[Dont callme elephant]

I am now week 3 and I am beginning a notice a few changes in my body. Obviously I am losing weight but I am still extremely fatigued. I instantly get body cramps whenever I try to start mild exercise. I am also beginning to loose hair I hope this is all temporary but it is worrying me. I am completely OP. I wonder if I need more supplements. What kinds of things did you experience? Will the fatigue go away?

Any advice is very welcome

[accgy]

Fatigue goes away thankfully, hair loss also happens even for men like me, as for excersize I can't comment on that

[lisa32989]

Originally Posted by Dont callme elephant

I am now week 3 and I am beginning a notice a few changes in my body. Obviously I am losing weight but I am still extremely fatigued. I instantly get body cramps whenever I try to start mild exercise. I am also beginning to loose hair I hope this is all temporary but it is worrying me. I am completely OP. I wonder if I need more supplements. What kinds of things did you experience? Will the fatigue go away?

Any advice is very welcome

Are you taking the recommended supplements?
You may not be keto adapted enough for exercise yet. The body has to get used to burning fat and could be exhausting you looking for glucose. Keto adaption can take a few weeks.

Hair loss is a common side-effect of rapid weight loss. There are entire threads you can search for on the subject

[Lolo70]

Your body will need about 3-5 weeks to transition to keton body use. Your glycogen stores will remain depleted until then and exercise will force your body to degrade your muscles and use the protein for gluconeogenesis. So, don't exercise in the beginning and eat a bit more if you do later. You may anyways need more than the three packages in the beginning.

Cramping is a sign of imbalanced electrolytes. I found that I could do strength training (I did not do cardio), but was more prone to cramping than before. Though I had less soreness since you produce less lactate when in ketosis. Maybe schedule your CalMag and potassium around exercise in the future. Fatigue may be temporally until your body gets used to living in ketosis. Hair loss may also just be because of the shock to moving to a low calorie diet. I think a lot of people take biotin or B12.

I was also fatigued and it did not go away. But I got into trouble after several weeks with the low carbs that you get with an IP diet. I think it had to do with me being subclinical hypothyroid before going onto this diet. Besides fatigue, I experienced hunger pangs, depression, skin itching, and the accumulation of cholesterol deposits around my eyelids. I did not know at the time that low carb directly affects the synthesis of hormones and indirectly the conversion of inactive T4 to active T3 in the liver. If you already are hypo, this may result in low T3 levels and also affect progesterone/estrogen synthesis. So, you may want to test free T3 levels/do comprehensive lab tests from time to time if the initial fatigue does not improve or if you get additional symptoms. I now completely stopped low carb for the moment for these reasons even though I loved what ketosis did and my weight loss was significantly accelerated by lowering carbs.

I would say you need to be actively involved in monitoring your health and/or consult a doctor at the beginning, after appropriate intervals and at the end of this diet. I learned a lot about the good, the bad, and the ugly of low carb eating. It is preferable to avoid the uglies.

[Brebre]

Hello I am also on week 3 and I started getting leg cramps but my coach told me that when that happens to I can take an additional potassium pill and to make sure that I am getting enough salt. I have not noticed any hair loss yet but I do feel faint sometimes when I go too long without eating my packets.

[Dont callme elephant]

Thank you for all the advice! I could very likely just be adapting to ketosis. I will definitely monitor my body more closely and take the calmag and potassium when I go for my walks. I want to get my levels checked by the dr as well just so I have all my angles covered! thanks again

[lisa32989]

Agreed about not forgetting the salt. You can add a pinch to a liter of water with lemon & not even notice it. Ketogenic diets are very dehydrating.

[rsiegel]

Fatigue and muscle aches go along with electrolyte imbalance. Drinking water in excess can also cause electrolytes to become unbalanced so add sugar free PowerAde to your diet or add salt to your water--especially during hot weather when you lose minerals through salt.

Exercise is NOT recommended on Phase 1! The Ideal Protein Method "temporarily" unbalances your diet. The supplements and sea salt adds back what is "temporarily" taken away. Be sure to drink enough, take your supplements at times indicated as the supplements are not "time-release" and be sure to eat every 4 hours.