Still not fat adjusting

[benjo123456]

Sorry to moan on here so much, I am just finding keto so hard.

It's now over three weeks since I entered Ketosis on VLC. I still feel absolutely terrible. I am trembling, dizzy, sweating I have vertigo and haven't got enough energy to get up the stairs. It isn't electrolytes, I'm keeping well on top of them, it feels more like hyoglygemic. I'm having to eat lots of cheese to stop hypo attacks, so as well as feeling terrible, my cholesterol has gone through the roof too.

I'm not sure that I'm ever going to adjust to fat burning, and I can't see how this is doing me any good. I would go back to carbs in a heartbeat, but I seem to have grown intolerant to them.

I have seen numerous doctors and an endrocrinologist, who were no help at all. My blood tests all come back fine, including for electrolytes. I know there isn't anything people can do, but if anyone does have any experience with this I'd love to hear it. Thanks

 

[ickihun]

I was ill on too low carb diet I went too fast onto 30g carb. Dizziness was terrible, I ended up on more high blood pressure tablets and a 2.5mg betablocker for palpatations then 5.0mg now. Without betablockers I have constant chest pains and severe palpatations.
So
I maintained my diet on 100g carbs instead. I begain losing weight too which I never did on 30g carb and too much fat.
I stopped nuts, cheese and cream. I stopped eating crispy chicken skin and pork scratchings too.
I'm having Christmas carbs so obviously my hba1c will be higher than my last 48 but its only once a year and my weight loss has been put on hold.
Plenty of time to readjust in january. Which will easily be done as xmas treats won't be bought til dec next year.
I've noticed I've had to increase my t4 levothyroxine too as I was sleeping a lot and felt the cold again with my underactive thyroid condition.
Merry Christmas and if I win the lottery I'll pay for a chef to cook me all low carb Chridtmas treats but my reality is I just haven't the time nor energy to cook these all from scratch.
Some I do when I can and have extra money to buy the ingredients. But would love to be able to afford to shop, cook and clean to eat what's 100% eating just for me. Others don't need to watch their carbs.

 

[benjo123456]

You sound very similar to me, I haven't lost weight at all, and I know that is because of all the fat I eat.

Can I ask what you do eat? Do you eat grains or is all you carbs from veg and fruit? Also, how long did you try to do VLC for? Thanks

 

[Mr_Pot]

Sorry to moan on here so much, I am just finding keto so hard.

It's now over three weeks since I entered Ketosis on VLC. I still feel absolutely terrible. I am trembling, dizzy, sweating I have vertigo and haven't got enough energy to get up the stairs. It isn't electrolytes, I'm keeping well on top of them, it feels more like hyoglygemic. I'm having to eat lots of cheese to stop hypo attacks, so as well as feeling terrible, my cholesterol has gone through the roof too.

I'm not sure that I'm ever going to adjust to fat burning, and I can't see how this is doing me any good. I would go back to carbs in a heartbeat, but I seem to have grown intolerant to them.

I have seen numerous doctors and an endrocrinologist, who were no help at all. My blood tests all come back fine, including for electrolytes. I know there isn't anything people can do, but if anyone does have any experience with this I'd love to hear it. Thanks

Why are you on this diet?

 

[ickihun]

You sound very similar to me, I haven't lost weight at all, and I know that is because of all the fat I eat.

Can I ask what you do eat? Do you eat grains or is all you carbs from veg and fruit? Also, how long did you try to do VLC for? Thanks

I replaced my fruit and veg with multivutamins. I take extra vitD3.
No porridge, no bread other than 4 small sliced protein bread from morrisons. Which I toast gor crackers or lightly toasted with 2 fried eggs on. I eat mackerel from a tin and flavour with cheap salad cream or malt vinager.
I have occasional fish pie and remove half of potato and add tinned red salmon, I have good sausages and good burgers (high meat content). I have cod with batter removed from fish shop where they use lard. I have soft cheese on protein bread crackers. No chips, no rice or pasta and definitely no pizza unless I get bases low carb from amazon as a treat.
I ate crustless quiche this week and omelettes with chicken sprinkled into it. I occasionally add a few garden peas or sweetcorn as a treat. I use onion regularly and add any protein in omelettes except cheese. I avoid hard cheeses, nuts (althou having a few over xmas) and cream. I have gone back to having semiskimmed milk in my coffees.
Their is loads of meats and fish I can eat with a little extras. My meals are protein based no carb based.

 

[benjo123456]

I've told this story a few times on here, so apologies for repeating myself:

Two months ago I decided to go on a sensible, grain based diet after a couple of years of being out of control with my eating. After a couple of days on my new diet, I had some bad hypo attacks, and my body seemed to get out of control. Whenever I ate any carbs, I would cry hysterically for a couple of hours. This would clear up, I'd eat carbs again, and so it continued, (this is completely against my normal character, btw, I am usually strong and sensible.) The only thing that stopped it was cutting carbs completely.

I was hoping a keto diet might fix this reaction and give me a way to get back to normal.

 

[benjo123456]

It sounds like you're doing something VERY wrong. Why are you going low all the time, and not adjusting your insulin to solve it? Why are you treating lows with cheese? Keto doesn't change the basics of diabetes treatment; you still need to monitor your insulin needs, and should always treat any severe (or frequently recurring) low with glucose tablets.

There are lots of possible causes of this, including incorrect insulin doses to begin with (prior to keto, that is), improved insulin sensitivity (you're almost certain to experience this on keto), needing to dose for protein, needing to dose for fat, and combinations of those.

I suspect the main issue is that your insulin sensitivity has improved considerably, you now need less basal, and you're basically overdosing on insulin at the moment. Personally, I'd recommend halving your basal, to begin with. This will probably cause you to continually go a little high, rather than low. But you can treat the highs with adjustment boluses for a day or so. Just observe it. If you do see that your BG is increasing with that basal dose, then you can increase your basal a little. Maybe by 10%, maybe by 2%, depending on how "off" your BGs are, of course. Gradually bring it back to stable.

Aside from that, you're probably fine -- most of those symptoms could be explained by poorly treated low blood sugar. But it would be interesting to hear what you're eating, too. Particularly how balanced your diet is, how many calories you're getting (and what your caloric needs are), and whether you've supplemented with additional water (most people will need about a litre more per day, mostly because they didn't drink enough to begin with). I'd also be interested to know why you're so sure about your electrolytes. i.e., what are you consuming that makes you so certain about them. A lot of people think keto just means eating infinite amounts of steak, or something.



That's a strange thing to say. Almost sounds like you don't want to listen to advice. Hope that's not the cause, and you're just feeling a bit defeated right now.

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I'm not actually diabetic. Bizarrely, my blood sugar has always been fairly good.

Although you are right about how I'm feeling, I am very negative about all this, it's because I have so many professionals who were worse than useless! I would love someone to tell me what's going on and how to fix it!

 

[ickihun]

I've told this story a few times on here, so apologies for repeating myself:

Two months ago I decided to go on a sensible, grain based diet after a couple of years of being out of control with my eating. After a couple of days on my new diet, I had some bad hypo attacks, and my body seemed to get out of control. Whenever I ate any carbs, I would cry hysterically for a couple of hours. This would clear up, I'd eat carbs again, and so it continued, (this is completely against my normal character, btw, I am usually strong and sensible.) The only thing that stopped it was cutting carbs completely.

I was hoping a keto diet might fix this reaction and give me a way to get back to normal.

My thyroid function gets interferred with on the wrong diet. This crying sounds hormonal.
If I stop metformin my hormones go crazy too.

 

[ickihun]

This is NOT a keto diet. It sounds like a vague haphazard attempt at keto, at best. For example, that morrisons protein bread is 8g of carbs PER SLICE. You mentioned 4 of them, presumably per day. That's 32g just in bread. Then you mentioned a half potato, which is about another 20g for a medium potato. So your bread and potatoes have already reached 52g of carbs, which ALONE will push you out of keto.

Either do keto (under 40g per day, NO high-carb root veg, or sweetcorn, or bread, etc.), or don't. Messing around on the border line will cause your basal insulin needs to fluctuate, which won't be a fun experience, especially if you're just starting out.

I didn't say I was following a keto diet. Keto doesn't lose any of my 22st weight. I lost nearly 4st on the above eating plan.

 

[ickihun]

Sorry @justbe I'm not type1 either.
I'm type2 with other conditions and tried keto but became ill so i adjusted to help me get rid of my 13st overweight body. (Now 9st overweight).
I'm not saying everyone should do my diet but I've lost when I haven't for decades!

 

[benjo123456]

My thyroid function gets interferred with on the wrong diet. This crying sounds hormonal.
If I stop metformin my hormones go crazy too.

I agree, it does sound hormonal. Unfortunately, the doctor has been no help, but they have said my thyroid is fine. Can carbs effect a healthy thyroid?

 

[Pinkorchid]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I'm not actually diabetic. Bizarrely, my blood sugar has always been fairly good.

Although you are right about how I'm feeling, I am very negative about all this, it's because I have so many professionals who were worse than useless! I would love someone to tell me what's going on and how to fix it!

I don't know what a keto diet is but if that is what you are doing it is obviously not suiting you and making you ill and why do something so drastic when you do not have diabetes I think any doctor would tell you to stop it. and eat normally before you really do serious damage to your self

 

[benjo123456]

I don't know what a keto diet is but if that is what you are doing it is obviously not suiting you and making you ill and why do something so drastic when you do not have diabetes I think any doctor would tell you to stop it. and eat normally before you really do serious damage to your self

You're right, but I can't see any alternative.

 

[Mr_Pot]

You're right, but I can't see any alternative.

The alternative is to eat a normal diet as @Pinkorchid says. If your objective is to lose weight then don't overdo the carbs, say 150g a day.

 

[catapillar]

it feels more like hyoglygemic. I'm having to eat lots of cheese to stop hypo attacks

After a couple of days on my new diet, I had some bad hypo attacks,

I'm not actually diabetic.

Have you actually confirmed any of these supposed "hypo attacks" with blood sugar tests under 4? You're not diabetic, you're not on any blood sugar lowering medication. It's highly unlikely any diet change is going to cause hypos. It doesn't sound like you're having hypos.

 

[benjo123456]

Have you actually confirmed any of these supposed "hypo attacks" with blood sugar tests under 4? You're not diabetic, you're not on any blood sugar lowering medication. It's highly unlikely any diet change is going to cause hypos. It doesn't sound like you're having hypos.

It's false hypoglycemia, not real hypoglycemia. I understand that real hypoglycemia only happens to people on insulin, but you can get false hypoglycemia symptoms if you are used to running high bs but drop it down to normal levels. I have eaten nothing but junk for years, so as soon as I lowered my bs to a normal level, I got hypoglycemia symptoms. I have absolutely no doubt that is what it is, because I can fix it by eating. My bs never drops below about 4.5, though.

 

[Pinkorchid]

You're right, but I can't see any alternative.

But why have you no alternative are you trying to loose weight. You haven't got diabetes so why are you so worried about how you ate in the past plenty do that but not all of them get diabetes. You can still eat a healthy diet cutting out the rubbish stuff without going to the extremes you are doing and damaging your health that's just crazy

 

[benjo123456]

As I explained above, I am having bad reactions to any carbs. I'm not sure if it's reactive hypoglycemia, no doctor seems to be able to help. The only thing that helped was eating no carbs, but then that caused the hypoglycemic symptoms after a few days. I know it's complicated, and noone seems to have an answer. I was hoping that keto would help, but although it stops the reaction with carbs, I can't seem to adjust to fat burning. My whole metabolic system seems to be a mess, and I'm trying to work out how to fix it.

But why have you no alternative are you trying to loose weight. You haven't got diabetes so why are you so worried about how you ate in the past plenty do that but not all of them get diabetes. You can still eat a healthy diet cutting out the rubbish stuff without going to the extremes you are doing and damaging your health that's just crazy

 

[Pinkorchid]

and probably what you are experiencing is being caused by you

As I explained above, I am having bad reactions to any carbs. I'm not sure if it's reactive hypoglycemia, no doctor seems to be able to help. The only thing that helped was eating no carbs, but then that caused the hypoglycemic symptoms after a few days. I know it's complicated, and noone seems to have an answer. I was hoping that keto would help, but although it stops the reaction with carbs, I can't seem to adjust to fat burning. My whole metabolic system seems to be a mess, and I'm trying to work out how to fix it.

It is really not possible not to eat any carbs at all unless you just live on meat. Have you always had a bad reaction to them if not trying to not eat any carbs has probably caused the bad reaction you are having to them now. It sounds to me that you have been reading a lot and convinced yourself you have reactive hypoglycaemia or something else wrong. I imagine the doctors can't help because they have not found anything wrong with you

 

[Resurgam]

I note that you have tried a grain based diet - that could be part of the problem as grain is so lacking in nutrients that you might be lacking vitamins and minerals - I suggest you try a good all round supplement, to try to get your micronutrients up to something like normal.
Also that you do not have the energy to go up stairs - that is ascension weakness - it was described by Dr Atkins in New Diet Revolution way back in the last century. All you need to do is add in a little extra salad or a mixture of vegetables each day until it goes away. The suggestion was for the equivalent of 5 gm of carbs per day, adding in more every other day to start with, and then fine tuning once you can run up the stairs.
I am probably in a minority having eaten low carb for simple weight control - though it always made me feel great too, and abot to run up mountains, for decades before being diagnosed with diabetes - I suspect that it masked the symptoms for a long time as it was only when eating a high carb grain based diet that I was diagnosed.