Hey there. Thanks for taking the time to click my post.

I weighed myself on July 4th, was 343lbs and decided, yeah... that's about enough of that. I fasted for 48 hours and then started eating Keto. I broke my caffeine addiction (just a personal preference, I know it's supposed to help with weight loss). I realize now that I was making a mistake for most of July and eating more protein than at, so my macros were a bit inverted there at the beginning. I figured it was okay, trying to preserve muscle mass myth, and didn't understand that excess protein is just converted to glucose.

My general calorie intake is between 1000 and 1500. Some days I will spike up closer to 2000, but really I just let my body tell me when I'm satiated and stop.

In the beginning I started walking and that was my sole form of exercise. I quickly jumped up to walking 6 miles at a time, 3-5 times a week. For the past few weeks I've also started swimming. When you've been away from swimming laps for a long time, it sucks to start back up and I've decided if I quit swimming again, I ain't going back. Frikkin hurts.

Two weeks ago I added IF to my routine. I went straight to a 20/4 (I'm horrible at moderation but great at extremes), so I basically get home from the gym or trail and have a salad immediately and then will cook myself something to eat. If I'm hungry again before the window closes I'll have some summer sausage or something similar.

The problem I've run into is I'm starting to have issues with cramping. I can't even get a mile done in the pool before the cramps start in. Usually a foot cramp, then I work that out, then the calf starts up. I work out the calf, then the muscle on the front of the shin... which is just a previously undiscovered circle of hell... and THEN the other leg is like, hey me too. I've since learned to not push it to that point. You can only hobble to the hot tub so many times.

This started immediately after I started IF. So the logical response of course is to stop IF dummy. BUT, I want to stick with IF, I want to see if the benefits it is supposed to have with loose skin are true. I'm 6'4", and my target is around 220, so I'm going to have a lot of it.

I started making my own ketoade with the recipe I found on here. 1/2 tsp of lite salt per 32 ounces, I found a magnesium supplement I just take as a pill, usually one or two a day, not with every 32oz I drink. I also started on a calcium supplement a few days ago, thinking that might be the problem. I'm typically drinking 2 to 3 of the 32oz ketoades a day and I'm throwing an avocado in with my salad.

Despite all this, I still cramped up yesterday in the pool at about the 36 minute mark. Before IF I was able to swim a mile no problem, even push it to 2 miles if I felt like it. Now, I can't finish a mile. I'm dropping around a pound a day again so I'm happy with that, but I want to continue to train and condition my body.

I understand that I have NOT given my body time to adapt to Keto or IF. I'm not a patient person by nature and I can't be one of those people content to grind out 10lbs of weight loss a month... not right now, not when I have so much to lose. I know it'll slow down later and if I can grind down from 250 to 240 in a month, that's a pretty good rate. But right now, I'm still over 300.

Is there anyone with any thoughts about what may be causing it. Do I need to drink MORE water or is the ketoade count as my water intake too? Because I'm not really drinking much water outside of the ketoade... that's my experiment today. One Ketoade this morning and then lots of water before I hit the pool later this afternoon.

Thanks.