Let’s say all is going well for you as you embark on a keto diet;  you’re feeling good, your ketones are where they should be, you’re past the “keto flu” side effects, you’ve eliminated your water-weight bloating, and your energy is returning, but you realize you aren’t having regular bowel movements. For those of us who are pretty regular, this change in bowels can be daunting. So what causes constipation when transitioning to the low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, and how can we stop or prevent it? Here are some of the reasons you may be experience constipation on a keto diet, and what to do about it.

Not Consuming Enough Fiber

When transitioning from a typical American diet to a keto diet, making healthy food choices should be a top priority. According to Dr. Josh Axe, keto-expert and New York Times best-selling Author, “Constipation is possible, especially in the transitional period when you make the change from your previous dietary habits to your new keto lifestyle. This is why it’s so important to follow a keto diet in the healthiest manner possible.”

It’s convenient to drink butter coffee every morning and eat prepackaged keto convenience foods. But you also want to make sure you’re getting adequate dietary fiber through high-fiber foods. Fiber helps to bulk up and move our bowels, so they can pass waste easier.

The American Heart Association suggests the daily value for fiber is 25 grams per day on a 2,000-calorie diet for adults. Even though a good amount of your diet is healthy fats when you’re trying to maintain ketosis, it’s important to get the majority of your carbohydrates from non-starchy vegetables, which also contain fiber. For example, leafy greens contain (5 grams fiber/cup), asparagus (4 grams fiber/cup) and broccoli (2 grams fiber/cup). If you feel like you’re not getting enough fiber (still struggling with constipation after increasing your veggies consumption) and you’re reaching your maximum carbs, there are some keto fiber supplements you can take as well. 

Constipation is possible, especially in the transitional period when you make the change from your previous dietary habits to your new keto lifestyle. This is why it’s so important to follow a keto diet in the healthiest manner possible.

 

Low Healthy Gut Bacteria/Lack of Prebiotic Fiber

You may not be getting enough prebiotics and probiotics in your diet. Prebiotics are soluble fiber that we don’t digest. Prebiotics feed our probiotics (beneficial gut bacteria) and help keep our microbiome healthy. Prebiotics often come from starchy vegetables like potatoes and rice, which are avoided on a ketogenic diet. But some vegetables are high in prebiotics, such as garlic, leeks, artichokes, dandelion greens, tomatoes, asparagus, and berries. Probiotics can be obtained through fermented foods like kimchi (Korean fermented cabbage), sauerkraut, and fermented pickles. The combination of both prebiotics and probiotics has been shown to help with constipation. If you’re not a fan of fermented foods, you can take a prebiotic and probiotic supplement. Also, try to eat mostly Whole Foods. 

Dehydration

Sometimes constipation is caused simply by not drinking enough water throughout the day. In fact, dehydration is one of the most common causes. Even mild dehydration can cause constipation. So this means you need to focus on hydration even when you aren’t thirsty. Water helps to hydrate the colon and keeps the stools soft to pass through more easily. Also, add a pinch of Himalayan salt to your water, which is an essential electrolyte, and helps get the water to your cells more efficiently, keeping your cells more fully hydrated as well. 

Eating In a Stressed State/Not Chewing Thoroughly

The key to good digestion is to eat in a parasympathetic (relaxed) state. Most of us are eating in a sympathetic (fight or flight) state. We are often rushed and we aren’t fully chewing our food or eating in a mindful way. The gut and the brain are connected and interact with each other through our microbes. When we are anxious, it impacts our ability to properly digest food through our digestive system. 

Digestion starts in the mouth. Chewing and eating in a relaxed way–also known as “mindful eating” ensures we are fully digesting and getting the nutrients we need from our food. Plus, there are enzymes in our saliva that help break down and pre-digest our food before it enters the stomach. According to researchers, “During mastication, the food mixes with saliva to form a bolus, a smooth mass of mechanically broken down food particles. The water in saliva moistens the ingested food, whereas the salivary mucins bind masticated food into a coherent and slippery bolus that can easily slide through the esophagus.”

If our food is not fully digested or properly moistened before entering the digestive tract, this can contribute to constipation. Eating mindfully helps to relax the entire body so our digestion can function optimally. It all starts with relaxing and fully chewing our food. 

Not Getting Enough Movement

Most of us are aware of the benefits of regular physical activity. But one benefit you may not be aware of is that movement throughout the day increases gut motility. This means that by moving your body, you are also stimulating your bowels to move. Additionally, exercise reduces transit time in the intestines (decreased time between bowel movements). So be sure to get up and move throughout the day. Even a short walk can help significantly with constipation. 

Keto Constipation Remedies

If constipation is an issue on your keto diet you may want to try the following:

• Increase your fiber intake by eating more low starchy fibrous vegetables each day.
• Eat small amounts of fermented foods with your meals.
• Consider taking quality prebiotic and probiotics. 
• Consider a magnesium supplement, such as magnesium citrate, which can help to move the bowels.
• Try including chia seeds or flax seeds.
• Drink coffee or tea, which can stimulate bowels.
• Try removing nuts from the diet, as these can be binding for some people.
• Be sure to chew your food thoroughly and eat in a relaxed state.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Move your body throughout the day. 

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What Causes Headaches on a Keto Diet?

When you transition out of a typical carb-heavy diet into a low-carb, moderate protein, and higher fat diet, your body takes some time to adjust. Without significant carb intake, your body is learning how to focus on fat-burning as its primary fuel source. During this time, typically one to two weeks, common side effects are expected due to the carbohydrate restriction of a low-carbohydrate diet. This adjustment period is a lot like detoxing. In fact, you are detoxing from a sugary (glucose) diet loaded with starchy vegetables and other sources of sugar. As such, during the first week, it’s normal to experience a variety of detox-like or flu-like symptoms, commonly called the keto flu. One of the symptoms is headaches, which makes sense if you understand the transition process. 

Low Blood-Sugar Headaches

Your brain is used to being powered by glucose (the product of a high-carb diet) rather than ketones (the product of a higher fat, low-carb diet). When you begin a keto diet, your body continues reaching for glucose, even when it’s no longer available and is instead creating ample ketones for energy. This can cause your blood sugar levels (blood glucose) to drop too low (typically below 70 mg/dL), especially if you are intermittent fasting and, if you’re not yet keto-adapted, can become hypoglycemic. In this case, becoming experiencing hypoglycemia is not cause for alarm. It’s part of the transition. However, since your body isn’t used to it, this new low blood-sugar (no glucose) can briefly add stress to your brain and nervous system, and consequently give you a stress-hormone headache, as well as strong hunger and brain fog. Once your body starts utilizing its ketones rather than glucose, you should find some relief from your headache and begin to experience better energy levels and the known health benefits of staying in nutritional ketosis. 

Dehydration

Notice your weight comes off quickly when you start keto? This is actually water loss. When you’re in the transition stage of keto and using up your stored glucose (glycogen), your body excretes extra water. This is because every gram of glycogen is stored and released with three grams of water. So, as your body rids itself of all its glucose reserves, it also eliminates significant amounts of water (and the bloating that goes along with it). If you aren’t replenishing that water by drinking frequently and plentifully, you’ll get dehydrated—and also perhaps get the headache that accompanies dehydration. (You know hangover headaches? Same idea.)

Electrolyte Imbalance 

Also, when you cut way back on eating carbs, your body makes less insulin. Since insulin’s job is to process the glucose in carbs, when you stop eating carbs, your body needs and thus produces less insulin. With less insulin in your system, your kidneys excrete more sodium, one of the electrolytes that regulate your hydration. This sodium excretion can throw off the balance of other essential electrolytes too, such as potassium and magnesium. This imbalance is one of the main reasons people suffer keto-flu symptoms. If you find yourself getting a headache while on keto, it may be related to sodium loss.

Toxins from Stored Fat

When your body begins to use fat for fuel instead of glycogen, it reaches into your fat stores. But these fat stores also store toxins. As the body breaks down its fat, these toxins are released into your bloodstream, potentially causing headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. 

Menstrual Cycle

There’s a lot of misinformation and anecdotal information about the topic of hormones and ketones, yet what is abundantly clear in the literature is ANY diet that results in rapid weight loss or restricts calories (which some folks do initially on keto to help lower the appetite), will change diurnal rhythm (daily patterns) and signal hormonal changes. It’s also true that drops in insulin levels will directly lower estrogen levels. Most folks today are dealing with estrogen dominance thanks to blood sugar imbalance, stress, exogenous hormone disrupting chemical exposure, poor sleep patterns and blue light/screen time excess, all of which creates hormone imbalance.

How to Stop or Prevent Keto-Related Headaches 

What can you do to help with a keto-related headache? Here are some easy remedies to try. They’re also good ongoing practices for your continued success at keto, headaches or not.

• Hydrate
  Avoid dehydration. Drink at least half of your body weight in ounces of water throughout the day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you will want to drink 75 ounces of water. On top of this amount, if you drink diuretics such as coffee, increase your water intake by 1-1/2 cups of water per cup of coffee. This will also help to flush out toxins that are released while you’re burning fat stores. Some people look to electrolyte supplements during this time. Bone broth or bouillon is also common. But it’s not required, especially if you heed the next three recommendations. 
• Salt Your Water
  One easy way to make up for sodium lost on the keto diet (and consequently help keep your electrolytes in balance) is to add a pinch of Himalayan salt to each glass of drinking water. You can also add mineral drops to your water to boost your electrolytes.
• Eat Enough Fat
  Coming off of a high-carb diet, it may seem counter intuitive to eat so much fat. But getting the right amount of macros (i.e. 70 to 80 percent of your daily calories from fat) is essential to a successful keto transition. It’s also your best bet for counteracting a low blood-sugar headache and managing hunger.
• Eat Quality/Nutrient Dense Foods
  How can you counteract toxins released from fat loss? Ensure you’re eating enough nutrients (within your macros) and, if necessary, don’t get too restrictive on calories too quickly. You don’t want to lose fat too quickly, as doing so releases more stored toxins. Also, when considering your meal plans, try to pick cleaner foods, which contain no GMOs, hormones, and other toxins, such as pesticides. 

The Final Word

Hopefully we’ve helped clear up your questions, and perhaps your headache. But here’s a quick refresher about keto headaches:

1. Keto headaches are common during the transition from a high-carb to a high-fat, low-carb diet. They’re also temporary and will subside when your body adjusts to using ketones for fuel.
2. One way to prevent headaches is to hydrate and add a pinch of Himalayan salt to your water to ensure you’re replacing the sodium lost through keto-related water loss. 
3. Stick with a “clean-keto” diet as much as possible to avoid adding toxins into your diet. 
4. Be sure to meet your daily macros (fat, protein, and carbs) to help boost energy and encourage your keto transition. 
5. Rapid water changes in the female body, whether caused by the diuretic ketogenic diet or otherwise, briefly triggers estrogen to dive and can create hormone imbalance, which can lead to headaches. To avoid this, consume more salt, hydrate, and in the case of some women, increase complex carbohydrate intake for the short term right before menses. 

Disclaimer: when starting a new diet, it’s always a good idea to get medical advice first, especially if you already have health risks or preexisting conditions. So always ask your health care provider or dietitian before making any major dietary change, including switching to a high-fat diet.

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How to Curb Cravings

Here’s the good news; while cravings may be irritating, they’re absolutely manageable. Use these four guidelines to calm and prevent your cravings before they throw you off track. 

#1 Eat Lots of Fat and Protein

Fat and protein are your friends on keto. While fat is clearly a cornerstone of the keto diet, protein will help keep your blood sugar stable and induce a sense of satiety. If you’re experiencing cravings, it may be that you’re skimping on one of these two essential macronutrients. When in doubt, especially in the beginning, make sure to have some high-fat and high-protein snacks around.

#2 Eat Regularly

The best way to manage issues with blood sugar (a common cravings trigger)  is to make sure you’re eating regularly. If you let yourself get too hungry, your steady resolve to stick to a keto diet can rapidly devolve into an immediate need for food. If you’re struggling with cravings, eat at least three meals a day, with a snack or two if needed. 

#3 Get Enough Rest

The number one non-food related cause of cravings is inadequate sleep. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body’s hunger hormones get confused and imbalanced – leaving you craving sweets. In fact, research shows that just one night of sleep deprivation can increase levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is responsible for appetite and hunger.

#4 Try Keto-Friendly Alternatives

If you really have a hankering for a specific food like brownies, cookies, cupcakes, or any other seemingly off-limit foods, you can try a keto-friendly alternative. With the popularity of the keto diet, you can find more keto-friendly recipes for sweet treats than ever. Most recipes replace wheat flour with a nut-based flour and include sugar alternatives like erythritol and monk fruit.

#5 Check for Nutrient Deficiencies

When your body is low in certain nutrients, it can result in cravings. A common example of this is how women tend to crave chocolate (rich in magnesium) during their period. Low levels of magnesium can increase symptoms of PMS and therefore, cravings for magnesium-rich food would make sense, as a woman’s body tries to rebalance itself.

If you think your cravings may stem from nutrient deficiencies, talk to your healthcare provider about testing for deficiencies.

#6 Manage Your Stress

Experiencing a high level of stress is directly associated with changes in eating behavior. Compulsive eating and overeating often result from unmanaged emotional tension, which can be the cause of cravings.

If you have a lot of stress in your life and you find that your go-to comfort is food, trying to manage your stress and get ahead of the urge to soothe with food is your best bet. Some stress-management techniques include yoga, meditation, walking, journaling, deep breathing, and physical exercise. 

Keto-Friendly Swaps for Carb-Heavy Cravings

Here are some excellent keto-friendly swaps that you can enjoy when those cravings hit:

Quick No-Cook Keto Snacks:

• Instead of potato chips, try pork rinds.
• Instead of cheese and crackers, try cheese and olives or celery.
• Instead of trail mix, opt for a nut mix (without the dried fruit).

And for the cooks out there, here are some fantastic recipes to calm your sweet tooth or satisfy your comfort food cravings:

Savory Keto Recipes:

1. Cheesy cauliflower mashed potato casserole

[GET RECIPE HERE]

2. Air fryer garlic cheese rolls

[GET RECIPE HERE]

3. Enchilada chicken casserole

[GET RECIPE HERE]

4. Keto vodka pasta with sausage

[GET RECIPE HERE]

5. Keto pizza with broccoli rabe, mushrooms, and sausage

[GET RECIPE HERE]

Sweet Keto Recipes:

1. Keto hot chocolate

[GET RECIPE HERE]

2. Chocolate peanut butter cups

[GET RECIPE HERE]

3. Pumpkin spice mousse tart with chocolate-almond crust

[GET RECIPE HERE]

4. Flourless chocolate cake with chocolate glaze

[GET RECIPE HERE]

5. Vanilla donuts with chocolate glaze

[GET RECIPE HERE]

A Word of Caution on Eating Lots of Sweet Keto Foods Containing Sugar-Alternatives 

Not all sugar alternatives are created equally. For instance, sweeteners like monk fruit and stevia may impart additional health benefits like antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. On the other hand, sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame have been associated with health issues like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and impaired gut health.

What’s more, research shows that consuming foods that contain sweeteners (even ones that are free of sugar) may still stimulate an insulin response. Due to the learned response from consuming sweet foods, they may feed your cravings and lead to overeating.

An example of this would be the strong correlation seen between people who consume diet sodas and the incidence of metabolic syndrome. At first glance, it wouldn’t make much sense that diet soda (free of sugar) should contribute to metabolic syndrome. However, due to the conditioning of your body to expect calories along with sweet foods, metabolic activity may continue as if sugar was ingested – even if it wasn’t.

Some people do just fine with sugar-alternatives and don’t experience any issues with blood sugar. A simple way to find out if your body tolerates sugar alternatives is to blood test for food sensitivities after you consume them.

The Final Word

Although cravings can feel like do or die in the moment, you’ve got plenty of tools to fight off those unwanted urges and stay the course. The good news is, after you’ve become keto-adapted, your cravings will subside significantly, and your days of battling with carbs will be in the rearview.

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What are Heart Palpitations?

Heart palpitations can feel like a racing heart or fluttering feeling in the heart. There are several possible causes of heart palpitations, including stress, intense exercise, caffeine, hormonal conditions, and medications. There are also causes that could be of medical concern, especially if you have increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease (including heart disease), such as diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol levels, or high blood pressure. A condition called atrial fibrillation can also be a cause. So if you are experiencing heart palpitations, it’s important to follow up with your doctor or a cardiologist, even if you think it’s in relation to your keto transition. 

In the context of a keto diet, heart palpitations are one of the many symptoms of the “keto flu,” which includes a variety of unpleasant side effects that may occur while your body is transitioning from using glucose (sugar/carbs) for energy to using fat for energy. Other common side effects include constipation, bad breath, muscle cramps (especially leg cramps), and fatigue.

What Causes Heart Palpitations on the Keto Diet?

When transitioning to keto, heart palpitations are typically due to dehydration or a mineral deficiency. Here’s why:

• Dehydration
  

  When you cut way back on your carbohydrate intake on a low-carb diet, your body produces less insulin and uses up its glycogen stores. When this happens, your body excretes more water with the glycogen (which is why you tend to lose water weight quickly on keto). The quick water weight loss can cause dehydration, and dehydration can inspire heart palpitations.

• Mineral Deficiency

  As we mentioned, when you cut your carb intake from lots of carbs to nearly no carbs, you produce less insulin (insulin processes the glucose in carbs). With less insulin in your system, your kidneys excrete more sodium, which can throw your essential electrolytes out of balance.

The primary three electrolytes that can be affected when transitioning to keto are sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Sodium, potassium, and magnesium are all essential minerals for your heart. According to The Merck Manual for Consumers, “Some minerals—especially the macrominerals (minerals the body needs in relatively large amounts)—are important as electrolytes. Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge when they are dissolved in a liquid such as blood. The blood electrolytes help regulate nerve and muscle function and maintain acid-base balance and water balance.”

What do these minerals do? A lot!

• SODIUM:

  Sodium is an essential mineral found in the intracellular fluid of cells. Sodium helps your cells to maintain homeostasis, regulates fluids, balances other electrolytes, regulates blood pressure, and is crucial for the electrical charge of muscle and nerve cells, by transporting nutrients through the cell membranes. So, obviously it’s important to get enough salt. But not all salt is created equal. Make sure you get the healthiest, good-quality salt without anti-caking agents, such as Himalayan sea salt.

• POTASSIUM:
  

  Potassium is an essential mineral that many of us are actually very deficient in, and it’s a big “heart health” mineral. This mineral is crucial for the excitability of heart muscle, which is why a deficiency can contribute to heart palpitations (also known as heart arrhythmias). Only three percent of Americans meet the adequate intake of potassium, and the average American intake is just over half of the requirements. Another major function of potassium is blood-pressure regulation by decreasing sodium reabsorption, which is one reason why when sodium is out of balance, potassium can be too. Plus, modern processed foods have significantly less potassium than whole foods, so many “healthy” people still experience low potassium and related heart palpitations.

• MAGNESIUM:

  Magnesium is a third essential mineral directly related to the excitability and contraction of muscles, including the cardiac muscle. It’s responsible for maintaining normal amounts of electrolytes inside heart muscle cells, and it’s a mineral in which many of us are deficient. Just like potassium, our modern foods are deficient in magnesium, and magnesium deficiency is associated with muscle cramping, insomnia, heart palpitations, and fatigue.

How to Remedy or Prevent Keto-Related Heart Palpitations

Keto-related heart palpitations are usually short-term and only experienced during your transition to the ketogenic high-fat diet. This is when your electrolytes are most likely to become out of balance. That means that as you regulate and settle into ketosis, these symptoms should resolve. However, part of regulating is getting your electrolytes in balance, and there are very easy ways to do that:

• Drink salted water.
  If dehydration is the cause, hydration is the cure! Add Himalayan salt to your water (a pinch); it will help keep your essential minerals balanced and also possibly prevent keto flu symptoms while the body is adjusting to its new power source. You can also drink a little pickle juice for fast relief!

• Consume magnesium and potassium-rich vegetables.
  Cauliflower, spinach, broccoli, and leafy greens are all keto-friendly vegetables that contain these important minerals. 

• Add a mineral drop supplement that contains all the essential electrolytes and minerals.
  Many keto experts recommend you take a supplement while transitioning to a keto lifestyle, especially because it will help prevent keto flu symptoms. 
  

• Consider taking a magnesium supplement to keep magnesium levels up.
  Magnesium is a mineral that most of us are deficient in and can be difficult to get from our diet alone, as modern soil tends to be depleted in magnesium (from pesticides and over-farming). So, taking a magnesium supplement can give you peace of mind that you are getting enough, especially if you are on keto and lead an active lifestyle, which can easily deplete magnesium. 

The Final Word

Although experiencing heart palpitations on keto may be unnerving, know that it will pass once your body adjusts to using ketones for energy. Keep your eye on the health benefits of low-carbohydrate living, and, in the meantime, follow your keto meal plans wisely, remember to drink water throughout the day, and keep your minerals in balance; balanced electrolytes help maintain a normal heart-muscle contraction and rhythm.

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There isn’t a quick answer. Depending on the situation, going keto may improve or impair sleep. Fortunately, there are ways to lean towards the sleep-enhancement side of the equation. 

More on that later. First, let’s explore what might cause sleep issues on keto.  

Causes of Short Term Sleep Problems on Keto

When you go keto, your entire metabolism shifts. Instead of burning sugar (carbohydrates) for energy, you start eating keto-friendly foods to your optimal macros to ensure you’re burning fat. 

This shift takes time, and it’s not always a smooth process. During this transition period, many people experience the “keto flu” – a catch-all term for side effects like fatigue and general low energy levels, irritability, headaches, and keto insomnia associated with switching to a keto diet.

These symptoms can last for days, weeks, or not manifest at all. But the keto flu isn’t actually a condition- it’s a label for other problems, some of which can be remedied quickly.

Here are three of those problems, each of which can impact sleep. 

• Carb Withdrawal 

Neurochemically, your brain regards sugar as a drug. If you’ve ever dropped a caffeine habit, you know the drill. Going cold turkey isn’t easy, and it can certainly affect a good night’s sleep.

But it’s not just sugary sodas, cookies, and such. Even starchy carbs like rice and potatoes are forms of sugar that trigger these addiction pathways. So as your body adapts to a low-carb diet, normal brain functions – including sleep – may suffer. 

The good news is the situation is temporary. Just stay keto, and the carb addiction will dissipate. 

• Electrolyte Imbalances

Sodium, potassium, and magnesium are minerals called electrolytes. They conduct electrical impulses throughout your nervous system, including your brain. Because electrolytes regulate normal brain functions, deficiencies in these minerals can cause sleep issues.

Where does keto come in? Well, when you restrict carbs on a keto diet, the hormone insulin stays lower. Low insulin is great for burning fat, but not so great for retaining sodium and potassium because the keto diet is a diuretic; it tells your kidneys to pee out more electrolytes, and consequently, sleep problems can ensue. Low sodium, for instance, may cause insomnia by increasing levels of the stress hormone, norepinephrine. The keto diet also restricts some foods rich in potassium and magnesium, which increases the likelihood of electrolyte deficiency.

Supplementing with electrolytes is an easy solution. Learn more here.

• Waking Up to Pee

You just learned how keto makes you excrete more electrolytes. As we also suggested, the same holds true for water. 

This water comes from the breakdown of glycogen, your body’s storage form of glucose. Basically, your body likes to burn these sugar stores before accessing body fat.  

Unfortunately, this process releases a deluge of fluid that’s promptly delivered to your bladder for urinary disposal. Obviously, it’s not ideal for sleeping through the night. 

The clinical term for having to pee more than once per night is nocturia, and it’s linked to depression and increased mortality risk. But as with carb withdrawal, keto-induced nocturia should be short lived.

How Keto Can Improve Sleep

Now for the other side of the coin: Potential sleep improvements from going keto. 

• Blood-Sugar Control

Eating a high-carb diet means riding the blood-sugar roller coaster. As your blood sugar swings up and down, your energy and hunger swing along with it. 

This is not optimal for sleep. If you’ve ever woken up hungry in the middle of the night, it was probably due to low blood sugar. The medical term for this is hypoglycemia.

Being in ketosis, however, gets you off the blood-sugar coaster…and onto the smooth and steady fat train. On the fat train, your blood sugar stays more stable, which means less midnight hunger. 

But the connection between sleep and blood sugar runs deeper. Lack of sleep, in fact, impairs the ability of insulin – your blood-sugar regulation hormone – to dispose of high blood glucose. In other words, sleep restriction can shift your metabolism towards type 2 diabetes.

Practically, this means that sleep and ketosis are joined at the hip. If you’re not sleeping well, you won’t burn fat as well. But it also suggests that a keto diet – which keeps blood sugar low – may have a protective effect against the metabolic derangement of sleep deprivation.

• Increased Deep Sleep

In a 2008 study, researchers found that a keto diet increased deep sleep more than a carb-containing diet in 14 non-obese men. During deep sleep, tissues heal, new memories form, and cerebrospinal fluid floods the brain to clear out proteins (like amyloid beta) that have been linked to Alzheimer’s.

But there’s a caveat: In that same study, the keto diet reduced REM sleep – the sleep stage best known for dreaming and memory consolidation – compared to the control diet.

• GABA and Glutamate

Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that helps relax the mind. In one randomized controlled trial, GABA supplementation helped insomnia patients fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

The keto diet, in case you were wondering, has been shown to boost GABA levels in both mice and humans.

Then there’s glutamate – the excitatory neurotransmitter directly opposed to GABA. High glutamate levels, in fact, appear to drive brain injury and seizures. Why is that relevant? The keto diet, likely by boosting GABA and/or reducing glutamate toxicity, has been shown to improve sleep quality in children with epilepsy. So, it’s possible that anyone on a keto diet may experience similar benefit.

• Weight loss

Compared to the general population, obese people sleep less, wake up more, and feel less rested. What’s more, obesity increases the risk of sleep apnea, a dangerous condition of nightime breathing obstruction. 

When obese people lose weight, sleep typically improves. This is where keto may help. Across numerous studies, the ketogenic diet has been shown to promote weight loss in obese and diabetic populations.

Quick Tips for Good Sleep On Keto

Based on what you just learned, here are some rapid-fire tips for successful sleep on a keto diet:

• When starting a ketogenic diet, allow two to four weeks to adapt to keto and break your carb addiction. (To confirm you’re in ketosis, measure your ketones).
• At night, minimize blue light from phones, tablets, TVs, and computers to promote optimal levels of melatonin, your sleep hormone. 
• Increase salt intake to prevent low sodium levels and optimize your antidiuretic hormone (ADH). (ADH helps you sleep through the night without having to pee).  
• Consider potassium and magnesium supplements to correct electrolyte imbalances. Magnesium in particular helps counteract stress hormones, like cortisol, so commonly dysregulated in keto beginners.
• Consider GABA or melatonin supplements as temporary sleep aides.

The Final Word

Does keto improve sleep? The jury is still out. One recent study, for example, found that three weeks of keto dieting had no effect (versus a high-carb diet) on subjective sleep quality.

How keto affects your sleep will depend on your unique situation. If you constantly wake up hungry and are not on a ketogenic high-fat diet or are just starting one, in time keto could help by stabilizing your blood sugar. And if you want to lose weight for better sleep, keto could help with that too. 

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Keto Rash Symptoms

If you’re feeling an itchy rash, are new to keto, and are wondering if you have a keto rash, consider these telltale signs:

• Your rash looks light pink and symmetrical (on both sides of your body), most commonly over the areas of back, chest, and neck, but also perhaps on your arms and legs.
• You began experiencing moderate to intense itchiness and skin irritation shortly after starting a keto diet (within the first few weeks) and the itch is intense enough to interrupt your sleep and is worse with exercise and sweating.
• Your rash may (or may not) look like red bumps with fluid (not like papules, which are solid), that darken in time.

Why Do Some People Get Keto Rash?

So what causes this bothersome keto rash? The exact cause is still unknown, and there hasn’t been much in the way of research from the dermatology field to pinpoint the origin. But there are several theories suggesting why this happens when starting the low-carb diet and significantly lowering your carb intake. Some common theories include:

Acetone

Acetone, a type of ketone that can be excreted through your sweat as your ketone levels rise, might be overabundant during a transition to ketosis. This may irritate the skin.

Ketone-Inspired Inflammation

The ketone bodies circulating in your body as a result of getting into ketosis may have an inflammatory effect on some people.

Autoimmune Conditions

An underlying autoimmune condition, such as Sjogren’s Syndrome, or an infection may have gotten “fired up” with the dietary change.

Gut Bacteria

An imbalance in gut bacteria (dysbiosis), meaning you may have more bad than good gut bacteria,  may have triggered a skin reaction.

Side Effect of Diabetes

A sudden exacerbation of existing diabetes from ketosis may trigger a rash.

How to Prevent or Remedy a Keto Rash

There are a number of things you can do to help prevent or cure a keto rash:

Be Patient

Acetone levels typically go down when your body becomes more efficient at burning ketones. So, if the rash is related to acetone in sweat, it should clear up (just like breath acetone clears up) once you are fully in ketosis (up to three weeks, but usually sooner).

Eat More Carbs

The quickest way to end a keto rash is to up your carbohydrate intake a little. The problem is, eating less keto-friendly foods may kick you out of ketosis and thwart your progress. The best course of action is to add a little more carbs back into your diet to see if that helps the inflammation to subside. If you cannot eliminate the rash any other way and simply can’t take it anymore, introduce carbs back into your diet, wait for the rash to clear, then try keto again; many people new to the diet are able to go back on keto after their rash clears without any issues.

Clean Up after Exercise

Don’t stay in your sweaty workout clothes after you work out. In fact, you may want to take a shower after exercising to get the sweat off your skin. Otherwise, the acetone in the sweat (and the sweat itself which contains bacteria) may instigate a rash or irritate one that already exists, which prolongs the time it takes to heal.

Dress for Success

We all know that friction, heat, and restricted clothing make a rash even more bothersome. Tight clothes will only restrict a rash, causing further irritation, so wear cool, loose, lightweight, comfortable clothing (especially around the rash areas) so your skin can breathe and is not further irritated. 

Consider Food Allergies

Food allergies can cause an inflammation-related rash. If your keto rash is due to food-related inflammation, it’s starting in your gut and is caused by foods that aren’t agreeing with your body. To remedy the situation, review your meal plan and try removing some of the common food allergens from your keto diet and consider testing your glucose and ketones to see if you are reacting to foods you’re consuming.

Add a Supplement

If your rash is triggered by an imbalance in your gut bacteria, take a quality probiotic to help increase your beneficial bacteria. Most of us can benefit from a probiotic even if we’re not having problems. You might also want to add in probiotic-rich foods, such as fermented cabbage (kimchi), which also contain beneficial bacteria and enzymes to help you digest your food. 

See Your Doctor

As we mentioned earlier in this article, one of the causes of keto rash can be inflammation from an underlying condition. If you’re not finding relief in other ways, you may want to discuss your rash with your doctor. Some doctors will treat keto rash with antibiotics due to their anti-inflammatory effects.

The Final Word

If you are new to keto and experiencing a keto rash, we recommend taking some of the tips from above as well as talking with your doctor to rule out other underlying conditions. If you feel really good while keto dieting and are experiencing some of the health benefits, like weight loss, lower blood sugar, improved mood, and better skin, don’t be discouraged; hopefully, you can get to the bottom of it and get back on track with your high-fat diet.

The post What is Keto Rash & How Can You Prevent it? appeared first on KETO-MOJO.

While this fact doesn’t make the experience any more pleasant, it should reassure you that if you are losing hair, it won’t continue for the long term, and is likely one of the lesser-known symptoms of the “keto flu” (other symptoms include less energy, headache, body cramps, and more). Meanwhile, you can read on to learn some other reasons why you might be experiencing hair loss as well as some actions you can take to support hair growth during keto’s transitional period and beyond. 

What causes hair loss while transitioning on a keto diet?

As with any major diet shift, whether weight-loss related or otherwise, you may experience a temporary period of thinning hair or hair falling out (typically three to six months after starting keto). This is similar to the hair loss from hormonal shifts that occur a few months after pregnancy or making other major dietary changes. Big changes impact your hormones, and it takes time for your body to adjust. 

What are some other causes of hair loss? 

There are other causes of hair loss outside of keto. For example, your hair does have its own unique natural growth and shedding process; everyone’s hair grows, falls out, and has new hair growth, at different rates. Contrary to what your hairdresser may have told you, hair loss is not based on a specific cycle or the seasons. 

If your hair is shedding more than usual and is thinning in certain areas, there are other reasons this could be happening, including:

• Thyroid disease 
• Hormonal changes
• Life stress (physical and emotional)
• Medications
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding
• Nutrient deficiencies such as low iron, zinc, niacin, selenium, and fatty acids
• Autoimmune diseases

What you can do to stop hair loss on keto

Although hair loss on keto does not affect everyone, there are some actions you can take to help support the health of your hair while on keto. 

Get enough nutrients

Keto is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, so the key is definitely not starvation; calorie intake is important, even if you’re intermittent fasting. But not just any calories. You want to be sure to consume enough keto-friendly macronutrients (low-carb, moderate protein, and high-fat) to avoid nutritional deficiencies. Protein intake plays a key factor here. You want to consume enough protein, not too much or too little protein. Micronutrients are also important; the B vitamin biotin is responsible for the shiny, lush look of healthy hair, and a biotin deficiency can impact hair growth. An iron deficiency can also cause hair loss.

You can make sure your macros and micronutrients are up to snuff by tracking your macros (especially important when first starting out on keto). You may also want to take a multivitamin. 

While eating to your macros may not stop you from losing some hair while transitioning from a high-carb diet to a high-fat, low-carb diet, it will help your body adjust faster, so you can get past the transition period and get back to your normal hair-growth cycle.  

Reduce your stress level

Heightened cortisol (stress hormone) levels can contribute to temporary hair loss,  whether you’re on a keto diet or not. To ensure stress isn’t adversely influencing your hair health or making your hair fall out, do the following: 

• Minimize your stress level any way you can, including meditation, yoga, taking walks, getting enough sleep, and avoiding stressful situations as well as you can.
• Pick a time to start keto when you know you don’t have too many big stressors on your plate. 

Get enough sleep

Prioritize your sleep; it’s when your body repairs itself. Today’s culture tends to de-prioritize rest, but it’s extremely important. Lack of sleep can affect the function of your endocrine (hormonal) system, meaning it raises stress hormones, which, among other things, may cause hair loss. To help ensure you get enough sleep, do the following:

• Wind down before bed with a hot bath, book, or even relaxing music.
• Take time to stretch and relax before bed so you can ease into sleep.
• Get to bed earlier (something we can all work toward). 
• Go to bed at the same time each night so you can get into a rhythm.
• Give yourself eight hours per night to rest. 

Explore underlying causes with your doctor

There may be other reasons you are losing hair, including rapid weight loss. If you’re just starting keto (within the first week or so) or have been in ketosis for a while and are still experiencing hair loss, consult with your doctor to find out if there are other causes, like a nutritional deficiency, thyroid condition, autoimmune disease, or medication you’re adversely reacting to. 

The Final Word

If you’re losing hair on keto and are confident your experiencing hair loss is not due to other reasons, relax and ride out this transition period; soon you’ll have back your normal head of hair. In the meantime, remember to take steps to eat well, lower your stress, and get sleep and you’ll continue to reap the amazing benefits of keto. Bonus: that coconut oil you probably have since it’s recommended for keto cooking is also great for moisturizing your scalp and hair follicles!

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But don’t worry, it’s one of the common side effects when starting a ketogenic diet, and not everyone gets keto breath. Those who do, can rest assured that like other “keto flu” symptoms it’s short-lived, and there are some things you can do if you find yourself with ketosis breath. 

What Causes Keto Breath?

You can have good oral hygiene, floss regularly, and still end up with keto breath when you enter a state of ketosis (when your body uses fat as its primary fuel source instead of carbs). Unlike basic bad breath, or halitosis, which is typically due to a build-up of bacteria on the tongue, poor oral hygiene, or both, keto breath is a direct result of your body transitioning from burning carbs for energy to burning fat for energy. In other words, it’s a sign that what you’re doing is working and your ketone levels are rising! 

Ketones

When your body starts to burn fat for energy instead of glucose, the by-product is ketones. The body produces three kinds of ketones: beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, and acetone. The most common cause of keto breath is the third ketone, keto acetone. When you first start producing ketones to replace glucose for fuel, the body often creates more ketones than your body will initially use. So, the body disposes of this overabundance of ketones through the breath (exhalation, hence the smell) and urination. Once your body has no more glucose stores to draw from for energy and starts getting more efficient at using ketones for energy, keto breath typically resolves itself. 

However, there are other reasons for keto breath. 

Dehydration

Not hydrating enough (dry mouth) can influence keto breath, too. The ketogenic diet is a natural diuretic, so it’s not uncommon to become dehydrated when starting a keto lifestyle. 

Consuming Too Much Protein 

A high-protein diet could be a culprit; protein can break down into sulfur compounds and lead to an ammonia smell on the breath. 

How to Help Keto Breath

If you’re not dehydrated or eating too much protein, an acetone smell on your breath is a good indicator that you’re in ketosis. In fact, one of the signs people look for when aiming to achieve ketosis is keto breath. But that happy fact doesn’t make the smell any better. So, what can you do? Plenty!

• Give it time.
  As we mentioned above, the body will eventually use ketones more efficiently and keto breath should clear up.
• Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
  Not only does drinking water help to prevent bad breath from dehydration, but also it can help to “wash away” the breath acetone, as well as flush out ammonia from protein.
• Add crushed peppermint or spearmint leaves to your water.
  These natural keto-friendly breath fresheners are like sugar-free mints or mouthwash without the added sweeteners; they’ll help mask any odor and freshen your breath.
• Track your protein.
  Too much protein contributes to an ammonia smell on the breath. Make sure you’re staying within your macronutrients and eat less protein if necessary. 
• Slightly increase your carbs.
  Higher carb intake can help. Start by adding on 5 grams per day, being sure to monitor your ketones and glucose (blood sugar) to ensure you stay in ketosis. Slightly increasing carbs may help to counteract the over-abundance of ketones the body initially produces.

The Final Word

Keto breath is temporary and will go away in time, usually within a couple of weeks. Also remember, it’s a good sign that your body is doing what you want it to do on the high-fat diet—reaching ketosis and all the amazing health benefits that come along with it. So, keep up the good oral hygiene, flossing, and keto diet, avoid carbohhydrates and stick to healthy fats, and it will pass soon enough. 

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What Causes Leg Cramps on Keto

Keto-related leg cramps are typically due to an essential mineral imbalance (usually magnesium deficiency but also possibly sodium and potassium) as well as dehydration. This imbalance tends to occur as you transition into ketosis, before your body begins regularly leveraging ketones for energy rather than glucose. You can experience muscle contractions any time of day or night if you experience them at all, and you can experience them whether or not you’re aiming for weight loss on the ketogenic diet.

Electrolyte (Mineral) Imbalance

When you eliminate carbs from your diet, your body produces less insulin (insulin’s job is to process carbs). With far less carbs to process, your body produces (and uses) significantly less insulin. The lessening of insulin in your system triggers your kidneys to absorb less sodium, so more is released in your urine. This can trigger a sodium deficiency and a consequent electrolyte imbalance.

What exactly are electrolytes? Electrolytes are positively charged minerals that help with hundreds of processes within the body, mostly with the muscles and nerves. They’re found in pretty much all of your bodily fluids (sweat, urine, and blood). Their primary function is to push fluid in and out of the cells (aka keep you hydrated), contracting and relaxing muscles, and nerve conduction. The main electrolytes involved in keto-related leg cramps are potassium, magnesium, and sodium. (You can learn more about each of these electrolytes below.)

Dehydration

When you’re converting from using glucose to ketones for energy, your body first uses up all of its glycogen (glucose) stores. Glycogen is attached to water in the body, so when it begins using its glycogen stores, it frees up the excess water to be eliminated from the body through urination. This is the reason many people lose a lot of weight fast when beginning a keto or low-carb diet; your stored water (bloating) is making an exit. But, this can also lead to dehydration, especially if you’re not drinking plenty of water.  

Other Reasons for Muscle Cramps

There are a few other factors that might be giving you muscle cramps, including too much caffeine and exercising and not drinking enough to make up for sweating (dehydration), or sitting for too long without moving your body. 

Caffeine

Drinking too much coffee can increase your chance of leg cramps when you start a keto diet because caffeine stimulates your muscles to contract instead of encouraging muscle tissue to relax. It’s also a diuretic, so it takes water out of your body, which can lead to dehydration and muscle cramping.

Exercising without hydrating

When you sweat you lose both water and electrolytes, which is why there’s such a big market for electrolyte supplements and sports drinks (unfortunately, sports drinks aren’t keto-friendly because they’re very high in sugar).

Sitting for too long

Many people with an electrolyte imbalance get worse leg cramps at night (nocturnal leg cramps) due to a lack of movement during the day. When you aren’t moving, your muscles can get tighter and can “seize up” on you. This is why getting up and walking sometimes helps to stop a “charley horse” (leg cramp). 

How to Remedy or Avoid Muscle Cramps When Starting Keto 

Now that you know what causes leg cramps, what can you do to fix them or avoid getting them in the first place? We have some simple cramp prevention solutions to help you get those leg cramps under control quickly. Let’s start with the minerals.

Ensure You’re Getting Enough Potassium

Potassium controls the cell’s energy. It helps to pump energy going in and out of the cells. Potassium is a big “muscle mineral” that is involved with muscle function; it allows your muscles to fully relax, or not go into a cramp. Potassium works in harmony with the other electrolytes for muscle contraction and relaxation. So, when you are deficient you may experience leg cramps. 

• How can you be sure you’re getting enough potassium? Eat lots of potassium-rich foods. While some are off-limits on a keto diet (Hello, sweet potatoes, watermelon, coconut water, lentils, edamame, black beans, and some whole-grain cereals), others are keto-friendly. To ensure you get potassium through diet, stick to a clean keto diet as much as possible, and try to consume some keto-friendly, potassium-rich foods. Some of the best foods include leafy green vegetables like beet greens, swiss chard, and spinach; and other veggies like mushrooms, brussels sprouts, zucchini, broccoli, and asparagus. Some fish like wild salmon, sardines, and mackerel are decent sources of potassium.  And avocados are a good high-fat option.

Ensure You’re Getting Enough Magnesium

Magnesium is a very important (fourth abundant) mineral in your body, yet, most of us are deficient due to modern farming practices (depleted soils). You may eat a clean keto diet, high in key nutrients, such as vegetables, yet still be deficient in magnesium. Magnesium is a co-factor (helper) mineral that helps with over 300 enzymatic processes within the body. Magnesium is involved with anything nerve or muscle related and is known as the relaxation mineral.

But magnesium and calcium play together. Magnesium and calcium are teammates when it comes to muscle and nerve function. Calcium contracts muscles, magnesium relaxes them. The typical American diet is very high in calcium and low in magnesium. When you don’t get enough magnesium to balance calcium, too much calcium can get into the muscles and contract them, and there isn’t enough magnesium to relax them, so you get those dreaded cramps. 

• How can you be sure you’re getting enough magnesium in your diet? Like potassium, magnesium is found in clean, whole foods. Some of the best keto-friendly food sources of magnesium are leafy greens like spinach and swiss chard, but also avocado, hemp, chia seeds, and pumpkin seeds. Because you may struggle to get enough magnesium from food alone, supplements can be good sources of magnesium as well. 

Ensure You’re Getting Enough Sodium

Sodium pushes fluid in and out of the cell walls and is a co-factor in muscle contraction. You need it to maintain fluid levels in and around your cells. Sodium also helps keep the balance of the other electrolytes. As we mentioned above, when you convert to keto and eat a low-carbohydrate diet, you lose fluids and thus lose sodium. This is why many experience “keto flu” symptoms such as headache, nausea, dizziness, and heart palpitations, all of which are related to sodium loss. 

How can you be sure you’re getting enough sodium? We recommend adding a pinch of Himalayan salt to your water or food, especially when transitioning into keto. Himalayan salt contains trace minerals and therefore more health benefits than table salt. This helps tremendously with your sodium levels as your body adjusts to the transition of ketones over glucose for energy. 

Stay Hydrated!

The easiest thing you can do is drink water throughout the day. Drink at least half of your body weight in ounces of water throughout the day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you will want to drink 75 ounces of water. On top of this amount, if you drink diuretics, such as coffee, increase your water daily value by 1-1/2 cups of water per cup of coffee. 

If you’re physically active on keto, be sure to hydrate before, during, and after your exercise session, and add a pinch of Himalayan salt to your water. You might want to try adding mineral drops to your water, which typically contain concentrated trace minerals. Another option is to use a keto-friendly sports electrolyte powder—these are great for after exercising or sweating a lot and can be added to water or smoothies. Lots of people also swear by pickle juice, which is high in electrolytes, to relieve dehydration-related cramps. 

Keep Moving

Remember, sitting for too long is not good for your health and causes muscle cramps. If you sit at a desk all day every day, be sure to get up and move your body a few times throughout the day. Consider setting an alarm to walk around and stretch a bit every two hours. Stretching out before bed can help loosen any tight areas in your muscles as well, especially if you exercise.

The biggest takeaway here? Keep those electrolytes in check, and stay hydrated. If you’re struggling with painful leg cramps on the keto diet, hopefully these tips will stop them in their tracks and improve your overall well-being. Regardless, if you’re trying a new diet, it’s always a good idea to check with your primary care physician or dietitian, especially if you have preexisting medical conditions. 

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