I'm calling on all "Cold Handers" to give me a shout out so that we'll know we really ARE normal!!!

I've been on Atkins in Induction for 14-weeks now. Since the first week in induction, my hands (and to a lesser extent my feet -- probably because of socks and shoes) are FREEZING!!

My hands were never cold before. I don't have any other symptoms. And this started within a week of my eating low carb and going into ketosis -- too soon to blame being cold on newly lost body fat.

I started looking at other posts here and other sites, and there are a TONS folks who have this symptom. What's interesting to me is that no one posts, "it's a well known side effect of ketosis" or any "standardized" response which acknowledges the symptom as a common side effect.

It seems like the typical answers are more along the lines of, "are you drinking very cold water?" or are more genuine attempts to find the individual cause of the cold extremities (taking enough zinc? only cold after vigourous exercise?, etc.)

I started taking my temp today (4 readings) and so far it's a chilling 96.2 average! If this is indicitive of hypothyroid, it started with low-carb'ing, because I didn't have any other symptoms before I started Atkins. And BTW, I've started taking a medicine cabinet of vitamins over the last month with no change in the cold-osity!.

Any thoughts?

Nicholas

My first question is: why have you been on Induction for 14 weeks? Aktins says that we should increase the daily carbs by 5 grams every week until we stop losing and then go back one level until we start losing again.

If we stay at induction levels, the body will eventually adapt to that carb level. If you stall, where are you going to go then? There is no 'wiggle room".

So the first thing I'd do is increase the carbs by adding veggies and fruits as in the book.

And yes, I get cold when I drink water. I just drank 16 ounces and not 10 minutes later, I had to turn on the gas fireplace and get a fleece shawl. And then I read your post.

I'd say you are 'normal' but I'd still recommend that you increase the carbs.

Stay warm.