Hi there!
I started Keto last week and I’ve been using an app to track my meals, I’m wondering if I’m doing it right because I’ve still be pretty hungry some days, or first thing when I wake up and I’ve been having dizzy spells.
I stay under 20g total carbs daily and drink nothing but water and the occasional diet soda (I’ve had 3 since I started).
Should I be eating more carbs? Or is what I’m doing right and this is normal?
Thanks in advance!
-KB
You’re likely dizzy because of carb withdrawal and because you’ve lost lots of electrolytes due to it. Fewer carbs means less water retention which means loss of electrolytes, especially if you’re flushing them out by drinking a lot of water. Up your sodium, potassium, and magnesium; be liberal with your salt and eat an avocado.
A chronically elevated insulin level from a high-carbohydrate diet causes the kidneys to retain sodium, instead of excreting it. This means that when eating carbohydrate, we can get away with eating less salt.
When we lower our carbohydrate intake, our insulin level drops, and our kidneys return to excreting sodium at their normal, faster rate. This means we have to work a bit harder to keep our salt intake up. Many people don’t know to do this, hence the symptoms of what is called the “keto flu,” but which should really be called what it is: sodium deficiency. Eat more table salt, and your dizziness will go away. Aim for between 10 and 15 grams of table salt a day.
By the way, other symptoms of sodium deficiency are constipation and headaches. I find that I hardly ever get either of those as long as I keep my salt intake at the correct level.