Its been about 3 weeks since I started Keto and IF. The first weekend that rolled around, I definitely had the “flu”. I figured that was normal and just i would just drink a lot of water. It got better but I’m still feeling achy in throughout the day. I usually fast from 6-7 pm till about 11 am or 1 pm. In the mornings, I get a dull back pain around my upper back and shoulders, slight jaw pain and mild cramping in my right calf. I’m still urinating all the time.I have electrolyte tablets that i throw into my water bottle, but I can only drink it during my non fasting window, since they have carbs. I take magnesium citrate and fish oil supplement with dinner. I know my body is going thru a lot in the last month since I’ve pretty much stopped consuming sugar, drinking alcohol and have substantially lowered my carb intake. Any advice from the Keto “Yodas” would be appreciated greatly. Thanks
Still feeling some keto flu symptoms
Do you have high ketone readings?
I think it hits some people harder than others. I know I was hit pretty hard and it wasn’t until week 4 that I started to feel better. But at 17 weeks in I can still have an off day even now.
I discovered that people who expel a lot of ketones also deplete their electrolytes faster. I was one of those lucky people.
I haven’t tested my ketones yet. I heard the urine tests aren’t really a good test. Should I just get the blood test one? Sorry, but I’m pretty new to this.
Pee strips are decent for telling you whether you are or are not in ketosis. They are less reliable for telling you the level of ketones, unless you’re like me and always registered very high until I became fat adapted.
But it doesn’t really matter if your ketones are high or low anyway. As long as you’re in ketosis you will get to fat adaptation and you will burn fat as opposed to glucose. Higher ketones just mean you’re wasting more of them.
Hi, and welcome to the team!
I think you’ve changed a lot in a short timeframe, and your body is just rebelling a bit. It will get used to it after a while. My recommendation is to find an electrolyte that you can take during your fasting window.
Alternatively, for a couple of weeks, eat 3 meals a day at normal times. You don’t want or need to do that forever, just until your body gets used to not having carbs.
You’ve given your body a shock, and it is building machinery right now inside you to cope with that. You need to feed it to give it fuel to support that.
Cheers
Alec
Thank you Alec! I will take it easy for a bit. I glad that I joined this forum. I’m learning a lot.