Ketogenic diet

You will see your workouts take a dip. Your glycogen stores need to be emptied, and until your body switches over to ketones, your performance will take temporary drop. It will last a few days to a few weeks.

On the bright side, because of your higher activity level, you'll get into ketosis faster than a sedentary person would.

I would advise you to up your sodium to 3000-5000 mg per day. The water lost when you decrease carbs will cause you to lose electrolytes and feel like you have a minor flu. Low sodium could result in depleted potassium and magnesium too. Supplementing them could help too.

Otherwise, remember that replacing carbs with fats will make the diet easy. Moderate protein in is the norm for ketosis.

Also, check out the Low Carber Daily and keto groups for more information and support. There is a LOT of knowledge there and they tend not to frequent the main boards.

Good luck!

It's one of those diets that can really shock your body. I'm normally an all or nothing sort of person, so when I went keto I went full 100% keto on day one. I lost nearly 7 pounds in one week and felt like I was dying- I felt really ill, not well. I truly believe for some people, this is one diet that sees a big advantage with a gradual approach- even just 3 or 4 days to get to 100% ketogenic diet. I basically stopped eating carbs one day. Two days later I felt like I was dying. Do it gradually or you might not be able to stick with it- I couldn't.

Probably a lot of truth to the poster above- nvmomketo- I stopped eating carbs and felt like I was coming down with a flu. Didn't feel minor though.

The first couple of weeks I drank broth a couple of times a day to bring my salt up and it really helped me avoid the "flu" for the most part. I just had a few sluggish days.

One food that has helped me curb my bread cravings is keto mug buns. Theres lots of great recipes on Pinterest for "bread" you can make in a mug. Most as low as 6 carbs and lots of fibre.

Physick wrote: »

It's one of those diets that can really shock your body. I'm normally an all or nothing sort of person, so when I went keto I went full 100% keto on day one. I lost nearly 7 pounds in one week and felt like I was dying- I felt really ill, not well. I truly believe for some people, this is one diet that sees a big advantage with a gradual approach- even just 3 or 4 days to get to 100% ketogenic diet. I basically stopped eating carbs one day. Two days later I felt like I was dying. Do it gradually or you might not be able to stick with it- I couldn't.

Probably a lot of truth to the poster above- nvmomketo- I stopped eating carbs and felt like I was coming down with a flu. Didn't feel minor though.

@Physick you made a true post based on my experience. I even Googled 'dying from coconut oil' because that was my main source of fat to replace the loss of carbs and still is.

hybridrastamama.com/can-you-overdose-on-coconut-oil/

I did not die however and after a hellish two weeks my cravings started to fade and all was well. That was over a year ago and I still am eating <50 grams of carbs daily staying in Nutritional Ketosis. I went to this Way Of Eating for pain management hoping to keep my immune system in tack by not having to start on the Rx med Enbrel.

It worked out for me because 30 days after I left all grains and most all sugars my pain level dropped from 7-8 to 2-3 and over a year later my pain is well managed by my diet only.

As a note to those who are serious about addressing serious health issues by a keto diet I tried tapering off carbs for two months and failed totally. Enbrel injections were scheduled to start 7 Nov 2014 so I only had a month left to test this Way Of Eating for pain management so I left all grains and most all sugars 'cold turkey'. The two doctors were confused when I told them my story and said NO to Enbrel.

There is NOTHING magically about truly eating <50 grams of carbs daily (keto) after you understand the science behind it. Finally at the age of 63 I had less pain than I had the 40 years prior.

@mama2bears there is a learning curve and there is a lot to learn but I have not had a headache in over a year now. Someone mentioned to up your salt and this is because processed foods/drinks are full of salt normally we are getting too much salt. Take it one day at a time.

My 40 years of life defining IBS started to slowly improve and was total gone in six months and has not returned. No sugar crashes even eating 8-12 hours between meals. Do not lose sleep when you eat more than 50 grams of carbs in one day because it will happen. Pot luck meals are a place I accidently go over. When it happens just pick back up the next day and continue. After a year of eating Low Carb High Fat it is still managing my arthritic pain and and my health is improving. I am down about 30 pounds which is good because I was obese when I started.

Keto eating is not for the masses. In my case I had yo-yo'ed dieted for 40 years and was quickly running out of time to reverse my health. Plus we had two 16 years old kids watching me slip away as they had to help me out the car, movie seat, etc.

While keto is not really for weight loss as much as quality of life improvement it will give many hope and a way forward when things are looking dark base on the experience of this old man.

Best of success @mama2bears, @peekadoodle and others to your good health.

Physick wrote: »

It's one of those diets that can really shock your body. I'm normally an all or nothing sort of person, so when I went keto I went full 100% keto on day one. I lost nearly 7 pounds in one week and felt like I was dying- I felt really ill, not well. I truly believe for some people, this is one diet that sees a big advantage with a gradual approach- even just 3 or 4 days to get to 100% ketogenic diet. I basically stopped eating carbs one day. Two days later I felt like I was dying. Do it gradually or you might not be able to stick with it- I couldn't.

Probably a lot of truth to the poster above- nvmomketo- I stopped eating carbs and felt like I was coming down with a flu. Didn't feel minor though.

I had exact same experience

sarsather wrote: »

Physick wrote: »

It's one of those diets that can really shock your body. I'm normally an all or nothing sort of person, so when I went keto I went full 100% keto on day one. I lost nearly 7 pounds in one week and felt like I was dying- I felt really ill, not well. I truly believe for some people, this is one diet that sees a big advantage with a gradual approach- even just 3 or 4 days to get to 100% ketogenic diet. I basically stopped eating carbs one day. Two days later I felt like I was dying. Do it gradually or you might not be able to stick with it- I couldn't.

Probably a lot of truth to the poster above- nvmomketo- I stopped eating carbs and felt like I was coming down with a flu. Didn't feel minor though.

I had exact same experience

I had keto flu for 11 days when I went low carb, even though I knew about it and knew to increase various salts that were being lost. Once adapted, I had energy though. (that was 3 years ago)
If after the keto flu, it stills seems like you aren't getting benefits or you hate the food, THEN I would say it might not be a good fit for you.