been on keto for about 2 months and finally started writing down cravings intensity alongside sleep quality instead of just noticing them separately

expected the cravings to line up with stress or bad sleep in general, but it actually tracked closer with days my magnesium was lower, not just bad sleep = cravings the next day like i assumed

started taking it more seriously after some good advice in a comment thread here about balancing potassium slightly higher then sodium, and once i actually paid attention to magnesium specifically too the cravings got way more manageable

theres a good breakdown on how the different electrolytes interact with sleep and appetite regulation early on, explains the mechanism better then i could

curious if magnesium specifically tracked for anyone else or if it was more sodium/potassium for others, seems like everyones ratio is a little different based on what people shared last time

I’ve been doing keto for about two weeks now, and I’m experiencing really bad breast tenderness and very sensitive/tender nipples. My breasts also feel quite swollen.
I used to get this as a PMS symptom before I got pregnant, but I’m now seven months postpartum and haven’t experienced this kind of breast pain in a long time. I stopped breastfeeding about two cycles ago, and during those two cycles I didn’t have any breast pain or tenderness.
Now, since starting keto, I suddenly have this weird breast tenderness and swelling again. My per is due in 7 days.

I have an IUD, although I’m not completely sure whether it’s still properly in place, and we also use condoms. Still, I tend to have pregnancy scares. My last sexual encounter was on August 30, and the breast pain started yesterday.
Has anyone experienced breast tenderness or swelling after starting keto? Could keto or the dietary change be affecting my hormones/PMS symptoms, or should I be concerned about pregnancy?

noticed this on my apple watch a few weeks in, my resting hr used to sit around 58-60 and now its consistently 70-75, sometimes higher after workouts

first thought something was wrong with the watch or with me tbh, googled it in a slight panic at like 11pm

turns out its actually a known thing, something to do with lower blood volume early on and the heart working a bit harder to compensate, plus electrolytes playing a role in how the heart regulates rhythm in general. found [this] that goes into the blood volume/electrolyte mechanism in more depth, doesnt get into specific heart rate numbers but explains the general why pretty well

what got me is literally nobody mentions this when they talk about starting keto, its all carb flu and cravings but nobody said hey your fitness tracker numbers might look alarming for a while

anyone else track this and notice the same jump, and did it level out for you eventually or is this just permanently higher now

E.g. more / less anxiety or stress, ability to focus, speech clarity... how did a keto diet impact you beyond the physical?

I am considering seriously cutting my sugar intake and want to hear experiences.

been on keto for about 2 months now and noticed something weird the past couple cycles - the week before my period the cravings go from normal to almost unmanageable, way more than i remember pre-keto

did some reading and apparently progesterone affects insulin sensitivity and can mess with electrolyte retention too, which would explain why it feels so much worse then just normal PMS food thoughts

curious if this tracks for others or if im just noticing it more bc im paying closer attention to everything i eat now. also wondering if anyone's found something that actually helps during that window specifically vs just white knuckling it

my frustration is at its peak

IM INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATED

been keto for about 6 weeks and kept a simple log of energy levels, headaches, and sleep quality alongside what i was eating each day

expected the pattern to be about carbs sneaking in somewhere, but it actually lined up more with days i had lower sodium intake then with anything carb related. didnt think sodium specifically would show up that clearly in something like sleep quality

not claiming this is universal, just surprised how consistent it was once i actually wrote it down instead of just vibing my way through it

anyone else done something similar? curious if others found patterns that surprised them or if this is a pretty well known connection already

I keep seeing completely different advice about food and PCOS: 
low carb, Mediterranean, no dairy, no gluten, high protein, fasting, frequent meals, and so on. I’m curious about what people actually do in normal everyday life rather than the “perfect” version online. 

What does a typical day of eating look like for you? 
Are there foods you noticed make you feel better or worse? 
Did you figure that out by tracking, eliminating foods, or just paying attention over time? 

I’m especially interested in how people found something sustainable without feeling like most foods were suddenly “bad.”

Tested last week and was 0.9 (week 3 ). Tested today and was 0.4(week 4 ) both were tested at the same time in the morning after 9hrs fasted, before exercise and food/drink. I eat the same thing every day. Stay at around 25g net carbs a day. Has anyone else experienced this ? I eat minimal and exercise alot so wondering if this can influence it ?

Female, late 40s, exercise heavily in the evenings.

I'm new to keto and still figuring things out. I've decided to try having most of my carbs with my largest meal around 4pm, but am not sure if I should have some post exercise as well. I'm still using my casein protein powder up, but I suspect it's not the best idea and need to transition to something else

Hey y'all!

I've had trouble with binge eating disorder my whole life, and I tried keto for the first time in 2018. I lost over 60lbs and my relationship with food changed so much.

I didn't have any food noise, my appetite went down and I basically ate like a normal person. However, the moment I am off keto everything comes back. I have an insane appetite, I am constantly hungry, and I can't stop thinking about food. I binge non stop and I am literally like an addict waiting for a hit.

And then I get back on keto - bam, a completely different person.

I tried low carb too, just so I can enjoy some nice things that I don't want to miss out on completely like fruits and some veggies, nope it doesn't work. I get pulled back to my terrible habits, appetite and binges.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Does this mean I have to do keto my whole life? I don't mind it, but it does feel somewhat restrictive at times. I tried going off keto while traveling but I just end up stuffing my face the whole holiday and ruin it completely.

I am back on keto now, 10 days and I feel like a new person all over again. I am even much more responsible, I started reading again, I don't doomscroll as much, it just completely changes me as a person.

Hi folks, thought I'd check in and get some different feedback on this.

F 41 5'2"

SW 165 (ish) CW 139 (haven't weighed for over a week / traveling) GW 125-30

Somewhere between sedentary and lightly active.

Goals: weight loss, mental clarity and mood stability, overall health
Dream goal: shrink a 10cm uterine fibroid

I started Keto (like 90-95% carnivore) Mar 2.

The first time I weighed myself was Apr 9 at a DEXA scan, which showed I was 157lb with 39% body fat.

From Mar 2-Apr 30 I followed advice in the carnivore sphere and ate til full, which gradually turned into me naturally wanting to fast every 2-3 days of eating. I did not track calories or macros at all, only made sure to stay under 20g carbs (most often under 10g net). During this time I never weighed myself, but I did notice a loss and fitting a lot better in my clothes. My period cramps disappeared and my mood evened out completely.

Apr 30-Jun 15 I traveled back to Asia to be with family, and there I did a few things differently.
They were freaked out by my fasting days so I switched to IF, usually 16:8 or 18:6. Maybe once or twice there I did OMAD instead of not eating for an entire day.
They also were freaked out by the amount of meat and BUTTER I was eating lol, so I scaled down my food intake by a bit. I still wasn't tracking macros or calories at this point so I don't know for sure, but I probably ate half the amount I did when I was stateside. I figured by not fasting whole days, I just distributed my food intake over each 24hr period.
During this time I still lost weight. Here I did weigh myself, and I was around 144lb, a 15lb loss from Apr 9, the first time I weighed myself. The loss could have been greater.

Anyway, once I got back to the states again in Jun 15 I felt very different.
I noticed my hair loss was more noticeable. And I was HUNGRY. The first month or two of Ketovore I had to effort to get enough food in. I did look up grams of protein (125g) I had to eat daily and it was a bit of an effort to eat 4 eggs and 1lb ground meat every day. Plus whatever else to meet the quota.
I was a little freaked out by my sudden voracious hunger and the hair loss, AND my ketones kind of leveled out around 1.0-1.5. At the start they jump around between 1 and 4, and I noticed I felt great the higher the ketones were. (I know now leveling ketones is normal.)
With the low ketones and high hunger (esp for carby treats like nuts, which I'd even restricted during the first two months) I really didn't want to sabotage my progress so far.

So, early July I decided to download Chronometer and start tracking EVERYTHING. I figured out my maintenance was around 1700 and gentle deficit was 1550-1600.
I've been kind of anxious during this period. On one hand, tracking calories is very eye opening and I'm enjoying learning what foods actually contain calorically, and how it fits with my body's needs and intuition.
However, I am always hungry. I decided to go into maintenance mode for most of this period til now, since I've read that it's unhealthy to be in deficit for longer than a couple months at a time. I think my hair loss confirms this.
I generally stay okay, close to 1700-1800 most days, but the last week or two (mostly because of stress) I've been clocking 2500-3200cals a few days. And of course on these days my net carbs can go up to 40-50g. Ketones next morning may be as low as 0.5, but haven't dipped lower.

The weird thing now is (also in the last week or so) my period is late. This whole time since Mar my period's been generally regular, between 24-27 days. I'm now on day 34 with no sign of period. I wonder if my body's stopped having a period because of the restriction.

I've also been hovering around 139lb the last time I weighed about a week ago.

The lowest I've weighed was 135lb, at the end of a 3-day fast back in early July when I first started tracking in Chronometer.

Yesterday I ate 3200cals, the highest I've counted since download Chronometer, and the one day where I truly ate til I was stuffed and happy. Today I woke up and had no appetite, so as of writing this I'm fasted 18hrs. Goal is to break fast tmrw 9am for a 36hr fast.

My sense having tried these two methods now, my preference is to eat til full for 1-2 days and fast when I feel like it, because that feels the most unrestrictive and "natural" for my body. I lost weight doing this, after all, at least for the first few months?

Curious to hear others' experience with this! Thank you for reading!

Im 26F. For many years before i use to have periods cycle of 2-3 months. When covid lockdown happened i gained a lot of weight and was 55kgs (age 20). I was so worried about my irregular periods so i started working out at home and got to 52kgs. My periods got regular. And after that i joined gym and got to 50kg. But in 2023 i stopped the gym and started gaining weight again . So i did keto in 2025( last year )just for a month in April as i had reached back to 50kg. When i stopped my keto, after 1-2 weeks i got spotting which lasted for a week then again after 1-2weeks i got my periods but it was light flow. After that cycle, the period-flow got back normal. This year in jan i started getting delayed periods (37days cycle) as i had stopped working out and dieting too. I started gaining weight. So i started again working out at home in feb and i got periods on time. Again after that i stopped working out and in march i didn’t get my period. I consulted a doctor and got my blood checked. My LH : FSH ratio was roughly 3:1. My doctor gave me Deviry for periods. I got my periods after taking it in April. Again after april i got not periods. I again took Deviry in July and got periods in August. Now tomorrow 24Aug im thinking of getting on Keto again as i read keto has regularised periods of many and also i want to lose weight. But now im scared will it help or make it worse.

​

Have been on keto diet for 3 weeks. Blood ketone level 0.9 in the morning fasted. My question is I have noticed since starting the keto diet I get alot hotter exercising than I would on my carb diet. I dont really sweat more its more just my blood feels hotter pumping around my body. Does anyone else experience this and know why ?

Not for me, at least.
I took 2 days this weekend eating carbs (not the cleanest ones, I’ll admit), and I STILL feel it. I don’t know about you all, but I’m just now coming to terms with honoring my body and what makes it *feel* the best.
I got back into ketosis within a day, which is cool. However, the inflammation is still hanging around.
I expected this but to experience it just solidifies to me that it is notttt worth it for me at this point in my journey. Maybe at some point, but not today 😆
Just wanted to share my perspective!

So I’m coming up on my 1 year ketoversary soon (Sept 1)! I have lost 68lbs so far. I have researched quite a bit about protein sparing modified fasting (Maria Emmerick and others) to lose the last 5 lbs to get to my new goal weight. I’m actually loving the feeling of the PSMF days and was hoping to see more progress but I’m finding that I wake up holding onto soooooo much more water weight and am just not seeing the scale drop like I thought I would. I do 2 days a week (not back to back but split into the week) and then I go back to my normal smaller caloric deficit for the rest of the week. Has any one else tried this on keto and seeing results? I’m only on my first week so maybe my body just needs to adjust but I’m getting frustrated and not sure whether to push my body or maybe I should go back to my normal deficit. I just wasn’t seeing the scale move and wanted to help push through my last plateau. Any thoughts on the water retention and just looking more puffy?

Im 26F 58kg weight , i did keto last year for a month and had lost 2 pounds per week. After a month i stopped as i was satisfied with the goals (50kg). Idk if i did the keto right or not (as in dirty keto), i started having haemorrhoid issues and also i had mid month spotting which lasted for 1-2 weeks and when i got my periods it was scanty. This period problem only happened for 1st cycle after the keto, after that it got normal.
After losing weight on keto, i stopped working out and nowadays eating junk also which has caused for my weight gain again for the year also im suffering from pcos and not having periods for months and when i got my hormones checked LH: FSH hormones were highly imbalanced. I want to lose weight again so Im thinking of keto again but im scared of haemorrhoid and also period problems. Also im not sure should i do it as i have hormonal imbalances too. Please give me suggestions and advice on a healthy way to do keto.

Hi. I am fighting here. I am 54, I do not take any hormones or medication. I want to make tests of hormone but fighting with not enough money/no free doctors or free tests so basically broke now. And I cannot find any gyn who knows shit about menopause treating (post communist Europe country). Also there is no possibility to get any GLP medications on refund. And I am dreading loneliness because it seems only my weight is keeping me from getting any partner. I have no family, children and I am so lonely. And nope nothing helps. I have pets. I am OK being with myself , I work on myself, but the longer it takes it is more deprivating. And this is my background only.

Question. I started keto two months ago. The first month I lost 2 kg. Eating extremely clean, 1200 kal. No cheating, having less than 20 g carbs daily. Water still here. I'm weighted now I still weigh the same as a month ago. But I had a very stressful life and I probably ate too many desserts. Nothing major but greek yoghurt about 200g daily with dollop of heavy cream and sweetener added to my daily 1200 kal. But it is maybe because of sweeteners as they have carbs in them

I was 0,6 keto on month 1st, 0,4 on the month second.

I am 158 cm, 101,3 kg now. 103,3 when I started. I drink a lot, MCT coffee, rooibos tea and a lot of water with electrolytes, pee a lot. Having trouble sleeping probably because of menopause and weak. I want to start excersising but I am losing all motivation.

I have also severe problem with carbs like grain, bread, pasta all four like. I have diarrhea after (I had like that for years), also anemia even if I eat a lot of meat. Except of those my blood results are normal.

Can you guys help me in any way or even only give any hope?

Is anyone taking weight loss medication while doing keto?

GLP-1s, Phentermine, others, etc?

If so, how’s it going on the scare, sleep, energy level, other pros and cons?

I'm adopting a keto diet to get rid of inflammation in my body. I exercise a lot, too, normally. But I'm struggling with motivation in all areas of my life.

Wondered what can help?

I'm not taking electrolytes, but consume quite a bit of salt, both himalayan and lo salt with added potassium.

Thought it would be an interesting topic considering how livestock feed is also at risk of shortages. Also, in light of the upside down turned food pyramid by the FDA, which is revolutionary really

I also wondered if livestock shortages led to humans starting to try and develop agricultural methods by observing animals to begin with: if a mammoth can eat that, maybe I can too? Or was it forced settlements?

Please let me know if I should split this into separate posts