• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Foods that may cause ketosis dropout?

R

resander

Well-Known Member
Messages
122
Location
London, Dagenham
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
About 2 years ago I started restricting carbs to around 100g per day.
Diabetes symptoms improved, but did not go away. For example, I was still fatigued and had difficulties concentrating.

So about a year ago decided to try keto diet, but dropped out about 4 times. Once because I was eating 3 breaded kebabs and drinking 2 pints of lager. It was my birthday's fault! I am not sure what may have caused the other dropouts since I was on my normal keto diet regime then. It took 4-10 days of keto-flu to get back into ketosis.

If you have had ketosis dropouts, what and how much did you eat then and how long did it take to get back into ketosis?
 
resander said:
About 2 years ago I started restricting carbs to around 100g per day.
Diabetes symptoms improved, but did not go away. For example, I was still fatigued and had difficulties concentrating.

So about a year ago decided to try keto diet, but dropped out about 4 times. Once because I was eating 3 breaded kebabs and drinking 2 pints of lager. It was my birthday's fault! I am not sure what may have caused the other dropouts since I was on my normal keto diet regime then. It took 4-10 days of keto-flu to get back into ketosis.

If you have had ketosis dropouts, what and how much did you eat then and how long did it take to get back into ketosis?
Click to expand...
Most recently, about 4 days around Christmas. My main meals were still keto, but my husband brought home a lot of chocolate from clients and well, you know... Took me about a week. Mind you, keto flu is mostly an electrolyte matter, so if you keep those up with bone broth for example... It shouldn't be quite so horrible next time. (And there's always a next time!)
 
Bone broth? Same as an Oxo cube? Or, what do we ask for in the super market for making a bone broth that is good for easing symptoms of keto-flu?
 
resander said:
Bone broth? Same as an Oxo cube? Or, what do we ask for in the super market for making a bone broth that is good for easing symptoms of keto-flu?
Click to expand...

Buy a whole chicken.. roast it and eat most of the flesh then stick the bones in a pot with some water and simmer for a few hours.

You can add an onion, garlic, chilli if you like maybe even a carrot for some extra flavour.

It's usually called "stock" in the UK.
 
I must be lucky because I don't suffer from keto flu.

For electrolytes, you could try a vegetable stock cube and a knob of butter in a mug with boiling water.
This give (for me) a satisfying drink with plenty of electrolytes.

Edit: forgot to day, if you are eating keto then add salt to everything. A keto diet tends to flush salts out of the system which can make you feel unwell and/or be susceptible to cramps.
 
'@LittleGreyCat, thanks for letting me know about the importance of salt. I have not been adding enough to my keto food. Also I am going to enjoy mugs of vegetable stock. Tesco here I come!

Potassium and magnesium also need to be topped-up on keto diets.
Avocado, (baby) spinach, salmon, beef, mushrooms, eggplant, broccoli are good for this.
 
Last edited:
For both Sodium and Potassium I use Lo Salt instead of the usual high sodium version. There are both branded and supermarket 'own label' versions available in major supermarkets including Sainsbury's.
 
I have spent hours on Google looking for effects of protein on blood sugar and protein max allowances. Most matches said no effect/insignificant effect for metabolically healthy individuals. One match was:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/protein

I found a few matches saying that those on keto-diet are not affected by high protein intakes. I am not sure if this applies to diabetics too.

I have also read that it is going above the carb tolerance limit that causes ketosis dropout and to find this limit:
- start at 20g carb intake
- and observe for a couple of days
- increase carb intake by 5g and observe
- until ketosis dropout
Then use a lower carb value
 
It's multifactorial but, in a nutshell, if the body has an energy deficit (of dietary fat and/or stored fat) it may turn to using amino acids for fuel. To do this it must create glucose. If you enter that zone then you're going to start running on glucose again. That is my understanding at least. Some agree and some don't, but there is no doubt that some people do start to manufacture glucose if they consume a large amount of excess protein. "Excess" obviously being an individual variable.
 
bulkbiker said:
Buy a whole chicken.. roast it and eat most of the flesh then stick the bones in a pot with some water and simmer for a few hours.

You can add an onion, garlic, chilli if you like maybe even a carrot for some extra flavour.

It's usually called "stock" in the UK.
Click to expand...

I used to make bone broth when I was on keto a few years ago. Bone broth takes 12 to 24 hours to cook, the bones are cooked until they break down. Some people add a few mls of cider vinegar to help the breakdown process. Chicken bones break down after about 4 hours in a pressure cooker (yes it's cooked that long), beef bones take much longer.

Bone broth can be added to recipes instead of normal stock, fortifying the dish.

The bones crumble between the fingers like sand, our dog loved the crumbled bones. The bones can be given to dogs quite safely.

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-bone-broth-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-215311
 
I’ve never measured my ketones, I assume that if my BG is under 5, I’m probably burning mostly fat. Is this right? Sometimes I know I’m in ketosis because because of my breath lol. I do weight training, so I probably eat more protein than the “keto” diet, but then again I’m fat, so I may be (hope) I’m burning that lol.

so.. I guess I don’t really care if I’m in ketosis, just keeping my blood sugar a low as I can without feeling bad.
 
Back
Top