Hi all

I did the BSD last year with moderate although disappointing success, but I’ve just started again and the Keto flu is 100 times worse this time. It kicked in about halfway through day 1, and the headaches, dizziness and brain fog are simply unbearable and nothing gets rid of them. I’m really trying to perservere but I feel simply awful. I’m drinking plenty of water, have plenty of healthy fat in my diet like olive oil, full fat yoghurt etc. (Side note, the calories of these are exponentially worse than the book says so actually quite difficult to up them!!) there’s also plenty of protein in my diet although I’m struggling to up this without also upping carbs – nuts for example, high in both, beans and pulses, high in both. I’ve tried having some extra salt. I’ve tried upping the carbs a little by adding say some pearl barley to a meal, but I feel awful and this really isn’t feeling worth it. At the same time I’ve also tried every diet going over the years and literally nothing works for me and I always stick with it. Am I destined to just be fat and disgusting forever? Any help or encouragement much appreciated

Hi, welcome to the forum

You seem to be trying the usual remedies for the Keto flu that I can think of.
You may just have to push through it for a few days, it will get better.
The other option would be to not enter the diet immediately, go into it gently over a couple of weeks so your body has time to adjust.
Ie, start with 2000 calories at 100g carbs and lower it each day until you get to 800 calories 20-50g carb.

Can you tell us what happened last time you did this diet? What was disappointing?

Take some paracetamol or ibuprofen and keep going, it will pass…

I’m surprised you’d feel so bad so quickly. That suggests this diet is a massive change from how you were eating before. I agree with the suggestion to ease into it more gradually. Try cutting your carbs down by 1/4 for a week, then another 1/4 the following week etc.

Hi florob85 I didn’t get any symptoms of carb flu and I was a massive pasta, bread, and the rest of that nasty stuff all day long! I just ate and ate and ate! In the past though I tried the 5:2 and it killed me! No matter how much water I drank I felt rough and had really bad headaches that actually turned into migraines! But this time I went straight in at 800 and 20g even though I had a few mishaps in the first week or two but no carb flu. I did however stick to my 4 cups of coffee each day this time but tried to cut it down before and got the headaches. Do you drink coffee or tea? Have you tried to cut them out as well? If so this could be the cause of your headaches too. Could you give us a little more information please so we can best help you? Well done though and welcome we are all here and happy to help wherever we can. Birdy💞🦜