Does anyone know Keto flu comes before ketosis?

(Jen ) #21

My firsthand:

I researched the keto flu and made sure when I purged my pantry to get some sodium & potassium supplements. (I can’t tolerate magnesium supplements but made sure I had magnesium rich foods.)

I started taking 1 gram of sodium three times a day, the next day I was up to 2 grams three times a day. Potassium 20 mEq twice a day.

When the carb withdrawal hit me hard (don’t yell at me, lol) I was so nauseated I let one sugar cube (counted in my carbs) dissolve on my tongue. Did that once a day for three days.

Drank gallons 3-4 of water/day (still do). I bought Ketostix the day after I started and already had moderate ketones in my urine.

My carb withdrawal lasted 4 days. Mild temp, no energy. I used to eat nothing BUT carbs. I’m interested to see what others have done to prevent or treat their carb withdrawals. I can tell you I felt lousy enough that I am terrified to go over 20g/day and knock myself out of ketosis. Starting Keto was super hard for me but I am loving the changes to my body, mood, and energy.

(Darlene Horsley) #22

Oh my! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #23

I never got keto flu because I more or less started a ketogenic diet accidentally. What I mean is that my goal was to eliminate all sugar from my diet, having finally come to terms with my sugar addiction. I deliberately choose not to worry about grains, just sweet things. But I felt so good without the sugar in my diet that I begin to lose interest in rice, oatmeal, and pasta, which were a big part of my diet at the time, and it was very hard to find bread that didn’t list sugar as the second ingredient, even the supposedly low-carb bread.

So at that point I went full keto and never looked back. Since I had already watched several versions of Dr. Phinney’s lecture on “Developments in Nutritional Ketosis,” I was aware of how to prevent the keto flu, so I just followed his suggestions and started using salt with abandon and drinking chicken and beef broth.

So between the gradual approach and the increased sodium intake, it was dead easy. Dr. Phinney’s explanation of how it works just makes so much sense to me that I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around this whole question. I don’t even understand by what mechanism BOHB could even cause a problem, much less why anyone would expect it to.

(Richard Morris) #24

Yes Dr Phinney talks about keto flu being mostly hyponatremia (salt deficiency) … I suspect it’s also a bit of energy short fall as we are yet to switch up to being really efficient at moving fat into our cells.

(KCKO, KCFO) #25

I have the Kindle edition.

(VLC.MD) #26

If Keto rash occurs … how early in carb restriction does it occur ?

(Mike Glasbrener) #27

Probably for a different thread… I sweated like a pig every night for a couple of months or so. My sheets were drenched every morning. BTW I was dropping ~3.5 lbs/wk so maybe my fat burning was really high due to lowered insulin level. The rash started maybe 2 weeks in or so if memory serves me. Eventually the night sweats went away but I acquired the rash at that time and it continued after the sweats went away. The ONLY time the rash went completely away was when I had my knee operated on which I want to believe was related to IV antibiotics. If I’m not so careful about carbs it gets better. When I fast it seems to get worse. I’m no longer fat by American standards. However, by mine I am. I’m also no longer prediabetic.

I want to believe that something my skin secretes during keto makes it susceptible to some secondary skin infection… But what do I know.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #28

I don’t know any more than you do, but I always thought rashes were an autoimmune thing. So, silly me, I would have expected ketosis to clear up rashes, not start them. Oy!

And here I was congratulating myself that my seasonal eczema/dermatitis hadn’t shown up this year and was crediting that to keto. Oh, well! Guess I should brace myself, just in case.

(Mike Glasbrener) #29

I wouldn’t be so quick to lump all rashes into the same bin. I think most don’t get keto rash. Mine is very mild now. I’m guessing at some point it will totally go away.

(David Solberg) #30

What we know happens when we quickly stop eating carbs:

  1. We lose a lot of water.
  2. We lose electrolytes along with the water.
  3. Our bodies don’t have enough glucose to burn, and almost certainly is very poor at producing and burning ketones.

I suspect people’s abilities to handle these changes affect their keto flu. If one’s electrolytes are already out of balance, this might make it worse. If a person tends not to drink much water, then maybe there’s dehydration causing issues. If a person is lethargic already for some reason, the lack of glucose energy is probably more intense.

So there are a number of different things going on. The third issue would, of course, occur before steady ketosis, but the others could occur even after ketosis. I suspect there are a lot of individual differences in this journey.

For me, I started getting a headache and some lethargy the second day of ketogenic eating. They were both gone by the fourth day. I think the usual prescription for lots of bone broth is a good way to lessen the symptoms from #2 and partly #1, but you could also be someone hit hard by the conversion of the body to using ketones.