Feel like death day 3 zero carb

(Rob Grantham) #1

Hello all… decided to do a small experiment just eating meat, butter, eggs and cream with cups of tea now and then. Since going from keto to this I feel like crap. Like 0 energy. Like im hungover and if i lay dowm ill just fall asleep. I’m keeping on top of electrolytes and I’m eating plenty of meat and fat. I did have what seemed like a low blood sugar moment after eating what may have been too large a helping of protein. I think too much protein makes me go hypo. Planning to stick to high fat meats. Seems to not cause this. Any advice from seasoned zero carbers? Just something normal?

(Ethan) #2

What kind of meat?

(Rob Grantham) #3

I ate pork off the bones. It was quite lean so also added more fat to it in the way of lard… mostly pork and some beef. I can’t afford to eat beef where I am it’s extremely expensive. I’m enjoying fatty ribs and belly pork. We have our own chickens so the other day had beef Tatar with raw egg as a treat. This is worse than keto adaptation

(mole person) #4

I have big issue when I let protein go high. The standard carnivore mantra that you can eat ad lib protein to satiety doesn’t apply at all to me and I feel pretty shitty if I pass 1.7 grams/kg of lean mass.

In general I keep my fat to 75-80% of the roughly 1300 calories I eat daily (mean value, I don’t count calories but I do track).

Last night I ate closer to 2 grams/kg and I’ve been in some distress since a few hour after dinner until right into this morning. I’m mostly more careful but I was in “finish the leftovers” mode at dinner last night and there was a bit too much lean meat.

(Rob Grantham) #5

When you say distress what are your symptoms? Do you just feel wierd? I get light headed around 2 hours after really bad brain fog, dizzy and sometimes disorientated. Awful

(mole person) #6

I have two sorts of distress. The one you are describing comes from way too much protein AND not enough salt and water. When I eat too much protein, and this happens to my husband even worse, not having enough salt and water seems to stall out digestion and make us feel horrible. All the symptoms you mentioned plus horrible nausea as well, even vomiting. However, we both find that a large glass of water and a 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of salt as soon as that feeling starts helps a lot, and very quickly (about 15 minutes to start feeling some relief.

However, I don’t think it’s right to eat any amount of protein that makes you feel this way, so try dialing it back and tracking how you feel. Unless you are a workout fiend you probably don’t need more than 1 gram/kg of lean mass, but even up to 1.5 should be fine assuming this is your problem.

(mole person) #7

Oh, I forgot. My second distress is a long term abdominal pain issue that the ketogenic diet helped a lot and the ketogenic carnivore diet (assuming very high fat) has helped even more. When I overdo protein I’m in as much pain as I was before keto for a couple of days. And it’s a lot of pain. I used to take narcotic pain meds it’s so bad.

(Rob Grantham) #8

Yes i think it is. When I eat ribs I feel fine. They are high fat. With the higher protein cuts I feel like trash. I’ve also noticed it dosnt even seem to help much even I you add butter to the lean meat.

(mole person) #9

No, exactly. Last night I’d poured a delicious high fat sauce over all the meat but it didn’t change the fact that I’d eaten 85 grams of protein. It’s not the % that matter to your body, just the total protein load, especially if you are getting that load over a single meal.

(Rob Grantham) #10

Yes that’s exactly true for me as well. So from now on I guess I need to keep an eye on protein. I just find it easier to eat fatty cuts. Leaner cuts are so easy to overdo it and oh man it’s just not worth feeling like your death is impending.

(Rob Grantham) #11

And illana did you have any other symptoms when you tansitioned from keto to carnivore?

(mole person) #12

The only other symptom was also related to protein.

I was having this weird issue where I would have my OMAD meal as I have for the last year, but then two hours later I was seriously hungry again. I knew it was impossible that it was real hunger because my OMAD meals are really big and satisfying. Also, if I powered through the hunger that night I’d be absolutely fine all the next day until my meal. But most of the time I’d eat something to get rid of the annoying hunger, and eating at night made me want to eat the next day. Basically I was eating way more.

Anyhow, someone suggested that it might be too much protein/not enough fat and since I knew my protein had gone up since switching to carnivore I started managing those macros better. That completely solved it and OMAD was easy again.

I think too much protein acts a bit like carbs on my satiety. All in all, more than moderate protein is just shit for me.

(Rob Grantham) #13

Yes i also totally relate to that. If I go protein heavy I get that low bs feeling and more hunger I think is the body’s natural response

(Rob Grantham) #14

I know that carni folks are all against measuring macros etc but it would be helpful to have a general idea of fat/protein ratios for this kind of thing. I find even the 80/20 beef quite protein heavy.

(mole person) #15

I feel good between 15-20% protein.

(Rob Grantham) #16

Thanks yeah I’ll play with that a bit see if I feel better don’t want any more hypo type situations

(mole person) #17

Let me know how it goes.

(mole person) #18

I have another question for you. In another thread you said:

I’ve been trying to track down a reference for this. Do you remember where you saw it?

(Rob Grantham) #19

Oh my yes that’s probably why I didnt give a reference. I seem to remember it was actually one of these YouTube keto doctors saying that. I will try to retrace my steps and see if I can find it.

(Rob Grantham) #20

Maybe there should be a new sub group… zero carb high fat? :joy: