Tue, Jul-08-03, 10:50
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Senior Member
Posts: 511
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Plan: PP
Stats: 210/210/160
BF:31%/31%/24%
Progress: 0%
Location: United States
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Low-carb diets, when done properly, make you lose a lot of water. With the water goes electrolytes -- calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium -- to varying degrees. Muscle cramps are commonly symptomatic of either magnesium or potassium deficiencies.
For the quickest fixes, take a bath with Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), and pop some potassium pills (up to 3 g/day). To get more magnesium into your life for the longer term, consider magnesium supplements (the form affects absorption; so a search for discussions on this), spinach, and pumpkin seed kernels. To boost your potassium intake, a potassium broth will help.
If you eat a lot of processed foods, you're getting a lot of hidden sodium, which unbalances the potassium:sodium ratio (best between 3:1 and 5:1),so substitute less processed versions of those foods, or eliminate them for a while.
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