Frustrated, ready to call it quits. Help please

aprilsun66
aprilsun66 Posts: 13 Member
edited November 16 in Social Groups
Hi Friends,
5 weeks keto, 4 pounds down, not feeling well at all. I've increased my sodium (around 2200 per day, hard to get it much higher), feeling nauseous, dizzy, extremely fatigued. Having a hard time getting my calories much above 1000-1200. if I eat anything too high in fat in one sitting I feel very ill. Any advice to feel better quick. Should I just suck down a tsp of salt? Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Replies

  • aprilsun66
    aprilsun66 Posts: 13 Member
    p.s. not sleeping well either. Feeling sleep deprived.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    Dill pickles and pickle juice.
  • Sunna_W
    Sunna_W Posts: 744 Member
    edited March 2017
    Sometimes it's a mineral issue (keto flu).

    You can fix up your own recipe: 1 teasp No salt (potassium chloride) or Nu Salt; 1 teasp epsom salt; 1 teasp good Himalayan salt in 12 oz of water. Sip it until it's gone. That should help. And, in a pinch - boil a potato and drink the broth with some salt - it will help almost immediately if it's mineral related.

    Here's another recipe here: https://wellnessmama.com/2575/natural-sports-drink/

    Also, how much water are you drinking? What kind? Are you drinking a mineral rich water?

    Are you dehydrated? How fast did you go keto? How long have you felt this crummy?

    Also - there is a regular malaise going around.

    I just found this: http://paleomagazine.com/what-is-keto-flu-how-to-cure-keto-flu




    Feel better!
  • aprilsun66
    aprilsun66 Posts: 13 Member
    @Sunna_W
    about 4-5 cups of water a day, Poland Springs bottled. Yes, slightly dehydrated, I went into keto in about 5-6 days. I've been feeling this way off and on (mostly on) since I started.
    Thank you, and everyone who replied. :-D
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,103 Member
    If you are not getting sea salt but are using table salt, it can actually worsen dehydration in small percentage of people. You can take sea salt crystals and swallow them like a tablet. I'd recommend trying to increase things slowly, both the salts and the fats... Also, if you have other digestive issues along with the nausea from fats, you might look into whether digestive enzymes might help. Many of us have other issues that contribute to low stomach acid (reflux and such is generally the overproduction of the wrong kinds of acids in and attempt to compensate for being low in a specific key acid, hence you need to add the right one in to balance it out, rather than take acid reducers to lower the levels, etc.).

    Good luck.
  • abowman0870
    abowman0870 Posts: 11 Member
    One other suggestion, rather than completely switching back to "regular" carb intake, consider using the glycemic index to guide what you eat. For example, grapefruit (one of my fave fruits) has a GI of 25 (low) a Glycemic Load of 3 but carb value of 11. Presently I am doing low-carb (<50g/day) but I use the GI to guide my fruit choices.
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,750 Member
    aprilsun66 wrote: »
    @Sunna_W
    about 4-5 cups of water a day, Poland Springs bottled. Yes, slightly dehydrated, I went into keto in about 5-6 days. I've been feeling this way off and on (mostly on) since I started.
    Thank you, and everyone who replied. :-D

    Sodium pills are also an option if you can't take the salty water or bone broth with extra salt. Knitormiss brought up the issue of sea salt vs. table salt, that is something to keep in mind as well.

    It will get much better once your minerals are back in balance. Best of luck with your weight loss Journey.
  • tinachris14
    tinachris14 Posts: 93 Member
    Up the salt! There's a thread somewhere on the forum about ways to do so. All your symptoms are classic for low sodium.
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    cstehansen wrote: »
    You have GOT TO up your sodium. This is not just for LCHF, but for everyone. Research shows we need a MINIMUM of 3000 mg a day.

    http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1311889

    Between 3000 and 6000 is how we function best. If you are LCHF, some of the short term symptoms are more pronounced like sluggishness, constipation, poor sleep, muscle cramps, etc. Understand this is a good thing. Long term problems of not getting enough is premature DEATH. I would much rather have this immediate feedback from my body to let me know I need more sodium than just find out when I end up have CVD or other potentially terminal issues.

    This is science. The government recommendation to stay below 2300 mg per day has absolutely no science data to support it. Historically speaking (looking back hundreds of years) we had much higher intake of sodium due to preserving so much food using salt. It wasn't until refrigeration came along that our sodium intake went down.

    YES!

    If you don't make replacing your lost sodium a PRIORITY you are literally risking your health.
    It's not keto that's making you feel ill. It's the severely low sodium. It's not optional.
    If you can't get the required sodium to sustain health on keto, then you NEED to stop eating so few carbs. You're going to end up in the hospital with severe dehydration.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    Agreed. You might need potassium and magnesium supplements now too since you've had low sodium for a while.

    3000mg - 5000+ mg is where you should aim. It's looking like 5000mg is the ideal for everyone now.

    1 teaspoon of table salt is 2300 mg of sodium. Add a teaspoon of salt to water and chug it down. Salt tablets will work, and so will broth.
  • BedsideTableKangaroo
    BedsideTableKangaroo Posts: 736 Member

    an easy way for extra sodium - i place a chicken bouillon cube in a bottle of water at night. the next day, i periodically sip on it at work.
  • pitbullmamaliz
    pitbullmamaliz Posts: 303 Member
    I'm blown away by the difference sodium has made for me. I know my sodium is dropping when my back starts hurting BADLY out of the blue. I throw a quarter tsp to half a tsp salt in a shaker cup, fill it with water and a couple squirts of Mio and chug it. I start feeling better within minutes. It's crazy. So grateful for this group because otherwise I never would have known.
  • treehugnmama
    treehugnmama Posts: 816 Member
    I'm low carb not keto. I go in and out of keto. I felt so sick the first couple months I blamed it on low carb but I found out I was anemic, vit d Def and b12 was Def. I do best at 100 carbs but no wheat no sugar keeps hunger at bay but I like to have fruit in moderation I stay away from grains and I fit starchy veggies in my macros. I can tolerate carbs but not refined ones. if my hunger is high I lower carbs more.
  • sisterlilbunny
    sisterlilbunny Posts: 686 Member
    Perfect timing as I had a question about electrolyte imbalance! :D Yesterday sucked until I got some salt(s) into me. I'm not sure how I let myself drop the ball on that (we have been fighting influenza a at work and home so maybe??) but holy cow when it goes it really goes! Thank you all for your great insight!!
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    edited March 2017
    aprilsun66 wrote: »
    Hi Friends,
    5 weeks keto, 4 pounds down, not feeling well at all. I've increased my sodium (around 2200 per day, hard to get it much higher), feeling nauseous, dizzy, extremely fatigued. Having a hard time getting my calories much above 1000-1200. if I eat anything too high in fat in one sitting I feel very ill. Any advice to feel better quick. Should I just suck down a tsp of salt? Your advice is greatly appreciated.

    @aprilsun66 the first six months was hard for me but I started out as a very sick old man. I read and read so I knew Keto was working for millions of other. What kept me in the game was in just the first 30 days Keto had cut my body inflammation level so much that after 40 years of very high pain levels of like 7-8 it was down to 2-3. As I have learned more my pain level 2.5 years later is more like a 1.

    Strange but I have learned more about how to cut inflammation/lower my pain even more in the last 6 weeks than in the last 20 months.

    I have been at 2000-3000 calories the whole time. I wonder how you may feel if you ate 2000 calories for a few days even if it meant not being LCHF. When I have a 3000 day it will mainly be from nuts often. I still eat Keto types of food (no sugar or grains in my case) so the higher carbs are not the kind that creates a lot of inflammation in my body.

    If I drink less than a gallon of water a day I still get in all kinds of trouble.

    Best of success even if it is hard to see/feel today.
  • the_new_mark_2017
    the_new_mark_2017 Posts: 149 Member
    an easy way for extra sodium - i place a chicken bouillon cube in a bottle of water at night. the next day, i periodically sip on it at work.

    Is this just like a "Stock" cube? I am in Australia and I haven't heard it called bouillon over here before. :)
  • my4andme333
    my4andme333 Posts: 140 Member
    an easy way for extra sodium - i place a chicken bouillon cube in a bottle of water at night. the next day, i periodically sip on it at work.

    Is this just like a "Stock" cube? I am in Australia and I haven't heard it called bouillon over here before. :)

    Yes Stock cube, I use beef but you can use the chicken ones as well :)
  • camtosh
    camtosh Posts: 898 Member
    It is this kind of thing:
    lt1ms4cpjlmc.jpg
  • melissaulrickson
    melissaulrickson Posts: 4 Member
    I feel horrible if I'm bloated/backed up. Are you digesting well?
This discussion has been closed.