I have killer cramps in my calves this morning and they still hurt

[justanothagirl]

when I woke up this morning and moved my leg and then tightened my calf suddenly it hurt so bad i thought i had torn a muscle but after 5 minutes thank god the pain stopped but they still hurt

any dietary deficiencies? i was thinking potassium is it normal to be deficient in that on a lowcarb diet?

its still kinda creepy to walk the stairs

where are shin splints located by the way? my calves hurt right on the inside of my legs above my ankles but the pain is in my muscle not my bones

[Wtf?]

Potassium and/or calcium deficiency.

Normal considering carbs are high sources of potassium..like bananas.

Oh and when you get that "charlie horse" thing where your calf really tightens when laying down or sitting... Stand up and it instantly goes away.

[justanothagirl]

i dont know if thatll make it go away, when i walk it hurts... its like im afraid to walk normally cos they feel so tight that they would tear if i stretch them

this is so ****ed up i wanna burn off last nights binge with cardio but i dont wanna suffer an injury and be out for 4 months

mom has this minty stuff that always relieves her backpain by rubbing it on it relaxes her muscles or something should i put this stuff on my calves?

dont know if this is relevant but i remember my forearms kind of hurt too this morning... not nearly as much but a little right from the inside of my forearms till the palm of my hands

okay well i think my calves just need a warm up cos i can walk normally again (just not off the stairs yet i think) so ill be able to do cardio soon

[smackdaddyD]

Could be magnesium issues as well.

Magnesium controls your muscles ability to relax. Magnesium deficiency is way more common than people realize, and it's almost a given in people with insulin resistance.

I know that I had lots of strange issues that went away when I started supplementing with a good form of Magnesium (a bad form would be the most commonly found form in multi-vitamins, Magnesium Oxide...it's very bio-unavailable, and just gets passed out in urine).

ZMA is a great source (Zinc Magnesium Aspartate). I also take Magnesium Citrate.

[justanothagirl]

really well im taking this magnesium calcium and zinc supplement

yeh.. friggin magnesiumoxide

oh well i guess next time ill just order all my supplements from the internet, jeez all the vitamins from the actual stores around here really suck

by the way should i get rid of all my supplements that contain stuff like
polydextose and such? or would they have those in tiny doses?

also calcium supps with aspartame are a no-no right?

[Eileen]

Was this during/after carb-up? I've had vicious cramps after really hard depletion workouts. And I mean the sort of cramps where you fall down from the pain, and that doesn't go away when you stand.

Something no-one else has menioned but may be a factor is ordinary salt. If you are eating lots of clean keto food, you are not getting much salt, and if you combine that with hot weather and a very sweaty workout, you could have trouble.

[justanothagirl]

no my carb up was last wednesday and i had this this morning so.. they were different types of cramps I've had them before like a year ago, like where your calves are squeezing to death

im menstruating so i guess that also causes some deficits for women? it is making me messed up in other ways too i had my first binge since ive been keto-ing last night i tried to stick to 1200 calories but i binged on walnuts which brought me upto 1650.. and before that yesterday afternoon i was feeling so hungry and weak that i felt like i was fainting and i was very dizzy.. my lifts sucked too last night

i actually bought salt last week it contains 33 percent natriumchloride and 67 percent potassiumiodine

should i try and down a teaspoon worth of this stuff daily

[justanothagirl]

okay i just downed a teaspoon of that salt of mine earlier on, real nasty... but i suddenly feel like a thousand times better

[siamesedream]

Throughout my high school years, I began to have major calf spasms until I was told to start taking potassium and magnesium vitamins which I got from Costco. I've been on them ever since (including a multivitamin) and haven't had the problem .

[justanothagirl]

wow you had these on a regular basis? that musta been screwed up

[justanothagirl]

haha this is so funny after my cardio workout my lips tasted salty so i went to see if i tasted salty all over so i licked my arm a bit and I'm just tasting salty then!

anyways i just downed some of that salt again cos i must have lost some then

[siamesedream]

wow you had these on a regular basis? that musta been screwed up

Oh yeah, at least 3 or 4 times a week. At its worst periods, it would happen every morning and even sometimes later in the day if I would sit down and stretch my legs out. It got to the point where I began to just dread sleeping because I knew what would happen at some point.

[justanothagirl]

wow but my calves still hurt from last night's cramps and I cannot walk normally down the stairs anymore, so did you have like chronic calf-pain then?

[siamesedream]

wow but my calves still hurt from last night's cramps and I cannot walk normally down the stairs anymore, so did you have like chronic calf-pain then?

Yeah, it actually became quite a big part of my life. I simply stopped ever fully stretching out my legs altogether if I could avoid it since an effect was sure to be major calf spasms, and I was always walking around with serious calf pain.

Anyways, sorry for spouting off in a post in which you're asking for help , but, let me just say, I've been on potassium and magnesium ever since and I haven't had the problem. Literally, those two vitamins changed a huge part of my life for the better. I'm not sure if all of those spasms had anything to do with it, but I've always had massively huge and shredded calves.

[justanothagirl]

haha thats amazing, yeah its fine really all my questions are already answered anyways, yeah maybe it did have something to do with it cos when you lift weights you do damage to your muscles right and they heal and grow bigger, so maybe these muscle spasms did damage too which made them heal and grow.. very awesome anyways I should get some proper vitamins and minerals the ones I got now are apparently very bio-unavailable

[Eileen]

Sometimes it helps if you smash them up before you eat them. You can get gadgets to do that, but just bash them hard and then mix with some water. Nasty and gritty, but they should work better that way.

[justanothagirl]

oh alright, yes i do think my supplements taste very sick but i will do that if it helps maybe chew on them so I don't have to do extra dishes

[smackdaddyD]

FYI, magnesium deficiency can also cause mental health issues.

Something I was surprised to discover was that once I corrected my deficiencies (which also included EFAs, which also affect mental health), I found it very difficult to get sad.

It's hard to explain properly, but a lot of things used to send me into a serious funk. For instance, I recently found out that I'm not going to be in my best friend's wedding, because there are only three brides maids and he has 3 brothers, one of which is the best man, and she has one brother, so there's no room for non-family. I'm also seeing him less and less these days, and it really bothers me. Before, this type of thing would cause me to almost drop into a depression, and I would obsess about it for days on end, and just feel like complete crap.

In fact, I think in the past I even came to relish that feeling, it sort of reinforces a negative mental image that so many of us harbor for too long. It was comforting in a way.

But now, I just can't get there. I can't get sad like that. It's so hard to describe what I mean, but when I lay on the couch and try to focus on it and try to feel depressed about it, it just doesn't work. I can't recreate that somewhat comforting feeling (I guess because it gave me an excuse to feel bad about myself), no matter how hard I try.

Brain chemistry is an interesting thing. The healther I get the more I wonder when the rest of the world is going to wake up. I think the vast majority of our kids, stuffed full of ritalin and similar drugs, are just malnourished. Unfortunately, doctors and drug companies don't make money by telling you to eat properly.

[justanothagirl]

wow maybe its in my head but my calves seem more muscular now!

[hardwork 24/7]

You might of also had a deficiency in vitamin C,this aids recovery alot quicker, thats why your muscles could have been quite sore

[chimponarope]

FYI, magnesium deficiency can also cause mental health issues.

Brain chemistry is an interesting thing. The healther I get the more I wonder when the rest of the world is going to wake up. I think the vast majority of our kids, stuffed full of ritalin and similar drugs, are just malnourished. Unfortunately, doctors and drug companies don't make money by telling you to eat properly.

So can copper, I did some reading on it a while ago and it can even affect your metabolism.

I'm with you bro, for most people a decent diet will fix a lot of problem. Fish fingers, chips (fries to you lot ) and baked beans do not a healthy meal make!

[justanothagirl]

well my calves still kind of hurt and I have my depletion workout for my carb up tomorrow

should I do legs first so that my calve muscles will still have a lot of energy to be able to resist the weight without getting injured? or should I train my legs last so that I won't have a lot of energy left to put a lot of pressure on them?

I do think that tomorrow I'm gonna work much harder on my upper body than my legs though

[chimponarope]

I'd probably use exercises that don't involve your calfs for legs (extensions and curls basically), should help to prevent them setting off again.

Good luck.

[justanothagirl]

hey is it ok if i have some chocolate flavored all bran on my carb up.. i LOVE that stuff

i think ill have some as my post workout meal(just had my PWO shake)

i also ate some after i had my fruit pre workout

or is it a no-no? I do think it contains HFCS

yeah the reason im craving this is my chocolate whey ran out so ive been drinking vanilla and strawberry flavored whey lately i need some chocolate lol

[Eileen]

You'll probably get away with it on carb-up.

Nothing to stop you adding some cocoa powder to your shake if you like the taste. Or (my favourite) get some 99% chocolate (Lindt do a very good one) and have a square with a cup of coffee to satisfy the cravings without starting a sugar binge.

[justanothagirl]

hey smackdaddy maybe ur right about these deficiencies and brain chemicals cos ive been on this diet for like a month now and ive only binged twice... and both nights after these two binges I got the calf cramps. i had another one this morning and i binged last night and thats exactly what happened last time.. i was also feeling down on both days for no reason at all

damn i want my ZMA to arrive i cant take these 2nd rate mineral supplements they do nothing for me

neways i just downed some of that substitute salt since it worked last time.. damn that **** is so nasty!!!!!!!!!!! makes me puke
\
****ing hot weather makes me drink 2 much and lose all of my minerals i drink like 10 liters daily on these friggin hot days

****ing hell im so ****ing pissed at myself shouldnt have binged lastn ight!!!!!!!!! neways im gonna go to the gym twice adding up to 3 hrs today and eat 1000 calories!!! i still have some calories left from yesterday so its ok

[NoI]

Justanothergirl,

I have extereme sensitivity to leg cramps. the supps mentioned above are right on: salt, magnesioum, calcium and potassium are the culprits. Remember that you are passig a lot of water and this will strip out a lot of the water soluable vitamins and minerals (which is everything except for A + potassium). Once when I switched to a restrictive diet I had such a bad leg dramp that I tore the muscle. Getting on the right supps really helped. a good multi should be added as well.

Let us know how it goes.

[justanothagirl]

wow... thanks, you actually tore the muscle? omg, that must have been so painful

what kind of restricted diet was it?

[NoI]

It was when I first became a vegetarian. I was also not eating fat and would only consume soy products, veggies and complex carbs. I dropped from 190 to 169 that year. About 3 weeks into it, I started to get leg cramps. I dropped down to pick up my godson, and as I stood up, a thigh muscle cramped like nobody's business. Afterwards, it scarred, up got hard and did not return to normal for months. It was then that i realized that I had to take vitamin supplements to meet my dietary needs.

after 4 years on that diet, I am back to eating meat. I am today (thanks to keto) 200lbs and have the same, if not lower bf% than when I was 169.

Food is a very powerful agent in controlling our bodies apparently. No one believes me though. THey still complain about being fat but don't see how changing their diet will help. I point to my results and they say "oh, that is too hard."

Anyway, the point was that when I got loaded with calcium, magnesium, potassium, Iron and a multivitamin, all of the cramp issues went away for the remaining 4 years of that diet.