Potassium and magnesium
goalsforever03
Posts: 60 Member
I just started Keto and I’m already stressed out that I am messing something up in my body. Do I have to take magnesium and potassium vitamins? And others as well? Can I really damage my body on Keto ?
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I take both. Your biggest risk is binging on carbs while you are consuming a lot of fat.1
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For me, sodium was the biggest concern, as a ketogenic diet naturally causes sodium to be dumped. Replacing it via food, salt, or supplements is the most common mistake for new folks, or folks dipping deeper into adaption. @goalsforever03
After that, something like 75% of the first world population is magnesium deficient, and of those, 90% don't even know. We attributed many symptoms to other issues - like muscle cramps, we think of potassium, but those two go hand in hand, and magnesium tends to be the bigger likely culprit if it isn't a single cramp you get once a year when you do a marathon with no training (or something else exaggerated for example)...ongoing is more likely a magnesium deficiency and/or overall electrolyte imbalance. The ONLY times I ever added potassium to my dietary intake AT ALL was when I was moving in the middle of August or doing something else in the heat that caused heat issues/sweat issues/massive electrolyte imbalances, etc. And then it was adding sodium, magnesium, AND potassium...
Most magnesium deficiencies come from a huge number of sources - soil depletion, pesticides, GMO's, lack of crop rotations, draughts, changing crops, etc. So many causes.
You can get enough magnesium through eating all organic/grass fed foods, using epsom salts regularly, magnesium oil or sprays, or taking a supplement. It is difficult to verify the magnesium content of non-organic foods, as those aren't tracked and monitored as much.
That all being said, keto, when done as intended for non-seizure/neurological patients (those patients have other specific requirements), it is a diet of whole foods, comprised mainly of a variety of meats, and non-starchy veggies. Add in some occasional fats as needed (the stored body fat provides the difference until maintenance is reached), etc.
It's not intended to be things like "low-carb" tortillas with ever meal, eating low carb desserts in lieu of real foods, eating only or mainly fat bombs, skipping the green and multi-colored veggies because they do have some carbs, etc.
So if you're eating a variety of whole foods, including many different types of meats and many different types of lower carb veggies, how do you expect to be messing things up?
And to clarify, anyone following a diet poorly can "mess up" their body on any given diet plan. Keto is only portrayed as "more risky" because it goes against the mainstream ideas of eating what you want, fat being bad, salt being bad, and drinking soda/eating junk all day long, etc. As long as you educate yourself on why those things are only true in specific instances, you're unlikely to do much of any harm to your body, as long as you watch it's signals and get regular checkups with a doctor who will monitor your health as time goes on.
These statements are my opinion and experiences, and those direct experiences of my friends, combined with extensive research by many parties, etc. Please make sure to research for yourself, engage with your medical team, and make the best decisions as they apply directly to you, and you only, as every 2 people are different!3 -
Adding a side note. Earlier on, I did experiment with taking potassium, but found that my body was so magnesium deficient that adding in potassium made me dump more magnesium, so for me, it was very counter-productive.
Potassium is deadly to take too much or to have too little (heart palpitations and other factors can be very similar whether too much or too little - doctor can monitor this). And it's only now being started to be tracked on more food labels consistently, so you're likely getting more than you know, especially if you eat chicken or drink coffee.
Magnesium is pretty easy to know when you've reached optimal dosing. Too much will cause loose stool. Dial back to the previous dosage. Avoid magnesium oxide, as it's poorly absorbed. Most forms ending in -ate are decent forms... I think it took me almost 1.5 or 2 years of higher than standard dosing with magnesium supplements to finally reach a level where a single supplement dose was sufficient to maintain my magnesium levels. I also had to adjust a number of other nutrients I was deficient in (many factors, but compromised digestion, for me due foremost to a removed gallbladder in December 2000) in order to be able to hold on to the sodium, magnesium, and potassium I needed.1 -
I don’t take either. I used to take magnesium but it was mostly as a laxative. I do think taking magnesium can be a good thing but I don’t think its necessary.
I just take sodium.
And as Knit pointed out, taking potassium can be dangerous.
If you keep sodium up, you don’t have to worry about the others.1 -
** You don't have to worry about the others...
...UNLESS YOU ARE ALREADY DEFICIENT! ... or too high, again, ALREADY.
Keto won't (as far as my several years of experience, study, and research) CREATE a deficit that isn't already there UNLESS you neglect to ensure you intake enough sodium and eat a variety of whole foods (unless carnivore/zero carb, but that's a different ballgame). Keto might be a detective that UNCOVERS something that was ALREADY there that you simply DIDN'T KNOW about...and had been dormant or untriggered or had been covered up previously...
But (TO MY KNOWLEDGE) the action of a ketogenic diet, itself, doesn't create nutrient issues, especially if you are eating whole foods that provide nutrients... I could definitely be wrong, but I've never heard of keto creating the issue. It can exacerbate something, but it doesn't just create issues unless you're neglecting something else...3 -
Bearing in mind that I am not an expert and I don't have the street cred of Sunny_Bunny or KnitOrMiss...
I supplemented potassium and magnesium for probably my first year of keto. I got to a point where I decided I was obsessing too much about supplementing, and I just needed to eat my keto plan and make sure I met sodium goals.
That is where I am now. I think that the turning point came for me when I stopped thinking of keto as a slightly "out there" plan. I came to understand that keto was a perfectly normal way of eating that happened to suit me. I do take a multivitamin, but I did that pre-keto.2 -
@2t9nty - Color me confused. How do you not have "street cred?" Not that I do or any such thing...but have you or have you not lost around 100 pounds and gotten off of diabetic medications???2
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KnitOrMiss wrote: »@2t9nty - Color me confused. How do you not have "street cred?" Not that I do or any such thing...but have you or have you not lost around 100 pounds and gotten off of diabetic medications???
Agreed!1 -
KnitOrMiss wrote: »@2t9nty - Color me confused. How do you not have "street cred?" Not that I do or any such thing...but have you or have you not lost around 100 pounds and gotten off of diabetic medications???
Is is true I have officially lost 107 lbs so far. I had a three pound blip down to 110 lost as of this morning, but I don't know if the scales are moving again or this is some disturbance in the universe. I have gotten off all my diabetes meds (and my statin). I am a relative newcomer to keto though compared to lots of people, and I don't really watch the YouTube videos because they always strike me as a sales pitch even when they are not. I have just figured out what works for me with the help of folks on the forum.
I always hate to speak with any authority on the diet and/or supplement stuff because I feel as if there are so many people here who really have a better grasp of the big picture. I am like the consummate n=1. I still consider myself the newbie at all this, but probably 15 months of keto gets me out of the newbie category.
Maybe I will work on the courage here...1 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »I don’t take either. I used to take magnesium but it was mostly as a laxative. I do think taking magnesium can be a good thing but I don’t think its necessary.
I just take sodium.
And as Knit pointed out, taking potassium can be dangerous.
If you keep sodium up, you don’t have to worry about the others.
The magnesium side effects now makes sense!!!!!1 -
Listen to your body. From my own personal experience, if you are following plan and are Keto adapted but are tired (esp muscle tired) and/or sluggish, yr body is looking for something which cld be salt and/or magnesium and/or potassium and/or something else entirely ... even a good nap. If you are tired and try to up yr elytes for relief yr body will let you know if it works. Too much salt on LC will pretty much get “peed” out. Too much magnesium or potassium usually (at least for me) means diarrhea. And for some it simply takes longer to get truly Keto adapted. We are all different and this woe really helps one learn about their own body’s needs.0
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KnitOrMiss wrote: »@2t9nty - Color me confused. How do you not have "street cred?" Not that I do or any such thing...but have you or have you not lost around 100 pounds and gotten off of diabetic medications???
Is is true I have officially lost 107 lbs so far. I had a three pound blip down to 110 lost as of this morning, but I don't know if the scales are moving again or this is some disturbance in the universe. I have gotten off all my diabetes meds (and my statin). I am a relative newcomer to keto though compared to lots of people, and I don't really watch the YouTube videos because they always strike me as a sales pitch even when they are not. I have just figured out what works for me with the help of folks on the forum.
I always hate to speak with any authority on the diet and/or supplement stuff because I feel as if there are so many people here who really have a better grasp of the big picture. I am like the consummate n=1. I still consider myself the newbie at all this, but probably 15 months of keto gets me out of the newbie category.
Maybe I will work on the courage here...
@2t9nty - I don't think anyone is looking for "words spoken with authority," just your shared experiences based on your own opinion. Something that is TRIED AND TRUE, TESTED AND PROVEN, gives us a much stronger based from which to begin our own research and opinions.
Thank you very much for sharing your experiences and results with us. And yes, please work on your courage.
I often add a caveat at the end of my advice that indicates that I'm not a medical professional, and that I'm just sharing the combination of my own experiences, the experiences of my friends, and a combination of our research, etc. It is just my opinion, and I strongly recommend that everyone use this information as a place from which to start their own research, etc., and always be sure to check in with your medical team, remembering that most of them have a negative view of ketogenic diets, because they are poorly understood due to lack of testing - and folks going to extremes of fat stacking, rather than whole foods, etc., so being prepared to educated your medical team helps, too...as any truly intelligent doctor is willing to review updated information and add to his/her knowledgebase.0 -
KnitOrMiss wrote: »Thank you very much for sharing your experiences and results with us. And yes, please work on your courage.
I will work on it. Keto has worked very well for me. I told my wife just yesterday that if I never lost another pound, I would be happy eating low carb and at this calorie level "forever." Forever is a long time, but I really am happy with what I am eating and convinced that carbs were responsible for stupid overeating and problems maintaining a healthy weight. It is unfortunate that it took a T2D diagnosis to make me figure out what I needed to do with my diet. I think if I had figured all this out 30 years ago, I never would have had the issues with weight or glucose levels.
Tonight is the church pancake supper, and I have figured out how much sausage will be my supper. I tried to manage macros around that, but protein will be under goal for the day. Shrove Tuesday only comes once a year.
I have to say, the keto and LC forums here have been really important to me in terms of advice and support.5
