Hello Everyone , newbie here, I started the keto diet about 2 weeks back and I really felt much better than before, I felt more focused, active and I didn’t feel hungry , but since 4 days i’ve been having this terrible rash all over, the keto rash as I researched on it, and its very itchy, its really uncomfortable like needles on my skin. The cure I found was to eat more carbs and its much better now after doing that. So my question is if i am increasing the carbs , and also increasing the fat intake is it going to make a difference than the HCLF diet?. Because before knowing about this diet i was so afraid of fats i thought its the one making me fat. Now i know its the carbs and insulin levels. So will eating more fats while eating carbs ,but not being in keto be a healthy option till i gradually reduce the carbs intake till i cure the rash and try again? is having a hat fat in a moderate carb diet bad? i really want to eat less carbs but the rash is holding me back… Thank you very much for your time.
Increasing carbs to cure the keto rash... Is having high fat with a moderate amounts of carbs, but not in keto yet bad than the high carb low fat diet?
I recently listened to a podcast, keto for women, and a listener had the same question. I believe she said if you couldn’t tolerate the rash, to add a carb like a sweet potato and then move slower into ketosis.
If our carbohydrate consumption is too high, we don’t reap the benefits of nutritional ketosis and lipolysis. If your goal is the metabolic benefits of low insulin levels, you might prefer to ride out the rash and get your insulin as low as possible as soon as possible. If your primary goal is weight loss, then a slower approach might be more worthwhile.
Part of it also depends on how insulin-resistant you are. If you are highly insulin-resistant, getting your insulin level down will be a challenge, the sooner started, the sooner achieved. If you are fairly insulin-sensitive, then it might be easier for you to achieve ketosis at a higher level of carbohydrate consumption. You will have to experiment to find what works for you.
If you want to get into the science behind nutritional ketosis and how to reverse the metabolic damage caused by years of consumption of high levels of carbohydrate, a good source of information is the Dudes’ podcasts which explain everything very clearly.
What Is Keto Rash? Are You Itching on a Ketogenic Diet?
“May the Force (fat adaption) be with you”
IF/EF Keto WOE is Self-Discovery 
Good luck and much success in your journey in IF/EF Keto WOE 
My understanding of the keto rash, from what I’ve read (didn’t watch those videos so this may be a repeat or may be new info), is:
As your body gets settled in ketosis (burning fat most all of the time) but is still not very good at it (inefficient, much higher blood ketone levels because your body hasn’t got this down yet) the build up of ketones (acetone in particular) will be coming out in your sweat and in youe breath. Most people can smell this, a little or a lot. For some people, the acetone in their sweat is super itchy.
Things you can do: take quick showers more often. Use mild hypo allergenic soal. Baby your skin. Use lotion to protect your skin. And you can slow down your transiton into keto to give your body time to get more efficient at burning fat/ release less acetone into your blood. Keto rash will go away if you “suffer through it” but you could say, ramp up your carbs from 20 to 40 for a couple of weeks. As long as you are not doing keto for a serious here and now medical reason like seizures, it really doesn’t matter if it takes you two extra weeks to transition to keto. Most if us do better with going cold turkey into keto (I know every attempt I made to be “careful” with my, carbs, or “just cut out sugar and starchy foods” was a complete fail., but when I just went for it with keto, I did great). It’s a slippery slope with carbs, but if you can keep them just low enough to avoid the rash, and then gradually lower them more and more overtime, you should get to the point where you don’t need to worry about the rash any more, 0retty fast.
Really good advice @SarahJustMe is correct. I read the same thing and noticed the same. When I would exercise I would start itching in odd places like the back of my upper arms, where I would sweat. I never itch there. I would also get a really bad rash in any place that would rub. Since I had gotten rashes there before I did not realize and had never heard of the keto rash. Eventually it went away. I put all sorts of things on the areas where I had rashes previously from the anti fungal cream I had always used (helped a little) to apple cider vinegar. Eventually it went away.
Are you asking is it dangerous to increase your fat and increase your carbs at the same time? That is an open question. The premise of keto is that in the absence of high carbs, high saturated fat is not going to clog your arteries. In a Sad diet (HCHF) it will, think of a doughnut which is both high sugar and high fat or any typical fast food meal.
Take your carbs to the level you need to eliminate the rash. As someone said, that is probably half a sweet potato, not a bag of chips! Eat more nuts and berries (blackberries and raspberries are the lowest carbs). What you add should be whole real food, nothing from a package. As always avoid anything made with seed oils (canola, corn, soybean, cottonseed) as they will trigger inflammation which will not help your rash
I did moderate carb, moderate fat, no grains for a long time but I cheated often. It is not as satisfying as LCHF
Minute 23:30 has the apple cider vinegar and berries protocol.
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