Feeling uncomfortably bloated Day 8

newbies
(Daniela) #1

Hello!
I am in day 8 of trying keto for the first time. I am feeling bloated and with mild pain from feeling so full. I have felt bloated on about the second-third day in which I thought cooked broccoli might have caused gas so I replaced it for raw baby spinach. The symptom got better but today it got worse, I am really wondering if I should lower my protein intake or listen to my body when its full and skip a meal at the cost of not hitting daily macros/calories by about 300-400cal.
I do IF from 1-8pm, get plenty of water/sparkling water and make a drink with lemon juice, potassium salt -pink salt- and table salt in sparkling water feeling great, no keto flu that I know of! But the bloatness gets worse before it gets better.
Here is what my meals in a day look like:
Breakfast: 1 med. Avocado, 2 eggs OR bacon bits.
Lunch: 1 bratwurst link, 1/2 Avocado, Spinach
Dinner: 1 cup of cooked chicken breast with green bell peppers, 1 slice of swiss cheese, and baby spinach, 2tbsp. Butter.
Around 1226 cal. 92gF 74gP 11netC

Day 6-8 I’ve implemented ACV with lemon with sparkling water in the morning or before a meal.
To help aid this issue, day 7-8 replaced breakfast meal for chia seeds soaked in water for fiber and coconut oil, had the same lunch and dinner.
Thoughts? Should I lower protein OR skip lunch to help digestion? Super new at this but I am loving it besides this uncomfortable bump! No keto flu yet & no cravings for carbs at all! (Insane!!) :grinning:
(A bit about me: female 24y/o. 5’3. 199lbs.)

Thank you for your time!

(Bunny) #2

I am Getting Gas When I Do a Keto (Ketogenic) Diet

Today Dr. Berg talks about what might cause you to have gas during the Ketogentic diet. If you have low stomach acid then your body will not be able to digest protein, new vegetables that your body might be used to or sugar alcohols (erythritol and xylitol).

  1. New vegetables that you are not used too.
  2. Sugar alcohols
  3. Low carb ingredients like almond flour
  4. Low stomach acid

Resources:

[1] Bitters: Time for a New Paradigm

[2] Hypochlorhydria: 3 Common Signs of Low Stomach Acid

[3] Top Foods That Bloat You (Stomach and Face Bloating)

[4] Belly Swelling & Bloating as the Day Progresses?

[5] How to Reduce BLOATING Quickly

[6] 10 Ways to Improve Stomach Acid Levels

(Alex) #3

stick with the raw spinach over the broccoli, at least for now, while your body is still adjusting to the new way of eating. leafy greens, avocados, nuts and olives are all fibrous foods which are relatively easy on the digestive system. also maybe consider cutting out the swiss cheese and butter, and all other dairy for that matter, at least temporarily, and seeing if you feel any better without it. how’s your salt intake? it’s recommended to consume roughly 5 grams (about 2 teaspoons) per day while following keto. some people report less bloating when they eat more salt, others report the same when they eat less of it. and i wouldn’t recommend skipping your lunch or lowering your protein. tbh it sounds like you may even benefit from upping your caloric intake a bit by eating more fat

(Daniela) #4

@adp
Thank you! I will cut out the cheese and dairy tomorrow, and see if that helps while adjusting.
I have not measured salt I only use it sparingly to make a salty drink I noticed the difference after drinking it in energy, & over all taking it in as I read it helps to balance hydration. I will up the salt intake then thanks for the info!
I feel very full as is do you suggest I lower the protein if I add more fat for a higher caloric intake? In the near future for sure while I still get adjusted to this.
Thank you for the help! :grinning:

(Daniela) #5

@atomicspacebunny Thank you!! I will check all these out! :blush:

(Alex) #6

what times are you eating your 3 meals at throughout the day? and yes make sure to drink plenty of water and get plenty of salt. that and/or cutting the dairy is likely to help with the bloating/indigestion. no i would not recommend lowering your protein if you’re adding more fat. keep it where it’s at for now, and once you’re able to get the bloating and digestion issue under control, you may even decide to up your protein intake a bit. i calculated a rough estimate of what your ideal macros should look like based on your height/weight/gender, and this was assuming that you hypothetically get little to no exercise and are aiming to lose weight at a moderate pace. if you are moderately active, those numbers should be even a bit higher. they came out as follows:

image
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you can enter the info yourself and tweak it based on what i may have incorrectly entered if you’d like at the following site. it’s what i used in the beginning and i felt great consuming the amount of food it recommended for me: https://www.ruled.me/keto-calculator/

granted, everyone is different… but i hope this helps :grimacing:

edit: these macros are while allowing you to eat UP TO 20g net carbs daily. you should ideally be consuming as few carbs as possible though, with 20 being the limit

(Daniela) #7

@adp
Thank you so much for calculating everything for me! It’s exactly right! I do excercise but I stopped for a year and barely getting back to the hang of it. I’ve lost 70lbs. Before by doing the usual 1200 calorie intake no macros - not keto, I stopped at 176lbs. And upped my calories to 1600 while doing high protein macros - not keto and I had a hard time eating it all but managed to loose quickly again to 168lbs. Doing cardio and heavy weights 6 days. For 1-2hrs. Since then I’ve gained again and lost the stamina to exercise as much. For now I am trying to get back in slowly that means 30min-1hour walk/runs and already at 1220 cal. While keto I feel way full. I feel as I up the workouts and get used to consistently hitting daily macros I will up the calories as well. Right not while IF I eat at 1pm 4pm and 8pm, I will definitely try having my last meal earlier to help with digestion. I wish it was gas at least you could relieve it lol but it just bloats/ hurts and goes back down after a good while :weary:
Definitely keeping my carbs lower than 20 easily while still doing good on fiber.
I will save the link to the keto calculator you posted and macros I’ll use your tips tomorrow asap and hopefully it helps quickly! Thank you for all your help and time!! :blush: I’ll reply how it goes withing the week :grinning:

(Alex) #8

a few more final-thought tips:

~try to consistently keep your cals around 1600. the low-calorie approach for weight loss has nearly a 100% rate of failure and will slow down your metabolism in the long run.
~consider slowing up on the heavy lifting / cardio for the next month while your body adjusts to it’s new fuel source. too much stress on the body from exercise can elevate cortisol which can cause you to produce glucose, raise your blood sugar, and ultimately lead to weight gain. i’d recommend walking (you can do that daily) or very lightly jogging a couple days a week for cardio, just nothing too intense on the body. weight training can be good for helping you to get fat-adapted more quickly, as long as you’re not over-doing it (raising cortisol). maybe drop it down to 3 or 4 days a week, again, just for the next month or so, so that your body has appropriate time to properly rest and recover inbetween workouts.
~if the other stuff that was mentioned earlier doesn’t help with the bloating or indigestion, maybe drop the IF for a week or so and space out your meals a bit more to see if that helps. eating dinner at least a few hours before you go to bed is always a good call. a quick 15 min walk before or after eating may also help, as cardio is one of the best methods for keeping your bowel movements going

best of luck to ya! please do keep us updated :slightly_smiling_face:

(Daniela) #9

@adp
The heavy weights and cardio was a year prior to today I was in a non keto diet following high protein macros instead, only after 2 years of working my way up to that comfortably. I did fail at the end with giving in back to habits that got me at a high weight to begin with. As of now following keto recently the only exercise is walking and sprinkling some light jogs in between. As I get better I will up the excercise effort and calories. I know I have to up the calories for sure thanks for assuring me of that I will keep updates on how that goes cause I can just keep up with 1200 now feeling so full, but it is a big change trying to go keto at the beginning. Thank you again! :grinning:

(Alex) #10

it is absolutely a huge change!! but it sounds like you’re on the right track. this article may prove really useful to you: https://www.google.com/amp/bodyketosis.com/keto-bloating/amp/. i definitely don’t want to encourage you to instantly jump from 1200 calories right up to 1600, especially if you’re feeling super full after 1200 in a day. gorging yourself to the point where you’re beyond full and feel sick and bloated is not the goal of this diet. but i do believe that 1200 is too little to sustain over the long term. maybe aim for 1250 for the next few days, and then 1300 after that, until you’re up closer to where you ideally should be. the main focus of this diet is to get your hormones under control by cutting out carby, starchy foods, and sugar, so that you can get more in tune with your body, and can better understand what it needs and when it needs it. once you are properly fat-adapted a couple months down the road, you may find that you need way less than 1600 calories daily because your body fat is being used to make up for the deficit. but for now, just work with all of the tips given, make sure you’re getting plenty of fat and enough protein, and eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full. try not to snack inbetween meals either. talk to you later!!! keep me posted on anything and everything that works for ya