Electrolytes
onemanpeloton
Posts: 58 Member
Hi all
Can anyone advise a rough daily goal for electrolytes?
I've started keto recently which has really highlighted my need for (and lack of) electrolytes. I also think that I may not have been getting enough before starting this diet either.
I use a SiS supplement tablet when cycling which addresses any losses during exercise, but I'm not sure I'm consuming enough for normal daily function either.
Thanks
Can anyone advise a rough daily goal for electrolytes?
I've started keto recently which has really highlighted my need for (and lack of) electrolytes. I also think that I may not have been getting enough before starting this diet either.
I use a SiS supplement tablet when cycling which addresses any losses during exercise, but I'm not sure I'm consuming enough for normal daily function either.
Thanks
0
Replies
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It is recommended to consume between 3,000-5,000 mg of salt per day when following a Ketogenic diet.0
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WholeFoods4Lyfe wrote: »It is recommended to consume between 3,000-5,000 mg of salt per day when following a Ketogenic diet.
Considering the OP cycles, he will probably need double that. Heck, i know 5k isn't enough for me when I consume a keto diet and combine it with glycogen depletion workouts and/or tennis.
OP, the best concentration i found is Emergen-c. NUUNs are pretty good too.0 -
There's 2300 mg sodium in a teaspoon if salt. Knowing that, I found it easier to add adequate sodium even if it was just eating a half teaspoon if salt a couple of times a day.0
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Thanks for the responses. Having never been one to feel thirsty, I offer suffer from dehydration, even before I get on the bike. In fact it was cycling that led to me taking electrolytes, and now the keto diet thats pushing me to consume even more.
I've been struggling recently with mood and light headedness when standing up suddenly. I think this may be electrolyte related, especially magnesium and potassium. Its a shame that MFP doesnt encorporate magnesium in the diary.
I tried a "keto" recipe this weekend from this page:
https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/lchf/beat-keto-flu-with-homemade-electrolyte-drink
I couldnt find magnesium in a powder so I bought tablets from the supermarket and crushed one up to ad to my drink. I'll be ordering the proper powder soon though for convenience.0 -
onemanpeloton wrote: »Hi all
Can anyone advise a rough daily goal for electrolytes?
I've started keto recently which has really highlighted my need for (and lack of) electrolytes. I also think that I may not have been getting enough before starting this diet either.
I use a SiS supplement tablet when cycling which addresses any losses during exercise, but I'm not sure I'm consuming enough for normal daily function either.
Thanks
I follow Keto as well. Here is a crazy suggestion (that has worked well for me): pickle juice! Yes, sir! You are reading that correctly....pickle juice! Bone Broth will also help with this.
For Pickle Juice, I get the Harris Teeter Bread and Butter Pickles (because I like those best) and after eating four or five of those will take a couple of swigs from the jar! Sounds weird maybe, but it is effective!2 -
LiftHeavyThings27105 wrote: »onemanpeloton wrote: »Hi all
Can anyone advise a rough daily goal for electrolytes?
I've started keto recently which has really highlighted my need for (and lack of) electrolytes. I also think that I may not have been getting enough before starting this diet either.
I use a SiS supplement tablet when cycling which addresses any losses during exercise, but I'm not sure I'm consuming enough for normal daily function either.
Thanks
I follow Keto as well. Here is a crazy suggestion (that has worked well for me): pickle juice! Yes, sir! You are reading that correctly....pickle juice! Bone Broth will also help with this.
For Pickle Juice, I get the Harris Teeter Bread and Butter Pickles (because I like those best) and after eating four or five of those will take a couple of swigs from the jar! Sounds weird maybe, but it is effective!
Thanks, I've heard those 2 suggestions before actually. Sadly, I really cannot stomach the idea of pickles, or their juice! I think if I tried it I would lose more vitamins than I gained
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onemanpeloton wrote: »LiftHeavyThings27105 wrote: »onemanpeloton wrote: »Hi all
Can anyone advise a rough daily goal for electrolytes?
I've started keto recently which has really highlighted my need for (and lack of) electrolytes. I also think that I may not have been getting enough before starting this diet either.
I use a SiS supplement tablet when cycling which addresses any losses during exercise, but I'm not sure I'm consuming enough for normal daily function either.
Thanks
I follow Keto as well. Here is a crazy suggestion (that has worked well for me): pickle juice! Yes, sir! You are reading that correctly....pickle juice! Bone Broth will also help with this.
For Pickle Juice, I get the Harris Teeter Bread and Butter Pickles (because I like those best) and after eating four or five of those will take a couple of swigs from the jar! Sounds weird maybe, but it is effective!
Thanks, I've heard those 2 suggestions before actually. Sadly, I really cannot stomach the idea of pickles, or their juice! I think if I tried it I would lose more vitamins than I gained
NICE! I do believe that I am picking up the hint that you are dropping! Anyway....just another perfect example of how we are all so very different. :-)0 -
onemanpeloton wrote: »Thanks for the responses. Having never been one to feel thirsty, I offer suffer from dehydration, even before I get on the bike. In fact it was cycling that led to me taking electrolytes, and now the keto diet thats pushing me to consume even more.
I've been struggling recently with mood and light headedness when standing up suddenly. I think this may be electrolyte related, especially magnesium and potassium. Its a shame that MFP doesnt encorporate magnesium in the diary.
I tried a "keto" recipe this weekend from this page:
https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/lchf/beat-keto-flu-with-homemade-electrolyte-drink
I couldnt find magnesium in a powder so I bought tablets from the supermarket and crushed one up to ad to my drink. I'll be ordering the proper powder soon though for convenience.
I would consider skipping the potassium or keeping it to a low level. It is possible to get too much potassium (not good) and if you take care of sodium, potassium levels should stay fine. K and Mg tend to go low when sodium has been low for a while. They are leeched out and used as electrolytes instead of the missing sodium. If you take care of replacing sodium, you should find that potassium and magnesium levels are okay. YMMV
Magnesium is less dangerous to get too much of. It just tends to cause diarrhea. Not fun but usually not dangerous.
The "ketoade" I drink is just Mio with salt. Or just salt in my hand with a chaser of water. I also salt my coffee to enhance its flavour - I drink a lot of coffee - so it is a big source of sodium for me.0 -
pickle juice is old school gatorade0
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onemanpeloton wrote: »Thanks for the responses. Having never been one to feel thirsty, I offer suffer from dehydration, even before I get on the bike. In fact it was cycling that led to me taking electrolytes, and now the keto diet thats pushing me to consume even more.
I've been struggling recently with mood and light headedness when standing up suddenly. I think this may be electrolyte related, especially magnesium and potassium. Its a shame that MFP doesnt encorporate magnesium in the diary.
I tried a "keto" recipe this weekend from this page:
https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/lchf/beat-keto-flu-with-homemade-electrolyte-drink
I couldnt find magnesium in a powder so I bought tablets from the supermarket and crushed one up to ad to my drink. I'll be ordering the proper powder soon though for convenience.
I would consider skipping the potassium or keeping it to a low level. It is possible to get too much potassium (not good) and if you take care of sodium, potassium levels should stay fine. K and Mg tend to go low when sodium has been low for a while. They are leeched out and used as electrolytes instead of the missing sodium. If you take care of replacing sodium, you should find that potassium and magnesium levels are okay. YMMV
Magnesium is less dangerous to get too much of. It just tends to cause diarrhea. Not fun but usually not dangerous.
The "ketoade" I drink is just Mio with salt. Or just salt in my hand with a chaser of water. I also salt my coffee to enhance its flavour - I drink a lot of coffee - so it is a big source of sodium for me.
Thanks. I read a bit about potassium OD which doesn't sound like fun. It's interesting what you say about the relationship between the 3, most of what I've read suggests that they be treated independently. I've been salting my food to ensure a decent sodium intake since I hear thats even more important than normal when on keto.
What shocked me, though, was seeing how low my potassium levels were on MFP. Since I started tracking properly (about 6 week ago when I first started keto) my potassium levels were barely at 10% of the recommended amount. That seemed to correlate with some of the symptoms listed for deficiency such as irritability, dizziness and confusion/brain fog.
I'll go back to some old tracking I did, pre keto, 6 months back and see how potassium levels look there.
Of course the other explanation is that potassium hasnt been entered for some of the foods I scan. I'll start being more vigilant about checking labels against MFP0 -
Many food entries in the database are wildly inaccurate for sodium and often missing potassium and magnesium completely - your log may well not reflect reality.
FYI
I cycle and in the recent heatwave I've been running through my regular electrolyte tablets I purchase through cycling outlets very quickly and just bought some electrolyte tablets from Amazon which are far less expensive per dose.
GoNutrition were the brand but there's quite a few to choose from.
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The only thing I have to add is that electrolytes are more than just salt. That's why seemingly the vast majority of hydration products contain other electrolytes as well.
I suspect if I were in your shoes I would drink something like Skratch Labs' Anytime Hydration through out the day. It's less strong than their sports specific mixes or their rehydration mix. I'm almost positive Nuun makes the same sort of thing as well (though Nuun has a history of making me impressively ill).0 -
onemanpeloton wrote: »onemanpeloton wrote: »Thanks for the responses. Having never been one to feel thirsty, I offer suffer from dehydration, even before I get on the bike. In fact it was cycling that led to me taking electrolytes, and now the keto diet thats pushing me to consume even more.
I've been struggling recently with mood and light headedness when standing up suddenly. I think this may be electrolyte related, especially magnesium and potassium. Its a shame that MFP doesnt encorporate magnesium in the diary.
I tried a "keto" recipe this weekend from this page:
https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/lchf/beat-keto-flu-with-homemade-electrolyte-drink
I couldnt find magnesium in a powder so I bought tablets from the supermarket and crushed one up to ad to my drink. I'll be ordering the proper powder soon though for convenience.
I would consider skipping the potassium or keeping it to a low level. It is possible to get too much potassium (not good) and if you take care of sodium, potassium levels should stay fine. K and Mg tend to go low when sodium has been low for a while. They are leeched out and used as electrolytes instead of the missing sodium. If you take care of replacing sodium, you should find that potassium and magnesium levels are okay. YMMV
Magnesium is less dangerous to get too much of. It just tends to cause diarrhea. Not fun but usually not dangerous.
The "ketoade" I drink is just Mio with salt. Or just salt in my hand with a chaser of water. I also salt my coffee to enhance its flavour - I drink a lot of coffee - so it is a big source of sodium for me.
Thanks. I read a bit about potassium OD which doesn't sound like fun. It's interesting what you say about the relationship between the 3, most of what I've read suggests that they be treated independently. I've been salting my food to ensure a decent sodium intake since I hear thats even more important than normal when on keto.
What shocked me, though, was seeing how low my potassium levels were on MFP. Since I started tracking properly (about 6 week ago when I first started keto) my potassium levels were barely at 10% of the recommended amount. That seemed to correlate with some of the symptoms listed for deficiency such as irritability, dizziness and confusion/brain fog.
I'll go back to some old tracking I did, pre keto, 6 months back and see how potassium levels look there.
Of course the other explanation is that potassium hasnt been entered for some of the foods I scan. I'll start being more vigilant about checking labels against MFP
TBH, I've never tracked potassium because (for me) if I take care of sodium, then potassium seems to fall in line.
Early on I could not believe that I needed the sodium levels that are recommended. I got the brain, fog, fatigue and moodiness. I ignored it and by two weeks in I was getting muscle cramps, which is usually a sign of low potassium. I started eating about a teaspoon of salt a day, on top of any other sodium I got, and the cramps (and other symptoms) were gone within a day.
It seems safest to take care of sodium first (at least 3000-5000 mg) and then look at magnesium and then potassium. If you do supplement potassium, I would start very low. You could always get your blood tested for potassium too, just to be safest.0 -
thanks everyone.
for the last few days ive been drinking my usual cycling electrolyte tablets plus half a teaspoon of "lo-salt" which has sodium and a good level of potassium. I'm also taking a magnesium supplement tablet in the mornings. I'm yet to see any ill affects so will continue like this for a while and see how it goes0 -
I take magnesium tablets each morning. During training sessions, I usually consume EFS drink and Clif margarita flavored (3x Sodium) Shot Bloks while on the bike and sometimes during runs as well.
With the recent hot weather, I've also started testing a hydration strategy that increases my sodium both pre-workout and during the effort. Based on an online survey, I rank as needing a significant amount of sodium, so the recommended dose was 1500mg in a liter of water the night before, and then another 1500mg in water 45 minutes before the workout. (Bike and/or run workouts of 2 hours or more).
A friend and I have only tried this regimen twice so far, but we've had no ill effects and believe that it may be helping. We noticed that we both felt "better" after a long run in humid conditions than we normally do. I'll do some more experimenting before deciding whether or not to use it in a race.0 -
I'm newly keto and like to chop celery and cucumbers and salt them up for extra intake. Snack on them while I'm cooking0
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I suggest you keep these on you. They don’t weigh much and you can add them to your water anywhere.
http://www.novumpharma.com/brand--products/gastrolyte®
You should also keep a water bottle with you at all times, as a reminder to stay hydrated.0 -
toughmuther wrote: »I'm newly keto and like to chop celery and cucumbers and salt them up for extra intake. Snack on them while I'm cooking
Very nice trick! Now, why did I not think of that?
Been enjoying Keto since 2018 FEB 01....love it. Sucked when I was power lifting....but that is not Keto's fault! :-)
Enjoy! I am guessing that you have seen the Keto and Low Carbers Groups?0 -
onemanpeloton wrote: »thanks everyone.
for the last few days ive been drinking my usual cycling electrolyte tablets plus half a teaspoon of "lo-salt" which has sodium and a good level of potassium. I'm also taking a magnesium supplement tablet in the mornings. I'm yet to see any ill affects so will continue like this for a while and see how it goes
As a couple others have said, not all entries in the database (or food labels) are very accurate for potassium. Your best bet to get a sense is to look up foods in the USDA website.
Be. Very. Careful. When supplementing potassium. Too much can cause heart arrhythmia or even more serious issues. Especially in concentration. Learned all about it from the cardiologists working with my mom and dad after their heart attacks.
You don’t want the first ill effect you feel to be chest pain ...1
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