Heart palpitations on low carb

[Celestia26]

I've been on low carb about 2 weeks, and have been getting heart palpitations the last week. Has anyone else experienced this, and when did it go? It feels like my heart 'flips' occasionally and it also feels like a pulled muscle in my chest sometimes. My diet is very healthy, lots of salad and vegetables, fish meat and good fats. In fact I eat far better now than I did before. Wondering if this is normal and temporary......? Thanks

I would hope that it's a temporary effect of the drastic drop in carbs - but one thing to make sure is that you are getting sufficient sodium, magnesium and potassium. These electrolytes are really important.

Sodium is especially necessary, so make sure you're using salt in your cooking and on your food - try a hot drink made from Oxo/Bovril or Marmite. Other good foods are salmon, avocado, spinach and natural full fat yoghurt.

List out for me what you've been eating and drinking over the last few days - I'll see if there's anything obvious.

This piece might also help you.

Thank you for your reply BIWI. The last few days look like this.....

Breakfast - scrambled eggs and bacon or scrambled eggs and mushrooms or Greek yoghurt with a few berries. Black coffee, green tea or water.

Lunch - Usually a huge salad of lettuce, cucumber, avocado, olives, a small tomato, with avocado oil and full fat mayo. Either with a chicken breast or piece of salmon or tuna. Drinks are water or green tea.

Dinner - vegetables such as courgette, peppers, onion, broccoli, cauliflower and meat, usually cooked mince, a steak or chicken. Only drink water.

I sometimes snack on a small piece of cheese or a small square of dark chocolate.

Let me know if you need to know anything else. I thought my diet looked OK, but would welcome any suggestions for improvement! Thank you!

My carbs have definitely dropped hugely BTW. I used to eat tons of bread, pasta and processed sugar every day.

The diet looks fine, although I'd say you could probably do with eating more fat - low carb is supposed to be a high fat way of eating.

I suspect it's just part of your body getting used to the newer way of eating, but definitely look at the salt thing.

And if they haven't gone then, try upping your carbs to see what happens - try adding a slice of wholemeal toast for a couple of mornings.

And if that doesn't work - time to see the GP!

Go to the doctor and get competent medical advice.

Thanks, appreciate your help. Will try these things. Will be seeing the GP if it doesn't improve in a few days, it just seemed a coincidence that as soon as I changed my diet this started happening. Thanks for your help!

Thanks for that, @dangerrabbit. Have you read the posts about this being a side effect of low carbing? Or my advice to see a GP?