Diarrhea goes on and off

dirrhoea
#1

Hi there,

I know there are lot’s of topics about having diarrhea with Keto. I’ve read a lot of them. Most are about the initial phase and Keto Flu. The others were more relevant but sadly didn’t solve the issue for me.
I’m doing keto for more than 4 months now, and I have diarrhea every week. It happens that everything is okay for a few days then need to be close to the toilet for a few days.

  • I believe I eat enough fiber,
  • I don’t eat much artifical sweeteners
  • I reduced my Mg intake, as it caused issues (though I’m not sure anymore that it was that)
  • I don’t eat MCT much (use a small spoon about once a week)
  • I feel fine otherwise. I can train and work and not that exhausted anymore

I’m eating around 2000 kCal/day.
I eat mostly:

  • eggs
  • vegetables (radish, spinach, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Asparagus, some tomato, some bell pepper, Avocado)
  • nuts (almonds, pecan, pine, sunflower)
  • cheese (Mascarpone, Emmental, Swiss)
  • Heavy cream
  • Meat, all kind
  • Fish
  • Unsweetened broth based protein powder
  • Low carb protein bars
  • Butter, lard, olive oil, rarely coconut oil
  • Decaf Coffee with heavy cream

The average dietary intake in my last month is:
Carbs: 47g (Net 27) (11 %)
Protein: 118 g (25%)
Fat 134 g (64 %)

What’s strange is that it seems that it is related to eating. If I get up and don’t eat breakfast I’m fine. But I need to go the the toilet in about 30 mins after I ate.
I eat 3-4 times a day.

I tried to give every important information, but please let me know if anything relevant is missing.

Thanks in advance!

#2

If I get diarrhoea badly, I use half a teaspoon psyllium husks.

#3

So you say that maybe my fiber intake is low?

#4

I have the same problem except I haven’t been able to resolve mine yet. It’s been 5 weeks. It started after 2 months low carb/keto and after I had a few meals involving Mission brand low carb tortillas. I’m taking digestive enzymes after meals.

(Pete A) #5

I’m going on 3 years Keto and the pattern has been a couple of days a week. I live with it for now.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

How much salt are you getting? Excess salt intake can make stools loose and messy. Try to stay in the range of 10-15 g/day of table salt (sodium chloride), including the salt already present in your food. Too little salt, by the way, can cause constipation.

While some people on a ketogenic diet find dietary fibre to be helpful, many others find that it actually causes them problems.

Another thing to try might be to eliminate the protein bars and the protein powder. There might be something in the powder, especially, that is getting to you.

Another thing to look at is the type of artificial sweetener you are using. Maltitol, for example, is known to cause diarrhea. If you are familiar with the 5-lb. bag of sugar-free Haribo Gummi Bears that Amazon used to sell, you know the hilarious stories of the aftereffects of consuming them in quantity. They are sweetened with maltitol.

BTW, your carbohydrate intake is a bit high, by our standards. We recommend keeping it under 20 g/day. You might also try eating fewer times a day. The point of ketogenic eating is to keep insulin as low as possible, for as much of the day as possible, and insulin levels rise after every meal, so less-frequent eating helps in that regard. Keep the quantity of food unchanged, just put it all in fewer meals.

#7

eat clean.
big elimination menu.

then as you add back…you know the culprit and what it does to your body.

all in with 99% meat/seafood only…that 1% of little spice, tiny bit of dairy if you can handle it and go all in for this elimination.

once you add back you know :slight_smile: then you can pinpoint what your body is hating and reacting.

if you don’t drop it all and add back you never will know point blank what the offender is truly.

Just a more common sense approach to ‘take it down to bare basics’ and build up again and see how this is all about you, what you can handle and how reactions are.

4 months is still infant time into this plan. We drop this, add more fake sweeteners, we change up this more and go low on that more and we ‘changed alot’ but ain’t quite sure what we changed in a way that we find that ‘true essence of how our eating effects us’…….elimination to basics is key here.

fresh food only. Protein heavy keto. drop crap fake anything.

see how ya do and build from there. Any time thru this journey we change and forget this or that and eat whatever, get great perks and find other bad situations upon us.

back to bare basics helps many of us start a new path as our bodies require individually.

just chatting out some thoughts :sunny: Hope you do ok and get your issues handled. Let us know and keep updating if you do better or have troubles…people here got great advice for sure!!

(Bunny) #8

You have lots of bile so anything that has fat or eating too much will give you diarrhea?

Cut back on the dietary fat?

The other you may be eating too many vegetables and your not use to eating so much fiber?

#9

I have IBS-D, but I figured out that olive oil is one of my triggers.

I also take three psyllium husk capsules twice per day. I just recently tried to go to two capsules twice a day. I then had minor issues, so I went back to three.

#10

@emul
Not saying your fiber intake is too low. Psylliom husk is “Metamucil” and it works against diarrhoea really well.

#11

My only thought is overcooking plants at high temperature and/or not chewing your food. Hence lack of enzymes from saliva.

(Ellenor Bjornsdottir) #12

I mean I’m normally a pro dairy person… but maybe you should turn the screws on the dairy and the nuts? Diarrhœa is one of those real finicky subjects that’s different for everyone. Too much fibre, not enough fibre, too many carbs, too few carbs, too much salt, not enough salt, too much water, not enough water. It’s one of those where you have to try everything everyone says, and then try the opposite of everything everyone says. And then try it forward again.

#13

Huhh, guys!

A lot’s of useful hint. Thanks I really appreciate it.
I’ll try them out and will leave here a note about the results. Maybe it will be useful for other people as well.
I hope it wont take much time to rule this bug out