Why You're Tired on the Keto Diet and What to Do About It

Are you doing keto, but you're tired all the time? There are a few common reasons why this can happen. So let's talk about it.

Why You're Tired on Keto

It's not uncommon to feel your energy dip, or feel a little bit of exhaustion the first few days of transitioning into a ketogenic diet. There are a few reasons why this happens.

The first one would be not replenishing your electrolytes and your hydration. The reason this happens is because when you reduce your carbohydrate intake, your body starts to flush water out, and with that water, it takes sodium with it. If you're not replenishing, that, you're gonna have a hard time throughout the day. You're gonna feel like your energy levels are a little bit lower than they could be. So simply just making sure you're staying on top of water and electrolytes is going to make a massive difference for you.

Are You Eating Enough?

Another common reason people feel extra tired when they first start keto is that they actually may not be eating enough. If you're following a keto diet for the goal of fat loss or weight loss, and you're reducing your calories at the same time, if you reduce your calories too much, you're going feel tired and not have enough energy and kind of feel a little bit crappy.

Make sure that if you're going through that transition period, you eat enough food to avoid a deep caloric deficit. Eat around your maintenance intake, but just change up the macronutrient distribution of your food. If you lower your carbs, keep your protein moderate, and keep your fat where it's at. And don't think about necessarily reducing your calorie intake too much, especially at the beginning.

That's going to be one of the most common mistakes I see—reducing your calories too much. And that is going to cause excess lethargy or excess tiredness. So definitely pay attention to that.

Reduce Exercise Temporarily

If you're feeling tired all the time, another thing to think about is potentially taking it down a notch with your exercise. Maybe reducing the intensity of your exercise or the overall volume of your exercise is probably going to be a good idea, especially in the first few weeks, especially with the intensity side of things. If you're doing a lot of high-intensity training or sprinting, you probably want to take that down a notch because that is going to be an activity that's very dependent on carbohydrates.

That's probably going to be my best advice in terms of the exercise side of things and to help with you know, feeling more energy throughout the day. And combating some of that tiredness is just paying attention to your exercise intensity and your volume and thinking about maybe switching that up a little bit as you transition.

Want more tips for optimizing your diet and exercise on keto? Poke around the blog and the podcast to find tons of more information.