i do not have a surgery date yet, but have been trending down my carb count to prepare for my 3 week low carb/keto diet (50 total carbs a day). Figure it will help me loose more weight before surgery and be more psychologically comfortable and ready for the whole process.

i have finally got myself mostly down under 50 carbs a day (6/7 of the last days under 51) and am starting to feel the “keto flu”. I have had a lot of dreaming at night, which is unusual.. headaches the last few days and today general body aches. no fever or cough etc.

anyone else experienced this with cutting carbs?? how long did this last?? did the keto actually help loose more weight ?

thank you for sharing!

Apparently it is common, I didn't experience it though.

So of course every surgeon is different. For me they did not want us to go into that keto flu. So we were told to avoid those protein shakes with no carbs. instead they recommended a certain one which i forget how many carbs they have in it but had a decent amount (not 50 of course) also to not avoid caffine as that would make the diet even harder. But yea it sucks. Gotta get use to it. After surgery your carbs will need to be a bear minimum. Currently at 4 months post op according to my guidelines max i can have is 30 and its no longer an issue.

Haven't experienced it as part of pre-op diet, but many years ago I did Atkins, which starts you out with <20 carbs a day. My recollection was I had about 3 days that I felt pretty lousy, but after that I moved into ketosis and felt fine.

Keto flu is temporary, it can last anywhere from 3 days to a week.

I did keto as my pre surgery diet (2.5 weeks) but had no keto flu symptoms or withdrawal symptoms of headaches, etc. I was a little surprised though was already low caffeine so that helped a lot. At about 5 weeks post surgery I started having the ketosis body odour issues, low energy & brain fog.

I lost about 5kg pre surgery (11lbs). I didn’t continue the keto eating plan after surgery because I had read some articles saying it wasn’t best as a long term way of eating & also my dietician advised it was a good way to kick start your loss but shouldn’t be continued. I was glad because I didn’t like the high fat aspect of keto & it never sat well with me. She & I both agreed on following a balanced diet making slight adjustments as best suited me, my body & needs.

I am lowish carbs (focus on low processed multi & whole grains only) but & am lowish fats. I don’t track macros so I couldn’t tell you exactly how much my lowish is. I eat two serves of carbs a day vs the recommended 4 serves for someone my age. This does not include the carbs in vegetables, etc. This is what works for me. You may need something totally different.

I did keto a while back and had the keto flu for about a week. The bariatric diet and keto are actually the same except bariatric diet wants your fats 50 or less per day and keto wants HEALTHY fats higher. I did the bariatric diet for 2 1/2 months and my body hated it. I would stall over and over. I decided to switch to keto again and I haven't had a stall in the month I've been doing it and have steadily lost. No keto flu this time, tho. But it's normal and goes away. I keep my calories between 1000-1150 per day (I work out and need the extras so my body doesn't think it's starving and hold on to everything). I keep my carbs between 25-35 per day. My protein stays around 75-85 per day. My fats are usually around 70-80. And I'm completely sugarfree or very low sugar (such as certain fruits or veggies). I work out for 45 minutes per day, and I generally take in around 75-90oz of fluids (depending on the type of workout I did that day).

You need to add sodium to your diet, just start by adding a pinch of salt to your water. You don't need to add so much that your drinking salt water. This will help with the headaches and overall flu like feelings. If you like pickles, drinking the juice will help as well.