Sort-of new, but I have questions about ketone levels and also leg cramps

[Sharon55]

Hello, all. As a lifelong failed dieter, a friend felt my frustration and came to me with her own keto success story last fall. She suggested I give it a try. I was sure it wouldn’t work, so I started only halfheartedly in mid-November without really doing much in the way of research. I took a little break at Christmas, but resumed after the new year.

I’ve since settled in, done some reading, learned about some sweeteners I’d never heard of, stocked up on coconut oil, stopped being a vegetarian and resumed my love affair with bacon. OK, I read quite a bit and am confident I’m doing this right.

I bought a blood-test keto meter thingy (Precision Xtra), which tells me that I’m typically at 0.6-1.2, except for that one time when I fasted for 24 hours and got up to 2.1. I took a look at some blogs, Reddit posts, and this forum, and it seems that my usual less-than 1.0 meter reading is much lower than what most people experience on this eating plan. Is my body just uncooperative and lackadaisical?

I am losing weight. I’ve lost 17 pounds since I started and hope to lose another 65 or so. I think that averages out to about one pound per week, which is actually better than I’ve typically done on a “traditional” so-called healthy diet. The upside here is that I am never hungry. Never. I figure that if keep losing at a rate of one pound per week, that’s 52 pounds in a year, which means a year from now, I’ll be close to my goal. I just wonder if I could be losing faster.

I’m in my mid-50s, female, and wondering if the not-astounding blood test numbers are just my body being its usual stupid self. I do count calories and try to stay under 1400 a day since I’m not especially active.

Also, can we talk about nighttime leg cramps? They’re intermittent, although I do take a high-potency magnesium supplement twice a day, plus I add salt to my daily two-liter water intake, in addition to salting my food. Are leg cramps a typical keto thing, despite including salt and magnesium in my diet? I appreciate any insight!

[EZB]

Quick notes:

Don’t chase ketone levels. Anything over 0 means fat is burning. Anything over 0.5 is considered in ketosis. My ketone levels go all over the place. I could eat and be at 2.5 30 minutes later. Or I could be at 0.7. I may be 4 days fasted and at 1.5 or 6.2! It doesn’t matter.

Leg cramps are probably an electrolyte imbalance. What are your salt and potassium sources and intake levels? You need a LOT more salt on this diet and enough potassium.

[Sharon55]

Potassium is tricky because I have a sort-of electrical short that occasionally tells my coronary artery to spasm. It’s affected by imbalances of sodium, calcium, and potassium. I can’t do a supplement on its own, but I do eat a whole avocado every day. I eat a lot of spinach and broccoli, also. There is a small amount of potassium in my daily vitamin. I have trouble keeping a normal blood sodium level anyway (and that was before keto), so I’m trying to eat salty foods every day, such as dill pickles, pickle juice, pork rinds, and sometimes salted nuts. I do salt my food generously.

Thanks for the insight about the ketone levels. A lot of folks seem to live and die by those in the keto world.

[Robert_Johnson]

I’ve recently been waking with cramps in my feet. I already knew it’s probably electrolytes, so I make sure to intake a bit more salt, and that helps until I forget about it and start cramping up again. Something that helps me everytime is a salty nightcap. Basically a ketoade before bed. About 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of salt chunks. In this case it’s the extremly corse salt you put into a salt grinder. It doesn’t have grains it has gravel🤠. The chunks are as big as 3 or 4 mm across.

So I put the afore mentioned chunks of salt into a medium glass of water with a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar (with ‘mother’) and a little Stevia sweetener. Ice cold also helps the first few times. Oh, I also use some crystallized lemon or lime in it. About 2 packets. Help with my kidney stones. Which I use to have one a month, and now haven’t had one since going Keto 5 months ago.

By the way, when I make that drink, I put all the dry ingredients into a coffee cup, and pour a couple of oz of hot water to get the crystallized lemon dissolved, as well as rounding off the rough edges off the salt. The salt will only partially dissolve, but the idea is to get it all down. So as I finish the drink, I just be sure to gulp down the remaining salt crystals at the bottom.

Since doing this, no more cramps. Granted, this might be doing nothing more that beefing up my electrolytes for sleep, but at least I’m not waking up in the middle of the night with massive foot cramps😎.

[Kaykay]

Where do you get the crystallized lemon packets? Tyia

[Robert_Johnson]

I get them Walmart and Foodlion. I’m pretty sure any large grocery chain will have it. They tend to forget where it should go, and I have found it in the baking isle with flour and spices, as well as the drink mix isle with the powder sports drinks.

[Kaykay]

Thank you so much! This will help while on the go