Low Carb and IF: feet and leg cramps every night

[D@n1el]

Hi

I've been on low carb since last November, and since then I've been on Intermittent Fasting, too.

Since 2 or 3 months ago, my minimum fasting is 23-hour (I really enjoy OMAD), and I do it every single day. Sometimes, I go 36h, 48h once. I even reached 72h last week, it was very nice, but I screwed it up, I broke it with too much food and dealt withGI issues for two days.

In November, my weight was 70kg, and my fasting BG was around 105-115 mg/dL. Nowadays, my weight is 60kg, and fasting BG is usually below 90 mg/dL. IF, eating less than 30g of net carbs and less than 90g of protein apparently works for me. I don't feel like trying more carbs, I'm afraid of having BG up again.

I have feet/leg cramps every night, without exception. They're pretty scary sometimes. My foot sometimes moves to a particular direction (up, or down, to the right, to the left), and it takes a lot of strength to bring it back. At least once, not even standing up and putting all my weight on foot would end it promptly!

I must say I often had cramps before IF and Low Carb, but not every night and not intense like that.

I suppose I might be experiencing electrolyte imbalance. It should not be Magnesium, I take 2g of Magtein a day. Hardly is it sodium, every day I eat 100-150g of zero carb cheese, like Parmesan. My bet actually is that I get too much sodium but not enough potassium, since two days ago my feet were somewhat swollen (but I spend way too much time seated, and actually they're a bit better now).

I wonder how someone reaches the daily dosage of Potassium, which I just learned is 4,700 mg. I don't seem to get anywhere near half that! I don't eat bananas (low carb, of course!), and not even 2 jumbo avocados would get me there (and by eating them I would be out of low carb, too). It would take more than 1kg of chum salmon to get me there. Moreover, potassium supplements usually don't go over 99mg, and I've been told they're dangerous.

I wonder if there's an easy way do deal with vicious cramps and low potassium when you also have to be on low carb and moderate amounts of protein.

 

[Geordie_P]

I read your previous post about having trouble after breaking your fast, and I wonder if you might just be over-doing it a bit.
Don't get me wrong, you have great discipline and a great attitude, but I just wonder if you'd feel better if you had, say, some bacon and eggs for breakfast, a light low-carb lunch and a light low-carb meal for dinner. You're very lean, and your BG levels are good, so maybe you don't need these fairly extended fasts.

 

[Brunneria]

I get cramp when my potassium is low.
I take a potassium supplement. Have done for years.
Works like a charm.

even with significant supplementation my potassium still only tests in the low end of the range, so no chance (for me) of getting too much. However people with certain health conditions and on certain meds should be wary of taking too much, which can be harmful.

 

[Ian DP]

I get cramp at night if I forget to add salt to my evening meal. Always. My LCHF diet is very clean.... no processed food. Therefore no salt on food that I eat, so I have to add some. If I forget, I get cramp!

 

[resander]

I also had foot and ankle cramps, usually late-night or early morning. Recommended potassium daily intake is 3500-4700mg and my 3 meals per day keto diet was way below that, so I added:

- 100g boiled Baby Spinach * Carb 0.2g, Potassium 950mg
- 4 Potassium supplement tablets 99mg each

per day to my diet. Cramps less frequent now.

* UK COFID 3-550 DG Spinach, baby, boiled in unsalted water

 

[Robbity]

I just make sure that I get enough salt, potassium and magnesium in my diet. Salt in cooking /on food, and potassium and magnesium from low carb veggies & other suitable foods that are high in these other two minerals.

I used to get very bad leg cramps many years ago - before diabetes - when I was losing too much fluid from taking diuretics, and a "banana a day" was my potassium top-up solution/cure then. I experienced similar cramps fairly early on low carbing when I was initially losing more fluids, and sorted out low carb alternatives from various lists found on Google. Also I use a water filter and found that there is one that is also magnesium "enriched".

 

[midiman]

Hi, I have been getting terrible cramping in my legs at night in my calves and by my knees.

It is so bad that it has left stretch marks at the top of my calves.

I don't know what is causing it and I get tight pains in my legs most of the day.

I've was diagnosed as being type 2 in January this year and it is worrying.

I have just started a low carb diet to try and cut out all sugar in my diet, but this has been going on for a couple of months prior to that. I'm on Metaformin and a diuretic for High Blood Pressure too.

 

[resander]

More choices of spinach:
From UK CoFID:
13-573 DG Spinach, mature, boiled in unsalted water Carb 0.8g, Potassium 230mg
13-521 DG Spinach baby,raw, Carb 0.2g, Potassium 682mg
13-572 DG Spinach mature,raw, Carb 1.6g, Potassium 500mg

 

[D@n1el]

I will certainly be happy to add spinach to my diet, as I find it delicious! Thanks

Today my leg cramps woke me up just one minute before the alarm. It was a bit like a B Horror Movie scene. On front lower leg, the muscle cramp froze my (right) foot, so it would keep pointing up. Relatively painless that one. At the same time, there was a very painful calf cramp on the other (left) leg. My guess is that just an instant before that I probably stretched my legs, still asleep (stretching many times gives me muscle cramps).

I woke up startled with pain, put a lot of physical effort trying to get rid of them. And I failed, I could not make my right feet stop pointing up, and even my whole weight on the left leg would not stop the calf. After a few minutes, when the cramps saw fit, they were gone.

3 minutes after that I measured my fasting BG: 98mg/dL. This raised me a doubt: waking up suddenly, startled, with pain and physical effort could theoretically have a part on a higher fasting BG? I was happy that finally I apparently seemed to be back on track, 4 days below 87mg/dL, same routine, same diet, yet today's fasting BG was higher.

 

[Resurgam]

I found that my cramps were resolved by drinking more. I used to be woken up by them, would go along to the bathroom to try to reduce them, but when I drank water they faded away. Sometimes it took three mugs (one and a half pints) for it to ease off. I had assumed that it was a lack of salt and had been putting a pinch into my first mug of coffee each day, but once I realized it was dehydration I upped my intake of water through the day and even drank a half pint before bed with the result that I no longer have any cramps.

 

[Sparkle1953]

Hi, I have been getting terrible cramping in my legs at night in my calves and by my knees.

It is so bad that it has left stretch marks at the top of my calves.

I don't know what is causing it and I get tight pains in my legs most of the day.

I've was diagnosed as being type 2 in January this year and it is worrying.

I have just started a low carb diet to try and cut out all sugar in my diet, but this has been going on for a couple of months prior to that. I'm on Metaformin and a diuretic for High Blood Pressure too.

Diuretics rob the body of potassium so it might be handy to supplement with it. Usually the tabs are tiny so they are very easy to swallow.

 

[pdmjoker]

I was woken by feet/leg cramps early in the morning but found doubling my magnesium supplement intake sorted it. I also take Potassium Citrate powder and adequate salt.

 

[D@n1el]

I am a little better now, I don't get leg/foot cramps so often and when they come they're not so intense anymore . What seems to have helped? I have reduced coffee (now "just" 500ml daily, I used to drink 2x that) and I increased Magnesium dramatically, usually above 800mg/day, way above official daily standards. I am taking different kinds of magnesium to reach those quantities: chloride, glycinate and L-threonate. I will soon try citrate, because constipation is also an issue I've been dealing with (all my life, actually, but it's gotten worse after keto and even worse after omad/keto/carnivore).

 

[pdmjoker]

I am a little better now, I don't get leg/foot cramps so often and when they come they're not so intense anymore .

Glad you have improved. Remember, official magnesium guidelines are for people eating carbs who will retain their electrolytes so you will need more. I think I went up to 2 x 700mg Magnesium Citrate daily.

 

[MarkMunday]

Simply drinking water usually fixes my cramps. They also happen at night, often after an active day during which I didn't drink enough. Coffee, being a diuretic, could have a similar effect.

 

[pdmjoker]

constipation is also an issue I've been dealing with

I guess you've tried psyllium husk powder? I take psyllium husk capsules with food twice a day...

 

[D@n1el]

I guess you've tried psyllium husk powder? I take psyllium husk capsules with food twice a day...

Actually I have not, yet. But I've just bought it and will eventually try it. Thanks!
As I've been constipated pretty much all my life (but never as much as after keto/carnivore), I am also inclined to investigate if that would have anything to do with A1 beta-casein. I've just learned that for some that might be the constipation cause. I intend to keep carnivore, but for maybe a couple of weeks stay I will away from any kind of dairy. I will try lard as a supplementary fat source instead of butter/ghee/cheese.

 

[Zilsniggy]

Hi

I've been on low carb since last November, and since then I've been on Intermittent Fasting, too.

Since 2 or 3 months ago, my minimum fasting is 23-hour (I really enjoy OMAD), and I do it every single day. Sometimes, I go 36h, 48h once. I even reached 72h last week, it was very nice, but I screwed it up, I broke it with too much food and dealt withGI issues for two days.

In November, my weight was 70kg, and my fasting BG was around 105-115 mg/dL. Nowadays, my weight is 60kg, and fasting BG is usually below 90 mg/dL. IF, eating less than 30g of net carbs and less than 90g of protein apparently works for me. I don't feel like trying more carbs, I'm afraid of having BG up again.

I have feet/leg cramps every night, without exception. They're pretty scary sometimes. My foot sometimes moves to a particular direction (up, or down, to the right, to the left), and it takes a lot of strength to bring it back. At least once, not even standing up and putting all my weight on foot would end it promptly!

I must say I often had cramps before IF and Low Carb, but not every night and not intense like that.

I suppose I might be experiencing electrolyte imbalance. It should not be Magnesium, I take 2g of Magtein a day. Hardly is it sodium, every day I eat 100-150g of zero carb cheese, like Parmesan. My bet actually is that I get too much sodium but not enough potassium, since two days ago my feet were somewhat swollen (but I spend way too much time seated, and actually they're a bit better now).

I wonder how someone reaches the daily dosage of Potassium, which I just learned is 4,700 mg. I don't seem to get anywhere near half that! I don't eat bananas (low carb, of course!), and not even 2 jumbo avocados would get me there (and by eating them I would be out of low carb, too). It would take more than 1kg of chum salmon to get me there. Moreover, potassium supplements usually don't go over 99mg, and I've been told they're dangerous.

I wonder if there's an easy way do deal with vicious cramps and low potassium when you also have to be on low carb and moderate amounts of protein.

Have you thought about other causes of cramping? EG lack of calcium? Also, if you attack your fluid intake quite aggressively, you may be just diluting any electrolytes and excreting them.........so, I think you may still be lacking both sodium and calcium.

|But the only way to really find out would be a blood test to check electrolytes.

 

[Zilsniggy]

I will certainly be happy to add spinach to my diet, as I find it delicious! Thanks

Today my leg cramps woke me up just one minute before the alarm. It was a bit like a B Horror Movie scene. On front lower leg, the muscle cramp froze my (right) foot, so it would keep pointing up. Relatively painless that one. At the same time, there was a very painful calf cramp on the other (left) leg. My guess is that just an instant before that I probably stretched my legs, still asleep (stretching many times gives me muscle cramps).

I woke up startled with pain, put a lot of physical effort trying to get rid of them. And I failed, I could not make my right feet stop pointing up, and even my whole weight on the left leg would not stop the calf. After a few minutes, when the cramps saw fit, they were gone.

3 minutes after that I measured my fasting BG: 98mg/dL. This raised me a doubt: waking up suddenly, startled, with pain and physical effort could theoretically have a part on a higher fasting BG? I was happy that finally I apparently seemed to be back on track, 4 days below 87mg/dL, same routine, same diet, yet today's fasting BG was higher.

Any stress on the body releases cortisol which will raise blood sugars(pain and fright both being stressors).

 

[D@n1el]

Thanks for your replies, Zilsniggy.
I should have blood tests in order to check electrolytes. I intend to do it (maybe I'll wait a little just to see if COVID situation is somewhat controlled where I live). I've been thinking about that, yes, and certainly at least magnesium had to do with my cramps, once as I raised my Mg intake things got better. But there may be other things with the wrong levels. I've noticed since about a month ago two episodes of swollen feet, both were gone after a fews days. Never had them before. I understand that, among many other causes, dehydration and unbalanced electrolytes could be behind it.