Panic Attacks During Dieting

[quote]lia67 wrote:
as a few have said maybe keto just aint for you .
it s the transition period that sucks , once your in ketosis you feel cool. you could lose fat just as quick with a normal diet when your hypocalorific .
plus if its that hard for you you wont stick with it long term anyway.
at the end of the day its about energy in and energy out[/quote]

yeah ur right, anyways thanks everyone for the help :smiley:

Your keto diet could be quite directly causing the panic attacks, and it makes a lot of sense why gorging on carbs helps. Here’s why:

The amino acid tryptophan is the primary precursor to the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is what’s responsible for keeping you in an elevated mood, and it’s widely accepted that low serotonin levels result in a wide variety of mental disorders with anxiety and depression at the top. This is a double-hitter since serotonin can, in turn, be turned into melatonin which is responsible for falling asleep and getting good restful sleep.

Since you’ve transitioned to a keto diet and are eating less overall, obviously your body is using dietary protein to fuel ketogenesis. Tryptophan is a ketogenic and a gluconeogenic amino acid, so that means your body now needs it for both maintaining serotonin levels and for fuel in addition to the other minor bodily functions it needs it for.

The reason that eating a lot of carbs relieves anxiety issues is because, like I said earlier, tryptophan does not react with insulin. When you eat a lot of carbs and your blood sugar goes up and insulin comes along and shuttles that sugar and most aminos into your muscles, but not tryptophan. In terms of amino acids, this leaves little else in your bloodstream other than tryptophan, thus your brain can assimilate more and create serotonin more easily. This is why vegetarians and vegans binge on sugar so much; their diets are usually low in tryptophan as there is no good plant source of it, and it’s the only thing they can do to relieve the depression that they live with.

So, in short, your best bet would be to try to eat more protein. You can purchase tryptophan relatively cheaply as a supplement by itself, and this could be worth trying if increased protein consumption by itself does not help.

Best of luck to you. Let us know how it goes.