For the past several years, the "keto diet" jumped in popularity because of its reputation as a diet that promotes weight reduction and better health.

Ever since the 1990s, the keto diet slowly rose in popularity. It gained traction as an incredibly reliable diet for anyone looking to get slimmer yet stay healthy and energized all the same. But how does the keto diet work?

The keto diet works. It allows your body to use fat for fuel instead of the usual blood glucose and glycogen from eating carbohydrates. The keto diet is mainly a high fat and low carb diet comprised of red meat, fatty fish, eggs, and dairy products.

By replacing carbohydrates with fats, your body goes into a metabolic state called "ketosis." Ketosis is when your body becomes much more efficient in burning the fats you consume for energy. Ketosis also helps turn fats into "ketones" inside the liver, which assist in supplying power to your brain, resulting in better function and efficiency.

Along with the benefits the keto diet brings to one's weight and energy, the diet has also been advantageous in fighting epilepsy, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes!

Among all these benefits, the keto diet has one significant side effect. Though the keto diet generally benefits your health and keeps you energized, the diet has also been found to affect your body's balance of electrolytes.

Replenishing electrolytes can be done through taking flavorful electrolyte supplements that provide not just the lack of electrolyte but the boost needed to make sure that you stay on your diet even in times when you feel like you want to quit because of losing interest in the process.

The Keto Diet and Electrolytes

Once you start to drastically reduce your carbohydrate intake and, at the same time, increase your fat intake significantly, your body will begin to process electrolytes differently.

Once you start on a keto diet, your lower carb intake leads to more water excretion and decreases retention. The loss of sodium significantly affects the balance of electrolytes in your body.

This imbalance of electrolytes during a keto diet is called "keto flu." Keto flu isn't the same as regular flu, for the imbalance of electrolytes isn't the only symptom. But you don't have to worry; there is a remedy for keto flu.

How to Balance Your Electrolytes While on a Keto Diet

Here are four simple steps you can take to combat keto flu symptoms while you're on your keto diet.

Take It Easy

First of all, it's not a great idea to rush into a new diet all guns blazing. Instead, it's best to ease your way into your new diet, keto or not. Starting with a low-carb diet first before eliminating it will help your body slowly adjust to your new diet, and as it gets more used to it, you can gradually decrease and decrease your carb intake and replace it with a higher fat intake.

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

Staying hydrated throughout your keto dieting can help significantly assist the balance of electrolytes within your body. One of the main symptoms of keto flu is the increased loss of minerals and dehydration, so matching this with an increased mineral intake can significantly benefit you. In addition, drinking lots of water every day can dramatically help reduce the effects of keto flu on you and help make your keto diet work more for you.

Increasing Your Electrolyte Intake

Taking supplements for your electrolyte imbalance may also help restore the balance of electrolytes in your body while you're on a keto diet. Increasing common electrolytes like salts, magnesium, and potassium to your diet will help immensely improve your body's electrolyte content. In addition, drinking beverages with high electrolyte content will help supply your body with more of what it lost in the process. In turn, this will make you feel more energized and will compensate for your loss of minerals due to your decreased carb intake through your keto diet.

There are also some electrolyte capsules that offer the supplement needed by the body when it loses enough electrolyte level during keto diet.

Increase Your Fat Intake Even More

Further increasing your intake of fats while you're on your keto diet is critical in avoiding keto flu. The lack of calories is another significant factor that leads to keto flu, so compensating for that decrease by further increasing your fat intake can help you avoid keto flu symptoms. You can do this simply by eating more fatty foods as snacks or adding even more fatty foods to your meals. For example, snacking on avocados eating bacon or more egg yolks will all help in increasing your fat intake and improving the effects of your keto diet on your body overall.

What to Remember

So why are electrolytes essential in your keto diet? Without electrolytes, your keto diet won't work. So instead of benefiting you, your keto diet could potentially hurt you without enough electrolytes.

Following the four simple steps above can help you significantly make sure you have enough electrolytes in your system to compensate for the lower levels of carbs due to your keto diet.

If you want to make sure your keto diet benefits you, make sure you do everything you can to make sure your electrolytes are sufficient so that you can enjoy your diet and avoid keto flu. Remember that you should never underestimate the importance of electrolytes, especially in a keto diet.