Being a health conscious person, you might have heard of Ketogenic diet also known as keto diet. In simple words, it is a high fat, low carbohydrate diet. You might think fats are bad for health but actually, they are also essential for your health. Keto diet has proven to be an effective way of losing additional body fats and to lose weight along with some other benefits. Yet, a sudden change in your daily carbohydrate diet can have some bad influence on your body at the start.
Are you feeling drained and dizzy because you have just started your new ketogenic diet and you are suspicious that your new diet plan is the reason behind it? Well yeah, removing carbohydrates all of a sudden from your diet may well be the reason behind your crappy mood and tiredness. This reason, also have a name and people usually call it Keto Fluaka carb flu.
What this keto flu actually is?
When you start your keto diet and start avoiding your usual carbohydrate-rich diet, your body starts to rebel against this sudden change and thinks there is a problem. This initial bad influence of suddenly switching to keto diet cause flu-like symptoms. This situation, in particular, termed as Keto Flu which is also known as induction flu or carb flu.
Keto flu is a natural reaction of your body when you switch to your new diet. Your body starts to burn fats for energy instead of glucose (sugar). Not everybody experiences keto flu as it mainly depends on how carb dependent you were in your previous routine. Keto flu symptoms usually start to appear in 3-7 days of starting keto diet and during this time, most of the people start second guessing their decision of starting keto diet but you don’t have to worry, these symptoms will pass as they usually last about 2-5 days or they can take two weeks at most.
Symptoms of keto flu:
Let’s have a look at the main symptoms of keto flu as they are pretty common just like the common flu. The most common Keto flu symptoms are,
- Craving for carbohydrates (sugar)
- Brain fog or blurry focus
- Irritation or dizziness
- Pain in stomach or Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Cramping in muscles or muscle soreness
- Constant feeling of weakness and fatigue
- Headaches
- Sleep deprivation
In case you are facing any of the above symptoms after starting the keto diet, you might be having a normal keto flu.
How long does this keto flu TAKE?
For an average person, keto flu usually lasts less than a week. The symptoms usually start to begin in a few days after starting a keto diet.
Keto flu mainly depends upon the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar in your previous diet routine and if you are used to eating a diet high in processed foods and high sugar contents or carbohydrates, you are more likely to experience the symptoms of Keto Flu. If your previous diet routine was relatively low in processed sugars and carbs, you are less likely to be affected by keto flu or you might not even get it even after switching to a keto diet. It can also depend on your genetics as some people are “metabolically flexible” in their genes which means they can switch metabolic states quite easily without having any health issues.
In any case, if you start to feel any symptoms of keto flu, here is what you need to do to keep yourself away from keto flu and shorten your keto flu period.
Methods to manage keto flu symptoms:
Here are some of the best tricks to shorten your keto flu period and to cure it.
1. Take more electrolyte supplements:
When you suddenly jump to an extremely low carb diet, you end up leaving some of the richest sources of the electrolyte. Shortage of electrolytes in your diet can cause fatigue, dizziness, muscle cramping and cognitive symptoms such as losing focus or mental blurriness.
You need to take electrolyte supplements at least once a day. If you do some kind of exercise, make sure to take electrolyte after a workout to avoid dehydration and muscle cramps. As you are following the keto diet, make sure that the electrolyte you use have no sugar or sweeteners added but zero calories sweetener like xylitol or stevia are fine. You can make your own keto friendly drink at home using one cup of water, one teaspoon of mineral sea salt and lemon juice or freshly squeezed lemon.
2. Keep yourself hydrated:
In case of any flu, it’s not only important that you are taking plenty of electrolytes, but fluid In general to avoid dehydration. Staying hydrated will relieve any kind of irritation and headaches. It also boosts your energy level to avoid dizziness and fatigue. If you are not good at drinking enough water during the day, you need to set “hydration” alarm on your phone that can help you remember. Consume as much water as you can during the day and keep a full glass or bottle of water within your reach at all times.
3. Take more Fats and Calories:
Keto diet revolves around the consumption of Fats. You need to eat more fats in order to burn fats so try to maintain eating fats in a larger quantity. You have to eat more meat and animal protein in order to reduce the effect of keto flu.
A common mistake by the starters of the keto diet is they focus on consuming fewer carbs but does not consume more fats to fill the nutrition. This needs to be taken care of to cope up the situation.
4. Use more Salt:
When you switch to a keto diet, your insulin level starts to drop down at a high rate which creates a shortage of sodium in your body.
The first thing which needs to be done is to start adding more mineral salt to your regular diets. A lot of carbs based food has salt in it so adding more salt won’t do any harm to your body.
5. The Bone Broth:
It is the favorite of keto fans and you won’t believe how much effective and nutritious bone broth is! Bone broth can play an important role to help alleviate keto flu symptoms.
Salted chicken broth can help a lot as these recipes are rich in collagen, protein, gelatin, protein, minerals and most importantly, vitamins. The suggested bone broth is made up of the beef bone marrow, can also be replaced with mutton or lamb but do not forget to spice it up with salt.
The keto flu might be a drawback which can make you second guess your decision but it is the only disadvantage we can think of. On the other hand, it has a whole lot of benefits. Once you experience the kurtosis, you will be astounded at the unlimited energy, weight loss and how well you feel in everyday life. If you are planning on leaving the keto diet just because of keto flu symptoms, think twice and look at the long list of pros. You guys will surely become the ultimate champion. Stay healthy and fit.
Khalid Irfan is a Fitness expert who enjoys spending time in gym. He also enjoys being in the outdoors and exploring new opportunities whenever they arise as well as researching new topics to expand his horizons.
