Perhaps your electrolyte drinks are not high enough in sodium? And then perhaps the 10 cups of water you are drinking are counter productive because they are only "diluting" what you are supplementing via the electrolyte drinks?

The most frequently recommended sodium intake for those on a ketogenic diet is 3000-5000 mg per day. Up your sodium to the recommended if you have no medical reasons suggesting you limit sodium intake.

Magnesium supplementation is recommended for those who get leg cramps. General recommendation is a magnesium that ends in "ate" such as citrate or glycinate. Magnesium oxide is the most readily found in common stores but not recommended. It doesn't end in "ate" and is often associated with loose bowels.

Magnesium for muscle contractions is not specific to keto. Pick up any bottle and read the benefits or uses and it will most likely include something related to muscle contractions. Many individuals recommend a high dosage. In fact 400 mg is usually recommended on the bottles. 100 mg is enough for me. I get plenty of magnesium in the foods I eat.

klelk2 wrote: »

9/1: 227.8
9/8: 227.2
9/15: 226
9/22:
9/29:

I'm having a lot of leg cramps at night and leg pain/aching during the day and night. I drink at least 10 cups of water a day and have been drinking electrolyte drinks, but the leg pain continues. Does anyone else deal with this? Any ideas on how to get rid of the cramps and pain?

@klelk2 - As others mentioned above, checking your electrolyte balance and playing around with adding more of some things, pausing other things, can help with the leg cramps and such. Getting cleared by a doctor to rule out any other major medical concerns is crucial, too.

The one thing that really helped me with leg pain/aching during the day/night - was increasing my boron and my zinc. Boron and zinc are what strengthen your cell walls to help hold in the magnesium/potassium/calcium that are regularly leeched out of your bones and muscles when the blood balance is off. To my understanding, this is mainly what causes muscle cramps and bone pain.

My main understanding is that calcium is absorbed from food (without a true deficiency, almost no one needs to supplement calcium - but rather the things that help to properly absorb it), then D3 pulls that calcium into the body/bloodstream. K2 helps that D3 know that the calcium needs to go into the muscles and bones. The magnesium and potassium are the bus/passport to get these nutrients into the cells, and boron and zinc are the door keepers, letting the stuff in - and then keeping it there....

There are a number of other issues that can affect electrolyte balance, but for me, these were the major parts. Getting my sodium levels up and keeping them up over the day allowed me to hold on to the nutrients I was taking in. I did not and do not supplement calcium or potassium, but I do supplement the rest, as my regular intake is obviously deficient.

The more tired I was, I would get excruciating radiating bone pain from the center of my leg bones... This has stopped now.

Had my first Crossfit class this morning! I've been IF 16:8 so I was fasted during the morning and I was totally fine! My first meal was at around 11:45am.

ALSO I weighed in this morning after two weeks: -8.8lbs! WOOT! I've been measuring my breath and I'm definitely in Ketosis so I'm super excited!

21.2 more lbs to go!

SW: 140
CW: 131.2
GW: 110

9/1: 227.8
9/8: 227.2
9/15: 226
9/22: 224.2
9/29:


Thanks for all the tips and advice on the leg cramps! I also did some research and decided to try magnesium supplements because I was getting plenty of sodium and potassium in the electrolyte drinks I was making. I bought some magnesium citrate and found that 300mg, 100mg/3 times a day, got rid of the cramps and pain. I'm trying to add more potassium and magnesium rich foods in my diet so that I can stop taking the supplements. I am so happy the pain in gone. It was making every day miserable.

Last week was meh. I didn't eat well (enough) at all, injured my leg, and with all the stress waiting to hear from family in Puerto Rico & Dominican Republic was way too stressed. I have inflammation going on. I decided to just take it easy and spend the weekend letting my body rest and restore. I woke up feeling better today and was able to walk again. With all the mess going on last week I managed to put on an entire lb. WHAT?! I'm not going to stress that. I managed to have a crazy week, and NOT eat the entire house. Also, I took 3/4" off my waist, so I'm claiming that my NSV.

9/4: 241.0
9/11: 239.2 -1.8
9/18: 233.0 -6.2 (Had a couple extra lbs thx to lady cycle bloat )
9/25: 234.0 +1
10/1:

ETA: I stopped drinking coffee. Well, caffeinated coffee anyway. I didn't like how tired I felt on days when I don't drink any.