Stomach pain may perhaps be the first unpleasant experience you have had to bear with when you started your keto diet.
It’s quite common for most dieters to get stomach pain on keto diet. In fact, it is also one of the most common reasons for why most people stop following the diet altogether.
If you’re experiencing stomach pain with excess gas and cramping, instead of taking a step back to your regular diet, it would be wiser to make an attempt to understand why it’s happening.
Once you realize the real reasons for stomach pain on keto diet, you can make appropriate corrections to your diet to avoid the side effect and enjoy the benefits.
The sole purpose of this article is to educate you about why you may get stomach pain while on the keto diet and how you can avoid it by making some minor changes to your food intake.
Here Comes The Revelation….
What’re The Reasons For The Stomach Pain on Keto Diet?
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1. Dehydration
The likely culprit for stomach pain on keto diet is dehydration. The process of getting into ketosis requires your body to utilize more water than usual to convert fats into a usable source of energy.
However, this aspect of the keto diet is often ignored as more emphasis is put on eating plenty of fats and fewer carbs.
As a result, you are likely to ignore your water intake and drink as many fluids as you usually do.
This can deprive your body of the higher amount of water it needs resulting in dehydration.
When your digestive system doesn’t receive enough water to digest the foods, it panics and sends signals about the impending requirement.
This signal is in the form of cramps and pain that you feel when you begin your keto diet. It is just the way of your body to attract your attention and let you know that something is wrong.
2. Strain On Stomach
The cramps and pain may also occur when your stomach has to work harder to digest the foods with less amount of water available.
The muscles in your stomach have to contract harder to churn the food and this is when you start getting stomach pain on keto diet!
3. High-fat foods
Yes, the foods containing healthy fats could be the reason for why you may experience stomach pain on keto diet.
Most high-fat foods are known to cause stomach upsets. However, you must allow your body enough time to adjust to eating fats.
Over a few days or weeks, you will be able to adapt to the higher consumption of fats and as this happens, the stomach pain would become less.
Now, let’s have a look at some effective strategies you can follow to avoid stomach pain on keto diet.
4 Tips to Avoid Stomach Pain On Keto Diet
1. Drink More Water
We need not explain to you why this is important. It’s obvious!
If your body is suffering due to the lack of water, you must provide it with the same.
It’s just like you take iron supplements when you have anemia and calcium tablets when you have weak bones!
Drinking an incredible amount of water is the safest and the most effective way to improve digestion and avoid stomach pain on keto diet. It will ease the process of digestion in your stomach and prevent pain and cramps. (*)
Learn more:
Sprinkle Salt On Your Food
Adding salt is a must for almost all the dishes you prepare even when you are not on the Keto diet.
But, if you are following this diet, make sure you sprinkle excess salt on your food when you bring your dishes to the table.
Salt has the ability to reduce water loss through urine. So, increasing your salt intake can lead to higher water retention in your body.
This would indirectly help to avoid dehydration that caused stomach pain in the first place.
2. Prepare Yourself Mentally
This is an important aspect of avoiding stomach pain on keto diet. Though your salt and water consumption will help you avoid this side effect, it may not reduce it completely.
Hence, you will need lots of mental preparation to bear the pain till your body gets used to digesting and burning fats.
Here are some ways to prepare yourself mentally and stay motivated to continue your keto diet:
3. Remind Yourself of The Benefits
Write down the benefits or the weight loss target you will achieve by sticking to your diet. It will motivate you to bear the pain and focus on your goals.
This is common…
Stomach pain on keto diet may scare you into thinking something is drastically wrong with your health.
But, it’s not!
Remember that stomach pain is a very common symptom that most people experience while on the keto diet. Hence, you need not worry, or give up.
Keeping in mind that this is common will prevent you from getting back to your routine diet.
What’s The Bottom-line…
Yes, ketone bodies and ketosis can cause stomach problems. But, there are ways to avoid it!
The real cause of stomach pain on keto diet is the lack of proper hydration. It is clear that your body needs an increased amount of water to digest fats than it needs to digest carbs.
So, when you switch your dietary habits and eat high-fat, keto-friendly foods, it is imperative that you increase your water intake.
This, coupled with the other strategies we discussed above, will help you avoid stomach pain and stay into ketosis for longer without much discomfort.
And If you want to know more about some reasons for your tireness during keto diet, here are the common reasons why you experience that.
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