The Adrenal Fatigue Diet

author avatar Dr. Eric Berg 08/31/2023

Have you tried the ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting, and you still haven’t been able to come close to your health or weight loss goals? Don’t get frustrated or lose hope. There may be something deeper going on. You may be dealing with something called adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue can have significant effects on your overall health—even affecting your ability to lose weight. Thankfully, there is an effective and natural option you can try, that I think will really take you to the next level. It’s called the adrenal fatigue diet.

In this article, I will cover:

Stressed and tired woman at work | The Adrenal Fatigue Diet


 

What Is Adrenal Fatigue?

  • Sleeping problems

For example, you’re exhausted, but you can’t fall asleep quickly, or you can’t fall asleep at all. You may also feel the need to take a nap during the day.

  • Inflammation/Aches

Your anti-inflammatory hormones may be low, causing your entire body to feel achy.

  • Brain fog

Examples of brain fog could be: finding it hard to focus, the inability to absorb information, or entering a room and forgetting why.

  • Low tolerance to stress

People get on your nerves easily, and you constantly feel on edge.

  • Breathing issues

You may have breathing issues when you do something like walk up the stairs. You may also feel like you can’t get enough air at night.

  • Sinus issues

You may often have sinus congestion, or you’re prone to allergies.
 

How to Test for Adrenal Fatigue

A simple test to see if you may have adrenal fatigue is called Ragland’s Test. This test involves taking your blood pressure while lying down for a few minutes, and then taking it again after you stand up.

A person’s normal blood pressure should be 120 over 80, even when lying down. After you stand up, it’s normal for your systolic pressure to raise 6 to 10 points. For example, a normal reading after standing might be 126 over 80. However, with adrenal fatigue, the systolic pressure will either excessively raise or excessively decrease.

Top-view of box with fresh organic vegetables | The Adrenal Fatigue Diet


 

What Is the Adrenal Fatigue Diet?

Another name for the adrenal fatigue diet would be the adrenal body type diet. I’ve mentioned the adrenal body type diet before in my other blog articles and videos. I even have a book called “The Healthy Keto Plan,” where I talk extensively on this subject as well as other body types. But, I want to give you a quick bite-size version of this important information.

Basically, the adrenal fatigue diet plan includes additional steps that you can take to help improve your results after you’ve tried healthy keto combined with intermittent fasting. The adrenal diet helps to reset the body and increase recovery. The adrenal gland is a stress gland. If you take a look at all of the different body types, this is really the most common one. Our body type quiz will help you understand more about your specific body type.

I believe the adrenal body type is the most common simply because the average person goes through a tremendous amount of stress, and the adrenal glands really take a beating from that. But, the adrenal fatigue diet, may finally help you recover, heal, and start to lose weight.

Why Would Someone Do the Adrenal Fatigue Diet?

If someone believes they may have adrenal fatigue, their go-to diet may need to be the adrenal fatigue diet plan to get the most success. But, another situation where you may want to try the adrenal fatigue diet is if you tried the healthy keto diet combined with intermittent fasting, and you didn’t have any luck with it.

If you do the basic plan (healthy keto and intermittent fasting), and you’re not getting the results you’re looking for, then it’s time to move on to one of my body type diets. This includes the adrenal body type diet if your situation has to do with a problem with the adrenals.

When Would Someone Do the Adrenal Fatigue Diet?

While the healthy ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting is effective for many people, it’s not the perfect solution for everyone. Let’s say you gave it your very best shot for two weeks, but this diet plan just isn’t starting to give you the results you’re looking for, then it may be time to try the adrenal fatigue diet plan.

Happy and healthy woman taking a bite from a fresh salad | The Adrenal Fatigue Diet


 

How to do the Adrenal Fatigue Diet

Let’s first talk a little bit about adrenal fatigue and weight gain. Can adrenal fatigue cause weight gain? Unfortunately, yes. Not only can adrenal fatigue affect your ability to lose weight, but a chronic problem may also cause weight gain. However, the adrenal diet may help support your ability to lose weight and prevent weight gain.

Here’s how to do this effective diet plan.

1. Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting

It all starts with healthy keto and intermittent fasting. It’s very important you do this basic diet for two weeks. You may not even need to do the adrenal support diet if this combination works.

A healthy keto diet involves:

  • Low-carb: up to 20-50 grams of carbs per day

  • Moderate-protein: 3-6 ounces of high-quality protein per meal

  • High-fat: 100-130 grams per day (70% of the calories)

  • Plenty of vegetables: 7-10 cups of veggies per day (vegetable carbohydrates don’t count against you)
     

You’ll want to combine the basic keto plan with intermittent fasting. The main thing with intermittent fasting is not to eat if you’re not hungry. So, let’s say you typically have three meals a day with snacks. With intermittent fasting, first, you’ll want to cut out snacks. After some time, you’ll want to skip breakfast if you’re not hungry and wait until noon to eat. Over time, you’ll want to give yourself a four-hour eating window where you eat your meals and fast the rest of the time. This will give you 20 hours of fasting, which can produce some really amazing results.

If this first part doesn’t work, you’ll want to move on to these next steps.

2. Adjust the Amount of Protein You Consume

Start increasing the amount of protein you consume. Instead of 3-6 ounces of protein per meal, try consuming 7-9 ounces of protein per meal. Adrenal hormones break down muscle protein, so if your body is in a state of adrenal fatigue, you are breaking down muscle protein. You may need to replace that with protein by increasing the amount of protein you consume per meal.

3. Adjust How Much Fat You Consume

Many people aren’t consuming enough fat. With an adrenal issue, you may want to try to keep the fat you consume on the higher end of the spectrum. Some good high-fat foods for adrenal fatigue are avocado, egg yolks, and coconut oil. You do not want to do a low-fat diet. The adrenal hormones are made from fat, so we want more fat to help support the adrenals.

4. Get These Key Nutrients

The key nutrients to consume on the adrenal fatigue diet are:

The more stress you go through, the more you burn up vitamin B1. Nutritional yeast is a great source of vitamin B1.

A lot of the vitamin C in your body is stored in the adrenal glands. You need vitamin C to make adrenal hormones. Typically, if someone has adrenal fatigue, they are deficient in vitamin C. Make sure to get your vitamin C from whole foods or supplements that are made from whole food concentrates.

Potassium is really important for the adrenals because the more adrenal fatigue you have, the more deficient in potassium you’re going to be. Potassium supports your adrenal glands.

  • Vitamin B1

  • Vitamin C

  • Potassium
     

5. Exercise

Get exercise by taking a long walk outside. By long, I mean for about an hour. Get outside and get into nature without distractions. Get some space. It’s vital to get oxygen to help reduce the stress on your adrenals.

6. Try This Stress Technique

I developed a unique stress technique to help extract stress from the body. I go in-depth into what this stress technique is and how to do it in my Stress Webinar. This webinar is full of incredible, valuable information that will not only be beneficial to help with your adrenal fatigue but your overall health.

Watch the full stress webinar by clicking here: Stress Webinar

 

Should You Try the Adrenal Fatigue Diet?

If you have adrenal fatigue, or the healthy ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting hasn’t worked for you, it may be time to give the adrenal fatigue diet a try. This diet plan is designed specifically for people with the adrenal body type. It helps support the adrenal glands and promotes healthy weight loss.

If you’ve been struggling with weight loss, I know it’s easy to lose hope. But, with the right plan, the right nutrients, and the right knowledge, many people have found success—and I think you can too. Give the adrenal fatigue diet a try and see how effective it can be for you.

Up Next: -

Disclaimer: Our educational content is not meant or intended for medical advice or treatment.

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated for quality and relevancy.

Tags

Healthy Keto Guide for Beginner

FREE Keto Diet Plan