new here and wanted to ask a question
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yuggybuggy
Posts: 20 Member
hi, I am new here, but have been eating low carb 3 months now
I am losing weight, slowly, but the question I wanted to ask is how come some people seem to have so much more energy on this woe?
(I would have searched for a similar post but cant seem to find a search option)
I eat fish, meat, cheese, eggs, veg, and a few berries for breakfast
I cant seem to eat big meals at all
I eat virtually no grains (except the odd treat occasionally), no pasta/rice/potatoes
and before this I was doing the fd for 4 months
but this lchf seems to really leave me much more tired
and the only time I bounce back is when I have eaten sugar
I mean - SURELY my body has got used to this by now?
and according to the ketostix I am in ketosis
any advice?
perhaps I really do need to return to more carbs
I am losing weight, slowly, but the question I wanted to ask is how come some people seem to have so much more energy on this woe?
(I would have searched for a similar post but cant seem to find a search option)
I eat fish, meat, cheese, eggs, veg, and a few berries for breakfast
I cant seem to eat big meals at all
I eat virtually no grains (except the odd treat occasionally), no pasta/rice/potatoes
and before this I was doing the fd for 4 months
but this lchf seems to really leave me much more tired
and the only time I bounce back is when I have eaten sugar
I mean - SURELY my body has got used to this by now?
and according to the ketostix I am in ketosis
any advice?
perhaps I really do need to return to more carbs
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Replies
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http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10358179/keto-flu-dizzy-weak-tired-headaches-cramping-muscles-electrolyte-imbalance-may-be-your-problem#latest
Electrolyte imbalance may be the answer.4 -
Could be electrolytes, dehydration, the process of keto-adaptation....
Luckily, there's a ton of great information that's been compiled in this sticky:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10103966/start-here-the-lcd-launch-pad#latest
You really should read it before you throw in the towel. (And probably a good idea to set aside a few hours a week for reading and YT vids!)2 -
thank you for the replies
and believe me I have read and watched LOTS
I drink around 2 to 3 litres of water a day, so I doubt it is dehydration
could it still be keto adaption? after 3 months?
I know there were days early on when I had a stinking headache and certainly salty foods helped with that
but this is overall weariness, and I go to bed around 9pm for goodness sake
I was having around 50g carb a day but have gone down to 20-30g this past 2 weeks, but there seems no difference
I tried to find out if some people take months to 'ketoadapt' but I have found nothing more than a couple of weeks
(ed. sorry meant to add, thank you for the links, I will take a look at them too)2 -
How is your sodium intake? If you are drinking lots of water, your are flushing out the sodium and making the problem worse.
You said that salty foods helped - there's your answer.
Sodium requirements for low carb are significantly higher than someone on a standard diet. You should start with at least 3000mg of sodium. Pickles and olives help. Salting your food is not enough.
Potassium is needed as well, so you can use a sodium/potassium mixture such as LoSalt.3 -
Thanks to the primitive search function for MFP groups, I can't find it
- there was a study posted not too long ago suggesting that some people have smoother transitions if their switch to LC is done relatively gradually...
But the pace of changes on the front end isn't the same thing as slow keto-adaptation on the back, and 3 months does seem like a long time. I don't know what the distribution of adaptation periods looks like, but Stephen Phinney does make the point that some take longer to keto-adapt than others, and he's mentioned 4-6 weeks as being typical. (In fact, in one interview, he cited this lag time as the perhaps the most significant contribution of his research over the years. If you're interested, I can try to scare up the link.)2 -
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@samanthaluangphixay is absolutely correct.
You said 2 major things that are clues that support electrolyte loss and dehydration.
You said the eating salty foods helped with some early headache symptoms and that eating a few more carbs helped.
These are pointing to the same underlying issue. Dehydration and low sodium.
You can drink water all day long but be dehydrated if you cannot retain any of it. Carbs cause water retention and also stop ketosis if you eat too many which has a diuretic nature. So you retain more water when you eat them and you lose less water.
Sodium causes water retention and when you're in ketosis you're losing water all the time (it has a diuretic effect) and when water goes, it takes sodium first, then you begin to lose potassium and magnesium as well. All of your electrolytes suffer if you don't maintain proper sodium levels.
For someone in full time ketosis, you need 3000mg-5000mg (possibly more) a day. You CANNOT get this from simply eating some salty foods. You need to salt your foods and eat things like pickles, olives, or add a couple dashes to water and some like it in coffee too.
We aren't talking enough to taste like salt water...
The more water you drink, the more sodium you need. It's a balance. Input too much water alone and you throw off the balance.
If you are extra sweaty one day or do some extra exercise, you will likely need more those days too.
Are you having any foot or leg cramps?1 -
Electrolyte balance is an ongoing balance. It not a once and done thing while vlc! Get your electrolytes in check and you should feel better!1
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Electrolyte balance is an ongoing balance. It not a once and done thing while vlc! Get your electrolytes in check and you should feel better!
Yes, @Karlottap has a very good point that I forgot to mention. I am 9 months into this WOE and I still have to keep my sodium up.0 -
wow what a lot of great advice
thank you all so much
and thank you for the video link, I will watch it tomorrow
I am adding salt to food, no idea how much but lots compared to in the past
but probably not enough
I will get some lo salt or something and try that too
I do realise that water doesn't replace salts/minerals (I learnt that on a very hot holiday in Greece!!)
I did wonder whether rehydration sachets would be any use - the ones people use after getting tummy bugs - but they are pretty expensive - I wouldn't want to take them all the time
oh, and also I assume I am having more salt as I eat more cheese, bacon, ham
the time when it helped noticeably was weeks ago, when a few salted peanuts helped sort out an evil headache, but I am not getting those now
(last one followed a dark chocolate binge!!)
ed.
also do you think maybe I should up the carbs again?
ed. 2
since I am a woman of 'a certain age'!! I do often get very sweaty, even sitting still, so that will mean losing even more minerals, wont it
hey ho0 -
Were you having these problems at 50g carb allowance?0
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hmmm, I still didn't have much energy
tbh the only time I do seems to be when I have sugar!!
and I don't want to live like that anymore
I have managed to cut the 'cr*p' mostly out of my diet for the past few months
I just wanted to feel better, but I don't
I was just looking at salt online and have realised, since I use table salt, that is even lower in sodium
what sodium do other people use?0 -
I use Himalayan sea salt, but I also ate pickles, drank the juice, olives, deli meats.0
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samanthaluangphixay wrote: »I use Himalayan sea salt, but I also ate pickles, drank the juice, olives, deli meats.
all of that - I do the same.0 -
I add a teaspoon of of salt to a glass of water every morning.0
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Don't forget magnesium. After Vitamin D, magnesium is one of the most widespread deficiencies, and being in ketosis appears to deplete magnesium even further. (What's more, the standard blood test really doesn't tell you if you've got adequate stores..... so even if you're on the low end of "normal", you probably still need supplements.)
Folks seem to differ in what magnesium compound they favor. I take a 2:1 calcium-magnesium supplement with the mag delivered as magnesium chloride. Some experts say magnesium citrate is the most cost-effective, if you can tolerate the citrate part without getting The Trots. (You can get a small bottle of laxative mag citrate at Wal-Mart for $.99 - take in sips rather than gulping the whole bottle.)
PS Vitamin B-12 is another common one. Some folks need injections, as they don't absorb the oral supplements.
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When I was confused or felt lost, it was because I wasn't tracking enough and only eyeballing and not weighing things. I weigh everything now. And I measure salt - I have pink Himalayan salt only because I like the taste and it was cheaper than my old source of sea salt. It doesn't hurt that it has trace minerals. I've since also upped my sodium to 3500-4000 mg per day (no more than 5g) and next, I'm working on my fiber, which is hard while trying to keep my carbs ~20 g per day, so I've got some supplements on order.
Honestly, the effort is worth knowing - and MFP data is bad, bad, bad. I have to double check pretty much everyrhing.
Wanna hear something dumb? For over a month, I thought I was tracking avocados correctly. I was not! I thought half an avocado was X calories and X carbs, and the specific entry I kept copying over and over was WRONG. It was off by MORE than 50 cals and was UNDER by 3 carbs. So on aaaalllllll the days I ate avocados, it was putting my daily goals way over on calories and carbs! Which is extra extra dumb, when I'm one of those people who uses carbs as an upper limit and will EAT TO THE LAST CALORIE unit - so a lot of them were WAY over. Stupid, right? No wonder I wasn't losing! Just goes to show you that it takes a bit of work. I'm still working on it all.2 -
RalfLott: Thanks for posting that video. That was so helpful. I am going to watch it again with my husband tonight.0
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RalfLott: Thanks for posting that video. That was so helpful. I am going to watch it again with my husband tonight.
My pleasure, @BaconSan2. If you want more... ?? you can watch Phinney and his collaborator Jeff Volek take you from soup to nuts in this great video, which features both of them. (Their books are good reads, too!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFD2q5iqevY
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I am watching lots of videos on u tube as a newbie . Thanks for that1
https://youtu.be/KkdFkPxxDG8
