The Keto Flu usually occurs within the first few days of a drastic carb reduction or carb elimination from your diet. Its symptoms can include headaches, fatigue, body aches, cravings, mood swings, brain fog, even nausea – almost the exact OPPOSITE of the health benefits the keto diet claims to help people realize. In fact, it’s one of the big reasons people give up on the keto diet early on before even getting started.
But, take a step back and think about what is actually going on here. You’re working on converting your ENTIRE metabolism to a mode of operations that is vastly different to what it’s been doing for years and years. You’re shifting the way that your body fuels itself from using fast-burning carbohydrates and glucose to utilizing fat as its main fuel source. There’s a lot of undoing to do, and it doesn’t happen like an on/off switch.
As you’re working through shifting your body into that state of ketosis, or fat-buring mode, you are starving your body of the fuel source that it is used to using, and it’s kinda angry about it. As a natural response, your body goes through a series of changes to transition to this new way of operating. The first thing that happens is your blood glucose levels drop, causing your body to respond by adjusting how it’s fueling its energy functions and how the neurons in your brain are working. Next, an electrolyte imbalance occurs because changes are occurring internally that alter electrolyte and water levels, even hormones. This creates a state of dehydration.
All of these initial responses from your body create short-term symptoms that all get classified as “Keto Flu” and are all transient phases as your body is adapting to using fat as a fuel source instead of glucose. It’s normal, but can be alleviated or even prevented if you know what to do. As your body is shifting into this new metabolic state, and even once you’re fat-adapted, you lose a lose a lot of water and electrolytes through the process. If you take some of these steps to replace those lost nutrients you will be more likely to alleviate many of the Keto Flu symptoms:
- Drink at least half your body weight in ounces in water per day. More is OK.
- Be intentional about supplementing your electrolyte intake, whether by food choices, electrolyte water, or with an actual supplement. I like Trace Minerals brand, found on Amazon.
- B vitamins – most B vitamins can be found in nutritional yeast, or you can take a B vitamin complex supplement like this one.
This does not necessarily mean that in order maintain a ketogenic lifestyle that you’ll have to take an abundance of extra vitamins and supplements for the duration. As your body is transitioning, however, it’s typically a good idea to replace some of those lost nutrients to alleviate some of these very early and temporary symptoms.
Keto Inspo 