Six weeks in and feeling crappy (electrolytes?)

rbkeeping

My wife and I have been following LC for six weeks now. Neither of us experienced any severe keto flu problems in the first few weeks. We're doing OK with respect to following the WOE, but she has developed a problem that may subvert her will to continue. Every morning recently, she's lethargic and feels bad (weak, shaky, dizzy). She recovers by the middle of the day. We thought it might be low electrolytes, and tried sodium supplementation via beef broth. She developed late day swelling in her extremities, and we think that that was too much sodium, so that's out. Now we don't know what else to do. For the record, we're both taking 400 mg of magnesium citrate, so we've got that electrolyte covered, and we're picking veggies with high potassium potential to cover potassium. Any thoughts as to cause and cure?

Sunny_Bunny_

It’s actually possible to have water retention with low sodium. The body will remove water from the blood into the tissues in order to increase blood sodium concentration.
All of her symptoms sound exactly like low sodium.
When you supplemented sodium more, was there also more total fluid intake? That would continue to dilute blood sodium if even though you’re getting more salt you’re also getting more water...
I would supplement salt without increasing fluids and keep at it for at least 4 days. Aim for 5000mg sodium a day. That’s about 2tsp salt plus salting foods.
If you hadn’t mentioned the swelling, my other questions would be how much is she eating overall? I would’ve been wondering if the problem was being driven by too little intake altogether. But that doesn’t explain the water retention like low sodium does.
Still possibly a factor though?

rbkeeping

She's targeting 1100 calories and 20 grams of carbs, and has days when she doesn't make it (same problem I had a couple of weeks ago). How about if I counsel her to up her calories to 1200, and at least stick to the broth?

Thanks for your advice.

Shron123

Sounds like her calories are kinda low. Also adults need 3500-4700 mg of potassium per day which is hard to get on this woe. I was exhausted and found any exercise difficult until I started taking a 1/4 tsp of No Salt (Potassium) every morning w a tsp of Natural Calm (magnesium). If I take more I get diarrhea

RAC56

rbkeeping wrote: »

My wife and I have been following LC for six weeks now. Neither of us experienced any severe keto flu problems in the first few weeks. We're doing OK with respect to following the WOE, but she has developed a problem that may subvert her will to continue. Every morning recently, she's lethargic and feels bad (weak, shaky, dizzy). She recovers by the middle of the day. We thought it might be low electrolytes, and tried sodium supplementation via beef broth. She developed late day swelling in her extremities, and we think that that was too much sodium, so that's out. Now we don't know what else to do. For the record, we're both taking 400 mg of magnesium citrate, so we've got that electrolyte covered, and we're picking veggies with high potassium potential to cover potassium. Any thoughts as to cause and cure?

I went through this exact same thing when I began keto. Every morning I felt weak, shaky and dizzy and very lethargic. If I tried to bring my sodium level up to 3,000mg/day or more I'd start retaining water. It was so frustrating. One long-going keto member posted that she only needed around 2300mg of sodium daily so I tried to hit 3,000mg of sodium some days and drop back down to around 2,300mg on others when swelling got too bad. I found out, for me, that for some reason it mattered where my sodium came from. My homemade bone broth made me swell but pickle juice did not. So I started trying to add in a little pickle juice for my sodium each day. For a couple of weeks I still had to watch my sodium intake, but then I was able to go up to 4,000mg of sodium daily with no swelling at all. My sodium intake was from the food itself, Redmond Real Salt I added to foods and pickle juice. Being able to take in 4,000 sodium/day was after I'd been on keto for around 8 months so I'm not sure what caused the change.

Now I'm around 3,500mg sodium and doing well. If she really wants to do keto, then I'd encourage her to try different ways to increase her sodium. The electrolytes matter. SunnyBunny is correct. The pickle juice was the game-changer for me. Hopefully it will be for your wife too. I'm addicted to the stuff now......Y U M!!!!

KnitOrMiss

Low calcium can also make it hard to retain enough sodium/magnesium/potassium, regardless of intake.

You do not need calcium supplements 99.99% of the time. Most of us don't get enough D3 - and if we do get D3, we don't get enough K2 for our body to route it through.

D3 helps soak up calcium, K2 is the bus driver to get it where it needs to go, magnesium and potassium are the GPS for directions and the passport to get the nutrients into cells, and boron and zinc are the bouncers to keep those nutrients locked into the cells - so dehydration won't leech all the nutrients from your bones and muscles - causing cramps and/or bone pain, increased injuries, weakened bones, etc. In extreme cases, the nutrients can be metabolized (to save your life), but you'll get the signs of dehydration quicker when your body isn't stealing all the resources to keep that most delicate electrolyte balance in your blood.

Most people get enough potassium naturally when eating whole foods, but magnesium is generally required to be supplemented. Potassium isn't required (currently - it's in process) to be tracked on all nutritional labels, so people often get more than they realize. Too much potassium as as deadly a risk as too little. I personally recommend people speak with a medical professional before adding any potassium.

There are a number of factors here. I'd test drive consistent electrolytes for a while. A little late evening swelling while the body adjusts to new things isn't mission critical unless there are other factors. Adding a little fresh lemon into water can help pull some of that swelling back out...if it's just water retention. Thyroid imbalances can also cause fluid retention, as can undiagnosed diabetes. If this continues on, I would see an endocrinologist or someone else fully versed in the benefits of a nutritional ketosis dietary plan. There are many functional medicine doctors who now do online Skype type chat consults and such, too.

rbkeeping

Thx to all for your well thought out responses.