9 Reasons Behind Ketogenic Constipation (& Natural Remedies)

Ketogenic constipation is nothing to take lightly. A day or two per month, sure, but when it becomes chronic, you must take care of it. This post on keto constipation I hope will share information that helps you see how dangerous being backed up is, why it happens, and then offer several natural remedies starting with the #1 cure for it that I have no doubt will work for you too, like it does for me.

Keto constipation is something many people on a ketogenic diet suffer.

Usually it’s temporary and you get back to normal, but if it’s a chronic issue, whether it be from your keto diet or from something else, you can’t let it go on.

Conventional keto wisdom says this:

Eat low carb vegetables, eat good sources of healthy fats, drink plenty of water and if need be, utilize quality keto supplements. Along with a bit of regular exercise, healthy digestion should resume in no time.

This is what is stated by all the health experts… eat your low carb veggies for the fibers and you will be ok.

But there’s more to keto constipation than just making sure you’re getting low carb fibers in. For some that works, but for many others it doesn’t.

This tells me that fiber from low carb vegetables isn’t always the answer.

For example, look at those on keto carnivore diets or just plain carnivore diet eaters… they’re digestion has zero issues getting rid of the waste and they eat ZERO prebiotic fibers..

Hmmm. Does this debunk the vegan nutritionists that say our long digestive tract is bad at digesting meat? It’s something like that if you ask me…

Ultimately, fiber does help you “go.”

But it can also back you up.

Here’s a quick vid with some good info by Dr. Ken D. Berry. After the vid, I’ll get to the meat and potatoes of this blog post.

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Top Constipation Causing Foods:

• Bananas: (no worries here, I bet you don’t eat them if you’re on keto)
• Nuts & Seeds: Unless your cooking or soaking them, these are hard on your digestion. They contain indigestible short-chain carbs that are only removed by cooking them. If eaten raw, which most of us do, they can add to your ketogenic constipation issues.
• Cruciferous Vegetables: Many of our favorite vegetables are cruciferous veggies, including broccoli and kale. Our enzymes have a hard to breaking down these types of vegetables while our colon bacteria can turn these into methane within our bodies… aka they make you fart. On top of the barking spiders in every room you enter, eating cruciferous vegetables can be part of the keto constipation problem because they slow down your digestion and can cause belly bloat.
• Caffeine and Constipation: If you’re dehydrated, coffee and tea can make your constipation worse. Otherwise, it usually helps with bowel movements.
• Legumes: Loaded with soluble fibers, legumes can actually gel-up so much that they bog your digestive tract down. When this happens, the undigested soluble fiber is then digested by colon bacteria, resulting in the famous bean toots.
• Gluten and Constipation: Gluten is a sticky protein that is hard for our enzymes to break down. Of all the grains out there, white rice is the nicest on your digestion.
• Casein: Here’s another sticky protein that can cause keto constipation and is in most dairy products. The casein from New Zealand cows is much better than our American cows. A2 casein is what you want. Not A1 which is in American dairy products. So make sure you’re getting good quality butter from A2 casein to avoid problems related to lactose intolerance (source).

Luckily, there are many solutions to keto constipation. Fiber IS one of them. But as you can see from the list above, fibers are one of the main foods that can be the actual culprit to your keto constipation. The key is eating the right types of fiber (more on this further down in this article).

But first, let me explain the dangers of letting keto constipation continue. Here are some reasons why you MUST take care of your constipation on keto.

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Extreme Dangers Of Chronic Constipation

There are many dangers of chronic constipation. Ketogenic constipation can easily become chronic if not taken care of diligently.

Side note: My mom today just told me a story of how her sister’s good friend didn’t have a bowel movement for 30 days and 20 days into it, she went to the hospital and ended up dying there. I don’t know all the details, but this is what happened. Constipation killed this woman.

Chronic constipation whether from keto or not, can first start showing itself with things like heartburn, GERD, excessive burping and even the hiccups.

Risk factors are vast, but just to name a few; little or no physical activity, diets low in fiber, eating too much dairy, abusing laxatives, neurological conditions like Parkinson’s, underachieve thyroid (hyperthyroidism), dehydration, depression and other mental health conditions can cause it, and another major risk factor are medications including sedatives, narcotics, antidepressants, and some meds that lower blood pressure.

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Dangerous Side Effects Of Constipation:

These can get graphic! Just a forewarning.

• Reabsorbing toxins into your body, poisoning yourself from the inside
• Anal fissures: torn anus skin
• Hemorrhoids: swollen anus veins from straining
• Rectal prolapse: intestines protruding from the anus
• Fecal impaction: when you can’t pass the stool, hardened stool can accumulate and get stuck in your intestines
• More constipation pain: GERD, reflux, constipation cramps, more
• Life-threatening complications from chronic constipation and the self-poisoning that results from it.

The side effects of constipation go beyond these. These are just some of the main ones to help you see that you must seek a constipation solution.

Because I suffered constipation alongside inflammation, and because as soon as I cured my constipation, my inflammation symptoms subsided instantly, I believe there is a direct correlation to keto constipation and inflammation.

Inflammation is a silent killer and I learned this the hard way in 2018.

If you’re dealing with ketogenic constipation then you may need to seek help from a specialist that focuses on gastrointestinal disorders. A gastro doc can at least rule out any serious problems while you work on solving this problem.

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Does chronic constipation lead to inflammation?

I like how Catherine Guthrie from Experience Life puts it:

Given that 63 million Americans have sluggish bowels, and that constipation can undermine our energy, digestion and detoxification, that it can fuel inflammation and create the breeding grounds for chronic disease, it’s definitely time to throw open the bathroom door and shed some much-needed light on the condition.

Further down in this blog post I share a bit about sluggish livers and gallbladders and their connection to ketogenic constipation. The liver is a vital organ to health. Chinese medicine regards it as the ultimate organ.

Here’s a bit more from this Experience Life article regarding the role of bile, what our liver’s produce, and how it ties in with bowel movements:

Every day the liver doles out roughly a quart of soaplike bile that the body uses as a solvent to break food down into digestible particles. Bile also absorbs toxins from fats, drugs, heavy metals and other wastes. And fiber is what moves that polluted bile out of the body.

The longer waste sits in the colon, the more concentrated the bile acids become, she says. Concentrated bile irritates the colon’s lining. And the longer it takes to move through your system, the more irritation that occurs. Additionally, hormones broken down by the body are excreted in the stool. “As feces sit in your colon, those hormones are reabsorbed into the bloodstream,” she says, “which can increase the risk of estrogen-fueled cancers, like breast cancer.”

The full article is one of the better ones I’ve come across when it comes to constipation.

Constipation does lead to inflammation.

Treating my keto constipation reduced my inflammation almost instantly and let me live my normal active and physical lifestyle once again (You don’t understand, I wasn’t been able to fully run. My ankle joints and feet were SHOT.. my personal story below).

Constipation is a slow killer if it becomes chronic… if you have keto constipation you need to know this.

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Ketogenic Constipation: Why It Happens

The ketogenic diet is a proven way to lose weight and to break free of the false paradigm conventional nutritional wisdom has ingrained (catch that pun?) into us since the first day you were able to eat solid foods.

BUT….

It doesn’t come without its side effects.

Ketogenic constipation is one of these side effects.

The keto flu is baby food when compared to the behemoth of danger that comes from chronic constipation. It literally can kill you.

Why does it happen though? Many reasons. Here’s 9 of them…

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9 Reasons Behind Keto Diet Constipation

Are you constipated from your keto diet? Are you starting to feel some of the side effects of constipation?

Here are 9 possible reasons your low carb diet is doing this to you.

These are followed by home remedies for constipation, and then foods to fight constipation.

1. Not enough of fiber (soluble & insoluble)

Is your stool hard as a rock and painful to come out? Do you feel a surge of relief when you do finally plop out that stone from your body?

Before I go into how fiber or the lack of can cause ketogenic constipation, let me share a disclaimer I found on OncologyNutrition:

Constipation can be due to problems that cannot be resolved with food alone. Severe constipation that results from pain or nausea medications, or from digestive conditions, such as a small bowel obstruction, require medical intervention. If you have pain, fever, or abdominal distention (bloating), call your doctor right away. Do not try to self-medicate with food.

If you have less severe constipation, the first thing you should do is talk to your nurse or doctor about this problem. They may be able to adjust some of your medications to help lessen these episodes of diarrhea and constipation. In addition, fiber is great for normalizing bowel function. You just need to make sure you get the right type of fiber.

It’s likely that you’re not overeating fiber on a keto diet.

Fiber can be the Holy Grail solution to keto constipation if you take the right kinds.

But fiber can be a part of the problem too.

Solution: Eat more low carb vegetables everyday. Don’t count them as carbs. Count them as water, because they’re just as important for your bowel movements getting back to normal and fiber should be subtracted from your carb count anyways.

• They say you should eat around 30 grams of fiber per day. I will add to this that I believe soluble fibers are an integral form of fiber you should get on your keto diet.
• Keto diets require you to put more effort into getting fibers in because many fiber foods come along with carbs (apples, oranges, potatoes, etc.).

Dietary fiber is ONLY found in plant foods. It’s not in meat. It’s not in dairy. So you have to seek out low carb plant foods rich in fibers for your keto constipation if lack of fiber is truly the culprit.

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Soluble fiber v insoluble fiber:

Both soluble and insoluble fibers are great for you. Plants contain a bit of both in varying degrees. Soluble fiber is the type that can dissolve in water. Insoluble fibers like plant cellulose do not dissolve in water, but help your digestion by making your stools softer and easier to pass. Soluble fiber turns gel-like once dissolved, helping support your bowel movements as well.

Neither types of fiber are absorbed by the body, but both do help with digestion and bowel movements. Fiber takes longer to digest. The benefit from this is that it slows down the rate of glucose into your bloodstream, therefore it helps with insulin spikes and is recommended for those with diabetes.

Keto foods with good fibers include celery, flaxseed, chia seeds, psyllium husk, coconut flour, almond flour, any dark green leafy vegetables and there’s many more.

Believe it or not, fiber can cause constipation. Just ask any of your vegan friends. Meat and fat are easily digestible compared to fiber. Your ketogenic constipation can come from something other than not eating enough fiber. Take a look at the top foods that cause constipation. Dairy is among one of the tops. So is fiber.

People who suffer from IBS-C (the constipation type), often suffer it because they eat foods that are difficult to digest. It’s not from a lack of fiber. If you’re not digesting food, you get backed up. If this happens long enough, you can really be in a dangerous situation.

Try increasing your water intake before lowering your fiber intake. If that does the trick, then you’ll know it was a hydration issue. If it doesn’t, then add in exercise.

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More fiber isn’t always the best way to stop constipation.

It helps immensely for many people, but for many more people it does nothing to help – not on its own at least. To dig deeper into the pros and cons of fiber for keto constipation, here’s a great article from the World Journal Of Gastroenterology, where they investigate the effects of reducing dietary fiber on patients with idiopathic constipation.

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CONCLUSION: FIBER & KETO

Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds can both help and hurt your constipation. Fiber creates healthier stools. It makes them softer and it helps spark bowel movements.

High fiber diets can really back you up, but it’s usually not the cause of ketogenic constipation. In order to truly know if you have an underlying issue, check with your doc, but overall, when it comes to ketogenic diets and constipation, it’s going to be a mix of things including low carb fibers from fruits and veggies, proper hydration and also exercise. The more fiber you eat, the more water you need. Add onto this regular exercise, and you should solve your keto constipation sooner than later.

Fiber helped me, but fiber often comes along with carbs, so low carb fibers are best for dealing with keto constipation. I think we covered the fiber topic enough, and hopefully I didn’t confuse you more now after learning about it. Let’s move on to other potential causes of ketogenic constipation….

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2. You don’t eat enough

If you’re following a keto diet and doing all the tracking then you’re good. It’s when you chronically start to under eat, and eat the wrong types of foods that can create problems like ketogenic constipation when not dealt with either through hydration, exercise or fiber.

Eat more. Drink more. Once keto adapted, you’ll encounter the glorious appetite suppression benefits, but this can be a double edged sword…

Under-eating does nothing for keto constipation relief.

Try eating more keto friendly foods with fibers. Try testing out slightly higher carb counts if you need to. Don’t worry so much about always being in ketosis. Once adapted, you can bounce in and out and still reap the benefits. The problem here is ketogenic constipation, and if you’re underrating you may need to eat and drink more in order to help your body pass stools. Try avocados and chia seed drinks. Try crushing some flax seeds and adding freshly crushed flax seed onto your breakfasts, whether it’s eggs or yogurt.

The final tip I have for you here is to drink with your meals (not before), but with your meals. Mixing together the liquids with your keto meals can aid digestion and help your bowel movements become regular again.

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3. Not enough exercise

Do you exercise? This may be enough to get you past it if you haven’t been lately.

One of the main causes of chronic constipation in adults is a sedentary lifestyle.

Why?

Because it reduces the blood flow to the digestive tract.

This in turn halts your digestion. Physical activity means you’re using your abdominal muscles and this also is part of the solution to help get your digestive tract moving.

Exercise and keto go hand in hand for several reasons, from getting into ketosis faster, to overcoming ketogenic constipation.

Here’s an article that provides guidelines on how much activity is recommended for adults.

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4. Dehydration Constipation

If you’re not exercising much and you’re suffering from keto constipation, this may solve your issues, but it may not.

For some, it takes more than exercise and eating prebiotic fibers from low carb vegetables.

Dehydration constipation makes your body allocate the water you do have to your most important parts, your vital organs.

Are you hydrated enough?

This leads to constipation as your bowels receive less of the water you have in your system.

Because keto diets have you urinating more often, you need to stay hydrated and make sure you’re replenishing your body with vitamins and essential minerals and amino acids via food or keto supplements that you are letting out each time you go to the bathroom.

A personal tip I have for this section is that you don’t want to overdo it with water. There’s a whole debate on distilled vs mineral water which I am researching still, but if you’re drinking regular water that has no added minerals, you are risking depleting your body of electrolytes. So drink more, but don’t overdo it. I’ve heard 15 cups of water per day as a good rule of thumb.

You can add some sea salt or Himalayan pink salt to your water (I do this to reverse osmosis water), or you can just pick up some keto supplements like trace minerals or electrolytes to ensure you have enough. Fresh coconut water is another wonderful source of natural electrolytes (Zico is nasty… it tastes nothing like fresh coconut water, but it’s still a good source).

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5. Sodium, Potassium and Magnesium

While on the topic of depleted electrolytes ad minerals, I decided to make this a section unto itself. You may need more of these. Mineral and vitamin keto supplements like potassium and sodium can help you have regular bowel movements.

And the lack of them can be a cause of your keto constipation.

Sodium and potassium are excreted at higher rates because of the keto diuretic situation. If you don’t replenish them, then you will suffer multiple health problems including constipation.

Real food is the best way to replenish these.

Magnesium isn’t excreted from urine like the others, but in general, many lack sufficient amounts, and this can lead to keto constipation as well. Magnesium in itself is a mild laxative (hence why some recommend to take it with calcium), but it’s also a wonderful mineral for stress. Stress can cause constipation, so taking magnesium can help your ketogenic constipation in multiple ways. I take a chelated magnesium every morning. It can be nice at nighttime too, to calm the nerves.

I try to get around 2 to 4 grams of sodium per day. I’ve never really looked at my potassium levels, but I eat plenty of potassium foods (raw or steamed fruits and veggies have lots of potassium, as does dairy and meat).

Personally, I don’t like to take supplements if I can get the nutrients from food. Potassium falls under this “get from food” personal category.

Potassium foods include raw veggies and good meats. Here’s a short list of some good potassium foods for keto constipation. 

• broccoli
• Halibut
• yogurt
• sweet potatoes
• pork tenderloin
• chicken
• tuna
• pistachios
• goat milk
• and there’s many more

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6. Sluggish Liver or Sluggish Gallbladder

Here’s another serious issue that can lead to keto constipation.

Serious liver problems are often not detected until years later when it can be too late. Once cirrhosis starts, there’s no cure.

However, the liver is a remarkable organ that can heal itself as long as you haven’t taken it over the edge (which takes years and years of damage to do).

Liver and keto constipation:

The liver produces bile. Bile helps digestion. A sluggish liver means less bile. This results in digestive issues including constipation, bloated belly, appetite loss (the bad kind) and the inability to digest the main type of food you eat on keto.. fatty foods.

A sluggish liver is one of the main enemies to a keto diet, and if you have one, you need to talk to your doctor about it and your keto diet.

From Liver Doctor:

Eating large amounts of cooked and processed foods can contribute to sluggish bowels. Over a period of time, a layer of toxic waste products may build up on the lining of the sluggish bowel. This build-up can cause inflammation in the bowel, and the toxins are absorbed from the bowel and travel back to the liver via the portal vein. The liver has to work much harder to break down these internally produced toxins and symptoms of liver dysfunction may result. Thus constipation can lead to headaches, abdominal bloating, fatigue, allergies and skin problems.

He goes on to mention that proper bowel movements should not require straining. Proper bowel movements without straining reduce risks of conditions like appendicitis, hiatus hernia, abdominal hernias, hemorrhoids and colon cancer.

Frequent healthy bowel movements prevent the build up of toxic waste products in the bowel.

What about the gallbladder?

I’ll quote the Liver Doctor again for this one:

The gallbladder is a muscular sack that stores bile. When you eat a meal, the gallbladder squeezes a big spurt of bile into the small intestine so you can digest fats in your food. If you do not produce enough bile when you eat you will not digest and absorb fats. Bile is an important way that your liver excretes toxins and cholesterol from the body and you need to produce plenty of bile to do this.

An ill-functioning gall bladder doesn’t produce enough bile after eating.

A solution to this can be taking ox bile capsules midway through your meal. These help you digest food and absorb fats and vitamins better. When you have a sluggish gallbladder, these ox bile capsules can really help with keto constipation.

Of course, pain in the upper right side of your abdomen, right under your right ribcage, is the area that will hurt with gallbladder and liver issues. It’s vital to check with your doctor if you have pain here because it can also be other serious problems like ulcers, gastric problems, pancreatic issues or the ever-growing problem of fatty liver. All these issues are treatable as long as you take care of the issue in time. Gallstones can be dissolved over time with proper nutrition.

Tip: I like to drink water with a bit of apple cider vinegar in it each morning to help my liver and gallbladder out. I’ve heard this is good to do 30 minutes before eating too.

When it comes to liver and gallbladder issues and keto constipation, you need to take this seriously. That pain you feel under your right ribcage is the alarm your body is sounding off. From personal experience, I know this. You’ll feel it way more after doing the wrong thing, whether it’s eating the wrong foods or drinking too much alcohol.

The thing with doctors though is that they just know what is in their medical books. They’re to quick to suggest gallbladder removal. I’ve heard doctors say it’s not important, but I think it is, especially for ketogenic diets.

Healthy bile is needed for fat metabolism. Gallbladders supply bile to your small intestines while eating which helps you digest food and absorb the fats and nutrients.

To help out your liver and gallbladder, you can try to take a milk thistle supplement, but it’s more about what you leave out.

Medications can be bad. Avoid paracetamol and NSAIDS. Drink more fluids and eat bitter vegetables and fresh herbs as much as possible. They have liver cleansing properties. I’ve heard nicotine can help too, but smoking is horrible and nicorette causes hair loss, so be care with that.

The liver is the most important organ in your body. Make sure you’re kind to it. Both your liver and gallbladder are important when it comes to bile manufacturing, secretion and weight loss.

A bad liver shows itself in a bloated belly. Sometimes your persistent bloat is not from the fat you’re eating, but from the liver telling you to change what you’re doing.

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7. Imbalanced Gut Flora & Keto Constipation

You know the importance of gut health. Well, on the keto diet, gut health becomes even more important. If you’re not eating a well balanced ketogenic diet, your gut can suffer. Probiotics for constipation work, as well as other methods that help the good bacterias in your gut.

Good bacteria consume soluble fibers. The less fiber you eat, the less of these fiber-eating friendly bacteria you will have. Thus we have ketogenic constipation.

A high fat keto diet can lead to gut dysbiosis if you’re not careful…

Let me quote a fellow keto blogger on this issue:

Higher fat intake on a keto diet can also boost the numbers of fat-fermenting bacteria and lead to dysbiosis, which is a fancy word to microbe imbalance. There are luckily ways to prevent gut dysbiosis even while on a ketogenic diet. When dysbiosis is the culprit behind your keto constipation, your stool will become greasy, float, and smell really bad. The stool may also be pale due to fat malabsorption.”

So what are you to do when dealing with ketogenic constipation due to imbalanced gut flora?

Based on clinical evidence, these are the 3 of the best probiotics for constipation:

1. Bifidobacterium lactis DN-173 010: more commonly referred to as “Bifidus Regularis.” Hyperbiotics PRO-Bifido Probiotics for Adults contains this strain.
2. VSL #3 Probiotic Formula: Touted as an effective constipation probiotic, VSL3 has 8 different strains and has gone through multiple studies to prove its effectiveness.
3. Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12: TruBiotics Daily is a well-regarded probiotic supplement that contains this strain.

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8. Food Sensitivities

If the keto foods you eat are not among the top constipation causing foods, there is a chance that you are sensitive to a certain food without knowing it. And this food could be the main culprit behind your ketogenic constipation if you’re doing everything else right. For example, many people are for some reason very sensitive to both eggs and red meat. These are staples in ketogenic diets. Could you possible be extra sensitive to these? If you already know you can’t handle dairy well, then you have a higher chance to not handling beef well also (due to a “cross-reactivity related to cow proteins”).

More sensitive foods can be the harder to digest plant foods including seeds, nuts, grains and legumes. Grains and legumes aren’t a big deal for keto dieters, but plant foods may be. Remember, we are not designed like herbivore animals who have unique digestive tracts that allow for them to much on plants all day long…. think cows and their extra stomaches.

Fruits are very easily digested and there are a handful that you may think are vegetables but really are fruit!

• cucumbers
• avocado
• okra
• olives

These are wonderful fruits, not vegetables, that can help you battle your keto constipation without ruining you carb counts.

If a vegetable contains seeds, it’s a fruit. And it is easy to digest. Go for these on your keto diet.

This is why it’s important to not blame your keto diet on your constipation, but rather look at the foods that you’re eating. Meat and fat are easily digested. Certain fibers are not. And a lack of fiber is less of a cause of ketogenic constipation than a trigger food that you may be extra susceptible to. We’re all unique, so try eliminating some of the problematic constipation causing foods and see if that does the trick. It may work better than upping the fiber, as important as fiber can be.

One way to find out which foods you’re sensitive to is by going through a food sensitivity diet where you remove all potential problem foods and slowly add them back in until you can identify which is the one causing your ketogenic constipation.

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9. Stress & Constipation

This can definitely be a trigger that stops the bowels from working properly. Low carb diet constipation is very much connected to stress.

Remember, stress isn’t just mental stress.

Your body reacts to any form of stress the same way, so this can be physical stress combined with mental stress, something that may occur when taking on a new diet or just with life in general. Today’s fast paced world has us more stressed than the average person was years ago. Stress and constipation go hand in hand.

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Ketogenic Constipation Is Curable

Is constipation dangerous? Yes. But it’s also easy to remedy.

Weight loss both on the scale and physically to the eye is one of the better benefits of getting rid of your ketogenic diet constipation. But the benefits go far beyond that.

Chronic constipation can KILL you. You don’t care about having a bloated belly in pictures your tagged in on Facebook if you’re dying. Life becomes much less materialistic once you realize that.

How To Fix Keto Constipation

There is one constipation cure in particular that will work 100% of the time.

It’s psyllium husk.

It works so good that I think I can officially call it a cure. If this type of fiber for constipation doesn’t work for you, I’d be shocked and I will have to re-write this post. But this constipation cure alone, has literally saved my life (my personal story on how it did that is below).

There are many solutions you can try for ketogenic constipation, but before I go into all of them, including my #1 favorite must-have bowel movement creator, let me share why ketogenic constipation happens to us low carb eaters, and then I want to share multiple solutions for keto constipation that you can try – call it a constipation formula. And it includes a few foods, some easy lifestyle changes, and some good ol’ psyllium husk.

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Want to see what chronic constipation does to an otherwise healthy 32 year old? Here’s my personal story below. Right after it, I go into the #1 constipation cure and then several more remedies for constipation. All are natural and all help immensely, especially when combined to form an anti-keto-constipation game plan.

A Personal Keto Constipation Story

I was having severe constipation and I didn’t really know it.

I mean, I would “go,” but it was anything but regular.

And when you “go” every other day, you may think you’ve cleared your body, but in fact, you haven’t.

Your bowel movements may not even be letting it all out on those every other day sessions on your porcelain throne. This then can lead you towards something called chronic constipation… a very serious issue.

My mom recently came to visit me and the family and stay with us for a couple months. With her, she brought a large plastic baggie full of the same fiber-powder I’ve seen her drink every morning since I was a kid.

I asked her, what is that?

She said it’s what she’s been taking for 30 years every day (she’s 66 now and in great health). She didn’t even know what it was. I asked if it’s psyllium husk and she said YES, that is it!

I asked for some, and shared with her my story of my constipation issues I’ve had for A YEAR. I’ve ALWAYS had regular bowel movements, but this past year they went away. I attributed it to lack of exercise and salads.

She gave me her typical morning drink, a tablespoon of the psyllium husk in water and drunk right away fully. An hour later I emptied out what looked like pieces of dinner (full undigested rice – the brown rice berry type)

Sorry to get graphic, but I couldn’t believe it. Endorphins filled my body. I felt high. That’s what her drink did for me in a matter of hours.

I’m writing this post right now with my mom in the other room. I found a great psyllium husk source here in Thailand and now I’ve been taking the morning drink for 5 days now. Each of these 5 days I’ve had 2 bowel movements that were healthy and more than satisfying afterwards.

My body is thanking me.

Not only has my bloated belly gone away, I feel lighter, my brain feels more alert, and I think this is the tipping point to health issues I was dealing with all year (I came down with Uveitis, an inflammation of the eye disease. I also have been dealing with really bad swollen ankles after playing basketball, to the point where I had to stop playing.

I developed a Baker’s cyst in the back of my right knee from my old motorcycle that took about 30 hard kicks to get started, and that cyst that formed cuz of that damn bike has been attacking my right leg each time I do exercise that involves crouching (row machine made it turn into a tennis ball).

All of these issues are related to inflammation.

Why am I getting so inflamed?

One potential reason is my diagnosis of having the HLA-B27 gene marker, something 8% of all Caucasians have and something that is connected to inflammation of the joints and autoimmune conditions like reactive arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Uveitis, and others like Ankylosing Spondylitis. 80% of those with rheumatoid have HLA B27, but something like only 4% of those with the gene marker end up getting Rheumatoid… if you let your body go down, and you have this gene, you WILL come down with something bad related to inflammation.

So I HAD to take care of this inflammation issue if I was to live a normal life.

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The #1 Solution To Keto Constipation: Psyllium Husk

Psyllium husk is touted as a gastrointestinal detoxification fiber that can cleanse the colon. Hands down, psyllium husk works wonders. It’s really the main part of my constipation diet plan.

Psyllium Husk WORKS

It’s important to get a psyllium husk that is certified organic and NON-GMO. This plant can become tainted, and the manufacturing process can introduce additional additives that are no good. You need to choose quality when it comes to Psyllium Husk.

This Organic India brand’s Organic Whole Husk Psyllium is one of the good ones. It’s gluten free, kosher and all that good stuff. It has the USDA ORGANIC seal of approval, as well as over 1,200 very positive customer reviews.

No products found.

If all else fails, this one won’t.

I drink a 5g tablespoon mixed with water every morning (I make it a heaping tablespoon so it’s more like 6 or 7 grams), and now my keto constipation is a distant memory.

My mom’s been taking it for 30 years and swears by it.

And now I’m going to do the same and probably share this info with my son in 20 years if by the grace of God I’m still around to help him with any potential health situations I can help him with when he’s older. I’ll share with him how I got onto Psyllium Husk and how his grandma saved his poppa’s life. Because constipation is a silent killer that should never be ignored.

I feel like a kid again. That’s the joy that simple things like regular bowel movements can bring you.

Please, if you’re dealing with ketogenic constipation, MCT oil will help, exercise will help, proper water intake, low carb vegetables, and caring for your gallbladder and liver will help…

…but this psyllium husk is a long-term solution that when combined with all the other keto constipation solutions, has the power to improve the quality of your life and even extend it. It’s that powerful and that effective. I will forever be grateful for psyllium husk.

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Keto Diet & Psyllium Husk

Carbs In Psyllium Husk: No need to worry about this messing with your ratios. If you count NET carbs only for your keto diet, as you should, then you don’t need to worry about the 4 grams of carbohydrates per serving of psyllium husk powder because it’s pure fiber. It’s the perfect low carb constipation solution.

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More Ketogenic Diet Constipation Solutions

• Improved gut health with fiber

Fix your gut. If you need to take probiotics, a prebiotic, or start making green smoothies in the morning, just do it. Along with fiber you need to drink enough water.

• Coffee & other drinks

Coffee on an empty stomach does the trick sometimes. So does a freshly opened coconut. So does a morning Apple Cider Vinegar-Extra Virgin Olive Oil-lime juice and water concoction. So does a cup of warm water with lime juice first thing in the morning.

• Ketogenic Formula For Constipation

The ketogenic diet and constipation are no strangers to each other. Could it be the dairy? The vegetables you’re eating? The lack of vegetables? New diet stress? Or could it be a lack of exercise? Or a lack of keto supplements (or their equivalents in food form) potassium, sodium, & magnesium?

Use all the reasons that cause keto constipation, to create an effective formula for constipation.

For example:

• Start eating more prebiotic fibers and see if it works for you.
• If it doesn’t, then combine it with more exercise.
• If that’s still not working, look at your gut health and make sure your gut flora are balanced.
• Get in touch with your Creator and learn that life is precious and that the small things that drag you down in life are sometimes too small and you’re giving them too much power over your life. Life is special. Don’t let stress destroy it. If you’re in a bad situation, do what you can to help others and don’t drag others down with you. Helping others even when you’re the one that needs help, will help you stress less. This is just a personal insight, you can take it or leave it.
• By doing all these things, you may fix your problem of constipation on the ketogenic diet.

Treating constipation on ketogenic diet plans can be done by doing all these things listed above, and adding psyllium husk drinks in the morning. The psyllium husk addition will undoubtedly cure your keto constipation.

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Conclusion: There Are Many Keto Constipation Cures

We each have individual scenarios. You may be on medication that’s backing you up, and along with the keto diet, you’re facing a tough battle. If that’s the case, psyllium husk may be your #1 go-to solution like it is for me.

Maybe exercise and dealing with your gallbladder/liver problems will do it. Keto diets are not nice to sluggish livers, so you need to consider this when evaluating your circumstance.

For me, exercise ad psyllium husk completely cured my constipation woes that were beginning to slowly kill me.

Keto Constipation Is Real, Folks!

And it’s real-dangerous too.

Don’t ignore your ketogenic diet constipation.

I did, and I came down with multiple inflammation related issues and even one disease from it (Uveitis.. the hardest months of my life, but that’s for another blog post).

Please, if you’re on a ketogenic diet, and you have constipation, take care of it.

But don’t go run for some laxatives. This is a very bad solution that can lead to more constipation. Fiber for constipation is the way to go among the others. Just include more fiber foods in your normal diet.

Taking too much Senna (a natural laxative) to the point where your urine starts to turn brown is no good either. Senna works, but should be a once in a while thing or a part of some type of detox program. It shouldn’t be relied on as a keto constipation solution even though it’s “all natural.”

Vitamins for constipation are good, but if you can make it happen through your nutrition plan, that’s the way to go.

Some swear by an enima for constipation, but I have not researched this much, nor did I need to go this route.

Ketogenic diets help you lose weight. They help you get off the grains, and they help you become “keto adapted” so you’re not locked into carb addiction and the need to always have food during the day in order to not get shaky and weak. As long as you’re dealing with this ketogenic constipation problem effectively, then you should be able to enjoy all the positives that come along with a proper keto diet.

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Thanks for stopping by the blog.

I hope you got a morsel of beneficial information.

We wish you the very best in getting your ketogenic constipation cured, and remember, if nothing is working, just grab some psyllium husk.

Additional Info: 

• This Reddit Thread on Keto Constipation has some good solutions as well. I don’t see psyllium husk mentioned, but I see some other good ones. It’s a bit dated at 4 years old, but this is a subject that will never get old.
• This one is interesting. Someone asked a question on this subject on a PaleoHacks Question/Answer posting, and of the 9 answers, many say to eat more fat and to forget about more fiber for ketogenic constipation. This may work for you too. If you’re doing carnivore keto, then this would be the way to go. If not, then it still might work for you too.

I’d be interested to hear about your opinion on this subject in the comments! 

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