Soooooooo thirsty!

[reluctant_whale]

Day 4 **hurrah** ive been in dark purple for 2 days now (was easier I guess as I had been low carbing anyway on WW) however, I am SOOOOOOO thirsty, but no fancying food .. just forced my omlette down me, I can drink and drink water with no satisfaction. I have looked on other forums and am concerned I am drinking so much as they suggest it can unbalance the electrolytes and create other side effects.

Anyone else had an thirst they cannot quench?

 

[boggins]

It may well be the other way around- if your electrolytes are out of whack, this can cause unquenchable thirst. Use extra salt, particularly sea salt which has potassium and magnesium in it. If you can get hold of some magnesium and potassium supplements, do so, but definitely eat more salt.

If your legs start to cramp up and you get headaches, fatigue and unquenchable thirst, this can be severe dehydration and will not be cured by drinking water alone, you must replace electrolytes. I had these symptoms once on a long flight back from India, but couldn't remember the quantities of sugar and salt needed to replace electrolytes. I drank and drank water with no effect on my thirst. Had to wait to get to Heathrow and buy some Diarolyte! Spent most of the flight passed out. Not the best time of my life.

A lot of the above symptoms are similar (and related) to "carb flu", but having experienced both, the signs of electrolyte depletion/dehydration are more severe than carb flu. The leg cramping with dehydration was MUCH worse, as was the thirst. If you get severe symptoms I wouldn't mess around- replace the electrolytes even if it means putting sugar in your system.

Sorry, that all sounds a bit scary. It's just that the words "unquenchable thirst" ring electrolyte alarm bells.

 

[reluctant_whale]

Thanks for your answer - I agree with you and have just had a drink of water with a pinch of sugar (sorry!!) and a pinch of salt in .. to be honest I feel a lot better half an hour later. Just went around the supermarket for the first time a) was literally sweating at all the foods I "can't" have right now and b) feeling as I wanted to run down the pop aisle and down every sticky sugary drink. Luckily I ended up home with a trolley of meat and veggies but nevertheless it was a scary experience !!!

 

[Alpaca]

Glad you're feeling better! And well done for resisting the pop aisle ! X

 

[losingit]

Broth is good for replacing eloctrolytes the low carb way, salty broth drink twice a day til you feel 100%. I also had a bit of a problem with this earlier on. I add salt to my food now and it hasn't recurred - i measure out 5 g of salt at the start of the day and use that to season my food throughout the day, i rarely get through it all actually as it is quite a lot! For me i think the problem was made worse because of the switch from processed food to natural foods, so went from having probably 10g of salt a day to nearly nothing AND the effects of Atkins. Oh, and pork scratchings are good for electrolytes too . Don't overdo it though, count your salt!

 

[RaeSlim]

I had this problem too but was advised to take salt which helped significantly.