If you ever suffered from flu or know someone who has then you are about to experience it yourself when first starting on the ketogenic diet. The reason why you suffer from these flu-like symptoms is that your body is in love with carbs and the keto diet is all about getting rid of those carbohydrates right away. This puts your body into a state of shock trying to adapt to these changes, and thus you enter the state known as keto-flu. You begin to experience the symptoms of keto-flu within the first couple of days of starting the diet. Depending on your body type and goals, it can last anywhere between one week and one month.
Drink water with Himalayan Salt
When you’re on the ketogenic diet, you will become thirsty and staying hydrated is of utmost importance. If you lose more than 2% of the water from your body, it will affect your daily performance. Drinking over 3 liters of water per day is the recommended amount but your very first few days; you will need to drink a lot more.
Increase Magnesium, Potassium and Sodium Intake
As your body’s insulin levels are decreasing, sodium and potassium will begin to become nonexistent. Make sure you add a little low-carb salt to your food for sodium and eat half an avocado to replenish your potassium levels. If you experience any cramps during the keto diet, this will be down to lack of magnesium, and you can buy over the counter supplements. It is recommended you take around 4000mg (one tablet) per day.
Add MCT to your diet
The ketogenic diet is high in fat, so what better way to combat keto-flu than to give your body what it needs. One to two teaspoons of MCT oil with your coffee each day will make sure you are getting your daily amount. MCT oil will help produce more ketones which give you more energy and will help you feel less fatigued.
Exercise
Going for a walk first thing in the morning will help you start the ketosis stage, creating more ketones, giving you more energy. If you find you don’t feel any benefit or feel worse, drink more water with sodium.
Relieve stress
Your mood will become sour, and people will start to notice this, you can let them know in advance that you may become moody, but one thing that will hit you hard is stress. As you become irritable, you’ll begin to feel you cannot accomplish day to day tasks at 100% capacity. Your spouse notices, your boss notices and the stress start to pile on. You can combat him by completing breathing exercises in as little as 15 minutes. Take deep breathes for 15 minutes which will help you feel calm.