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If you are thinking of going on a keto diet, you might want to know a thing or two about the electrolyte beverages. This article explains why people often need to do keto and electrolytes at the same time. During the transition phase, many people experience unpleasant symptoms, like dizziness, headaches and fatigue. The symptoms are often blamed on the carb withdrawal, but electrolyte imbalance is the cause for most of the problems people deal with during transition. Let’s break down what happens to electrolytes on keto, why they’re essential for daily function, how to identify deficiency, and how to maintain proper balance.

What Happens to Electrolytes on Keto?

The most overlooked fact when it comes to keto is how fast your body begins shedding water and sodium. Carbohydrates are stored in the body as glycogen, and each gram of glycogen binds several grams of water. When you reduce carbs, glycogen stores automatically decline, and the water attached to them is released. Moreover, your insulin levels will drop too, which signals to the kidneys to excrete more sodium. For those who don’t know, a keto diet is low-carb, high-fat with the purpose of burning fat for fuel instead of glucose from carbs.

Because of these changes that happen in the body, many people will experience dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. You might think that you will just increase your water intake, but that, unfortunately, doesn’t do the trick. More water can actually further dilute the already low electrolyte levels that you have. Because of this, the first phase of keto can be complicated enough to make some people give up on the whole diet. But don’t worry, you don’t need to go through this uncomfortable phase, because keto and electrolytes go amazingly hand-in-hand, and we’ll learn all the whys, hows and whats of everything.

Why Are Electrolytes Necessary for Daily Functions?

Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electrical charge and they play an important role in almost every major bodily function. Sodium, potassium, and magnesium are particularly important on a ketogenic diet. To better understand what they do, let’s look at how each of these minerals helps your body:

•          Sodium – It helps maintain the fluid balance in the cells, maintains blood volume and enables proper muscle and nerve function.
•          Potassium – It helps nerve function, muscle contraction and moving nutrients through the cells and helps waste find its way out.
•          Magnesium – It strengthens bones, controls blood sugar and regulates blood pressure.

So, on a higher-carb diet, these minerals are often consumed through processed foods and carb-rich sources. But if you are on keto, especially if you are focusing on whole foods, intake patterns change. Combined with other activities, like constant exercise or excretion, it creates a higher risk of imbalance. Because of these reasons, keto and electrolytes need to happen at the same time to support one another for the best results possible. It’s amazing that you are trying to make a change in your diet, but you also want to ensure that you remain healthy.

What Happens If You Ignore Electrolyte Beverages?

The thought that many of us have when we hear that we need to do something to hydrate is that we’ll just drink water and it’s enough. But the truth is that ignoring electrolyte beverages can result in something often known as the ‘keto flu’. The keto flu is not an actual illness, but it’s a cluster of symptoms that happen when you don’t ensure to have enough electrolytes when on keto. The keto flu typically manifests like this:

•          Dizziness (especially when standing) and nausea
•          Headaches and confusion
•          Brain fog
•          Irritability
•          Fatigue and lethargy
•          Muscle cramps
•          Heart palpitation/irregular heartbeats

If we are talking about severe cases, where the electrolyte imbalance is prolonged, exercise performance will be affected, and you might find it hard to sleep. Another common but ignored issue is blood pressure fluctuation. As your sodium levels drop, you might experience lightheadedness or weakness. This often happens during the early weeks of keto. This can be mistaken for low-calorie intake or poor adaptation, but the real issue is mineral depletion. Many people think that it’s just an adaptation stage and simply wait for the symptoms to pass. But, in reality, this issue can be simply resolved by just balancing your electrolyte intake.

How to Maintain a Healthy Balance?

Maintaining a healthy keto and electrolytes balance is not as complicated as it might sound. It does require a combination of knowledge, intention and organisation. Your first priority is typically sodium. Most keto experts recommend increasing the sodium intake, which can be done simply by adding some more salt to your meals and consuming broth. This is especially important to do as soon as you begin keto. Next, we have potassium, which can be supported through whole-food sources like leafy greens and avocados. With a few simple changes, you can ensure that your sodium and potassium levels are balanced.

Now, we also want to target magnesium, as its absence can cause bad sleep, and bad sleep leads to many other symptoms. Some magnesium-rich foods are leafy greens (spinach), seeds (chia, pumpkin), nuts (almonds) and legumes (edamame). Electrolyte beverages can be a very convenient option to ensure that these minerals are present in your body, without integrating lots of new ingredients. There are many electrolyte beverages out there that you can choose from, depending on the specific needs of your body. Remember that balance is key in everything, so try to keep the focus on that.

Conclusion

Now that you know more about keto and electrolytes, are you ready to change your life in a safe and balanced way? The transition between your regular diet and keto doesn’t have to be complicated and hard, as long as you are thinking ahead. Don’t wait for the symptoms to appear to do something. You can prevent all of those symptoms from ever showing up by just paying attention to your levels of sodium, potassium and magnesium.