Tired on keto

(Aseel M) #1

Hello everyone, Iam so pleased to be part of this community. This is my first contribution and I have read so many articles and it helped me alot through my rather short experience with keto. I will cut to the chase and layout my brief story and question.

This is my 4th week on keto. Iam a female 150cm and as of now 48.5 kgs i have such a small body frame but my genetics are not serving me the best of what is there. I primarly hoard my fat in the lower section of my body. I regularly exercise and do weight lifting ( barbell squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses, the usual)3-4 days a week, i walk alot everywhere i do cardio once a week just running i used to do hiit but i don’t do it anymore.
So my question is i feel tired and hungry in this 4th week which is not usual for me. I naturally fast (lol) i don’t eat untill 3-5pm before i go to the gym just a quick sth like eggs and cheese or eggs and avocado or nuts. After the gym i have my big meal chicken/beef alot of fat olive oil or coconut oil or butter. I also eat a big salad mainly lettuce and spinach. Sometimes i eat veggies like cucumbers and tomatoes with the food. I eat dessert keto home made mainly almond flour and the usuals cocoa powder zero sugar chocolate and whipped cream these are the ingredients i use and that is it for me this happens usually around 9-10pm after iam done with the gym my work and cooking. I usually eat between 900-1400 depending on the day which is not ideal but i have a calorie phobia :confused: Iam a phd student so this works best for me.

Why am i tired? I used to be tired when i fasted with a high carb diet. Then i switched to keto. I stopped being tired now iam tired again.

I hope someone can give me an insight.
Thanks alot

#2

Are you eating too many proteins? That can make you drowsy.

Are you sleeping well enough?

Are you mega stressed / sleepless?

Are you eating enough? If low carbs and adequate protein (but not too much) then maybe a touch more olive oil, butter, … fat …

You said PhD: I find when I read a lot of papers and many books … basically until my eyes literally hurt - I will also start wondering why I’m so tired all the time. I find if a walk and move about more, yes I lose valuable research and development time, but I get that time back with interest in the long run (otherwise I spiral into a void of uselessness, too tired to get anything done).

You could be low in iron or salt or some basic mineral / vitamin.

(Carl Keller) #3

My guess is one of these. Fatigue means you are not getting enough of something. For your height and weight I think you should be eating around/at least 100 grams of fat per day and toward the higher end of your calorie average (900-1400).

At this point, you shouldn’t worry so much about calories. If you are eating mostly fats, it’s not going to make you gain weight and it’s important to get lots of fat in the early stages of keto to train your body to use it for fuel. I know it’s hard to not worry about calories but try to trust the process and eat until you are no longer hungry. A slower metabolism defeats the purpose of eating ketogenically.

Welcome to the forum Aseel.

(Steaks b4 cakes! 🥩🥂) #4

Have you got your electrolytes in check? You might be lacking sodium. …just speaking from experience here!

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #5

It’s amazing how I forget about my sodium every single day until I feel tired and crabby and I suddenly remember that I have bullion powder in my purse and make a cup and instantly feel better. It has helped to put a fingertip mound of salt in my morning coffee everyday and I add extra salt to things that I wouldn’t have in the past, like salads, cheese, etc.

(Steaks b4 cakes! 🥩🥂) #6

I’m embarrassed to admit that just yesterday the penny finally dropped…I felt soo sluggish all week, couldn’t figure out why, my potassium and magnesium I take every day! Then I drank a glass of salt water yesterday and felt 100 times better!!

(Aseel M) #7

Hello, thank you for your comment. Yes i lack sleep alot and there is no way for me around it. I sometimes work untill 2am come home at 3 eat an egg or two go to sleep and wake up at 7 again but this is just for the past two months since i have a paper to deliver. I also found that eating salt and more water those ladt days helped me alot!

But yeah thank you alot, what you said 100% true i sit infront of the screen for 6 hours just reading and then i walk an hour to and from the gym and do my 1 hour workout but that is about it.

(Aseel M) #8

Hello carl! Thanks alot, yeap actually iam eating more butter and olive oil. I come from a middle eastern background so olive oil is like water for me but i spent the last year trying to eat high protein high carb low low fat and i guess that messed up my metabolism

The problem is this new year iam going on a vacation and i don’t want to gain any bit of weight by increasing my calories or fat :confused: but after that iam gonna start experimenting with the calories and fat

(Aseel M) #9

Hello and thank you foe your comment. I just recieved my potassium and magnesium supplements ( i live in japan ) it is hell getting supplements here. And started incorporating them just yesterday i hope this will be it. I guess this week will tell me it is the electrolytes or not

(Aseel M) #10

Thank you alot, i will start adding more salt and try the boullien

(Aseel M) #11

Hey! I always do that during my workouts and it helps alot thank you

(Carl Keller) #12

The beauty of eating a diet high in fat (along with moderate protein) is that fat fills you up and keeps you filled up for way longer than carbs. The process sort of self regulates your calorie intake in that you reduce how often you eat. Picture carbs and fat as fuel for a car. Carbs are cheap fuel and gets you low mileage and you have to keep refueling 4-6 times per day while fat gets you 100-200% more mileage since you can refuel once to three times per day (depending on how much you eat at one meal). There’s plenty of studies where subjects did not restrict calories on a low carb high fat diet and lost weight.

And the saying “Eating fat makes you fat” is one of the greatest and most tragic myths in the last 50 years. If you ask 10 random people if eating fat makes you fat, at least 9 will say yes it does. This false belief leads the world to eat more carbs and it’s the main reason why obesity and diabetes are epidemic. We’ve been lied to. If you google “fat doesn’t make you fat”, you will see 638,000,000 results yet the basic belief that fat makes you fat still prevails. There’s literally tons of research that says otherwise. Here’s one article/video explains why fat does not make you fat.

(Daisy) #13

Everyone has given some great advice here. The only thing I will chime in on is your calorie fear. I was the same way for sure! I was a 900-1200 max calorie girl for all my adult life, including the start of keto. After a month or so on keto, I upped my calories to between 1500-2000. It was terrifying, but I started losing weight again. Good luck!

(Steaks b4 cakes! 🥩🥂) #14

You’re welcome and good luck on your keto journey. Macros are important, but Electrolytes are absolutely key to feeling your best. :blush:

(Aseel M) #15

Hey! These are some great info you gave me here. Since iam a phd student i have access to nice facilities and experimental protocols. Actually i have started experimenting with feeding some mice a high fat diet ( this has been done alot) but my analysis is going to be different. It is more related to inflammation and inflammatory markers. I just started this now with no intention of producing a paper ( i might :drooling_face:). I don’t have a doubt that fat is good and it does not make anyone fat. Actually my father who lived in a small village in Jordan, he lived all his adolescent life eating just a white kinda savory butter taken from sheep and cows and chickens and beef that he raised and the fruits and beggies they grew ( no processed food mo desserts no anything of what we eat not). He looks like he lifts weight, he has never lifted a weight his entire life! I have no doubt about how good fat is.

Thank you for all the resources.

(Aseel M) #16

I really WANT to eat more, like i want to do 2000 calories seriously this will fill me up and make me happy and warm in this cold weather but i guess my frame (150cm, 47.8 kg as of today and 23% fat) what my scale says and i used it when i was heavier so the measurments are kind of standardized ( i was 30% body fat last may). So i think my small body frame would not allow me to do that but iam on the way to increasing my BMR with weight lifting and increasing my cals a bit at a time.
Thanks for the advice :slight_smile:

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #17

What exactly are you feeding them?

(Aseel M) #18

The ingredients are lard, butter, corn oil, casien, mineral and vitamin cocktail and dextrose.
The macro breakdown is
Protein 8.6%
Fat 75.1%
Carbs 3.2% of that 0 sucrose
Fiber and moisture additives
This diet has been proven to induce ketosis in rodents. Interpreting the data of this diet for humans is a bit hard but that is not the intention of this experiment so iam not gonna worry about that .