Potassium, sodium and magnesium during adaptation?

#1

Okay so I’ve gone through keto adaptation ten times or so. The very first time I felt like I had literally the flu (except no cough). It was perhaps nearly the sickest I’ve ever been. After that, I never went off keto for long enough to really get the full blown flu when going back in but would just get a little funk and that’s all.

Now recently I was off keto for more than a month and pigging out on sugar and carbs all day every day. When I went back in I felt pretty bad (though not as bad as the very first time!) and my hands were incredibly weak and clumsy. The good folks on here recommended ketoaid (potassium, magnesium and sodium).

Is a mix of potassium chloride, fumaric acid, monocalcium phosphate and silicon dioxide an appropriate potassium source? These are the ingredients of the salt substitute that I have been using to supplement my potassium. I mix a teaspoon (2,760 mg potassium) with a bit of water and drink it, followed up with some kind of food covered in hot sauce to counter the horrid flavor.

It doesn’t feel great in the stomach unless I have a bit of milk or cheese with it and I wanted to make sure I am not messing up my stomach lining or anything.

Does anyone know?

Finally, I did the math and my magnesium is abundant from food and so is sodium, so the only thing I am supplementing is potassium. Is this reasonable?

(Damon Chance) #2

What iss the number for sodium after you did the math?

(Khara) #3

Be aware that even though we ingest foods that are supposed to be good sources of magnesium, we don’t really know the magnesium content of them and it’s also something that our bodies sometimes don’t absorb well. So, if you are noticing cramps you may need a magnesium supplement. Just something to keep in mind if cramps become an issue. I use topical magnesium oil and also put Epsom salts in baths. Supposedly our body absorbs it topically pretty well.

(Sjur Gjøstein Karevoll) #4

Supplementing magnesium is not an issue. If you get too much the only thing that’ll happen is you get diarrhea (magnesium citrate is used as a laxative at doses way higher than the rda for magnesium). Because our ability to absorb magnesium varies from person to person and food to food just tallying up the amount you eat isn’t entirely reliable. Some say you should keep increasing your dose until you shit yourself then go one step below that. While I agree that’s the best and most reliable way of ensuring you are not deficient I think it’s somewhat overboard in terms of effort. I instead go for supplementing with 100-200% of the rda as a really cheap insurance policy.

Sodium too is not something you’ll overdose on as long as you don’t eat tablespoons of it in a single sitting. Your body is really good at maintaining safe sodium levels. Too much is better than too little, at least in the short term and particularly if you have symptoms of keto flu. My biggest issue with excessive sodium supplementation is how hard it is to eat by itself, particularly salt that’s fortified with iodine (I do extended fasting where I can’t just add it to food). I’ve heard that sodium is one of the very few things we actually have a particular taste for though. If you have too little then everything containing it becomes really tasty, similar to thirst, but if you have too much everything salty becomes a special kind of nauseating. Between those two extremes is a large range from “not enough but not critical” to “more than enough but not dangerously excessive”.

#5

Sodium was just under 3,000 mg for the day.

Magnesium was 573 mg.

Potassium from diet alone was 2,763.

#6

Very interesting thank you.

(Todd Allen) #7

I have a salt I like called “The Original LoSalt” with the ingredients
potassium chloride 67%
sodium chloride 33%
magnesium carbonate
I like it because of the high ratio of potassium chloride, my reason for having it, as I mostly use Redmond sea salt as my main source for sodium. And all the other “light” salts I’ve seen have ingredients that aren’t helpful such as silicon dioxide or undesirable such as dextrose.

I also get bulk magnesium citrate and calcium citrate powders which are easy to add in any quantity desired to most foods and some beverages.

I use these more when fasting/near fasting and otherwise guesstimate and add in on an as needed basis depending on what I’m eating. I don’t think much precision is needed and our bodies are good at adjusting so long as we aren’t chronically severely high or low.

(Clara Teixeira) #8

3,000 mg seems low for sodium. I know I personally need much more than that.

(Championsidewinder) #9

Yes I am up to 9,000 mg of sodium and need more potassium but if I go out in the heat sweating really bad and drinking a few bottles of water I lose so much sodium and might need to go higher like 10g, I’m looking for some ppl saying what their sodium totals are by end of day before bed