4 Easy Ways to Fix Low Energy Levels on the Keto Diet
Your friends went the keto way and couldn’t stop raving about it — they felt their energy levels rise and felt amazing all around. So, you decided to try it for yourself. But you feel nauseous and tired all the time.
And now you’re wondering why your case is so different because nobody warned you about this. Why do you feel so fatigued after switching to the keto diet?
You’re not alone. This is quite common for people just starting the keto diet. In fact, it’s so common that it has a name: keto fatigue. And it often comes in combination with other symptoms that make up the so-called keto flu.
“Some people report that when they start ketosis, they just feel sick. There can sometimes be vomit, gastrointestinal distress, a lot of fatigue, and lethargy.”
— Kristen Kizer, RD, Dietician at SportsTec Clinic in Kingston, Australia.
Josh Axe estimates that about 25% of new keto diet practitioners experience symptoms of the keto flu — although they usually pass after a few days — with fatigue being the most common of these symptoms.
“That happens because your body runs out of sugar to burn for energy, and it has to start using fat.”
— Josh Axe, Doctor of Natural Medicine and Clinical Nutritionist.
Fortunately, keto fatigue is quite easy to fix.
When you start the keto diet, there are four points you must specifically be aware of. If you pay attention to them, you could potentially avoid this problem.
You must move through these tips in the order they are laid out here. They’re arranged in this order as they build on one another. This way, there will be no gaps in your keto diet.
1. Increase Your Sodium Intake
Sometimes, it’s really that simple. Many cases of keto flu can be solved by simply adding more salt to your diet.
This is because, on the keto diet, you consume fewer carbs, leading your body to produce less insulin, which is responsible for helping your body use glucose as energy or store the excess as fat.
Lower insulin levels can cause your kidneys to excrete sodium at a higher rate than usual. Therefore, it is necessary to replenish your sodium levels.
Stephen D. Phinney, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of California-Davis and keto expert, published a research paper that suggests that some keto dieters (e.g. athletes) should take at least 3,000 milligrams of sodium daily, essentially double the 1,500-milligram ideal recommended by the American Heart Association.
Raising your salt intake usually gets rid of many side effects of the keto diet such as:
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Heart palpitations (where you can feel your heart beating)
- Muscle cramps
So, this should be the first measure you adopt if you’re experiencing keto fatigue.
Salt all your food generously. If that doesn’t work and you still feel tired, increase salt intake by adding one teaspoon of salt to the first glass of water you drink every day. Eat keto-friendly foods that are rich in sodium such as:
- Tomato sauce and other canned tomato products
- Sour pickles
- Salted fish
- Tofu
- Eggs
- Sauerkraut
- Jalapeno peppers
- Canned vegetables
- Instant mashed potatoes
- Salted nuts, seeds, beans, and peas
If that doesn’t work, try the next tip.
2. Reduce Your Net Carb Consumption
If increasing your sodium intake didn’t fix your keto fatigue, you should try reducing your net carb intake. Your net carbs are those carbs contained in the food you eat that can be digested and used for energy.
There’s a lot of confusing information on the internet about this subject. Some sites postulate that you must keep your net carb intake below 50g to get into ketosis and stay there. Others say below 40g is where you want to be. Yet others say anything above 20g would take you out of ketosis.
The truth is that there is no magic number. Everyone has different levels of carb tolerance. Some can eat 50g and still be in ketosis. Others must be super strict and maintain a carb intake of no more than 20g.
You must remember that you are unique and that what works for someone else might not work for you. The bottom line is that you need to consume fewer carbs than your body can tolerate. This way, your body has to burn fat for energy instead of using the glucose you get from carbs.
If you’re eating more carbs than your body can tolerate, there’s no way you will enter ketosis. Instead, you will be in a low-carb state, but not in ketosis. And this is a common cause of fatigue, hormonal fluctuations, and decreased athletic performance, especially in women.
The reason for this is simple: being in a low-carb state means that your body still relies on glucose for energy, even though it isn’t getting enough of it.
But when you enter ketosis, your body switches to using ketones — produced from body fat — for fuel, rather than glucose from carbs. And for as long as there’s fat to burn, you’ll always have enough energy.
That said, you can make absolutely certain that you’re in ketosis by restricting your net carb intake to under 20g. At this level, everyone enters ketosis.
You should track your daily macros with apps like Cronometer or MyFitnessPal. 20g of carbs is not a lot, and eating only 80–90% of your total recommended daily calories is not the most natural way to eat. So, tracking your macros is vital to your success here.
However, you don’t have to give up your favorite bread, sandwiches, and pizza to reduce your net carb consumption. There are delicious keto breads you can enjoy while keeping your net carbs in check.
For the first 6 weeks, you must be strict with your keto diet. It is in these first 6 weeks that your body adapts to running on fat as fuel instead of glucose.
If that doesn’t provide the energy boost you need, try the next tip.
3. Increase Your Caloric Intake
Well, that doesn’t sound right.
After all, if you’re trying to lose weight, why would you eat more calories?
But any keto veteran knows that calories are not the problem, carbs are. They also know that in ketosis, you experience increased levels of hunger suppression. In other words, your hunger signals are just not as loud as they used to be when your body ran on glucose.
Referring to the hunger-suppressing effects of the keto diet, Jimmy Moore, host of the longest-running and top-ranked iTunes health podcast, The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show, as well as Low-Carb Conversations and Keto Talk, said, “Eating carbohydrates makes you hungry. If you don’t eat carbohydrates, there is no hunger.”
In ketosis, your hunger signals can often be a small, gentle whisper when compared to the loud raging tirade that you used to experience on a regular diet.
The reason is simple: in ketosis, your brain and all the other energy-consuming functions in your body have constant access to the stored fat in your body. This means that there are always calories to keep functioning since we all have at least some body fat.
While on a regular diet, you burn glucose for fuel and your body depends on eating to get enough energy. This is why hunger signals on a regular diet are invariably more serious than on the keto diet.
Furthermore, researchers have established a relationship between the keto diet, reduced levels of the hunger hormone — Ghrelin — and an increase in the release of satiety peptides, which tell you when you’re full.
In all, the crux of the matter is that you don’t feel so hungry on the keto diet and even when you do, it’s usually mild.
This puts you at risk of being overly deficient in calories and still not feeling hungry. There have been cases of people being in caloric deficits as high as 1500 calories per day for weeks without feeling hungry. Imagine just how exhausted you will feel!
For reference, a healthy weight loss strategy would be to cut daily caloric intake by about 500 calories — of course, this depends on your height, weight, and activity level. This should result in about one pound of weight loss per week. Being in a 1500-calorie deficit is three times this amount.
To avoid ending up on an accidental low-calorie diet, you have to track your calories, at least at the beginning of the diet. There is no other way. Yes, it can be awful and painful to do, but count calories you must.
How to Determine How Many Calories You Need Each Day
To calculate your daily caloric needs, you can use any of the several free online TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculators available (like this one) or an app like MyFitnessPal. Just enter your sex, age, weight, height, and activity level, and you’re good to go.
Then, if you use the keto diet for weight loss, you can cut this figure by 500 calories — no more. This will help you lose up to one pound per week while keeping energy levels high.
If you are not trying to lose weight, try to keep your daily caloric intake around your TDEE. This is particularly important for lean people; you already don’t have too much fat for your body to use as fuel.
After a while, you will develop an intuitive feel for what’s right when it comes to how much you need to eat in a day or week. At this point, you should move back to intuitive eating. Eat when you’re hungry, and eat until you are full.
4. Identify — and Eliminate — Carbs That Contribute to Your Fatigue
If you’ve gone through all the steps so far and have not seen any results, one last step you can take to fix your keto fatigue is to root out any carbs that might be contributing to — or even causing — it.
This is the hardest solution to implement because it involves patiently and actively tracking everything you eat and monitoring how each meal makes you feel. It’s an involved process that most people won’t enjoy.
You might find that there are specific foods that contribute the most to your keto fatigue, irrespective of whether you are in ketosis or not. When you discover such food items, remove them from your diet altogether.
You should wait until you’ve been on the diet for at least 60 days before trying to identify these foods. This is because, at the start of the diet, your body might just be getting used to surviving on fewer carbs, hence the fatigue. And it could take that long to finally get accustomed to it.
Once your body adapts to the diet, start taking note of your energy levels after eating. Whenever you feel tired after eating, take note of the foods in that meal.
Sometimes, even if you keep carbs below 20g, your specific carb tolerance might still cause you to feel lethargic when you eat certain foods.
If you notice a pattern of fatigue after certain foods, you’re on track. It most likely will be a source of carbohydrates that causes your keto fatigue. Root it out.
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People Also Ask
What does keto fatigue feel like?
If you have keto fatigue, you will feel — newsflash — tiredness, general weakness, brain fog, and low energy levels.
How long does keto fatigue last?
In most cases, symptoms of the keto flu resolve themselves in a matter of days, but they can sometimes last up to several weeks.
“In most people, symptoms typically get better in 10 days; however, if headaches, fatigue, cramps or irritability last longer than that length of time, it’s a good idea to see your doctor,” says Priyanka Hennis, M.D., a family physician in Phoenix, Arizona.
Does keto cause vitamin deficiency?
Yes. Like other restrictive diets, keto can make deficiencies worse. The most common deficiencies to develop while on the ketogenic diet include molybdenum, folate (B9), selenium, biotin (B7), choline, iodine, chromium, vitamins A, E, and D, and magnesium.
How do you replenish electrolytes on keto?
You can replenish lost electrolytes while on the keto diet by supplementing your diet with magnesium, potassium, and sodium. You can also consume a sports drink or electrolyte-enhanced water.
Time to Deal With Keto Fatigue
Now you know four ways to fix low energy levels on the keto diet. Go on and give them a try. Then come back and let us know what your experience was like. What other causes of keto fatigue did you experience? And what other solutions did you try?
