Been low carbing now for more than a week and along with headaches and tiredness, I am experiencing the worst leg cramps in the middle of the night ever. Does anyone know if there is anything I can take for this? It's really painful.

OUCH! I get leg cramps too without the right supplements. I take 550 MG. of potassium and 250 MG. of magnesium 3X per week. I also take 600 mg. of calcium everyday. These should be taken with a good multi-vitamin everyday that has extra vitamin E in it. It cures me of the cramps and I hike a lot too. It works great.

Just to be careful, you shouldn't add these supplements (especially the potassium) if you are taking high-blood pressure medication. If you are, it is probably fine at such small doses, but call your Physician for a quick opinion.

Welcome to the forum and best of luck to you in your journey.

Orchid

Personally I take suppliments of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and drink lots of water. Leg cramps suck!!

Mary

i had leg cramps during both of my pregnancies- dr told me to eat lots of bananas for the potassium. it works- of course, in LCing bananas arent the best thing, especially during induction, but i imagine, like the other posters said, potassium supplements would prolly work- definately talk to your dr 1st tho

I agree with all the other comments above and wanted to add that it is really hard to get enough potassium through supplements. You can use Morton's salt substitute and get quite a bit more potassium. I'm pretty sure the Atkins book talks about this too.

Try the calcium, magnesium and postassium and I'm sure those leg cramps will go away soon! And if you get a bad charlee horse, stand up and put all the weight on that leg. It will help relieve the pain quickly.

Good luck!

I still get leg cramps once in a while too. I always took calcium and magnesium supplements and for me it was the potassium that seemed to help the most. Sometimes I'll be just waking up and stretching my legs in bed I'll actually feel the cramp about to start. Its really weird. But I can usually stop it in time.