Swollen, puffy fingers and swollen feet after keto

#21

It’s my best bet but as I wrote, maybe just going lower may help…? If keto itself triggers undereating in your case. I would lower the carbs (and cutting out the worst items, I don’t know what you eat so I can’t say more about it but not all carbs are equal. my body definitely dislikes simple sugars more than starches and very processed subpar carby things can mess even with my high-carber SO’s body, mine too. we meet those at a relative once in a blue moon and they cause problems even in tiny amounts. and people may be sensitive to items perfectly normal and good for others) while learning to keep my maintenance calories.

(Edith) #22

One of my go-tos for trouble-shooting is food intolerance. When a person switches to keto, one of the big food groups that ends up getting discarded is grains and therefore gluten. It could be possible that you have a gluten intolerance that improved during your four weeks of keto (bloating is a symptom of gluten intolerance) and then reintroducing those grains and gluten caused the bloating to return and remain. So, it may not be post keto causing your problem, but eating some food to which you are intolerant.

Maybe try going back to keto as a sort of elimination diet and see if the bloating goes away. If it does and you truly don’t want to follow this way of eating, SLOWLY reintroduce foods and see which ones, if any cause you to bloat up.

(Joey) #23

@Charlotte1 First, a belated welcome to the forum. We’re glad you’re here.

Having read your posts and the many replies received, I must confess that I too am confused as to what exactly you are expecting to hear?

Most of us around here are convinced from research and personal experience that if you cut out the carbs your health will improve and your body will achieve its self-determined optimal condition.

If you don’t like what your body wants, you can alter that through (unhealthy) diet. But that’s not a goal you’re going to get much guidance on through this forum. We’re into better health, not plumping up your body because you want it to be fatter than it naturally wants to be on a healthy diet.

If you’re hungry on a low-carb diet, simply eat more. If not, your body doesn’t need more food. It’s that simple.

Fat/swollen fingers is a real signal your body is sending you. Ignore it at your own peril.

Best wishes for a health(ier) 2023 for you! :vulcan_salute:

#24

It’s too harsh…
Some underweight people can’t help losing fat on keto. It may be some serious health problem, messed up hunger/satiation signs, eating disorder and many more but it happens. I would first try to eat more, I have lots of ideas and I wrote some if I remember correctly but if it doesn’t work, carbs are better than getting even more emacinated.
We don’t all have a body that gives us the right signs right away and some people is good at ignoring those signs anyway.

Keto isn’t necessarily healthy, why would it be? I can imagine zillion ways to do it wrong.

Even my pretty okay body with good communication with me very, very often tells me it WANTS and needs food asap while I am not hungry the slightest. It isn’t that simple for all of us. (And it’s no problem if we still know how to eat. I even have the sign just not the hunger sign but the “need fuel” sign. some may call it hunger but as it doesn’t feel like hunger at all, I don’t). And it’s me, some people says they are full, stuffed, can’t eat more while having 500 kcal a day or less. No idea how they work but there are such people.
Some are very used to ignoring body signs and do any macros just because they decide on it. Good communication with our body is precious and not something all of us have. Mine is very good I think but not perfect so I need to “overrule” it sometimes. I mean, figuring out if I should eat when my body gives me no input. I don’t do something actually against it.

(Joey) #25

Don’t mean to be harsh, but I would suggest that the working definition of “keto” around here is indeed necessarily healthy.

If you’re doing it wrong, you’re not doing it. You’re doing something else.

#26

Oh. So you have some special definition a newbie can’t really have a good idea about. Well that makes things hard. But doesn’t matter, I am still not okay with what you said as one person’s perfect keto very easily may be unhealthy for the other person.

To me, keto is the diet that results in ketosis :slight_smile: Hence the name. But even if we add a ton of very good restrictions, it doesn’t make it necessarily healthy.

#27

I am not blaming keto. I was just asking if someone experienced my same symptoms as I read in another discussion that this happened to someone else. All of my problems began as I stopped keto but now am far too scared to go back there

#28

But why? They didn’t happen on keto, they happened afterwards… Blame the carbs or whatever other thing you ate there what you didn’t on keto.

Or do you fear keto made your body more sensitive? It may happen, my case is WAY more harmless but my body simply refuses to accept my old amount of carbs where I felt pretty fine and healthy. And I have zero problem with that, actually as it’s indulgent enough. And I probably could get used to it in a life or death situation again (always knowing it’s subpar…)

But maybe there is another factor and it was a coincidence… And even healing on the right woe can work in roundabound ways, it doesn’t necessarily get steadily better and it’s eating the right things! While you started to eat bad things (unless it’s some not dietary factor because who knows).

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #29

If I felt better on keto, then returned to my former diet, and now felt worse, I’d conclude that the former diet was the problem and keto was the solution.

In fact, that’s exactly what I concluded. I have the same problem as you: I feel very good on a low-carb diet, and whenever I yield to cravings and eat extra carbohydrate I get bloated, my joints feel stiff, and my acne and other skin problems return. This is still true, even if I don’t eat enough extra carbohydrate to get kicked out of ketosis. Solution: deal with my cravings, don’t yield to them, lol!

(B Creighton) #30

You are presenting only a partial medical picture, but Colloroygal validly points out that polyuria is a sign of diabetes. You may be prone to diabetes, and eating all those carbs to gain weight could definitely bring it on. I would get your blood sugar tested because you say you are still “eating everything” and still have your puffy fingers. If your blood sugar is high or you are becoming prediabetic, I would think keto would do well for you. The swollen feet you mentioned also makes me a little suspicious of diabetes. I am not prediabetic, but my wife was, and she lost 50 pounds and lots of puffiness in certain areas by doing keto. I don’t think any of us can guaranteee anything about your fingers, but certainly lots of people have gone keto to avoid becoming diabetic or to reverse it. I am a little confused as to why you say you are not a big fan of carbs, but say you are continuing to eat “everything.” You still have the puffy fingers, so it seems like the reasonable thing to do is stop doing that, and see if the puffy fingers go away. Go back to tending “to eat more proteins…” Problem probably solved… If something strange happens, you might need to go see a Dr for a checkup. If you decide to do that post here, and we can suggest some tests you may want your Dr to order to see where you are medically… like a fasted insulin test.

#31

Yes of course. I am having my sugar blog tested on Wednesday. So far it was normal, I am still measuring it every day on my own even though I have to say it’s a bit high for my standard. I talked to a doctor and he told me it’s higher because I must have lost muscle and not just fat. Another doctor told me to do an apple diet for just one day. Polyuria is my worst nightmare at the moment and eating “everything” (not a big quantity of carbs though) doesn’t make me pee all the time. Maybe I should pee to lose water but it already happened a lot and after 6 months my puffy fingers are still there, especially on my hands.

(B Creighton) #32

Your blood sugar can be normal because it is being controlled by insulin. Just out of curiosity, you might ask your Dr to oder an insulin test. If you fast about 12 hours before the blood draw, it is called a fasted insulin test. Ideally, you want the result to be somewhere between 2.5 to 5.5. If not, you may be becoming somewhat insulin resistant. That is an early sign of prediabetes even before your sugar gets out of control. This is always good to know. BTW welcome to the forum.

#33

Thank you for your advice. I am testing my insulin and my cortisol level on Wednesday. I already checked my glycated blood sugar and it was normal. I don’t really know what to think

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #34

This the Ketogenic Forums, a site dedicated to providing knowledge and support to people eating a ketogenic diet. We are all here because we have found keto to be enormously helpful to our metabolic health.

Coming here to complain that you don’t like the effects of stopping doing keto—isn’t that a lot like going to a Nicotine Anonymous meeting and complaining that your clothes smell of smoke, now that you’ve started smoking again? Or complaining to your doctor that your infection started to get worse again after you stopped taking the antibiotic she prescribed?

If you don’t want to eat a ketogenic diet, then eat however else you choose. But complaining that keto took away your inflammation and then your inflammation returned after you stopped eating keto—that’s just how life works, unfair as it may be.

(Megan) #35

What were you eating on keto @Charlotte1? Types of foods and amounts, if you wouldn’t mind? It sounds like fearing weight loss is stopping you from trying to address these very worrying symptoms by eating ketogenically again?

(Allie) #36

So why fear keto when it was stopping keto that caused your problems?

#37

I had never had inflamation before!

(Edith) #38

Why did you try keto in the first place if it wasn’t to lose weight? Most people try it for weight loss but stay around for all the other benefits they achieve.

Also, it’s possible you didn’t realize you had inflammation pre keto because you were used to feeling the way you did. Then, during your four weeks on keto you felt better and now you see the difference?

(Allie) #39

Keto does not cause inflammation, it is anti-inflammatory. Whether or not you were aware of it previously, the sugar and other carbage you were consuming will have been causing inflammation which you are now noticing even more because your body had got used to being free of it and was recovering well, until you decided to dump a whole load of carbage right back into it and caused yourself this upset.

When someone, for whatever reason, chooses to stop eating keto, they need to reintroduce carbs very gradually to give the body the best chance of being able to cope with them. Not suddenly dump masses of sugar into the body then wonder why they have issues…

We are an extremely knowledgeable bunch here with a wealth of experience and we are always willing to help people who wish to learn about the ketogenic lifestyle, but we are not here to reassure anyone who chooses to deliberately flood their system with substances known to be harmful. If you want to cram your system full of toxins, feel free, go ahead, we won’t stop you. But, don’t try to make this about keto when the whole painful situation has been caused by you choosing to fill your face with sugar.

#40

I doubt keto gave you inflammation but yes, it happens that you show something better for your body and it complains when you push it back into the old worse woe, it happened to me too, maybe I mentioned it before. And it’s fine, I prefer my body telling me what it REALLY doesn’t want now that he knows better!
Are you sure you can’t solve the problem of undereating on keto…? We probably can help if you are willing to try… I have so many tips, some of them may suit you… And it’s just me, we are many here…