I have been on my keto plan for 8 days today. I am absolutely miserable. Fatique, just feeling wiped out and all over body aches like the flu.
No weight loss in the week I have been on, cannot count today as it is day eight, but I have eaten low carb for seven days straight. Well under 20 total carbs a day, probably under half of that. I am not doing net carbs, nor eating any foods that are not plain simple proteins.
Bacon, eggs, chicken with skin, hamburger patties, and other plain real unprocessed meat. Small amounts of cheddar, a presliced piece on my hamburger patties. Salad is just the amount we wrap around the burger to pick it up. We used to allows buy all kinds of wonderful sausages, but not this time. Not even hot dogs as both my husband and I , who are on this eating plan together have issues with too much salt.
We were eating mainly plant based for most of three years but the last year kind of slowly got back to more of a standard American diet. Lots of carbs. We both have sensitivity to wheat and other grains and we knew not only for weight loss, but for health we had to get off the grains and get back to a healthy low carb way of eating.
I do have metabolic syndrome, diagnosed by an endocrinologist ten years ago. He wanted me on Atkins. I obviously did not stick with it.
Now we both are ready to change our lifestyle and do what we need to do to get weight of and stay healthy. At 60 we do not have time to play around with our health any longer.
Just wanted to know if anyone else has had such bad keto flu and if so, how long did it last ? I have heard recent studies say it can last up to 17 days. I sure hope not, but if so, I will just deal with it.

Keto flu is not at all uncommon. Different people have it to different degrees and for different amounts of time. The first time I low-carbed I had it really bad for two days. A headache every bit as bad as the migraines I get -- but the big difference is that with a migraine I need to lay down and stay still to get it to ease up and with this one that just made it worse. Instead I had to stand up and keep pacing slowly around the room otherwise it would start throbbing. But after those couple of miserable days I felt LOADS better. More energy, more alert, and when I'm low-carbing I almost never have migraines. There's quite few stories by members here that had it for two-plus weeks and many others that didn't have it at all. For some it was a mild annoyance and for others it was a living hell.

There's a remedy to this discomfort, and it is as simple as eating more salt. Here's a detailed discussion that's been updated over the years:

https://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=8626210

In general, increase your salt intake with at least 5 grams of salt daily to help offset the liquid you start to lose when you cut back on carbs. Adding a mixture of salt, potassium, and magnesium (Calm powder) to liquid works wonders. Good luck.

ETA: Corrected amount of daily salt recommendation.

5 mg?

I normally consume between 2000 mg and 4000 mg of sodium a day. It would seem like 5 mg of salt (about 2 mg of sodium) would be completely lost in the noise.

I went and looked and they are talking about a total sodium (not salt) intake of 5 g (5000 mg) a day.

Late in that thread is a link to a site that talks about many other minerals, as well:

https://optimisingnutrition.com/how...lt-do-you-need/

I don't know how good the information is on that site (given how much pure garbage is out on the internet), but it doesn't appear to be written with an obvious agenda in mind.

Right, change that 5 mg to 5 grams or at least 1 teaspoon. Bottom line, increasing your intake of electrolytes eliminates keto flu very quickly. Eat more salt, potassium, magnesium and enjoy life. Consuming electrolytes that are greater than the amounts we were consuming when eating a lot more carbs works wonders. In most cases, increasing salt alone does the trick.

Thanks everyone !! I am day nine and I honestly have to figure it out because I am close to the point of I cannot take this anymore. It is pretty bad flu like body aches all over my entire body. NOTHING helps it. Normally ibuprophen takes care of any aches I have, but not these. The fatique just drains me and I am at the point of tears at any point of the day.
My only concern about the salt is I have issues with salt and blood pressure. I will see what happens if I add some , and go from there.
I have calm powder but it is just magnesium. Do they sell one with all the electrolites in it ? I may run by the health food store and see what I can find to help with this issue.

A couple thoughts that should help.

1) The directives to reduce sodium (salt) due to health issues are being rethought by some with new research. Based on today's RDAs for sodium, many people are putting themselves at risk due to too little salt. Dr. James DiNicolantonio wrote "The Salt Fix" and it explains in detail how salt is in fact not unhealthy; rather, it's essential.

Here are two links, the first is a thread on the discussion from this forum:
https://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=477948

The second is a link to Dr. James DiNicolantonio's excellent presentation directly touching on the keto flu. Salt has been demonized to the extent that many are fearful of it; yet, it's essential for life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr7ddrdjQRQ

2) For the electrolytes, I mix some salt (about 1/2 or 1 tsp) in water with a teaspoon of Calm and a small amount of potassium (1/2 tsp) from Nu-Salt, which is potassium chloride, into a large glass (12 ounces or so) of water. It works and will have your feeling better. In the warm weather, I consume one of these electrolyte drinks once a day to stay hydrated and to keep my electrolytes in balance. Good luck.

Lo-salt is nice balance of sodium and potassium.

For years In kept salt by my bedside to fix terrible leg cramps.

What about adding vegetables with high water content such as cucumbers? And drinking 6 glasses of water per day? Also, more fat and less protein used to be the mantra around here.

For me, crunchy vegetables like cucumbers, lettuce and bell peppers prevent nausea and aches/pains on low carb induction.

I think it was just plain electrolyte imbalance. I bought some powder and drink it twice a day and I started feeling better almost immediately !! I will keep your ideas in mind in case I need to try something else down the line. Thank you !!!

One thing you might take encouragement from is that if you have been taking Ibuprophen in any significant amounts, that might account for your belief that you haven't lost any weight. I learned the other day that it causes water retention. If the salt/minerals does the trick for the flu symptoms, stop the Ibuprophen and the scale may budge a bit.