I started my Keto diet on Feb 19th. My eating has changed drastically but I have not lost weight or inches. I bought the strips for the urine test and had some days but can’t seem to stay in ketosis. I have horrible heartburn, burping, and some bouts of nausea and just not feeling right ( maybe like hypoglycemic feeling)
I am 45 and post surgical menopause. I have tried so many different things but nothing sticks. I tend to give up and say what’s the use.
I tried the intermittent Fasting but got to feeling so bad I couldn’t get through it. My job is stressful so lowering my stress levels won’t be an option.
Is there anything that I can do to not have these symptoms and to start feeling better and hopefully lose weight? I need to lose 50 lbs to be at a healthy weight.
Crazy heartburn and bouts of nausea
Welcome! Sorry you are having those uncomfortable symptoms. Can you give us an idea of what a daily menu looks like?
I did not start intermittent fasting until I was fully fat adapted (burning fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates) & that took me six weeks so expect to work your way into this new lifestyle over the next several months. Weightloss can be a delightful perk of the Keto Way of Eating (WOE) but the first thing we are all doing is starting to heal our metabolisms and it takes time.
As far as heartburn, I get relief putting about 2 tsp apple cider vinegar in some sparkling or still water with a squeeze of lemon.
I eat either a couple of eggs with bacon, cheese and avocado or a shake with whey protein (trim healthy mama approved) unsweetened almond milk, natural peanut butter and coconut oil for breakfast. Coffee with stevia and coconut oil (just started adding butter too) and sugar free creamer (I know not the best but only 2 tbsps so it’s better than what I was drinking)
Romaine and cheese, bacon, and lunch meat with either ranch or oil and vinegar.
More cheese and pepperoni if I need a snack or pork rinds.
And dinner varies- I had steak and Brussels sprouts with a salad last night. Oil and vinegar to dress it.
Sometimes a glass of Cabernet and sometimes a half of an 85%chocolate bar from Aldi.
Lots and lots of water.
I tend to dive in with something when I decide to do it
Re: nausea: It might be that your body needs to ramp up more slowly using fats if you were previously low fat.
The whey protein is a red flag for me, a lot of folks have issues with it. It can cause insulin spikes. It’s generally better to get your protein from actual whole foods.
If it’s not fats causing nausea it could be overeating protein. Do you track in a macro nutrient app or program like My Fitness Pal?
I had some crazy heartburn in my first weeks on (dairy heavy) keto - and just a light nausea on occasion. It’s a big reason why I ended up taking Ginger capsules at first, for the enzymatic benefits and because it’s crazy-good for acid reflux as well as nausea. If you go that route, you have to take the capsules with a full mug of liquid, else they can dissolve in the throat/esophagus which then creates more sensations of heartburn!
As a resistance weights training person, I happily took undenatured whey protein, but had to address the root level enzyme issues - which I did with Ginger.
During that time period, I also returned to incorporating eating 1/2-1 tsp of raw Fennel seeds after each meal (or after each bout of reflux) to sweeten my palate and eliminate any heartburn. It’s a traditional post-meal digestive in Indian cuisine, and if you like the taste, it’s very potent itself for turning around reflux when used regularly. Plus it sweetens the breath and bodily fluids/smells in general.
You’ve just started keto! You’re still in a major time adjustment and cellular/physiological/neurological switching. Your main objective right now is to get fully fat-adapted and to digest your food well so this can be sustainably beneficial and healing. It’s not time to IF yet, the body and brain have to go through some changes still, so that your ghrelin and leptin levels are appropriate for IF. Plus, being 45 and post-surgical menopause, it will take a bit longer than the non-menopausal midlife female, which is already a slow-steady process.
Though fat adaptation is often blithely referred to as the two-week ‘induction period’ from the Atkins diet, Dr. Phinney and Dr. Volek point out that fat adaptation has many incremental aspects and often takes many months (and in some insulin-resistant folks a year or more) to get to the full 100% fat adapted place. I know for myself at age 52 and not yet in menopause, that I experienced a remarkable shift around month 6-7 that was sort of a new level reset which made my already manageable IF (with fasting and feasting in random patterns each week) become absolutely effortless and any and all cravings disappeared.
During your current phase, it can help to cosy up with some good fatty salt broth and watch some excellent keto documentaries like The Magic Pill and Cereal Killers - for education and inspiration. Also the LCHF/Keto physicians Mary Dan Eades MD and Michael Eades MD in 2011 wrote The Six Week Cure For The Middle Aged Middle - which involves an induction period of two weeks with two fatty whey shakes a day to support gut content reduction and tissue shrinking, along with other handy tips and insights to avoid heartburn/nausea.
Hope that helps!
What was your diet like prior to Keto, it sounds like your body is going through carb and sugar withdrawals and potentially yeast die off.
Is your tongue white?
Try to simplify your diet as in clean out the pantry and buy exactly the ingredients you need for the next week - add in salt and water and consume nothing else. You’ll be amazed at the results.
Apple cider vinegar can help with the heart burn. From what I’ve gleaned over the past few months is that if stomach acid isn’t high enough (acidic enough) then the esophagus doesn’t close tight enough allowing acid to migrate out. About a tblsp of ACV (Apple cider vinegar) ramen in about 4 oz of water so you can actually drink it, will help. There are also a lot of other benefits to ACV. I never knew. It’s now a staple in my pantry. I keep it tight there on ‘my shelf’ next to the coconut oil, truvia, crystallized lemon, and non iodized salt.
FYI: look through your ingredients listing on all your packaged foods. Look for dextrose, maltodextrin, or any other ‘ose’. Basically that’s stuff that turns into glucose at a higher rate than raw sugar. It was hampering me for several months until I figured that one out, with help from @Dipper_Actual 
Indeed! I’m gonna have to update my Rx to be Sun, Steak, and ACV! Fixes everything!
I had a similar issue when I started too, but mine was worst I was shaking, dizziness at the 16th+ hour mark of fasting, found out I had 3 ulcers, so pouring down black coffee on empty stomach was a bad idea. After my ulcers are healed, I can easily go 22 + hours fasting with no problem.
I agree with @LizinLowell cut out the whey for now. I would also cut out anything with artificial sweetners to the extent you can and peanut butter as not everyone can lose weight on it.
I would also avoid commercial salad dressings as most are made with seed oils which can cause inflammation in some people (some people use them, others do not). After you are fat adapted you can try the whey again and see if it agrees with you.
I had a lot of naseua initially too. I still have no idea where it was from but it went away after a couple of weeks. I did have heartburn in the beginning but I think in my case it was leftover from wheat before I started keto
It sounds like you are having trouble digesting. The heartburn is caused by not enough stomach acid. When you don’t have enough stomach acid your LES valve (the valve between your esophagus and stomach) does not get triggered closed so you end up with heartburn because what little stomach acid you do have is going up into your esophagus. The nausea may be a sticky bile flow. I highly recommend listening to this podcast series as they focus on digestion and talk about what you can do to get it working the way its supposed to. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/kick-it-naturally/id784834163?mt=2
Aye, Skipper, that it does! I’ve recently just learned there is a BIG difference between types within the same brand. My first bottle was a half gallon of Whitehouse, ACV. It is indeed like taking a shot of Wild Turkey (101 proof). Then I tried WhiteHouse organic, Raw unfiltered, with “mother”. I haven’t attempted this yet, but it’s so smooth I think I can drink it right from the bottle. Not nearly as harsh.
I’ve been sampling some myself. My work stash:
And I think it may be Heinz’s ‘with mother’ at home. Indeed, much smoother than this stuff.
Hi - know this is an old post. I saw the Magic Pill on Netflix. Where can I find Cereal Killers?
I actually had a hard time finding somewhere to watch Cereal Killers for free. I loaded the Vimeo app and was able to watch it (with Portuguese subtitles, I think). You might need to try a couple of the links which show up in a search before you find the right one.
Thanks. Yes, I’m being cheap. I already had Netflix so could watch the magic pill but don’t want to pay to watch cereal killers. Thanks for the info.
To chime in here, I’ve been doing the ACV drink for the past 8-9 days and somewhat enjoyed the crazy BMs (my normal state is constipated) but it was a bit much. And then I had 2 bouts of nausea and heartburn (1 midday, 1 last night). The only other difference is I’ve upped my fat intake (staying within calories) and added cod liver oil supplement.
I’m staying away from the ACV and cod liver oil and seeing if the higher fat alone will calm my symptoms.
I’ve noticed more white tongue now than before keto. Is this a detox process?