Video 20 Transcript:

How You’re Supplementing All Wrong on Keto

Did you just start your keto diet and now you’re feeling achy, depressed or your energy level has plummeted? You are likely experiencing the dreaded keto flu. Dum, dum, dum!

Even the keto novice can tell you that you need to supplement with electrolytes in order to avoid the keto flu…but many of those doling out this advice are telling it all wrong! Watch today’s video to learn the some of the mis-information being spread about supplementing with electrolytes on keto so you don’t fall into these same traps.

Hit the subscribe button and click the bell so you can learn everything I learned about losing more than 100 pounds each Wednesday! I suffered through the dreaded keto flu because I had no idea what was going on! You don’t have to suffer…all you need to do is watch today’s video until the end.

The keto flu is such a feared occurrence that many mainstream experts urge you to steer clear of a ketogenic diet. They warn of the nausea, headaches, dizziness and flat out misery that many people experience while following keto. What these mainstream experts fail to mention is many of these symptoms are only temporary for most ketoers who experience them…and if you approach keto the right way, you may not even experience these symptoms at all!

These symptoms come along with what many refer to as the Keto Flu. They can typically occur within the first few weeks of the diet as your body switches over from burning it’s primary source of fuel of glucose to its new primary source of fuel of fat. As your body is making the switch, it can freak out since you’re losing electrolytes in mass and your body may think fuel is scarce when it’s no longer receiving the carbs it’s become accustomed to running on.

Of course after learning the primary reason for keto flu, that our body is losing electrolytes in mass, it becomes obvious the first step you need to take to avoid the dreaded keto flu – stock your body up on electrolytes.

While even the keto novice gets this step right since every ketoer and their mother shout from the rooftops, “You need electrolytes!” much of their shouting about the best ways to get electrolytes is flat out wrong. Allow me to help you get this right.

Many people will tell you to go to the local convenience store and stock up on Gatorade since, duh, Gatorade is obviously known for its electrolytes! I mean, if it was good enough for Michael Jordan, it’s obviously good enough for you.

Like Mike…if I could be like Mike. I wanna be, I wanna be like Mike.

OK…anyone who didn’t grow up in the 90’s is giving me a crazy side eye right now.

Also, a lot of seasoned keto pros are shouting at this video, “Hey keto dummy, we don’t wanna be like Mike because Gatorade is full of sugar. We should be telling brand new ketoers to drink all of the G2 or Powerade Zero because those drinks are sugar free.”

Keto dummy I am not and I would never follow this very bad keto advice that often floats around the keto mainstream. The main purpose of keto is to bring our insulin levels down in order to give our bodies the opportunity to burn stored fat.

Guess what happens when you drink a sports drink filled with artificial sweeteners like Sucralose or Asulfame Potassium? Your insulin spikes…only now you don’t even have actual nutrition coming in to help bring that insulin spike down.

It’s true on keto that most people will need to supplement with electrolytes like a high quality sea salt, magnesium and potassium, however the ways everyone is telling you to supplement is all wrong! In fact, there are people following keto who will stock up on these supplements and THEY COULD DIE!

OK…I’m not trying to be like the girl I saw on a keto post yesterday who said her doctor scared her away from keto because he proclaimed, “people die on that diet!” I mean, really doctor sir? People die from switching over from highly processed foods our bodies were never meant to consume that are filled with chemicals and sugar over to eating a real food diet made up of meats and vegetables? You’re telling me the people who eat meat and vegetables are going to die? REALLY DOCTOR SIR?

With that being said, if you don’t know a thing or two about yourself and then you take as many electrolytes as you can shove down your face because the keto mainstream told you that you need these electrolytes, there are circumstances where this could be harmful, or even dangerous!

Many people who resort to a keto diet do so because none of their other diet attempts have worked for them in the past. They hear about all of the amazing keto success stories, and they want in on the action. However, after years of following the Standard American Diet, many of these hopeful ketoers now have high blood pressure.

When they start the keto diet, one of the benefits is their blood pressure may drop! When we remove carbohydrates, the electrolytes our bodies need to function leave right along with them. This can lead to feeling tired, achy, depressed and down right bad. This is the reason others in the keto community will tell you to take all of the electrolytes – to avoid this period known as the keto flu.

However, if you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure surely your doctor told you to avoid salt. This is because adding more electrolytes like sodium can raise your blood pressure. So if you already have high blood pressure and then you’re taking as much salt as you can shove down your throat before allowing your blood pressure to normalize, what do you think is going to happen? YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!!!

OK, so you’re probably not going to die and I just happen to like the drama of it all. However, adding all of the salt to your keto diet isn’t the right solution for you right now. To figure out how much salt is appropriate for you, take your blood pressure around 2 hours after your last meal. If it’s higher than 127/87, then you need to chill on the salt at least a little until your blood pressure comes down. Yes, even if the salt is a pretty pink color.

A 3rd way the keto mainstream gets supplementing for the keto flu all wrong is by telling everyone to take all of the magnesium! While I agree your levels of magnesium will drop when you begin keto, I don’t agree with telling every keto Tom, Dick and Harry to supplement with magnesium.

While magnesium will be a Godsend for some ketoers experiencing keto flu, it could make others feel like they’ve been stomped into the ground and then run over by a truck.

Unfortunately many of us get stuck in what’s called a catabolic state. This is a perfectly natural state and one we want to be in during the day. However, if you remain stuck in this state and you don’t make the natural switch to an anabolic state at night, then you could experience symptoms like headaches, insomnia or even diarrhea. Taking a mineral like magnesium can make this chemistry imbalance even worse.

Thankfully when I began keto, I already understood this about my body. After more than 20 years of yo-yo diets and too much cardio over that same time period, my body was stuck in this state where it was continually breaking itself down. It rarely switched over to the state where it needed to rebuild itself, which is also called the anabolic state.

If I had taken magnesium at the rate most keto experts tell you to take it, I WOULD HAVE DIED. OK, again with the drama. I wouldn’t have actually died, but I would have felt pretty awful. That’s pretty much the same thing in my book.

If you take all of these supplements blindy, yet you don’t know a thing or two about your body, you could be setting yourself up for keto failure! After all, who wants to continue a keto diet if they feel achy, get constant headaches, urgently have to run to the bathroom several times each day and then they can’t even get a good night’s sleep on top of all of this! Keto – who needs it?

Well, if you learn how to eat a proper keto diet and supplement with the right supplements for you – keto is a wonderful approach that will bring amazing health benefits with it. If you want to learn how to figure out the right supplements for you, I’d definitely recommend the digestion course. You can find that at eatingfatisthenewskinny.com/digestion.

Quit following the keto crowd blindly and start learning the right way to keto for YOU.

Speaking of the right ways to supplement to avoid keto flu…we get way more into this topic on this week’s Chat the Fat. Not only do we help you figure out which are the right supplements for you to take to avoid keto flu, but we also go through more ways you can avoid the dreaded keto flu so you can start building your keto success story.

If you have friends who are still blindly shoving down all of the electrolytes, be sure to like, comment on and share this video with them.

Find the ways we can connect below, and let’s connect!

I’ll see you next Wednesday to talk about dairy and how it can wreak havoc on your keto diet.

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