Learn the best keto electrolyte powder that’s right for you and how to avoid the keto flu. This is especially important if you are just starting out on keto!
What Is Keto?
The Ketogenic Diet (Keto for short) is revolutionizing our understanding of food and health. The basic concept of the keto lifestyle is simple; swap your carbs for healthy fats and your body will adapt to burn fat instead of carbs fuel.
I used the keto lifestyle to lose over 40lbs, beat a family history of Type 2 diabetes, and keep the weight off for over 4 years!
If you’re new to keto, you probably have lots of questions. I created a comprehensive beginner’s guide to keto to help you avoid the many common mistakes people make when you start keto.
You can get my Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Keto and I’ll show how you get the results you want from keto!
How to Avoid the Keto Flu
The keto flu is one of the biggest reasons people quit keto in the first few weeks.
What is the keto flu? It’s a set of symptoms that some people experience the first few weeks of keto when your body is switching from burning carbs to burning fat for fuel.
These symptoms can feel similar to the flu as your body becomes fat adapted.
Symptoms of keto flu include:
- Headaches and brain fog
- Muscle cramps and weakness
- Heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat
- Dizziness
- Constipation
The good news is that if you experience these symptoms it’s a sign you’re headed in the right direction and the keto flu is completely preventable.
To avoid the flu you need to replenish your electrolytes. Your body flushes out water along with electrolytes more efficiently when you significantly reduce your carbs and start burning fat for fuel.
Normally you can get the electrolytes you need from choosing the right foods, but In the first few weeks, you’re going to need more electrolytes than normal as your body adapts. Keto electrolyte powder, pills, and drops can help you get the electrolytes you need to avoid the keto flu and keep you on track.
The Best Keto Electrolyte Powder, Drops, and Pills
Here I’m going to show you some of the best keto electrolyte powders, drops, and pills. Each has advantages and disadvantages for us to consider.
Best Keto Electrolyte Powder: Overall – Dr. Berg’s Electrolyte Powder
Dr Berg’s electrolyte powder is my overall pick for the best keto electrolyte powder because of all the keto electrolyte powders I tested, it’s best formulated.
It contains 5 to 20 times more potassium than the other products I tested. Dr. Berg’s electrolyte powder does have less sodium than the other electrolyte products, but extra salt can easily be added your keto drinks or at food at mealtime.
Best Keto Electrolyte Powder: Taste – Key Nutrients
The lemonade flavor I tried was delicious and it didn’t contain artificial sweeteners like sucralose or artificial flavors like some of the other keto electrolyte powders on the market.
Key Nutrition electrolyte powder has very clean ingredients with natural flavors and organic stevia as the sweetener.
Best for Travel: Perfect Keto Electrolyte Pills
The keto electrolyte powders are great for when you’re at home, but when I want to travel light they can be bulky to pack.
Perfect Keto’s electrolyte pills are a great travel-friendly alternative. The only downside is they contain less than half of the magnesium and potassium than the keto electrolyte powder so they are definitely more expensive.
Most Affordable: Keto Chow Liquid Keto Electrolyte Drops
Keto Chow has expanded beyond keto meal shakes and did a great job making these electrolyte drops.
These drops are the most affordable and a clean way to get your electrolytes on keto. Since they don’t use a binding agent to make a powder and they are unflavored they are as clean keto as you can get.
Also, the drops come in a container that’s a little less than an ounce for 10 servings so it’s travel friendly and easy to use at work.
They also sell a large refill size to make it even more affordable.
Below is a Pinterest friendly photo…so you can pin it to your keto board!
Honorable Mention: Ultima Replenisher
The Ultima Replenisher packets I tested tasted good. I also liked that they had clean ingredients with no artificial flavors or sweeteners.
However, the Ultima Replenishers had only an average amount of magnesium and low amounts of potassium and sodium compared to the other keto electrolyte powders I tested.
Keto Electrolytes to Avoid
Most Disappointing Keto Electrolyte Powder: Optimum Nutrition
I was excited to try Optimum Nutrtion’s Essential Amino Energy + electrolytes because it offered a promising combination of caffeine with electrolytes.
However, I didn’t read the ingredients as closely as I should have. It uses the artificial sweetener sucrose along with artificial flavors and tasted way too sweet. Also, it contained the least amount of electrolytes of all of the products I tested.
Finally, the caffeine from the green tea leaf and green bean coffee extract left me feeling jittery for a couple of hours and then a big crash. I normally drink 2 to 3 cups of keto coffee a day without this problem.
Coconut Water
One of the worst options is coconut water because most of the coconut waters you find on the shelf at the grocery store have a ton of sugar in it and not much of the electrolytes you need to stay balanced especially when you’re just starting keto.
Gatorade Zero Sugar
Avoid is Gatorade Zero for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn’t have much of the electrolytes we need to avoid the keto flu for when you first get started on keto. Second, it’s sweetened with Sucralose, better know as Splenda, which can kick you out of ketosis by spiking insulin, and has been linked in studies to weight gain.
Pedialyte
Lastly, if you or your kids have ever been sick with regular flu and gone to the doctor, they probably recommended Pedialyte to rehydrate. It works well in these situations, but it does have about 6 grams of sugar per serving so it’s not the best option if you’re trying to become fat-adapted and get into ketosis.
Why are electrolytes important for keto?
One of the biggest reasons people quit keto in the first few weeks is because they get the keto flu where they feel light-headed, tired, and even nauseated.
Electrolytes are so important for keto because people experience flu from a lack of electrolytes and this is completely preventable.
The SAD (Standard American Diet) is high in carbs and this causes you to retain water and it makes it more difficult for your body process fluids efficiently.
However, When you switch to eating a healthy keto diet your body are able to process fluids more effectively. This is good because it helps you get rid of all the “carbage” your body has accumulated, but it also means you need to replenishing with more electrolytes.
Electrolytes are essential minerals that your body needs to function properly. We’re going to focus on the big three- sodium (salt), potassium, and magnesium.
To avoid the keto flu and stay healthy, we need to be drinking more water and increasing our intake of electrolytes.
#1 Electrolyte for Keto: Sodium (salt)
When you significantly reduce your carb intake, your sodium levels can drop dramatically. Normally, people are advised to keep sodium intake down to around 1.5 milligrams a day, but this doesn’t apply to people on keto.
Signs that your sodium is low include:
- Fatigue
- Weakness
- Headaches
- Difficulty concentrating
When you go keto, you should increase your salt intake to between 7-17 grams per day.
Keto Friendly Food Sources of Sodium (salt)
Salt is the easiest of the electrolytes to increase in your keto lifestyle. Simply, add a teaspoon of salt to your food. You’ll enjoy the fact that salt naturally enhances almost any flavor. Try adding to chocolate, yum!
You can also add salt to water or your other keto friendly drinks over the course of the day. Finally, you can drink bone broth which has a bunch of other benefits or use bouillon cube to increase your salt intake.
As an extra bonus, Himalayan salt is high in trace amounts of potassium, magnesium, and calcium.
Note: Salt and sodium are not exactly the same thing. Salt is 40% sodium and the rest is a mineral called chloride. When you’re eating salt it’s important to know that one teaspoon (6 grams) of salt gives you 2.4 grams of actual sodium.
Caution: Not all salt is the same. Avoid the common brands of table salt because they use a highly processes sugar called maltodextrin as a flow agent. This highly processes sugar will impact your blood sugar levels and can possibly kick you out of ketosis.
#2 Electrolyte for Keto: Potassium
When you start to get into ketosis and burn fat for fuel your body changes how it processes potassium. In an attempt to maintain electrolyte balance, your body may respond by reabsorbing more sodium while flushing more potassium.
Signs that your Potassium is low include:
- Muscle cramps
- Muscle twitching
- Heart palpitations
- Increased awareness of your heartbeat
When you start the keto lifestyle you should make sure you’re getting between 3,000 and 4,700 mg of potassium.
Keto Friendly Food Sources of Potassium
Adding the right amount of potassium to your diet can be as easy as enjoying an avocado or a couple of servings of other keto friendly high potassium foods on a daily basis.
Here are some of the best sources of potassium:
- Avocado
- Swiss chard
- Spinach
- Mushrooms
- Brussels sprouts
- Broccoli
- Salmon
- Meat
- Flounder
- Artichoke
Note: many potassium supplements list 595mg as the dosage, but each tablet only contains 99mg of pure potassium. This can be verified by reading the supplemental facts on the bottle.
Caution: Your blood potassium levels need to stay within a narrow range. Taking too much concentrated potassium can be dangerous, especially if you take certain medications or have kidney disease.
#3 Electrolyte for Keto: Magnesium
The high-carb Standard American Diet causes massive depletion of magnesium in your body. For example, you need 54 milligrams of magnesium to process just 1 gram of sugar or starch. About 70% of the US population doesn’t get the minimum recommended daily amount of magnesium.
Signs that your Magnesium is low are similar to those from potassium:
- Muscle cramps after exercise or at night
- Muscle twitching after exercise or at night
Keto Friendly Food Sources of Magnesium
- Hemp seeds
- Swiss chard, cooked
- Pumpkin seeds
- Mackerel
- Chia seeds)
- Dark chocolate (80% or more cacao)
- Almonds
- Spinach
- Pine nuts
- Avocado
- Artichoke
Most foods don’t provide much magnesium so if you’re not adding the keto friendly foods to your meal plan on a daily basis it can be tough to get enough magnesium through food alone and it might be a good idea to add a magnesium supplement.
Magnesium supplements can be very confusing because there are a number of different types of magnesium. I recommend Magnesium Glycinate because it’s calming and is absorbed better by your body than other forms of Magnesium.
Everyone has a different tolerance to magnesium, but most people do well with 400 to 800 milligrams of magnesium glycinate per day.
My Favorite Magnesium Supplement: Solaray Magnesium Glycinate
Caution: Certain medications may interact negatively with magnesium supplements. Also, if you have kidney disease, you may not be able to handle a large amount of magnesium. Consult with your doctor before taking a magnesium supplement if either of these situations apply to you.
Final Thoughts on the Best Keto Electrolyte Powders
Keto flu is one of the biggest reasons people quit keto in the first few weeks. I don’t want that to be you so if you’re new to keto I recommend you use a keto electrolyte powder or other supplements for the first few weeks until your body is adapted to burning fat for fuel.
Also, if you have a cheat day or just fall off the bandwagon (it’s ok, it happens!) I recommend you use keto electrolyte powder or other supplements until your body is back to fat-burning mode.
Finally, in an ideal world we should get our electrolytes from food, but when life gets busy or you’re having a hard time getting enough electrolytes from food a keto electrolyte powder or other supplements comes is a great tool.
Additional Keto Resources
Looking for more keto resources? Check out my 5 part series on the best places to shop keto.
- #1: 3 Best Keto Snacks at Target (plus one to avoid to lose weight on keto)
- #2: Top 7 Keto Items at Whole Foods Market
- #3: 5 Best Keto Items at Trader Joe’s
- #4: 10 Best Keto Products at Walmart
- #5: 12 Best Keto Items at Costco plus 4 You Should Avoid
Also, If you want even more keto resources take a look at 4 best exercise programs for keto you can do for free online and 9 ways to deal with anxiety, stress, and fear.
Until next time, remember it’s about progress, not perfection and keto on!
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