Active Low-Carber Forums - Time to supplement potassium?

Friday, definitely sounds like potassium deficiency. The best way to supplement with it is with a salt substitute like NuSalt or Mortens Light salt.

Advice from the Eades:

Quote:

I was feeling fabulous and all of a sudden I’m feeling exhausted and my legs are starting to ache-should I concerned?

This describes an almost textbook case of hypokalemia. We can’t stress enough the importance of taking potassium. The vast majority of problems people have with this program come because they don’t take their potassium. If you’re taking over-the-counter potassium, take at least 4 of them (99 mg per tablet) per day.

Because this program has a diuretic effect on the kidneys, it gets rid of potassium in the fluid they release. If you’re feeling weird at all-if you experience lightheadedness, tingling, fatigue, deep muscle fatigue, muscle aches, or cramps-you’re probably low on potassium. If it comes, it usually occurs about a week or so into the diet. If it does happen, we recommend you use Morton’s light salt or NoSalt (which is a potassium substitute or a potassium salt) to salt your food. And make sure you take your potassium supplements. By all means, if the symptoms continue, you really should see your doctor and get your potassium level checked.

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What should I do if I feel dizzy or lightheaded?

Sometimes that happens-it can happen on any diet. On this particular diet, in the first few days or the first week especially, your loss of fluid (and with it potassium and sodium) can sometimes make you feel a little bit dizzy or lightheaded.

Any time you feel dizzy, increase your fluid intake and start taking your potassium. If you’ve been taking it all along, you may want to consider raising the intake level just a little bit.

Add a little bit of sodium to your diet. This is probably the only time you’re ever going to hear a doctor say to add sodium to your diet, but in this case you might need to. As your insulin level falls rapidly, sometimes you release excessive fluid a little too quickly, so you may need to add a small amount of sodium.

In the summertime it’s especially important. If you’re outside working in the yard or you’re working out and you’re sweating a lot, you’re going to lose sodium and potassium. On the Protein Power Plan, if you start feeling a little bit dizzy, one of the things you may want to do is to increase your sodium by eating dill pickles, for example, or drinking a cup of bouillon. They’re a little on the salty side, and most of the time doctors will tell you not to eat them, but this is different. This is a different thing of nutritional structure, and eating a little bit of sodium not only isn’t harmful, it may be helpful.

Potassium should be supplemented until you reach Maintenance at 400mg a day and then used after that on very hot days or when you are engaged in intense physical activity.

HTH
Nat