Hair loss on keto?

#17

Check out the videos about intermittent fasting on Dr. Fung’s site. They say you need to eat a lot on your “feast” days, so your metabolism won’t slow down (which will slow down weight loss and can put you on a downward course to less and less food to maintain a given weight). That’s what I try to do on my feast days. To me it’s great that eating more can actually help you lose weight in the context of intermittent fasting.

#18

Yes, I do. As per MFP I eat around 50 grams of protein per day.

#19

So what does constitute “eating more” on feast days? What do you tend to eat on these days? And are these with IF or EF?

#20

I remember a podcast from their site where Megan Ramos noted that a lot of their patients eat between 2500 and 3000 calories per day on feast days and have great weight loss and blood sugar control results. Yesterday was a feast day for me. It was hard for me to get in 2000 calories, due to the appetite control I’m getting from the combination of keto and fasting. Instead of eating one meal, which is my preference, I ate 2 keto meals and ate a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil to get some extra food in without feeling stuffed. My first meal was a couple of eggs cooked in 2 tbsp. bacon fat with buffalo wing cheese (just discovered this after hearing people raving about it, and it’s amazing) and cheddar cheese and some bacon, a ThinSlim bagel with butter and a vanilla cinnamon keto shake. For dinner I had a McDonald’s triple cheeseburger bunless and a side salad with no tomatoes and homemade low carb dressing. I had a small amount of fresh raspberries for dessert. That put me right around 2100 calories. I’ve lost 7 pounds since 2/28 fasting M,W,F this week. I’ve been doing keto for a little over a year.

#21

And I’m currently intermittent fasting (alternate day), but will have a feast day before I start extended fasting and I take it easy the first day off an extended fast (to go easy on my stomach). I haven’t yet done an EF long enough to worry about refeeding issues. My plan is to switch up my fasting routine to keep my body on its toes, so next week plan to fast M-W.

(Bunny) #22

6 Home Remedies for Low Carb & Keto Induced Hair Loss “…You’ve probably heard this countless times already, but if you’re on a keto diet, you really need to be getting your bone broth in. And talking hair loss, this incredibly collagen-rich infusion is ideal. …” …More

MSM (methylsulfonylmethane)===>Vitamin C===>Bone Broth = to bind keratin and collagen!

KETO: Hair Loss? Before and After Pictures!

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The strug is real
(LaureAnna) #23

Hello Olivia

Here are some resources that may help you find an answer:

Diet Doctor:https://www.dietdoctor.com/can-low-carb-diets-result-in-hair-loss

Dr. Berg also has several videos on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dr+berg+hair+loss

Thank you for raising this issue. I am just starting on HFLC and I would never have thought of such a side effect. But now that I am forewarned, I can do my best to be forearmed.

#24

Increase it to 60. You may not be getting enough.

#25

Thank you so much for your detailed response about your feast day meals! :smiley:

But to clarify, you fasted ALL of M, W, and F? And you lost SEVEN pounds in around three days? Can I ask how much you have to lose to your target weight?

#26

Yep, I fasted all day M, W, and Friday. I have a lot left to lose still, but have lost 80+over the last year.

#27

Thanks for your response! I haven’t been able to fast all day yet as I get too hungry. I can barely IF as is. Do you get very hungry while fasting?

Also I have 10-15 pounds in all to lose to reach my optimum weight, and many people I asked told me that’s why I’m not losing any weight eating LCHF even at a slight caloric deficit. All I do is maintain my weight. My main problem is that the hunger I suffered from perpetually and what led me to researching then starting keto is only partially controlled, so fasting even for 16 hours is very, very hard.

#28

I just recently (a few months ago) started fasting. I would say it can be helpful to wait until you get to the point in keto where you no longer want between meal snacks (natural appetite suppression). I eased into fasting, just slowly extending my fasting window each day. Eventually I was ready for a 24-hour fast. My first one was HARD, and YES I was hungry. It gets better quickly the longer you’ve been doing fasting. Fasting has a huge (beneficial) impact on appetite for me. Also, salt really helps when you get hungry during fasting.

#29

Thanks for the links. :slight_smile: It’s reassuring to hear that this drastic hair loss might be reversible on keto!

Also everyone’s been singing the praises of bone broth. IS there any way of having this without boiling actual bones? I tried the Great Value bone broth and found it very watery and unappetising. Any other recommended sources?

#30

It’s great to know there’s nothing wrong with me! I hear everyone talking about fasting as if it’s the easiest thing in the world and I keep wondering WHY it’s terribly hard for me, so it’s good to know that it is hard and that’s normal. It makes me more willing to go through the hardship if I know it won’t be perpetual.

So one last question: if you fast on alternating days, are ALL the days before the fast a feast day?

#31

Being that collagen decrease due to aging in the S.A.D. eating culture is normally a causative factor of thinning and shedding hair in general aging in industrial culture - I think that the bone broth of more paleo-keto may be key for preventing hair loss on keto, as many of us have been collagen deficient for many decades, and those who aren’t already doing a bone broth regimen are missing that aspect ancient food traditions.

When I embarked on keto last summer, I’d already been supplementing with pasture-raised grassfed collagen peptides (dehydrated bone broth basically) from the economical Zen Principle brand.
It was specific to my strength training regimen with resistance weights (the slow burn protocol) - adding it to shakes or keto egg coffee a couple times a week. I was doing it for promoting production of natural creatine which really helps new muscle growth. Then, when winter came, I switched to using the collagen for mugs of hot broth (with a tablespoon of fat and almost a teaspoon of sea salt or an organic bouillon cube - very tasty and satisfying).

Well - noticeable additional benefits (am at 9 months on keto now) has been no hair loss, in fact the opposite, strong hair and quite remarkable eyelash growth :wink:

ALSO - a lot of folks may not know that collagen is essential for supporting the thyroid, and collagen is sorely lacking in modern keto diets, due to the fact that collagen comes from stuff often not eaten by industrial people: bone marrow/broth, cartilage, and hides of animals. Typical supplementation of collagen with capsules really doesn’t deliver enough into the body - whereas making a good strong mug of broth gives you around 4 tablespoons of it, and it’s been easy for me to work in a few mugs of broth or a few tasty shakes with collagen powder in them! Maybe check it out.

#32

That’s fanstastic to know!!

Do you use the Zen Principle collagen peptide brand for those mugs of hot broth? Does it dissolve and have no taste? I tried another brand before and it clumped and tasted hideous in any drink.

#33

Yes, that’s what I use - and it’s super economical and high quality, as well as a larger container than many of the super-expensive brands.

The secret to a good non-lumpy broth is to pre-dissolve the powder in the mug with just a couple tablespoons of hot water at first and stir quickly to mostly dissolve it with a fork - then add the rest of the hot water (similar to what one does when making chocolate beverages with cocoa powder - not that I’ve been able to do so on keto, since cacao requires a lot of sweetener for my palate, but I digress…)

At first I was kinda skeered of the collagen powder as am not a big fan of instant stuff - I love making my own bone broth for healing soups and have done so over the years,and the industrially produced hydrolyzed collagen peptides from another continent is really… different. Adding it to shakes seemed dubious, and my first mug of collagen egg coffee was scary and I did taste a hint of bone broth which I didn’t like with coffee lol. It has no taste in shakes though. As hot broth, it’s a tasty light beef taste, like you’d get in a restaurant soup base.

But when the cold weather hit I decided to experiment with mugs of broth, I hit the jackpot. I used to add a little dried Thyme and a dash of garlic powder - or a bouillon cube - along with the fat because of still being unsure about that powder. But I got braver and discovered the broth is quite tasty with just fat n’ salt. When the weather gets warmer I’ll be back to adding it to a few shakes a week, and if my eyelashes get too long I’ll cut back hahaha.

#34

Fantastic. Off to buy the collagen powder!

As a related question about fasting, since I heard about “fat-fasting”, is it possible to have bone broth while fasting? That may help me deal with the hunger issue if it won’t break the fast and make it pointless?

#35

I’ll try that, but I wonder if I’ll have much success since I have only 10-15 pounds to lose. Whatever I lost during fasting I promptly put back on when I returned to normal keto eating!

#36

No collagen/bone broth for fat-fasting, as it has protein, which does spike insulin. :frowning:

For fat-fasting, you can use bouillon cubes (I love the organic european brand called Kallo and buy it bulk on Amazon), to make an exciting broth with fat - and it’s very salty n’ satisfying.

Or, you can try what I’ve been doing lately, I break my IF with a mug of bone broth, as a way of reminding myself to get my collagen in a few days a week :rainbow:

For a 3 day fast aiming for autophagy though, it’s more about water fasting from what I understand - haven’t done one yet!