Electrolyes Imbalance

(Song Wei) #1

Hello guys,

3 months ago I did a week of keto diet and 3 days water fasting without any salt. I got into ketosis real quick my physician tested me with positive ketones in my urine. I think I was peeing alot of urine during the 3 days water fast and I wasn’t peeing at all after that no matter how much water I drink. I was reading up and realized I needed enough sodium during the adaptation phase. I got out from keto because I am a very skinny guy 6’0 with 136 pounds. When I introduced carbs back to my diet I am having insulin resistance, I drink more salt today. I also have a weak adrenal, I tend to pee a lot at night when I sleep. I am so dehydrated no matter how much water I drink. Does anyone have any idea how to balance back the electrolytes ?

(Joey) #2

@lowsongwei1992 Greetings Song Wei,

As many of us have learned (some, the hard way, including myself) that maintaining hydration and electrolytes is especially important early on during the transition. Actually, to be fair, it stays important thereafter…

The best hydration+electrolytes concoction I’ve come across is the one for which @Brenda provides a recipe. Check it out by searching for “KetoAid” in the forum search bar. Lots of discussion around that topic can be found there too.

Best wishes in your getting over the hydration hump.

(Susan) #3

Here’s the recipe:

I am only wondering why not go back to Keto? It is not just for weight loss, there are a lot of health benefits =).

(Song Wei) #4

I am actually underweight now and my recent biometric measurement shows my fat level is below average especially at my waist level. Plus, I have very weak adrenals and poor management on electrolytes, dare not to go into ketosis again for now.

(Susan) #5

@David_Stilley has a son that is on Keto to gain weight is all; so it can go both ways.

That Ketoaide recipe should help your electrolytes though =).

(Full Metal KETO AF) #6

You can eat keto and gain weight. I think that would be best, if you are thin with high insulin resistance (TOFI) keto can help with that. And it’s quite possible to gain weight. But at your size and weight a good bit of that should be lean muscle gains along with some fat too.

I would be happy to help you figure that out. So are you 6’ or 6’1”? I remember you from before. How old are you and what kind of activity level 1 (sedentary) through
5 (very athletic/exercise sports hard work)?

(Song Wei) #7

I’m 27 this year and my height is 1.84m to be exact. I am actually at level 1 and I have some sort of breathing difficulties/panic attack (probably due to electrolytes imbalances ). I dare not to do intense exercise at the moment because last week when I played just one round of basketball, I ended up having breathing difficulties and my fingers turned purplish and my lips turned pale.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #8

Okay, so don’t do any cardio exercises or sports. But a kettle weight you can buy cheaply and learn some exercises so you can build some strength without getting your breathing all messed up. This is what you need, not basketball. Just do it some while you watch TV or some YouTube stuff about keto or whatever you like.

So if you don’t use a tracking app try Cronometer, it’s free. You can program it manually or if you set it up with your information, set it for weight gain and it will plot your values. Enter weigh ins and it will adjust your recommendations when you update your weight or increase your exercise. Enter what you eat, get a cheap kitchen scale if you don’t own one. $10-15. Then you can play with food portions and get close to your macro goals. You will have to eat generous amounts of nutrient dense foods to do it. After a while you probably won’t need to keep it up or maybe like me you’ll enjoy a record of how things are going. Here’s what I came up with to gain weight for you.

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It says 28g. of carbs but given your insulin resistance the less carbs the better. You can eat more protein if you like. It’s a lot of fat but there’s a lot of ways to do that. You might need three meals to do it starting but as you are able going to a smaller daily eating window and cutting to two meals as you are able you will benefit from the same amount of food during a smaller window of the day. Don’t snack but eat enough at meals to get you through to the next. Just add these things as you can. You might need a snack starting out. Don’t be hungry. Shoot for eating all your food in an eight hour window at first. This is intermittent fasting or IF. This will help your metabolic issues. All the while you gain weight hopefully. The exercise is important because more muscles means an increased metabolic rate. It will keep your appetite up. It should feel good too. You will have to put some work in but you are young and the time is always now. You should be enjoying life more for a young man and fixing your body health will be the best thing you ever did for yourself. I really wish you luck and I will be watching this thread. Check in and let us know how things are going. If you have a hard time with something we are here. Let the eating begin…:cowboy_hat_face:

(Song Wei) #9

Thank you !

I’ve been wondering how much protein do I need in a day. Surprisingly that’s a lot of protein, 82g ! I will try to eat as much as possible but I am having hard time digesting the foods if my electrolytes are not balanced. The only thing I crave when I am hungry is a little bit of sugar and lots of butter. There was one night I craved so much butter, I literally ate like 8 pat of butter and I woke up with a flat tummy and feeling great.

I will definitely up my protein and fat intake !

(Full Metal KETO AF) #10

That must go, kick sugar to the curb. You have to to reverse the insulin resistance. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #11

We tend to forget that a well-formulated ketogenic diet is first and foremost about metabolic health, and only secondarily about normalizing weight. Moreover, so many people are obese these days that we tend to think about about weight-normalization as shedding excess fat, forgetting that it can also mean adding muscle and increasing bone density. In your situation, I would work to keep carbohydrate intake under 20 g/day, then make sure I had an adequate and reasonable protein intake, and then fill in my caloric needs with healthy saturated and monounsaturated fats. In today’s food environment the challenge, where polyunsaturated fats are concerned, is to limit intake—hardly any worrries about getting enough.

(Song Wei) #12

Hi guys,

I am wondering whether if I’m actually fat adapted or still in ketosis. Like I mentioned previously I could recall eating a lot of butter and next day woke up feeling great. Basically I don’t have cravings for sugar even banana, apples make me feel sick just by looking at it. I feel my digestion is off or literally not digesting at all without salt and water. When I was eating carbs previously I do not have this issue.

My first test in 2018 prior to keto shows negative for ketones, it was until I wasn’t feeling well when I did my water fast and keto I went for a second test it shows positive on ketones. It makes me wonder whether I’m still in ketosis even though I have eaten carbs for a month but in very small amount daily. I’m still craving for butter, eggs and a protein diet. This is weird. Low carb? keto ? or I’m literally just too skinny that my body needed more fats?

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(Song Wei) #13

Also, If I’m severely dehydrated right now ( woke up with sunken eyes). If I’m out of ketosis, should I go through the keto transition phase again since I will be losing a lot of water again ?

(Full Metal KETO AF) #14

Drink water. If you are dehydrated it’s already late for drinking. Are you taking enough salt?

(Full Metal KETO AF) #15

Your lipids look pretty normal. They always make a big focus on LDL and Total Cholesterol but what is the accurate predictor of cardiac risk is triglyceride and the Total/HDL ratio and 4.4 is a great number and your triglyceride is terrific. All the other stuff is beyond my knowledge…

(Song Wei) #16

I’m taking salt now, but no matter how much I drink I just feel my body is not absorbing the water. This is weird.

(Song Wei) #17

I have too many weird symptoms but my numbers are just fine… This is crazy…

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #18

Do you know what your personal carbohydrate threshold is? The easiest way to find out is with a ketone meter. If your ketone level is adequate only when you eat less than a certain amount of carbohydrate, then that is your threshold, and you can be sure of staying in ketosis if you eat less than that amount. Any low-carbohydrate diet is a ketogenic diet, as long as you are eating below your carbohydrate threshold. On these forums, we recommend staying below 20 g/day, because that is a level low enough to get anyone into ketosis except those people whose metabolisms are very badly damaged. (Such people can still get into ketosis, but only by eating even less carbohydrate.)