Fatigue 10 days in

(Eric Brian Baltch) #1

Hello everyone
I’m new to the forum and keto in general…I have been experiencing on and off fatigue throughout the day…i really don’t eat many carbs …just some fresh cherries or rasberries/strawberries when I feel weak and the cards I get from green veg. This on and off fatigue feeling is crazy though…ive been supplimenting with pink hym sea salt and Dr. Berg electrolyte powered which has 1000mg of potassium. Is this something that will last a long time or can expect this to stop in a week or 2?

(Carl Keller) #2

Hi Eric.

Instead of reaching for cherries or other fruit when you are feeling weak, try a boiled egg, a bit of cheese, nuts or pork rinds. You need to help your body transition from relying on carbs to relying on fat so make sure you are getting plenty of the latter.

(Eric Brian Baltch) #3

What about the carbs that are in things like collegen protein and bulletproof bars…are they preventing me from switching over to get for fuel?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

There are two issues, electrolytes and keto-adaptation.

The first is because we retain sodium on a high-carbohydrate diet, which means that when we drop our carbs we need to work a bit to keep our salt intake up. Not only that, but government salt recommendations are inadequate, according to recent research, and the U.S. guideline is set so low as to be actually harmful to most people. The healthiest range appears to be 4-6 g/day of sodium, which is 10-15 g/day of sodium chloride (2-3 U.S. tablespoons). This includes salt already present in food.

The need for salt is daily. I find that if I skimp, I get constipated or headachey (migraine auras, in my case) the next day. Too much, and the effect on my digestive system is equally obvious in the other direction. The good news is that with salt in the right range, most people don’t need to worry about potassium, magnesium, or calcium, since proper salt intake regulates the other minerals as well, making dietary sources sufficient to need.

The keto-adaptation issue is temporary. It involves retraining the muscle mitochondria to metabolise fatty acids in place of glucose. This process takes usually six to eight weeks, longer in some people. It involves healing existing mitochondria and growing new ones, as well as restarting the production of certain enzymes. During this period, you will notice a drop in performance; when it returns, you will know you are keto-/fat-adapted.

The muscles prefer to metabolise fatty acids, in preference even to ketone bodies. (As an analogy, think of them as a wood stove that does better on actual wood than on charcoal, which is an intermediate combustion product, as ketones are intermediate metabolites of fatty acids.) They limp along on ketones during the adaptation period, but once they are fully fat-adapted, they are very happy.

As long as you keep your carbohydrate intake low enough, you’re fine. We recommend staying below 20 g/day.

(Scott) #5

You may be kicking yourself out of ketosis with these. I would stop all fruit at least until you are fat adapted which is still weeks away. The first week or two is the downside of keto but it does start improving from there. I had low energy for workouts for three months but I got over it. Keto can be weird at first in fact it is like opposite world, saturated fat is good, fruit is bad, whole grain is bad I was like WTF? It can take time to get past all the brainwashing of what a healthy WOE is. I haven’t had a single piece of fruit in over a year. Don’t get me wrong, I love the taste of fruit but I have come to find that I just don’t need it or the sugars that it has. I can get what I need from lower carb veggies without fruit. Stay strong and you too well get past the tired feelings but fruit with its carbs and insulin response will set you back. Try to limit snacking too but if you need something to get by try some tree nuts like almonds of macadamia nuts instead of fruit. Good luck!

(Susan) #6

Welcome to the forum Eric =).

Your body is just suffering from carb withdrawal, so these temporary feelings of fatigue, weakness, even nausea, and headaches at this point are very common and normal. They will go away as your body adjusts to stripping it of Sugars and Carbs.

If you keep to 20 carbs or less a day, NO Sugar, (omitting that fruit is a good idea because fruit is loaded with sugars), eating healthy proteins and healthy fats, and drinking lots of water and keeping your salt and Electrolyte levels up, you will be feeling great in no time, and have more energy, less aches and pains, and start losing weight and your body will start losing fat! =)

(Susan) #7

Try to avoid extra junk like this stuff. Just eat real food =).

(Eric Brian Baltch) #8

Susan…thank you for your response…im going to cut out the bars but the collegen protein and it’s glycine content is helping me with a big insomnia problem I had even before keto…this stuff seems to be a real help combined with l theanine and magnesium

(Susan) #9

Okay, yes I wasn’t sure if it was some kind of shake or what it was. The bars though can be replaced with food =).