Help me with keto flu!

(s lee) #1

Hi - I’m a female at 168 lbs,5’6" /target weight 145-150. I started keto because for a few years I get carb cravings at night and I feel like I dont have much control over them… I’ve usually been a pretty healthy eater, and pretty active and It bothered me to see my healthy eating slipping and pounds slowly accumulating. I’m at the highest weight of my life – have gained about 25 pounds slowly over 15 years, and I want to reset that. I tried some mild changes to diet, but nighttime carb cravings cause a fail!

About ten days ago I started lowering carbs (never ate much sweets, but cut out rice bread, and any non whole food source of carbs), and 4 days ago I went down to about 30-35 net carbs. I have been tracking my food in MFP ( switched to cronometer)

My problem… starting yesterday Bad keto flu: It Started with a brain fog, and weird emotional state + dizziness + headache+ overwhelming thirst & “thick tongue” feeling & metallic taste. & I was “peeing like a racehorse” :slight_smile:
I read up, and started supplementing with salt (1.5 tsp) & potassium & magnesium, and drank about 11 glasses of water yesterday.
Today I made a drink of 1 oz fruit juice, 400 mg potassium, 1 tsp salt & 2 liters water & drank it throughout the day & salted food.

I’m not very hungry - yesterday I only ate about 1400cal, and today about 1300

I read somewhere else that it may be good to raise carbs back up a little, so I raised my net carbs to 40-45 today.

My overwhelming thirst has eased up but - yesterday evening I started getting stomach cramps, and body aches – now It feel sjust like mild flu: body aches - past injuries ache, headache, mild nausea, occasional stomach cramps, , fatigue.

I have a business which requires me to be on my feet working/walking 5 hours a day 3-4 days a week. Also I walk/swim or workout about 3-4 days a week for an hour. I walked 4 miles 4 days ago, but have not exercised since then, though I’ve had to work the last two days.

I’ve been eating good stuff : avocado, chard, cheese, hemp seeds, nuts - today magnesium is at 950mg , salt at 3700mg and potassium at 2700

questions to the wise

  1. Is there anything else I can do to feel better (get rid of body aches and tiredness?) Should I take ibuprofen or tylenol??
  2. Should I try more carbs before I work on a day I have to be on my feet? today I was really cranky and could barely work.
  3. my ratio so far today is 65/18/18 1270 calories, and I really am not hungry. Should I force myself to eat more? more protein?
    If this lasts too long Its going to affect my business. Would backing off to a very low carb diet (60-80 net carbs) for a few weeks, and then trying again help make the keto flu be less painful?

I’m not in a rush to lose the weight, so I don’t care how long this takes. I’m determined to give it a try. I do love the fact that I have not craved carbs, and I’m not hungry. Thanks!

(Consensus is Politics) #2

There are two schools of thought that I know of about keto flu. Electrolytes or carb withdrawl. I’m open to either, they both make sense. I’m sure mine was electrolytes, as taking extra salt fixed mine nearly instantly.

As fir carb withdrawal it sounds like you are taking steps to wean yourself off them, and that might work. I wouldnt dismiss the effort.

When I started keto, I anticipated bad carb withdrawals. So I went hardcore keto. I opted zero carb. Cold turkey carbonongrata. That so called induction phase wasnt bad at all. I was noticing some weakness, some slightly flu like symptoms, but for the most part I was able to dismiss the feeling and felt pretty close to normal unless I dwelled on it.

You are bound to be swamped with suggestions. Everyone is different and reacts differently.

Keep calm and keto on.

(s lee) #3

Thanks Robert! I guess I went into this without realizing about the keto flu thing. I guess if it goes on too long, I will have to back off so I can work!! But I have two days until a higher-exertion day, So I guess I’ll stick to sub 30 carbs for a couple days,

If I had symptoms like bad breath, low appetite, etc, I guess that means I was entering ketosis???

(Justin ) #4

Seems like a lot of water you are drinking. Thats all I can see.

(Alec) #5

What you are experiencing is common, and it looks to me like simple carb withdrawal symptoms. Some may disagree with this, but I would take some aspirin and just carry on. Grit your teeth, it doesn’t last long.

Personal view, upping your carbs would be a mistake. If anything, I would lower them to get through this as quickly as possible. Just know that this is what to expect for a few days, and make adjustments and allowances if you can in your work day.

If you are not really hungry, this is a good sign. Just eat to satiety, my recommendation is have some fat bombs available to snack on if you feel grumpy.

If you feel you really can’t survive it with your workload, then perhaps delay to a holiday period and restart when you don’t have work commitments.

(Carl Keller) #6

Hi bosco.

I would drop the fruit juice. All that fructose is like drinking liquid carbs and only going to slow your body from switching from burning carbs to burning fat.

The only keto flu like sympton I experienced in my first week was light headedness. Increasing my sodium to around two teaspoons per day fixed that. You should realize that when we restrict carbs, it lowers our insulin and insulin helps us retain sodium so it’s important to make up for this.

#7

It looks to me like you’re straddling the line with the carbs, and I understand because my first week was a nightmare of withdrawal. If you feel like you need a few extra carbs to function, make sure they’re not of the sugary variety especially liquid sugar like juice.
Then I’d look at the calendar and plan for a 2-3 day period where you can go cold turkey. Your brain will feel better when there are some ketones circulating even though it might take a while for the rest of your body to learn how to digest and use fat. Consider adding some ketogenic oil/s to your morning routine to get you over the first hump.

(Jody) #8

There’s nothing wrong with easing into this process if you are feeling horrible and it’s affecting your work/life. I know folks like to push through the pain, but you also have the option of slowly doing this.

I was fasting before I did low carb to reverse type 2 diabetes. I started lowering carbs to make fasting easier. I took one meal at a time, first I eliminated them from my lunches, then dinners. I wasn’t completely symptom free, but I would go a few days feeling fine and then one day be exhausted. Go a few days feeling fine, then REALLY bad headache. I guess I stretched out the pain… but it was still there. I am months in and I still get days, if I’m not careful with electrolytes, I get horrible cramps.

(s lee) #9

Carl I dont think one ounce of fruit juice is that much. 3g carbs. it helped me to down the salty drink to have a tiny bit of sugar. Also seemed to help with the lightheadedness and allow me to be on my feet.

(s lee) #10

Thanks for all your suggestions!! :slight_smile: :grinning:

Update: my lightheadedness is better. I still feel weaker than normal, but not extreme. I ended up getting such bad body aches, with old back pain flaring up that I couldnt sleep, so I took a pain killer to sleep night before last. after a hot bath . I use these typically very sparingly.

My overwhelming thirst got better yesterday… since I live in a hot climate I typically have to drink at least 6 glasses of water a day, so I’m used to having to drink a fair amount to stay hydrated.

Yesterday I had extreme stomach cramps pain and bloating starting in the afternoon with intermittent sharp pains and nausea- I usually eat a pretty healthy diet with lots of fiber from whole grains and seeds, veg and fruit and cant remember ever having constipation, but I think it was related to gas/constipation. I do sometimes get GERD… I found suggestions by Dr Berg and others online, and I ended up taking the following throughout the evening, which eventually caused my stomach symptoms to ease… so I’m not sure which was responsible most, (I kept trying things to see what would help) but I definitely feel much better today!

Natural Calm (Magnesium citrate powder) in water
Epsom salt in water (1 tsp)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar in 1c water (**this definitely helped right away with reflux/gas)
1 tsp of fennel seeds (chewed well) (seemed to help calm my stomach)
200 mg potassium with 1/2 tsp salt in 12 oz water
2 tsp psyllium seed husk in a few oz water (to help with constipation)
Enzyme pill (complete enzymes for fats/proteins/carbs/milk)

I think I’m even going to try a swim today!!
By the way I have been keeping net carbs at 40, and it seems to be working fine. As I said I dont care so much about “maximum ketosis” I mostly care that my carb cravings are gone, and so far they are!

(s lee) #11

One more thing: Dr Berg suggested looking at scaling back on any new foods which I have increased a lot with the keto diet that I didnt used to eat. In my case I added hemp seed, and have dramatically increased nuts and avocados, so I’m going to not eat as much of those for the next few days to see if digestion improves.

But I am now a convert to apple cider vinegar for reflux and digestion!

(Alec) #12

Nuts. I reckon your digestion (and possibly other) problems are due to nuts. Take them off the menu and see how you go.

I used to get a bad stomach feeling after eating nuts. Stopped eating them, problem went away.

(s lee) #13

Thanks! I always have eaten nuts without a problem (mostly peanut, almond, and cashew, but not as much as I did in the last few days. ) I am scaling them back to my pre-keto diet levels, and will try reintroducing when things have balanced.

(Keto butts drive me nuts) #14

I found that drinking water helped me through this sugar withdrawal. Stay strong!!!

(s lee) #15

I definitely have been drinking water, but making sure to get enough salt and postassium was important… I know that keeping the electrolytes up is important too!! I know this from past experience. a few years ago my mother was hospitalized for drinking too much water because she wasn’t eating much, and completely depleted her electrolytes… She got extremely weak with low blood pressure, and even got hallucinations.

Since then, I completely respect electrolytes!!

(Alec) #16

Indeed, stay strong, you will get through this, and the health benefits of sticking with it are enormous. Sounds to me like you are already coming out the other side. Keep calm, you will get this!

(s lee) #17

Thanks everyone! I’m off to log my food and then swim! Have a work day tomorrow, and hopefully will survive it!:heart_eyes:

(s lee) #18

One other thing I found out! I was taking Magnesium oxide which is not at all well absorbed into the body. Evidently Magnesium Citrate is much,much better absorbed, so that probably helped. Magnesium helps muscles to relax, so a deficiency can cause cramps, So I was probably deficient because I was taking the wrong type.