I had a MAJOR whoosh a couple of days back (-7.7 lbs) and found that the sudden drop in water weight messed up my electrolyte balance. In the past I have had both hypokalemia and hyperkalemia (they both feel awful) so I recognized the symptoms: twitchy muscles, cramping hands, left eyeball felt like it was vibrating, heart starting racing and I was filled with frantic energy.

The issue is mostly rectified now after drinking a lot of salted water, eating avocados with bread (gasp!), and taking magnesium supplements. Moving forward I have some No-Salt (potassium) to put in my water along with the regular salt (sodium) and will keep up the magnesium supplements.

Apparently the low carb flu is also attributed to electrolyte loss on various low carb forums. Who else has had issues with electrolytes and what do you do to keep them up?

I'm in my 5th month of keto (low carb high fat diet), the first few days i was experiencing symptoms of electrolyte depletion headaches, dizziness and in my case i even passed out! And almost quit because i thought keto was not for me.

Then i researched more and learnt about the electrolyte issue...so ever since i salt all my food and salt my big water bottles too (i use pink himalayan salt), and i supplement daily with potassium/magnesium tablets. And have never had a problem with keto ever since.

I tend toward leg cramps (not just calves, but inner thighs, which is killer pain!) when I'm even slightly dehydrated or in electrolyte imbalance. This is what I do:

I make sure to drink more fluid.
I drink bone broth a couple of times a week
I take a magnesium supplement every other day or so
I add salt to my food
If, after all that, my legs are restless or twitchy I drink a mug of chicken bouillon (made from a chicken-flavored-salt cube)
I also find that while I can have one or two drinks, if I drink more than that I need to make sure I drink more water to compensate, because alcohol is a diuretic and low-carb is a diuretic and the two together are a recipe for leg cramps for me.