The Best Homemade Electrolyte Drink to Beat Keto Flu Fast
Using a Keto Electrolyte Drink for Keto Flu Symptoms
As amazing as the ketogenic diet is for losing weight fast, those first few days or weeks on a low-carb diet can be pretty rough! As your glycogen stores are being depleted and your body switches to burning fat for fuel, it’s a big change!
Even if you have been low-carb for awhile, what happens if you go on vacation and in spite of your good intentions your Keto diet crashes and burns and you feel like you have flu-like symptoms.
It’s called the keto flu. This side effect can make you feel like you have the actual flu. It’s brought on by your body’s adjustment period when you switch from eating a lot of carbs to a low carb diet of not consuming as many carbs and even vice versa.
It can even happen when you change up your macros or go from lazy keto to clean keto. No matter where you are in your keto lifestyle, it’s important to get enough electrolytes.
ANY change to your way of eating, even good ones, can cause electrolyte imbalances.
The symptoms of the keto flu can vary, but there are several common ones. These side effects can include:
- muscle cramps
- blood pressure issues
- water weight gain
- decreased muscle function and muscle weakness
- brain fog
- Other negative side effects. You can read more details about Keto flu symptoms here.
Once you know that Keto Flu is basically an electrolyte imbalance, the problem becomes easy to solve and thankfully, even easy to prevent! We just need to add in some electrolyte supplements.
How a Keto Electrolyte Drink can help!
When you have keto flu all you want is to feel better fast.
What you need to feel better fast and relieve those keto flu side effects are electrolytes. While there are dietary sources of electrolytes (think pickles), the fastest and most efficient way to get them in is by drinking them.
There are many electrolyte powders on the market and sports drinks to increase your electrolyte levels. You can buy good electrolyte drinks on the market now. This is the best one to have on hand for emergencies or if you just don’t have the time to make your own. It is zero carbs and sugars and replaces 6 important electrolytes.
But for me, the best way and an even more simple way is to make a keto electrolyte drink yourself! If you could make a sugar free, homemade drink that was natural and hydrating, contained the important electrolytes that you need and it makes you feel better fast, then why wouldn’t you do it!?
You probably have all or most of the ingredients you need on hand!
What Can I Drink for Keto Flu Symptoms?
You can concoct your own drink or customize the keto electrolyte drink that I have made for you below.
There are certain elements you want to include in your drink to cover all your electrolyte supplement needs. Think Gatorade or other sports drinks but without all the extra sugar and junky chemicals.
Your homemade keto electrolyte drink should have the following:
- sodium
- potassium chloride
- magnesium
- some flavoring to make it taste good enough so you’ll drink it!
- For keto and low carb diets it should be sugar free.
PS: If you want to learn more about the different types of salt and why we need it, I found this article to be super interesting!
Tips and Variations for Sugar Free Homemade Keto Electrolyte Drinks
Here are some things that I like to do:
- I add apple cider vinegar to my drink for extra health benefits
- lemon juice or lime juice adds great flavor
- You can use herbal tea instead of water
- Sweeten with some stevia if desired
- Lite salt or No Salt contains potassium
- If you use magnesium supplement like Calm, add a teaspoon for the extra magnesium or use some powdered magnesium in the drink.
- Drink 1-2 of the recipe drink per day (2 if you exercise because you will be depleting even more sodium)
- Some grated ginger adds a nice zing and soothes tummy issues
- Remember, your drink doesn’t have to be the same each day! Mix it up with herbs from your garden or herbal teas or maybe some Mio drops.
- I use these cool Mason jars with lids and handle to mix my drinks up. I call it my adult sippy cup!
The most important supplements for your keto electrolyte drink:
- Sea salt (for sodium, chloride, and magnesium)
- Lo-Salt also called No Salt or Lite Salt in some places (for potassium)
- Calm or other magnesium powder
- Fresh lemon (for potassium)
Recipe for Sugarfree Homemade Keto Electrolyte Drink
The Best Homemade Electrolyte Drink to Beat Keto Flu Fast
A sugar free homemade drink for keto that hydrates and replenishes your electrolytes fast! This is my favorite DIY go to electrolyte drink to prevent keto flu, but feel free to customize it!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon squeezed)
- 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/4 tsp No-Salt or Lo Salt
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- Calm or magnesium powder(check label for dosage)
- 1 tsp sweetener of choice
- 2 cups water
- ice cubes
Instructions
- In a mason jar with lid or a shaker cup, combine all ingredients.
- Fill to the top with water
- Drink 1 or 2 per day.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 10Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1190mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 0g
Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts as it has been shown not to impact blood sugar.
More Information to Help with Keto Diet
I have recently started following you on YouTube. You have inspired me! I am 65 years old and have been keto for 6 years. I once tried carnivore and I gained weight and my blood glucose shot up. I am a type 2 diabetic in remission, but I still deal with insulin resistance. I recently updated my macros to include more fat, and my energy level is back up, as well as some lowering of my blood sugar. Anyhow…long story short, you have inspired me to stick with the program, meaning, change my plan where needed, but do not expect results in just a week or so…give it 2, 3, or maybe 4 months! Thank you for your wonderful sharing!
You are so welcome!
Hi
I just found this recipe and decided to give it a try. I followed it exactly but it tasted more like salt water. Is it supposed to taste so salty?
I just found you yesterday, and have been binge watching you on YouTube. thanks for all of your hard work. love the new kitchen!
oh gee, thank you so much!
can this recipe be made without the lo salt? I only have sea salt on hand. Also, will this hydrate the same as a simple salt and regular sugar hydration recipe?
I forgot to ask, is this recipe safe during breastfeeding?
All the ingredients are simple household items but that said I’m not a doctor and I don’t know anything about your medical history or background so I can’t answer this type of question.
The lo salt provides potassium but you can substitute a pinch of cream of tartar along with your sea salt for that. I’m not sure what is in a ‘simple salt and sugar hydration’ so not sure how they would compare side by side.
the NuSalt is for potassium, the sea salt if for the sodium. so you should try both or get some potassium supplements.
You’d be missing the potassium of no-salt
Nice variation.
When I am not too lazy I have one from sanoviv I use
I like the ACV – nice touch.
I just made and drank this. Great recipe! It’s very refreshing, and you can just feel it nourishing you.
I used homemade magnesium water, made from combining (clean) milk of magnesia and unflavored carbonated spring water, and adding it to heavily-filtered water. You can find the directions online. When used as the water in your recipe, what a powerhouse!
Thanks for that tip, great idea!
Hi you~ it’s Samantha here (RV thereyet? from youtube) & my question is whether or not I should lessen the amount of the salt I put in this drink if already eating lots of pink salt &/or Redman’s on my food? I’m concerned w/overdoing my salt intake, although I do understand it’s hard to do on keto/carnivore lifestyle. I typically eat just once a day, w/an occasional protein shake here & there. I’ve been trying to find an answer to this online, but haven’t been able to so far~ so I’m asking everyone I come across, in the hope someone else has come across this already. Any info appreciated
Hi Samantha! You are right, the keto/carnivore way of eating it’s hard to get too much salt. You can certainly cut back on the pink salt part of the drink if you feel you are already getting enough but leave in the No Salt part as that has potassium (you probably are not adding that to your food?). Dr. Ken Berry has a few different YT videos that talk about salt: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ken+berry+salt in case you are concerned or have any medical issues to consider. It can be a bit of balancing and tweaking here and there for sure but how you feel should also be taken into account.
Hi! I really want to try this but it just says a mason jar or shaker and fill it up with water — but there are MANY sizes of both! So would these ingredients be for a 16 oz, 24 oz or even 32 oz container? Thanks ;-D
BTW, I apologize if I missed it somewhere! ;-D
Sorry it wasn’t more clear! There’s 2 cups liquid so I was thinking your standard canning jar size would be plenty (or any jar or container that holds 2 cups plus room for ice and shaking). But you are right, it’s a little like asking how long is a piece of string. I’ll add some clarity to the recipe card, thanks for pointing it out!
I am diabetic and on drugs for high blood pressure. I need salt tablets, because one of my drugs depletes the sodium in my system.
Is it safe for me to go on the Keto diet?
I cannot answer that, I am sorry. Please get that approval from your doctor. Thanks and best of health to you.
Magnesium IS one of the most important ingredients. You mention that, but don’t include any in your recipe!
It’s in the sea salt, I should probably make that more clear. I do also suggest adding Calm magnesium supplement to the drink which is what I personally do and if people are not actually supplementing with magnesium already, they would find it helpful. Thanks for your feedback!
May I know how many grams of calm magnesium powder you add to one mason jar ??
I would add 1-2 tsp to your jar. 1 teaspoon I believe is about 5 grams weight. If you have powdered magnesium on hand you can use that but check the label for dosage instructions.
Check the ingredient list another time. It lists “Calm or magnesium powder (check label for dosage)”.
What do you mean by No- Salt? Can you put links to the products that you use?
The No Salt and the Lo Salt are the same thing, just called different names depending on where you shop. The packages even look the same. Here is a link to show you what you are looking for. https://amzn.to/2VH5NO0
Hi, I have been on the keto diet since August and lost 15 pounds. However, after Christmas I plateaued and so I’m trying the egg diet for 3 days. Thanks for helping me with a path to encourage my body to release all this extra weight.
Thank so much for stopping by to leave a comment!
How many carbohydrates is this with the lemon juice?
Thank you,
Thanks for your question! I’ve updated the nutrition info on the recipe card. This drink is 2 carbs with the lemon juice. 1/2 lemon yields about 2 tbsp juice. Well worth it if you are suffering!
GOOGLE IT!
What kind of tea do you use? The kind I used today made the recipe taste like feet.
oh no! That’s nasty! I normally use an herbal tea that is fruity to kind of blend in with the lemon. What did you use out of curiousity? (I’d like to avoid it, lol!)
Can you make a big batch and leave it in the fridge? My husband and I are both starting out and we have young kids, the more convenient I make this switch the more successful I’ll be!
Absolutely! It’s what I do myself! Use a big pitcher or jug and every time you want to have some either stir or shake it to get any of the salts that might have settled at the bottom.
I tried the egg diet. Today is day 5. On day 3 i weighed myself. I lost 8 pounds. I will weigh in the morning. I will do the two days of two meals of egg diet, as u recommended. i’m so excited. I don’t want to be skinny. Just more comfortable in my 70 year old body. Thank u, Carole
wow, that is so incredible! Congratulations on that!
I am new to the keto diet and 67 years old. I need serious help as I am 280 lbs. and need to get the weight off. Thank you for your willingness to help fodd addicts like me.
I consider myself a food addict as well! Keto is the best thing that has ever happened to me, so I hope it helps you too!