Hi All -

I've noticed a development of body and face acne since I've started low-carbing. Has anyone else experienced this??


kcnc

How long have you been doing it? When I started low-carbing my skin broke out but once I was de-gunked, then it reallllly improved. After a couple of weeks.

I've been doing it since November 7th - but my skin didn't seem to really break out until 2-3 weeks ago.

Is it an estrogen thing?


Did you do something to become de-gunked?

Fat tissue can store all kinds of gunk along with it. When you lose weight, this is being let back out into your blood stream again. You could feel weird, break out, hormones wack out, whatever as your system is getting rid of the old fats with weight loss.

A.

You know, yesterday, I had an irrational argument with my boyfriend about shelves in a closet (see how irrational it is?) and today I'm a pound less than I was yesterday.

I'm going to chalk up that ridiculous fight (he did nothing wrong except be there!) to the fat I was losing in the process.

On a more serious note, I break out when my hormones are out of whack but it doesn't have to be related to low-carb. It might be that your body is beginning to respond to less carbs, so you're not having the same blood sugar fluctuations that you were having before and your hormones are being affected in different ways.

I went through a period of that (even though I am not officially a low carber) recently when I lowered my calories and consequently had to lower my carbs (so I could maximize my calories!).

try washing with baking soda or UNcoated aspirin. the asprin gets my face all clean, exfoliated, helps get rid of redness, sometimes helps with large and small acne. its VERY drying so just use it for that short period washing your face, mixed into your usual cleanser. rinse really well. i seem to have better results just using my hands than a wash cloth. you may need a moisturizer.

as your skin gets used to it, you may be able to use it like a mask.

i do this before bed. its the only thing i've found to prevent that oil slick in the morning. plus all the good stuff above. when clearasil doesn't work aspirin does. really wish i knew when i was a teenager. and it's soo cheap! 1 bottle of 150 pills is about $1. it might take me a year to use that much. you can use it on body acne too.

and drink tons of water or herbal tea. get all that bad stuff out.

I'm thinking its a good sign. Hormone flux and release from fat tissues making the acne flare up. If you haven't been ovulating much with the PCOS, this may be a sign that your cycles of hormones are trying to get back on track. May take a couple of cycles to really get on track, but I would be optimistic.

Thanks for the replies! I'll definitely try the asprin trick - and I'll be thinking of it as my body self-clensing

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Yeah I had the same thing happen. After starting low carb, my skin broke out SO bad. But now it is more beautiful then has EVER been. I rarely get a zit, and most the time its when I eat horribly for a few days. I also have noticed a change since switching my meat over to no hormone additives and grass fed beef. I know its more expensive and not everyone can afford it, but for me it has been so worth the extra cost.

I found the opposite for me. If I eat high-carb, I inevitably break out (my rosacea and dermititis flare too, so my skin looks horrendous after eating high-carb - especially if sugar and wheat are involved).

It seems there are so many drugs and treatments that can cause opposite reactions. For example, antidepressants (and depression itself) can cause appetite increase in some people, and appetite decrease in others and the same is true of sleep, and sex drive - changes can go both ways.

BC pills increase some people's appetites, I find they decrease mine.

I think you need several months of data though to be sure it's not coincidence or a temporary effect.

It also helps to keep a detailed food and symptom journal (I even use a diagram of a face, on which I draw my rashes and pimples).

I thought carbs in general were causing my skin issues, but wheat and processed sugar/HFCS are by far the worse culprits. Relatively small servings of wheat or sugar will cause skin breakouts (one serving of bread or one candybar), but to get the same reaction from carbs overall or other carb-heavy foods, I have to eat WAY more than my exchange plan limits.

Without looking closely at my food/symptom journal, I probably wouldn't have made the connection.