Bloating at the start -hard stomach feeling


(H) #1

Hi. I posted something similar to this earlier in the wk but just wanted a bit more help if people can.
I’ve been keto 3 wks now. Lost 4lbs straight off then nothing. Then a 2 lb gain, lost it and now up 1lb.

I’m trying not to worry about the scale because of what everyone has said about the adjustment and the muscle mass etc (I have a bmi of 25 and want to lose to get to about 23).

I’m loving the diet, it’s great. I get up earlier feel better and have more energy so much activity is up (albeit mostly walking - from about 7,000 steps to about 15000 a day) plus swimming .

Best is that it’s totally fixed my hunger because I now eat when hungry and sometimes that’s been one meal a day and then I have a couple of coffees with cream and maybe some bits of meat or pork scratchings or a couple of fat ball or something. Yesterday I had 1100 calories but to be honest it’s been anywhere between that and 1700.

So I’m totally loving it BUT… I don’t feel like I’m losing any fat and actually my stomach feels very bloated. It’s not gassy bloat but it’s like a hard feeling where I’m really conscious of that hardness.
I have been a bit constipated but I’ve read that’s a common problem especially at the start. Even when that clears up though the hardness in the stomach doesn’t.

I just wanted to know if that was normal - or can be normal. Does anyone know what it is? My friend suggested a ginger, lemon and ACV mix might help so I’m trying that today.

I don’t have any intolerances so I’ve tried to keep the dairy etc in my diet and I find cheese, cream etc very satiating and the most enjoyable part of the diet because it feels like the treat!

Can anyone help please?


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

Getting more salt might help with the constipated feeling. (Dr. Stephen Phinney explains how that works in one of his LCDU lectures on YouTube.) The body excretes salt more readily when we cut carbohydrate, and I find that migraines and constipation are a sign I’m not getting enough.

Also, just so you know, the Minnesota Starvation Study during World War II considered 1600 calories a day to be starvation-level. Of course, that was done on men, but 1100 calories is still about half of what women generally need. Sometimes people find that, after years of cutting calories, they need to push themselves a bit to eat more, and that when they get enough food, the fat loss starts. It all has to do with how our metabolism responds to how much food we give it, as well as how it responds to the type of food we give it.


#3

As well as enough water. That also helps with dehydration as well, and can assist with constipation. You could get additional bloating feelings if taking it in too quickly, but you will have to test things.

Also, as you mention, you have a similar thread already on the subject. You can also simply add this data to that other thread, so all the pertinent information on this subject will be in one thread, opposed to in being in multiple threads. Might be easier if you want to look back on what information had been provided or what was asked. … Or you can start an Accountability or process thread for yourself, which some find nice to keep their data recorded in, etc.


(H) #5

Thanks for this. I have issues with the calories but I’m finding since I started this that I’m just not hungry. It was one of my earlier posts where I was trying to find how people thought I’d be best approaching it. The answer seems to differ.
I have a long history of restriction so you could be right… but equally I just have not been thinking about food and I feel full and satisfied. So I’m a bit confused about how to approach it but as I’ve not lost for the last two weeks and actually have gained, maybe I have to try another way!


(H) #6

On the salt point I’ve always eaten a lot of salt. I can’t get enough and as a consequence always drank a lot of water.
The thing I’m thinking now it might be Diet Coke. I drink about two tins a day so maybe get rid of that and see if it makes a difference !
I’ll try to drink more water too; though I have found I’ve felt more thirsty and have drank more because of that.


(H) #7

Ok great thanks. I will work out how to do that :+1:


(H) #8

I also wonder whether the carbs has an impact. I’m keeping to 20g - day but in comparison to the rest of the food, maybe it’s too much proportionately? Though everyone seems to talk about sub 20 g for everyone, regardless of consumption of other calories/ macros


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #9

The carb limit has little to do with the amount as a percentage of calories, but rather has to do with how it affects your blood sugar level, and therefore how it affects your insulin. People who are highly insulin-resistant (i.e., it takes more insulin to get the same effect on blood sugar than it used to) need to eat a smaller amount of carbohydrate simply to bring down their insulin response. A high chronic level of insulin is what prevents fat cells from releasing fatty acids to be metabolised.

So to get your insulin low enough, you may need to eat even less glucose (i.e., carbohydrate) than someone else who is not as insulin-resistant. We recommend starting with an upper limit of 20 g/day because that works for the vast majority of people, but those at the upper range of insulin-resistance may need to eat even less. The really insulin-sensitive people may be able to eat as much as 100 g/day of carbohydrate, but most people who end up here don’t fall into that category.


(H) #10

that makes sense!
What should you aim for then in terms of levels - i.e what is low enough in terms of blood sugars (obviously it may differ person to person)? My blood sugar is consistently 5.2-5.7 depending on when I test in the day- even after a meal but the machine only ever tells me that is ‘in range’.
I wonder if that is too high because that hasn’t changed from before I went keto… although sometimes it used to flip over into the 6’s before.
The insulin thing really confuses me though!


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #11

I addressed your bloating here, total calorie intake here, and mentioned keto is a process here.

I’d like to elaborate slightly on keto as a process of metabolic normalization. Years/decades eating a high carb diet augmented by seed oils with skewed omega6 ratios does a lot of metabolic damage. I find it absolutely amazing just how much abuse we can absorb before it starts to break. Some of the damage is obvious and some not so obvious until late in life when everything starts to fall apart. Fat loss is something we can see readily and most folks trying to lose lots of it generally get focused around the progress of losing it. That’s understandable. But lots of stuff needs fixing, much of it not so obvious but more important overall. So from time to time, other stuff takes precedence. Depending on how much and how severe the damage that needs fixing determines how long it takes. That’s why each of us is on a unique journey. Still general principles apply: eat few enough carbs to keep insulin at it’s base level, stay in ketosis consistently, give your metabolism enough energy to do the job. You’ll be OK.


#12

BMI has nothing useful to offer, don’t base anything on it. Base your goals on your weight and muscle mass, but BMI can’t help you there. Scales are good for monitoring trends and can show you when somethings not working but you need to take scale weight in context with everything else.

That’s a huge fluctuation, 1100 isn’t enough for anybody, I don’t care how sedentary you are. But since one of your goals is fat loss you’ll want to stabilize it so you learn where you gain/lose.

That bloat definitely comes down to what you’re eating, on the constipation, many of us don’t do well with low/no fiber. I spent years fighting constipation that was never an issue pre keto, adding fiber back in fixed in almost overnight. Many are also under hydrated without realizing it.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #13

Are you (pre-)diabetic right now? If not, I suggest you not make this needlessly more complicated. Eat sub-20 grams of carbs per day, and less is better. In fact, there is zero need to eat any carbs. You can have a healthy, satisfying and long life if you never ate another gram of carbohydrate. The exact relationships between glucose and insulin are complicated and not fully understood. The same can be said for any number of other hormone/enzyme/cell metabolites and their interactions. You do not need to know exactly what’s going on to resolve your metabolic problems. Just stop eating all the stuff that caused the problems in the first place. Your metabolism will do what it needs to do. All you must do is give yourself enough energy to get it done.


(H) #14

No. I’m Not pre- diabetic. The only thing I have is an under active thyroid.
I’ll leave the blood sugars for a bit then and see what happens.
It’s the bloating i can’t stand. I know you said it went after a few weeks but it seems to be getting worse. I’ve drank a lot of water today though so I’ll see what happens!
Thanks!


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #15

Re the bloating. It’s possible that it’s something specific you’re eating causing it. Lots of folks experience various types of distress caused by specific foods. And it’s not necessarily something obvious. And it could also be a combination of a couple things. The way to test is by elimination.


(H) #16

Thanks. I’ll try to eliminate Diet Coke and see if it makes a difference. It seems an obvious contender in the first instance.


#17

Cut all dairy. Diary is one of THE most sensitive issues any of us keep and include in our way of life…with your cream, your ‘satisfying cheese, cream’ could be your massive issue…so dump it and give yourself an all in off the dairy experiment, at least 2 weeks and you can truly know then if dairy was a massive issue and more cause cheese we know for many can easily be a big contributor to constipation.

Wishing you the best :slight_smile: some experimenting will make a world of diff to you on dairy for sure.


(H) #18

Thanks for this I’ll give it a go.
I’ve never had any issue with dairy though so that’s what makes me nervous about giving it up. I didn’t want to give myself an issue by cutting it out.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #19

Although dairy is an issue for many, it’s also not for many. If it wasn’t before you started keto it’s likely not the issue now. The least likely folks to be bothered by dairy are those with European, and particularly northern European ancestry.


#20

Diagnosed Hypothyroid? Are you taking Thyroid hormone to correct that? That’s a hard thing to compete with if not. I have a sluggish one and my doc doesn’t want to play with it, so I do anyways. When I do, hello fatburn!


(H) #21

Yes diagnosed about 9 years ago so I take thyroxine for it.