Leg Cramps

[tuliptiptoe]

Hello,

I just finished day 4 of my first Whole30, and tonight I started getting terrible leg cramps. Is this just a normal process or am I missing something in my diet? I have been eating a wide variety of approved foods, plus take a multi, D3, magnesium, and fish oil.

Thank You!

[kayell]

You may need more salt. Yes, SALT. If you ate a relatively standard diet before doing a Whole30, you have almost certainly dropped your carb intake a lot. Low carb intake = need for more sodium. Adding @ 2 grams per day helps with cramps and other symptoms of "low carb flu" which many people go through when adjusting to going from getting their fuel from mainly glucose to mainly fat. There are other reasons for leg cramps too, but I suspect this because of the timing. If adding salt doesn't work within a day or 2 it may be another issue.

I rarely salted things in the past before I began to eat paleo, and found that if I didn't remember to salt I'd get leg cramps that night.

Being that low carb can be really great for diabetics, prediabetics, the obese and others. If you don't want to eat low carb and add sodium, the solution is to eat more Whole30 friendly carbs like sweet potatoes, beets, bananas, plantain etc.

[Tom Denham]

Giving up processed foods eliminates a lot of salt from most diets, so you may need to salt your food more than you think. However, I salt my food generously and still get leg cramps occasionally. My cramps only occur at night. Do yours come at night or during the day?

Have you changed your activity level? Begun to exercise more? Lots of people workout more when they start a Whole30. That could be part of the problem.

I've worried about one thing or another for a while without finding anything that makes leg cramps go away permanently. I go for weeks without problems and then may have leg cramps for a few days. I have leg cramps more frequently now than I did before I started eating whole, fresh foods exclusively, but I had leg cramps in the old days too.

[jrustdc]

Low potassium is usually a contributor to leg cramps, too. If you ate bananas before and dropped them to go W30 you may need more potassium. Good W30 sources are leafy greens, sweet potatoes, broccoli, plantains and many others.

Edited because I am too tired to read my reference sources clearly.

[sweetpotato]

hey me too! ive gotten foot cramps in the past but the past few days they have come back. salt is an interesting idea... although i have been using salt and pepper on most foods that ive been cooking.

[tuliptiptoe]

Thank you for all the replies. I have been salting my meats and veggies and also have been eating a lot of raw sauerkraut and olives, so I think I'm getting enough, but can certainly try increasing and see if that helps.

I also thought potassium, but I never ate bananas before because I don't like them, so I can't think of anything high in potassium I would have been eating before starting, that I am not eating now.

I have not increased exercise, I was trying to take it easy the first week - I was pretty tired and grumpy

I will try to kick up my salt intake a bit more, and do some leg stretches and see if that helps. They have already gotten better since I posted this, so maybe just part of the detox process?

Thanks again for all the help. I am currently on day 8, even made it through a very non-whole30 family BBQ yesterday! Woohoo