Did ketosis for like 2 weeks. Was fine, not too tough, but I stopped today

Did ketosis for like 2 weeks. Was fine, not too tough, but I stopped today.

Today I kept getting massive headaches, dizzy and shit, so I'm eating carbs today. I actually think the problem might have been that I wasn't consuming enough salt and potassium, because otherwise my diet was fine. I just didn't realize that I have to up the salt intake because I'm not longer getting it from the foods, veg and fruit I'd normally eat. At plenty of low carb veg, green leaves, MCT oils, etc.

Should I give it another try? I did lose a ton of extra fat in only 2 weeks. My actual weight didn't change. Went from 160 to 160, but with less fat now. Kept the protein high, exercising and shit.

I really miss the carbs and sugar though, I've always had a sweet tooth. Should I just go back to intermittent fasting?

OP here. The willpower thing isn't a problem, I got through mild headaches and shit no problem, I don't really mind eating the same shit every day. Today I was just feeling very faint and had sharp headaches and I wasn't sure that was very normal.

Anyone with experience with keto here to fill me in?

just take more salt

I guess, I just wanted some more info form an expert to figure out if that was the cause.

That is probably the keto flu. Caused by low electrolytes.

Put salt in your foods & eat a lot of spinach.

Makes sense. I have been eating a lot of spinach actually, but not enough salt and potassium.

I heard even if you eat carbs for one day, it's easy to back into keto mode the next day. Is this true?

Keto is trash, just eat less.
All you will lose on keto is lean muscle and water weight.

You can fast for two days and enter ketosis, it's a diet for fat people and when you try to recomp. Don't do this diet if you just dyel status

No, it'll take a few days to fully burn through your replenished glycogen stores again.
Did you not up your salt intake at all? If so then it was very likely a salt issue, magnesium supps supposedly help too but I haven't personally experienced these side effects to verify. Buy a box of chicken/beef broth and have it alongside your meals, or just by itself if you're skipping meals cus of lack of hunger. Salt should be taken preventatively, not responsively while you're doing keto.

Carb "cravings" will slowly but surely go away. By cravings I mean that urge to still eat something sweet or starchy even after a massive keto meal. Keep in mind that your body literally has a sugar addiction, and the withdrawal can be a little rough. Pieces of dark chocolate (85% cocoa+ ideally) helped with those cravings for me, and can be acceptable keto treats overall in moderation as long as you stay within your carb goal. Dark chocolate almond butter spreads were also great, and low carb (pic related).
Liquid stevia is a benign sweetener based on a decent amount of research, you can use that for your beverages. The powder form has some carb-based filler you'd want to avoid.

I have been taking ZMA, just because I always do. Trying to get to low %bodyfat for athletic benefits. I practice MMA, grappling, and sprinting.

Normally I consume a lot of salt naturally, people think I add way too much salt to things. Now that I've switched diet I'm probably taking in way less salt than I'm used to, you're all probably right.

I do take ZMA, just because I always do. I can deal with cravings just fine. Every morning I usually make a bulletproof coffee with extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil (natural MCTs) and some liquid stevia. Liquid stevia sucks though, unfortunately. Dat bitter aftertaste.

I've started eating more peanut butter, because I found one that's like 4g net carbs per serving.

Lesson learned, gotta up the salt and potassium.

I can fast to get back into keto. Intermittent fasting was already my preferred method of cutting, just thought I'd give full keto a try. Not sure if it's worth it...Not eating carbs or foods I'd normally eat just for marginally better fat loss than intermittent fasting...

Keto is about hunger management more than anything else. High serum FFAs help keep leptin and ghrelin in check without stuffing yourself with fiber and water.

There's nothing magical about it that will prevent you from losing weight. All that takes is a kcal deficit.

Doing it without exercising is fine. Better than trying to just cut kcals because the calorie partitioning on keto is better as ketosis is protein sparing.

I believe I read that intermittent fasting is also more muscle sparing than a normal cut as well.
Hunger management is normally easy for me, though...Hmm

I'm definitely not going to diet without exercising and training.

I think I might have to go back to intermittent fasting. I think I might need the glycogen boost for explosive training in wrestling and sprinting...

With IF you're in ketosis about 80% of the time.

Then I think I'm just going back to IF. I can fast 20 hours EZ PZ and not feel like shit, eat what I want, lose fat, and perform better.

Does anyone find that keto improves your performance in anything?

>expert
>Veeky Forums

breh

I find that the real benefit of keto is the loss of appetite. Being able to eat when it's most convenient is pretty liberating. Also cutting out carbs from the diet frees up more room for bacon and guac. Not that they're ideal, but I think the dangers of nitrates are blown out of proportion. As long as you eat a plate of veg alongside em, the antioxidants should take care of the free radicals.

I've tried me to too and have ended up feeling like shit, no matter what I did. For me it's not worth it. You cab eat carbs and lose fat.

Aerobic endurance is a lot better. Strength is the same. Anaerobic endurance is about the same. Lactate threshold work is a little worse, though. Mood is better for most people.

I'm actually a vegan :^) But yeah, plenty of avo/guac, fried tofu and tempeh, protein shakes, nuts and shit. Love dat broccoli.

I think I'll go back to IF, I'm not sure keto is worth the trouble to be only slightly more efficient than IF. Thanks for the tips, bro.

I find IF is just as good for loss of appetite after a few days, anyway.

You can up your carb intake and be explosive on keto, as long as you actually use all your glycogen stores during your activity. Pro athletes on keto go up to 80g of carbs the night before they're gonna compete, and come back down to keto just fine afterwards.
The tricky part is that your body will perform sub-optimally for about 6 months regardless, until it becomes fully fat adapted which requires you being in keto constantly during that period. Once your cellular mitochondrial count is up then your body can jump in and out of keto much more efficiently.

Interesting. Not too interested in the aerobic endurance, though. I agree, mood does improve, but I think mood also improves while doing IF.

This must be why my BJJ instructor is able to be keto on weekdays and eat carbs on weekends. Dude is a specimen. Very interesting. I believe he told me shoot for 50g carbs.

Check out Dr. Dominic D'Agistino's podcast with Joe Rogan, he gave a lot of great info on ketosis.
The timeline he gives is that you'll be at 80% of your pre-keto performance by 2 months, but getting back the last 20% is about a 4 month grind.

I'll definitely check it out. That sounds horrible, though, honestly. I hate having bad breath, not eating things I like, etc. I'll listen to the pod cast in a min though. Thanks for the info.

Is it possible to get to sub 10% bodyfat on IF?

>kcal deficit
>has never heard of the minnesota expirement

Niggas need to just do IF or /fast/

Stop falling for meme diets and just eat right under your TDEE.

Stop falling for the carbohydrate-jews tricks. It's already been proven that the sugar industry paid off scientists to demonize fat.
The massive insulin spikes you give your body from 3 carb heavy meals a day are physiologically tolerable but not ideal for your health. Outside of vegetables, there is no nutritional basis basis for eating all those nutrient lacking starchy "complex carbs". Just because your body has been raised on a lifetime of sugar and can't effectively metabolize fat doesn't mean you shouldn't make the switch.

Beef broth or pickle juice. Keep one or both in your kitchen and have some whenever you start feeling like shit. Solves the problem in minutes.

Actually explains why I bought a jar of pickles on a whim.

I agree fully. Spiking your insulin multiple times a day is terrible.Could just spike it once a day with IF.

yeah I did keto for 3 months. didn't get the headaches but I felt like I was gonna pass out while working out.

Oh cool, glad it's not just me. Gonna make sure I ingest a lot more salt and potassium now. I was doing sprints and almost felt like passing out towards the end of each sprint. Kind of scary.

idk if those will help. the point of keto is depriving your body of all other fuel sources except the fat. sugars and carbs. so it's a natural result of low "fuel in the tank". idk what salt is gonna do

You piss out a lot of water early on in keto. With that water comes salt. You need to replace some of it.

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fair point