Hi everyone, I’m T2 diabetic who’s very wet behind the ears when it comes to the Keto Diet (ok’d by doc), checked the ketones & I’m in ketosis. I started out wrong since I was drinking plain water like nobody’s business & not replenishing my electrolytes, so learned the hard way on that at 3:30 this morning. Made some Ketoade & figures out I wasn’t even getting much electrolytes from the food I ate before today. Anyways, thing I s, I’ve been drinking bone broth with 1/4 tsp Himalayan salt with each cup, (4 cups) total today, pretty sure should only be 2 but wanted to try to get my depleted electrolytes up; hence the 4 cups. So question: How should I space out my bone broths? I seem to get all heart palpable after I drink one. An should I stop & restart or keep on truckn’ through how I feel? I have PTSD & it seems like when I have something, like bone broth that’s salty I feel like I’m about to have an attack. Scares me but I’m trying to tell myself it’s part of the process. At the same time I’m killing my husband with having the hearter on in the car & our space heater in the room cause I’m cold constantly. Any help would be absolutely appreciated & fabulous. Also if anyone knows of a true way to figure macros for a 4’11 173lb female that would be awesome cause I’ve seen very different numbers & I don’t want to be eating more protein then needed or fat, since I have more then enough. Thanks again everyone & sorry if none of this made much sense.
Feeling like a panic attack is about to hit
I like to space out my bone broth fasts nothing to eat 4 hours before or 4 hours after for better absorption of collagen and hyaluronic acid (the bodies molecular glue).
So I do this maybe twice a week or so…
Bone broth is a very sacred part of my ketogenic regimen so I’m not eating it everyday, but I am very consistent with it over long periods of time, it is not just something that I eat once and expect to reap the extremely long and extensive laundry list of benefits!
So was 4 cups ok for today to help me start to replenish my sorely depleted electrolytes from a newbie mistake of drinking 100oz of plain water?
So is it because I chugged 2 cups of bone broth the reason why I felt panicky or is it just something you go through with the Keto flu? Like right now typing I feel light headed but my potassium, sodium & magnesium numbers for today are within range if I am correct with the info I’ve found for all 3. Am I correct that
potassium should be 4700
Sodium 5000
Magnesium 400?
Yeah I remember seeing recently about rendered fats and how they rapidly contribute to raised blood triglycerides. The advice given was that it’s always better to eat your fats rather than drink them… Maybe if possible try having the salt on meat instead and just drinking water? Or salting water and getting sodium this way?
Source for rendered fats resulting in increased triglycerides
Feel like death day 3 zero carb
Is there a walkthrough per day of how one should actually start the Keto Diet? I feel as if I’m doing it all wrong & dealing with all these “symptoms” has me getting depressed & wanting to give up in this till I know what I’m doing or should be doing.
Thank you for the info, trying to stay positive & tell myself I can do this but it’s hard when your the only one going at it in a household w/ 4 extra people. So does everyone have these same symptoms of like heart palpations, dizziness, feeling cold constantly, nausea at times when feeling dizzy?
Elena
Different folks get different symptoms, but this sounds a bit like keto flu, but not totally. Are you feeding enough? The cold symptom sounds a bit to me like you are not feeding properly? Are you deliberately keeping calories low? If so, in the early stages of keto, this is not recommended.
Heart palpitations and dizziness sound like maybe electrolyte imbalance, and it sounds like you are trying to fix that with the bone broth. I would keep drinking that to your hearts content.
Work through these feelings for a couple of days, but if they continue I would recommend another trip to the dr to check everything is ok.
Most important: you are not alone!! We are here for you. You have done great getting to this stage, please use these forums as your support mechanism. We would love to help you through things. There is a LOT of experience here, and lots of people happy to help.
Hi and welcome
I’m pretty new to this, just 14 days in, and I don’t know if there is a walk through anywhere but, you’ve already been pointed to the beginner’s guide thread which should help.
My take is the only wrong way to start is not to.
Everyone is different, everyone has their own take on keto, depending on what works for them, some fast, some don’t, some have zero carb some go for 50 or 100g a day. It all depends on what the goal is.
You made a mistake with the plain water. It happens. You’re putting that right, excellent move.
If I were having heart palpitations after drinking the bone broth I think I’d either stop drinking it, or dilute it. My understanding is that a big part of keto is about listening to your body, and your body is telling you something.
I understand about PTSD and panic attacks and while our triggers may be completely different, the physical and emotional effects will be very similar. I also understand that this can screw up our body’s response to other stimuli, but I don’t think it should react like that to bone broth.
You’ve done really well to kick start refueling the electrolytes needed, I would take it a bit easy now and feed.
Eat the protein and fat until you’re full; strange as it may seem, this will help you lose fat! If your not convinced I’ll give you my n=1 results. I started 2 weeks ago, took a couple of days to get carbs down (I’d done no planning so plenty high carb food in but not much else). On the Friday I got a friend to help measure me. A week later (last Friday) we repeated the measurements 1" from bust 1.5" from waist and 2"from hips. I don’t know what this equates to in kgs but it’s good enough for me!
Don’t be afraid of fats, this isn’t a calorie restriction, it’s a eat till you’re full and listen to your body way of life.
I hope the others in your house support you. As you become fat adapted and they, and you, start seeing chances for the better, maybe they will join you. In the meantime, when cooking for you do extra and feed it to them too, they can have the extra carbs they think they need, but will still be a little healthier.
Good luck, kcko, and let us know how it goes.
I’d say to try and space out your bone broth if you are having those symptoms. The hit of salt might be a little too intense at one time.
I only had bad leg cramps when I went low carb and I added avocado to my daily intake and now I swear by Theraworx. I still get them even if I am getting all my electrolytes.
My Dad had low sodium levels and he kept passing out and his BP dropped too low, so it makes sense to me that you would experience opposite symptoms with a bunch of salt.
Welcome! It is great your doctor is on board with keto. I think once you figure things out you will be very happy. I agree, the coldness sounds like not enough food. If you are certain that is not the case, maybe ask your doctor about it if it continues.
Keto can be confusing at the beginning, but only because it is so simple we have a hard time accepting it and try to complicate things.
20g of carbs or under
Protein to keep healthy.
Fat to satiety. (Till you aren’t hungry.)
You really don’t have to be afraid of protein. Most people naturally eat the correct amount unless they are purposefully limiting it. If you eat more than you need one day, you will probably just not feel like eating very much the next day. And fat also, at the beginning don’t worry about that either. Later on you may want to eat less of it. But at first your goal isn’t weight loss, it is letting your body adjust to the change. That said, plenty of people lose weight right away even though they are eating what feels like a lot of fat. Others don’t lose right away as their bodies focus on other healing that isn’t so visible.
I’m glad you’re here!
Before I started Keto I was eating at 1,250 & have been for about a year. I’ve lost about 30lbs w/ that last year when I trained for my first 5K so I just thought I could stick w/that. I felt warmer after eating more fat which brought my calories up so I definitely need to change that. It’s hard w/ my mentality saying “too many calories!” My husband is extremely supportive & would like to try it also but I told him to wait & let me be the guinea pig & work out all the kinks since he’s not quite ready to start. That & since I’m feeling like crap, we have at least one parent that’s functioning. I definitely will be spacing out when I have my bone broth cause I haven’t been able to sleep because of the heart palpitations which I think are causing my bp to go up. Even though just did bp & it says 126/103. Any idea on what is the lowest intake of sodium that recommended on Keto? And any ideas on how to get the recommended amount of Potassium cause that’s where I know I’m really failing. I did the bone broth to aide in that but got the result of maybe too much sodium. Should I just focus on potassium & do 3,000 sodium? It’s all so confusing. When I started to change my life around I was at my heaviest, 300 that was in 2007. To date I am 173.
Hey still new to Keto. Does this mean I should not be taking “Keto Coffee”, MCT and Butter?
No. If it works for you then do it.
That’s the thing with keto - everyone is different and each of us needs to work out what works for us. As long as carbs are low (typically under 20g/day initially), you consume enough ptotein/fat and keep electrolytes at reasonable levels, you’ll do ok.
I can’t do coffee (I get a bad reaction to caffeine) and never really drank it anyway, but just because I don’t first mean that everyone else has to stop having it.
I would say that its more important to get nutrition from food before fats drunk in a liquid form at body temperature. These drinks contain a lot of energy. Im not saying the body is not able to process this but obviously it adds strain on both the liver and kidneys. Food is something we know about. It also contains fiber and protein which slows the digestion/emulsificatin of FFAs into the blood. Pouring MCT or any other fats into coffee im a bit dubious about. It doesn’t seem natural… Having said that you have to feel for yourself if it feels right for you.
I think 2+ teaspoons of sodium is a good starting point. I make a conscious effort to get at least that much and I don’t suffer from any keto “flu” like symptoms. I do know when I slack on the amount of sodium I get, I tend to get cramps in my legs. It’s happened twice and each time I pay better attention to sodium and the issue is resolved.
The following is from a salt article backed by studies. Just keep in mind that when we restrict carbs, we need more sodium than the average person since we are lowering insulin and are excreting sodium at a much greater rate.
Scientific evidence suggests this may be harmfully low for most people. Based on a study of over 100k people across 17 countries, “an estimated sodium intake between 3 g per day and 6 g per day was associated with a lower risk of death and cardiovascular events than either a higher or lower estimated level of sodium intake.” Another study looked at ~275k people and found that between 2,645mg and 4,945mg of sodium per day was the optimal range.
As for potassium, defiency is quite rare and I believe if you get enough sodium, this helps regulate the other electrolytes. I know for a fact that when I ate the SAD, I was barely getting any potassium at all without showing any sign of deficiency and now, I get a whole lot more than I ever have.
I truly truly truly appreciate everything that everyone has said so far. After my last post I really started feeling like crap so I broke down & ate 1/2 of a 2” in diameter nectarine…actually had my hubby measure it 
& ate 10 frosted shredded wheat bites, so total 24 net carbs & it started to make me feel a lot better to where I was able to relax & go to sleep. Woke up & checked ketones…
still in ketosis although just a trace. I feel whole lot better. The toughest thing for me will be to not think CICO & that fats are our friend. I think I also need to spread out the salt throughout the day. I’m starting to realize there’s nothing more important with this diet then listening to your body & having a support group, thankful I have that in my hubby, family & now this forum.
Keep it simple about macros for now, focus on carb limits of 20 grams per day.
I would ask about caffeine consumption, being keto has made me more sensitive to caffeine, I definitely cut back.
Also spreading salt consumption out is a good idea. I hope you’re feeling better soon.