When you first start transitioning into a state of ketosis, you might start to notice that your body is undergoing a few changes.
Going from a high carb, low fat lifestyle (which most modern Americans currently follow) to a low carb, high fat lifestyle is bound to change a few ways in which your body processes, at least until it has been given enough time to fully adjust.
Among those changes, is an increased amount of sweat. While it can be annoying, it’s nothing to worry about, and as long as you’re staying hydrated and getting enough electrolytes, this extra sweaty phase should be able to pass fairly quickly.
In this article, I’ll explain why ketosis causes excessive sweat, and how exactly you can work to avoid it.
Why Does Ketosis Cause Excessive Sweat?
Entering into a state of ketosis can cause sweat in a few different ways.
One of the most commonly experienced ways is through something referred to as the ‘keto flu’, which can result in not only sweats and chills, but a variety of other flu-like symptoms as well.
Another way that the keto diet can cause excessive sweat is through increased ketone production in the blood. Certain sweat-inducing ketones are typically excreted through the urine, breath, and sweat glands. When these exit your body through your sweat glands, your body will tend to sweat more profusely as an efficient way to get rid of them, which is why so many early keto dieters experience a lot of sweat at first, but then start to level out as their body gets more used to having ketones to burn instead of glucose.
Low carb diets can also cause night sweats, which can be a product of the keto flu, but can also stem from a few other keto-related issues. Night sweats have been linked to issues such as insomnia, low blood sugar, dehydration, weakened immune system, and even sugar withdrawals – which are all likely reactions your body might undergo when making the transition to a state of ketosis.
What Is the Keto Flu?
The keto flu is characterized as a collection of different symptoms that are usually experienced when people first start entering a state of ketosis.
It’s called a ‘flu’ because these symptoms can be similar to that of a traditional influenza virus, including fatigue, nausea, chills, and excessive sweating both while awake and at night.
The flu takes place because the body first experiences some struggle adapting to a new fat-centric, low carbohydrate diet. By reducing the intake of carbs in your diet, it forces your body to produce ketones to be burned for energy instead of glucose (sugar). As a byproduct of this, it becomes a lot easier for the body to burn fat and lose weight, but the transition phase can be a little difficult due to the nature of increased ketones in the bloodstream.
When entering a state of ketosis, most people aim to be under 20 net carbs, and 50 total carbs per day, which can be a shock to many peoples’ symptoms, especially if they were following a very high carb diet before. This shock can be met with symptoms similar to that of a drug withdrawal, and can last from a couple of days to even over a week.
While the symptoms can be pretty challenging to deal with, it’s important to know that they’re completely temporary and will subside soon enough.
One of the biggest questions a lot of people have with the keto flu is whether they are actually in ketosis, or they are just coincidentally experiencing symptoms of a cold. That’s why you’ll want to look for other signs of ketosis to confirm your state, which I’ll detail below.
Other Signs That Your Body Is In Ketosis
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Weight Loss
Both ketogenic diets and generally low carb diets are both often characterized by weight loss. It’s one of the main reasons a lot of people get into keto in the first place, and once your body successfully enters a state of ketosis, the first sign of weight loss is pretty evident.
While it can take some time for your body to get actually fat adapted and start burning ketones and fat as fuel, there’s still one big way that you can experience a big dip in body weight when first starting out – and it’s mostly water weight.
While this isn’t ideal and it’s generally short term, it’s a good way to know that you’re in ketosis. Water weight is more common on the keto diet because carbohydrates bind to water, and the less carbohydrates in your diet, ultimately means less water that your body is holding onto – which also means more water is going to eventually be sweat out.
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Bad breath and dry mouth
Experiencing bad breath and dry mouth is one of the most commonly reported symptoms after achieving a state of ketosis.
This bad and dry breath is caused by a couple of primary factors. The biggest one is the increased levels of ketones in your blood stream. One specific ketone known as acetone is the main cause of this, which can usually be excreted either through your urine, or through your breath.
While it might be annoying at first, experiencing keto breath and dry mouth is a pretty telling sign that your keto diet is finally working and you’re in an effective state of ketosis. Like sweat, it can be solved in a lot of the same ways too, which I’ll explain later in this article.
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Increased focus and energy
This is another one of the really cool positive signs about the keto diet, and it’s one of the main reasons that people stick to keto long after they’ve already succeeded by meeting their weight loss goals.
While the keto flu can cause a lot of lethargy and sick feelings at first, once you make it over that hump and are in an efficient state of ketosis, the observed mental clarity and boosts of energy can be pretty astounding.
This energy and focus comes from ketones and how they interact with your brain. Ketones have been proven to help boost memory, cognitive thinking, and prevent the onset of degenerative diseases like Alzheimers and dementia.
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Short-term fatigue
Along with the keto flu, it is possible to experienced some prolonged periods of general fatigue. This can come from a few different contributing factors.
The dehydration and reduced electrolytes from the keto flu can easily make you feel fatigued and out of energy for the first few days, but stress can also play a big role. Increased amounts of stress, which your body can absolutely experience when transitioning into ketosis, has been linked to a condition known as adrenal fatigue, in which the adrenal glands aren’t able to perform properly, resulting in symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, light headedness, and a few others.
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Potential digestive issues
Akin to those ‘flu’ like symptoms is digestive issues. Bloating, indigestion, nausea, and diarrhea can all be experienced when making the transition to a keto diet, especially if you’re piling up on high fat foods that you may have had no exposure to before such as coconut oil and other types of fat bombs.
A good way to combat this is by being sure to eat plenty of low carb, high fiber veggies such as squash, asparagus, celery, spinach, and cauliflower as a way to promote fiber and balance out your diet.
When i was first transitioning into the keto diet, I had some pretty intense stomach pain and digestion problems that unfortunately lasted for two whole weeks. I found that using psyllium husk was a good way around that. You can usually find it on sale under the brand name Metamucil over at Amazon.com.
How to Cure Excessive Sweating?
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Replenish your electrolytes
This is one of the best ways that you can both reduce the amount you sweat, and help replenish all the liquid that you lose through your sweat when transitioning into a state of ketosis.
When you sweat out those additional ketones, you’re losing not only vital moisture for your hydration but also vital electrolytes for your energy, digestion, and overall body chemistry. Electrolytes like potassium, sodium magnesium, phosphorus and manganese are incredibly important to help combat the effects of the keto flu and keep your immune system in optimal shape.
While a lot of people try to get their electrolytes from sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade, these aren’t actually the best ways to get them efficiently. I personally like to supplement with a few different option that are all relatively cheap from Amazon. Some of my favorite keto-friendly electrolyte supplements include:
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Avoid spicy foods
Spicy foods, especially spicy processed meats have been heavily linked to causing excess sweat, and cutting them out of your diet might be able to help reduce sweat in the short term while you’re adjusting to a new ketogenic lifestyle.
Our bodies react to spicy foods with sweat as a way to naturally cool the body down. Even though the spicy foods aren’t actually hot in temperature, the active ingredient in them, capsaicin, triggers a response in our immune system to try and flush it out of us.
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Medical treatments
If natural options just aren’t working and you still can’t seem to avoid the excessive sweat that comes with a low carb lifestyle, there may be other factors at play, and you might want to consider talking to your doctor about potential medical treatments.
Some of the most effective medical treatments for working with excessive sweating include prescription antiperspirant, oral medications, botox injections, and anti-depressants, which all have properties that can help reduce the amount of sweat your body generates.
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Wear more breathable fabrics
One of the best ways to try and reduce the amount of sweating that your body does is simply by trying to stay out of hot climates, and by wearing clothing that is much more breathable. Lightweight fabrics with good ventilation, typically characterized by lighter colors are a great way to reflect sunlight and keep your body cool so that you don’t sweat as much, which can prevent dehydration and other potential keto complications.
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Cut back on caffeine
Caffeine is another big proponent of unnecessary amounts of sweat in our daily lives. While it can be a great, zero carb drink to help energize us and fight off cravings, as well as be a good vehicle for healthy fats via bulletproof coffee, it is technically a diarrhetic, meaning it has the potential to dehydrate us quickly and cause excessive amounts of sweat.
One easy way to cut back on caffeine is by slowly weening yourself off with teas and lower doses of caffeine, because caffeine is highly addictive and going cold turkey might actually lead to more sweat, and potentially even complications for maintaining your state of ketosis.
Final Thoughts
If you follow the above options, you should be able to successfully diminish the excessive sweat you’re experiencing on the keto diet.
If you’ve been in ketosis for more than a couple of weeks and are still over-sweating, but not showing any other signs of the keto flu, you may want to talk to a doctor because the sweat could be the symptom of something larger.