I have been doing Keto for 5 and a half weeks now and things were ok. But the last couple days something hasn’t felt right.
I used a potassium supplement for the first time last night, and have also been increasing my Sodium intake because I have had headache and have felt generally lethargic.
I also suffer with heartburn so I ended up having a large glass of semi skimmed milk this morning.
However today I feel really dizzy, sick, bad headache and kidney pain. Can you please help?
I’ve been dealing with the dizzy and nausea thing as well and beginning to doubt if this is for me at times. My daughter also follows the keto diet and told me to eat more fat and make sure to have snacks at the ready to make it easier. This week has been tough because the nausea makes me not feel like eating much which just makes it worse. I’m going to speak with my doctor you may need to tweak things to your body some what works for one person may not work for another.
I eat 70% fat if i don’t, i don’t feel as good. Also if i feel lethargic for a period of a week or so, i have one night of pizza and sweets till i feel sick. Next day i always feel good and continue on. But i do think that fat is the key. Body converts the fat to carbs for many functions. Also if i eat too much chicken i will start to feel tired. I then eat more beef, fatty beef and feel better again. I think you have to find your little nitch. And yes i don’t think this is for everyone BUT I also don’t mean that the diet needs to be a carb heavy diet either but more balanced. Just my opinion
I have bouts of feeling lethargic and low grade tummy upsets to. I have a little keto snack and I found an electrolyte supplement on Amazon that has no carbs and lots of potassium and magnesium. In about an hour or less I feel better.
The adrenalin and acetylcholine cause symptoms that are associated with reactive hypoglycemia i.e. Keto flu:
heart palpitations or fibrillation
dizziness
light-headedness (like walking on air)
sweating
headaches
nervousness
irritability (…”leave me alone while I freak out”)
shaking and tremors
flushing
craving for sweets
intense hunger
nausea (beyond motion sickness for me), vomiting
panic attack (be prepared for this one)
numbness/coldness in the extremities (this one will drive you crazy; possible B-complex vitamin deficiency?)
fatigue and shakiness for hours afterwards
I eat more protein when I felt like this in the past, you can add carbs though or a potato or sweet potato (starch) which has minimal impact on the Ketosis! Once you get fully keto adapted (usually takes six months) then these symptoms go away (usually).
Potassium & Magnesium supplements very important!
A lot of potassium supplements have very low dosage due to how much potassium can contribute to kidney stones. I add 1tsp each of lemon and lime juice to 4 of the 500ml waters I do each day to make sure they help with that (lemon juice especially is supposed to help prevent kidney stones).
I’ve had lots of Keto flu symptoms (first week) - the friend that got me started gave me the tip to make up some chicken bouillon if you get really wiped out and weak. Did that a couple nights ago and it really did the charm!!
I have been eating at least 70% fat each day, sometimes more. I have been on a magnesium suppliment for a few weeks and have just purchased the potassium one now. I have started having an OXO Cube with water each day for the last couple days too.
However I still have such ad headache, kidney pains, sick feeling and diarrhea. I really don’t know what I am doing wrong or what is causing this. What should I do!
Incidentally how much water do people drink per day? I have been trying to drink at least 4 litres a day.
depending on how active you are, thats really lots of water. you could easily be over diluting yourself. most people are more than fine with 2-3 liters
I go to the gym 2-3 days per week but other than that I am not active at all. I thought the aim was to avoid dehydration and drink as much water as possible? But I could actually be drinking too much water?
It definitely possible to drink too much water. If you’re basically healthy, it’s unlikely you’re doing any sort of real damage, water intoxication is real and potentially fatal, but unlikely. But over dilution of the blood, when you’re already in a weird place as far as serum electrolyte, as you transition to keto, is real and there’s no point in drinking more water than you need. It’s like all the other nutrients. There’s a point of diminish returns, and if you’re feeling symptoms that could be caused by over dilution of the blood, amd you’re drinking more water than you need to, it makes sense to try cutting back a bit
That is interesting to know. That could well be a contributing factor then.
I traditionally always drank a lot of water each day but have been trying to have even more since being on Keto. I will try reducing and see how that goes.
Thanks for the advice much apprecaited !
4 litres a day isn’t too much. That’s what most doctors or nutritionists would recommend. The “gotcha” is how much potassium you could be losing in your urine…but if your Sodium count is up where it should be, your body does a better job of retaining Potassium.
I’ve actually been around 5 litres a day, but I’m also a bigger guy (just shy of 300 lbs).
A lot I don’t agree with in that article. Some information on water intoxication can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
(down near the bottom, you’ll see there were a couple cases were it was encountered around 8 litres of water).
It really depends on your body mass and metabolism. You should drink when you feel thirsty.
Is this one of those transatlantic language barrier things?
You say that keto flu and reactive hypoglycemia are the same.
I can assure you that here in the UK they are two very different things, and confusing them is likely to cause problems since they require different handling.
I feel like there is so many bits of advice but I really don’t know where I am going wrong.
I didn’t have potassium suppliments for the first 5 weeks of Keto but have started a couple of days ago. But that was when I have started to feel worse too.
The headache has been bad for 2 weeks now, can Keto flu be affecting me 5 weeks into Keto?
I hadn’t been looking to increase sodium before other than putting salt on meals. Again the last few days I have started having a cup of OXO cube with water.
I traditionally drank 3-4 litres of water per day, I think I have been increasing that a bit whislt on Keto. I just don’t know where I am going wrong. It is really tough at the moment.
Hypoglycemia
As I briefly mentioned already, hypoglycemia is the first underlying cause to contribute to side effects during keto-adaptation. This is because the body simply doesn’t know how to burn fat for energy yet.
During the adaptation phase, people commonly feel brain fog, fatigue, dizziness, intense hunger, irritability, and depression.
Although hypoglycemia and its side effects should subside within weeks of beginning a ketogenic diet, look out for these signs and take steps to support your body during this time. …More
Keto Flu
This is perhaps one of the most well-known ketogenic diet side effects. Keto flu is exactly what it sounds like, the onset of flu-like symptoms that arises shortly after beginning a ketogenic diet. This includes symptoms like fatigue, runny nose, nausea, and headache.
Keto flu is a classic manifestation of hypoglycemia that can be corrected with simple strategies that I will outline shortly. …More
Symptoms of Reactive Hypoglycemia and Insulin Resistance What Is Reactive Hypoglycemia?
Reactive hypoglycemia symptoms which can occur in the early stages of insulin resistance, is characterized by low blood sugar symptoms like fatigue, weakness, dizziness, sweating, shakiness, palpitations, anxiety, nausea, a sensation of hunger, and difficulty with concentration which occur after eating an abundance of sugar or refined carbs.[5]
A person could be on the verge of insulin resistance (like myself) but it will not show up on a blood panel and go onto a ketogenic diet and not even know it? A postprandial blood panel might reveal different?