Over the past few years, the keto diet has become more and more popular. Many years ago the biggest low carb diet of choice was the Atkins, but these days we have the keto diet.
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How Does It Work?
The keto diet uses your lack of carbohydrate intake to push your body into a state of ketosis. Once your body is in a state of ketosis, it will start to use the fat stored within the body as fuel to turn into energy for you to use. This process of energy creation is called ketosis.
There are many benefits to the keto diet including:
- Weight-loss
- Hunger suppression
- Great initial weight-loss
- More weight-loss from your abdomen
- Increases good cholesterol
- Reduces blood sugar
- Lowers blood pressure
- Higher & focused energy
The negatives of a keto diet, however, are quite minimal:
- The fluctuation in blood pressure and sugar may not be good for those with diabetes
- You should make sure you don’t become weight obsessed
- Make sure you don’t continue a strict keto diet forever – especially those will 800 calories or less as their daily intake
- It can change the way your body handles electrolytes and water.
In this article, we’ll be closely examining how the ketogenic diet changes the way your body handles electrolytes and water. Luckily it’s an easy thing to fix – all you need is some keto electrolyte supplements.
Dehydration
We can’t stress enough how important it is to make sure you’re drinking enough water every day. Your body is mostly water – 60% to be precise. Water is so important to the function of a human being that typically without water we wouldn’t be able to live more than four days. However, we can live up to three weeks without food. Therefore, you need to make sure you’re getting enough water otherwise this will be the reason you’re feeling rough, as opposed to the keto diet.
Fun fact: Did you know that when you have a sip of water, it actually takes an hour for your body to use it? So make sure you drink plenty before working out, as you may be dehydrated before you even realize it!
Of course, it’s even more important to be drinking more water when undergoing a keto diet for two reasons.
Firstly, your body is changing the way it burns up fuel to give you energy and therefore being dehydrated will make the symptoms of this transition worse. Secondly, the way the keto diet is using ketones for energy naturally gets rid of more water, and we’ll go into more detail about your electrolytes later. But basically, a low-carb diet leads to more water loss which can cause dehydration and constipation. We can’t stress enough how important water intake is on a keto diet, it will really help keep all of your basic body functions working.
Hydration During Keto
Ok, so you may be wondering how to make sure you’re getting enough water?
Honestly, how much water you should be drinking will depend from person to person and what your lifestyle and activities are. For example, do you exercise a lot, do you live in a hot country, where do you work?
But in general, you can always rely on the 8 glasses per day rule. As long as you’re getting at least 8 glasses a day your body should be able to function adequately. Although we would recommend more if you’re an active individual and on the keto diet.
One important thing to take into consideration, however, is that on the keto diet there is actually such a thing as too much water. If you drink too much water, you may end up flushing out your electrolytes, if you think you may be doing this the best thing to do is listen to your body. You’ll know if you’re flushing all of your electrolytes away, as you will probably start experiencing a lot more of the keto flu-like symptoms that we’re going to mention later in this article.
In general, experts would say that if you’re thirsty – grab some water.
Electrolytes
Now that you understand why water is a very important part of the keto diet, we’ll be talking about making sure you’ve got the right electrolytes in your system in the next section of this article. In short, when you become dehydrated on the keto diet, you also end up losing some of your body’s valuable electrolytes, and those are key to keeping your body functions going.
Where Do Our Electrolytes Go?
When your body starts going through ketosis as part of the ketogenic diet your body produces less insulin. Because you have reduced your carb intake, your body’s glycogen stores become depleted. Wherever you have glycogen in your body you also have up to 4 grams of water there too. When these stores become depleted the kidneys start to excrete water quicker than you drink instead of retaining water like they usually do. This is why when people first start the keto diet they feel initially they lose more weight. This is due to the sudden release of water weight from your glycogen stores and out of your kidney.
Unfortunately, when your kidneys get rid of all this water, they also get rid of something which is really important to the functioning of your body – electrolytes.
In case you didn’t already know, electrolytes are nutrients which carry out important jobs in your body such as your brain functions, bladder control, energy production, body temperature, heartbeat regulation and muscle contractions.
What happens when you don’t have any electrolytes? Your body stops being able to function or process anything. Without these substances, you get palpitations, become twitchy, get bowel problems, and you can even pass out.
Feeling like this is also known as the keto flu, and it is common for most people to get these symptoms when initially transitioning into ketosis. This is fine as it is clearly just a certain period of times until your body gets used to your new eating habits. However, if it lasts for a long time, you’re going to need to restock your electrolytes ASAP.
In Summary
There you have it, electrolytes are basically the construction workers of our bodies. We need them to carry out their day to day jobs to help us function optimally.
Where Do You Find These Electrolytes?
If you haven’t heard of the term electrolytes before, we’re pretty sure you’ll have heard of that least one of these: magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium. It’s really important you get enough of these minerals in your diet as these will help counteract the dehydration that the keto diet may bring on. You can first try to get more of these electrolytes into your diet, or you can also try getting some additional supplements.
Magnesium
For instance, Magnesium is really good at helping the body’s immune system, keep your heartbeat in check, and last but not least, it promotes healthy muscle function and make sure your nerves are working as intended. This is why it is really important to get some magnesium into your system, to help with the biochemical reactions taking place.
Fun fact: it’s a common misconception that you only need calcium to grow big and strong healthy bones – you also need magnesium. You’ll need to make sure you’re getting about 500 mg per day of magnesium into your body, and you can find this naturally in leafy greens and nuts. Other keto friendly high magnesium foods include spinach, avocado, Swiss chard, mackerel or pumpkin seeds. If you’re struggling to get 500 mg of magnesium into your body a day through your food, you can try taking some supplements. You will notice that some of the initial transitioning side effects of the keto diet such as muscle cramps, irritability, and difficulty sleeping are reduced when taking the recommended daily amount of magnesium.
Calcium
Calcium is probably the most obvious electrolyte people often think about, especially for young children. Calcium is great for building strong bones – but it’s also great for muscle contraction, blood clotting, and nerve function. You’ll be able to find calcium in all your favorite dairy products such as cheese and milk, as well as non-dairy unsweetened milk like almond milk, and in your fish or leafy greens. If you’re not getting enough calcium into your diet you can take a calcium supplement. Experts recommend you take this alongside Vitamin D to make sure your body will absorb it properly.
Potassium
You can get potassium from many great keto friendly foods such as salmon, avocados, leafy greens and nuts. The body uses potassium to help keep your heart healthy, ensuring your blood pressure levels are normal and your heart is beating regularly. But you also need potassium for things muscle and nerve functioning.
Warning: Unlike other electrolytes, there is such a thing as too much potassium! Too much of this electrolyte is toxic to the human body, so people often avoid taking this in an additional supplement form.
Sodium
Now we never thought we’d be saying this, but you actually need to make sure you get enough sodium – which means using more salt! Because of the nature of a keto diet, your body pumps out more sodium than in a normal diet. Although you should never have too much sodium, you can end up being sodium deficient during a keto diet. Sodium is super important to help balance all of your other electrolyte functions as well as muscle and nerve function. So feel free to add more salt to your plate when you’re on a keto diet as your body will appreciate it!
Supplement Tips
If you’re struggling to get all of these electrolytes into your diet, you can try other supplements such as green powders or exogenous ketones. Green powders are often made up of plants like spinach, spirulina, wheatgrass, kale, broccoli, chlorella, etc. These are great sources of low-carb electrolytes, and you can usually get them into your diet in a convenient way such as a smoothie. Exogenous ketones are supplements more often associated with speeding up the early stages of ketosis, but they are also great for speeding up your muscle recovery.
Important: If you find that you’re an individual who exercises a lot more than your average Joe, or leads quite a chaotic and stressful life, you probably need more of these minerals. This is especially important when your body goes into to stress mode – it ends up further fluctuating your fluids and electrolyte balance due to the effect stress has upon your hormones. On the other hand, if you’re a gym bunny and often working out you’ll find that exercise is depleting your sodium levels.
What Should You Do?
Basically, to avoid having an electrolyte imbalance or suffering from dehydration while on a keto diet, you should always increase your electrolyte intake and drink more water. These two substances are key to keeping your general health good, and they’re even more important when the way you fuel your body is undergoing a transition.
Make sure you’re getting enough of each of the key electrolytes such as magnesium, calcium, potassium and sodium. Try adding more of their natural sources into your diet. But don’t be ashamed if you’re not, there’s no shame in grabbing some keto friendly supplements to give your body that extra helping hand. In the long run, once your body is used to the keto diet, and you make sure you’re getting all the required electrolytes and drinking enough water, your body will thank you! It will be grateful for receiving all the amazing positive benefits of a keto diet such as weight-loss and increased, high-focus energy.
