Hi, I’ve allready posted once here. I still have a problem with my potassium level. Before keto, I use to eat 3-4 bananas a day and my concentration was excellent. Now, on keto (3 weeks) I constantly feel foggy, tired, I have muscle spasm and so on. I was reading about chicken bone broth but haven’t found pottasium levels in 100 ml. Today I ate 500 g of spinach and 300 g of chicken, and drank 100 ml of coconut water, and still haven’t felt good. I’m frustrated, to say at least, becouse of my constant tiredness. I’m sleeping ok, and in the morning is when I feel the best. I also take potassium supplement but they are in total 400 mg (and I have to get to 4.700 mg). If I want to be in calorie deficit and eat less than 15 g of carb (that’s what my carb manager calculated as 5% of carbs), I need to feel like shit? I cannot eat 500 g of spinach each day, or 300 g of chicken (with that, I “overachieved” my protein macro for 1 day). Could anybody tell me what are the potassium levels in chicken broth? I’m also seriously considering changing my diet into atkins since there you can eat more carbs, and then I would implement bananas back in my nutrition…
Potassium problems
You’re not going to notice a potassium difference in 3 weeks, if anything with 3-4 bananas a day you’re noticing the difference because bananas are all sugar and you’re going through keto flu possibly. Mortons Lite Salt will give you much more than the pills will. Muscle spasms and cramps are typically Magnesium related which is more common than a potassium issue.
As someone who did Atkins for years, that’s not really true. You could simply eat more carbs now, but neither Atkins or Keto, or really ANY low carb diet is OK with sugar bombs like bananas.
Unless you have some condition and you need low protein, I can’t imagine that amount would be too much for you… If you eat more than needed for you, it still may be perfect. Percentages don’t matter. Do you need less protein when you eat less? It doesn’t work that way and keto doesn’t need fixed percentages either.
I can’t help with the potassium problem, I never noticed problems with my probably low potassium intake. My low magnesium intake is worse (I get calf cramps and magnesium always solves it. I’ve heard other electrolytes may be the culprit but it’s always magnesium for me) but I can’t help it now so I supplement it when needed.
Hi, so after I read about that I’m actually having sugar crave, i’ve cheated (i ate some pancakes with chocolate), and I felt better, I have to admit (i know I shouldn’t have). So from tommorow I am again on clean keto. I felt a bit better, but I still don’t understand my muscle spasm. They have appeared 3-4 times in last few days. And I usually don’t have them. I think my magnesium intake is actually over RDA, so I don’t think that is a problem. But when I get back in ketosis I will go and do some blood test to check that
Thank you for your answer. But I have one question related to that. On my carb manager, my calorie intake for maintaing my weight is 1700, so I restricted my calorie intake to 1200 kcal of whick 15 g of carbs, 75 g of protein and 93 g of fat. What happens if I overeat protein and don’t meet my fat macro? In long time period? I have read over the two opposite opinions: in one, overeating protein is not good, and in other opinion, overeating protein doesn’t affect ketosis. So which is it? Becouse over past few days,I’m having problems with meeting my macro goals (my carb intake is ussualy under 10 carbs)… thank you
I live in Vancouver, Canada, and it’s readily available here. Don’t know about other countries. If not, I’m sure there are equivalent products.
Thanks, I’m from Europe, and I haven’t found something like this when I searched. But I’ll google it a little bit more.
Yes I know, but since I thought my potassium was the problem, I wanted to eat something whith high potassium levels so I ate spinach and chicken. Since i cheated with my dinner, and kicked myself out of ketosis, when I return I’ll do some blood test to see what’s up with my electolytes.
Eating the junk food and feeling better confirms it was keto flu, RDA is near meaningless even when you don’t eat keto, when you do it’s beyond pointless. Keto has a diuretic effect on electrolytes especially at first. Many eating keto eat 2-3x the RDAs of many things.
I’d worry about fat adapting before a caloric deficit. You’re not going to eat too much protein, and nothing happens if you eat less fat once you’re adapted, but at first your body isn’t very capable at burning fat as a fuel fast enough to keep you fueled which is why more dietary fat can help at first. Beyond that it’s the lack of carbs fueling ketosis, you only need enough fat to satiety and to support your hormones.
Seventy-five grams of protein a day may not be enough. How much do you weigh, and how much do you estimate is lean mass? You can safely eat 1.0-2.0 g/kg lean body mass a day. So if you weighed 100 kg, and your lean mass were 70% of that (70 g, in other words), you could safely eat 70-140 g of protein. And since most meats are about 25% protein, that means eating 280-560 g of steak or chicken to get the 70-140 g of protein.
The point of a ketogenic diet is to lower your carbohydrate intake to something like 20 g/day. Then you eat protein and fat to satisfy your hunger. Macro and calorie calculations are fun, but not necessary.
I too am a newbie this time around, but I’ve done keto before for many successful years. I Am new to apps (I use carb Manager). It’s been extremely helpful, in that it has given me a good reminder of where the carbs lurk. But I am wondering if I might not get along just as well without the constant input. If i know my fats and proteins should far outweigh the carbs, and I stick with that, won’t it likely be as effective (and perhaps more natural) way of eating healthy? I hate to get caught up in constant monitoring of numbers. (And cable news, but that’s another forum.)
It also could be magnesium, salt, or some combination of these. For me, I try (in this order):
- more salt
- more Mg
- more K (potassium)
If you have pickle juice or olive brine, those are good, and provide much of the above.
If you can find something like Michael suggested, that’s by far the best and cheapest way to get potassium.
I tend to believe that is true, as long as your carb intake is low enough, but with the caveat that there is such a thing as “carb creep.” It can be helpful to measure one’s carb intake occasionally, just to verify that it’s staying low. It is true that some people have a higher carb tolerance than the 20 g/day we recommend on these forums, but we strongly advise not experimenting until you are fully keto-(re)adapted. And by that time, you might be happy with a very low carbohydrate intake anyway.
Personally, I find that a carb intake low enough for me to remain in ketosis can still be high enough to bring back my arthritis and other aches and pains, so it’s a good idea for me to keep my carb intake as low as I can, even if I could technically eat more and remain ketogenic.
Yes
Not the cheapest route Below
But you can try this as an option
They use Redmond’s sea salt
.83 cents a serving
You can Even try 1/2 a serving And get some decent electrolytes…potassium pretty up there
So…YMMV
Not too bad At all
