.

So it can come out of nowhere. I really like avocado but I’ve not eaten it since (that was around 6 years ago). Apparently it’s linked to the latex allergy, although I’ve not had trouble with latex - but it might be something to be mindful of.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

The pits and skin of avocadoes contain the toxin persin, which is deadly to many mammals. It is not beyond possibility that some people might be sensitive to it, though most people are not. It is also possible that the intestinal cramping described in the OP might be the result of an allergy to some other phytochemical found in avocadoes. Allergic reactions can be odd and difficult to uncover, as my mother discovered, when her health problems (which a number of doctors she consulted were convinced were psychosomatic) turned out to be allergies to several of her favourite foods.

Toxins in foodstuffs are old news. While the amount of cyanide in the seeds of an apple is certainly not enough to harm an adult human being, it is beyond question that casava contains enough to cause death when improperly prepared. People don’t eat walnut shells, which contain the toxin juglone, but livestock and dogs have been killed by eating them.

I’m glad that you were able to trace your problem to the avocadoes, because now you can avoid the symptoms by avoiding the cause.