I’m so confused…
The other day I ate pretty crap and the next day I was still in Ketosis at 1.5mmol
Currently have been fasting for over 38 hours and my blood ketones were 0.0, after not consuming anything except for water and a few drops of cream.
What the hell.
I’m not chasing ketones, I track them during most fasts, but assumed they’d be much higher.
I can’t understand how my fat adaption works into this. Surely I’d have SOMETHING in my blood. Argh.
What does this mean? How long ago and what did you eat? Could be enough to knock you out of ketosis.
40 grams of carbs, I can eat up to 60 and stay in Ketosis.
I have been fasting since Sunday night, it’s now Tuesday 11am.
It wasn’t even bad carbs, it was some sweet potato.
My normal readings never exceed 0.5 and ive been told that’s quite common with people who are fat adapted.
I’ve never seen 0.0 on my meter, i’ve always had a minimum of 0.2
Do you have any medical issues or take medication? I’ve read some medications can interfere with ketosis.
You know what, you might be onto something.
I’ve had a cold and have been taking cold and flu tablets. But they don’t mention anything on the packet about containing glucose or sucralose like my sore throat tablets, I stopped taking those 4 days ago. I only had 2. Maybe it was enough?
Other than that I am asthmatic and use ventolin.
Ketones can work that way. You were in ketosis, producing ketones. You ate carbs, which probably kicked you out of ketosis that next day, but you still had those ketones in your blood. Then you expelled them and were still not yet back into ketosis 38 hours after consuming the carbs.
There are a number of possiblities here. First, have you been eating this way long enough to be fat-adapted? Second, how much excess fat do you have? Ketone bodies are the product of the incomplete metabolism of fatty acids, and if you are fat-adapted, the liver doesn’t have to make as many ketones because your muscles mostly burn fatty acids now.
Also, since the amount of β-hydroxybutyrate measured in the bloodstream is BOHB your body hasn’t used yet, all a measurement of 0.0 can tell you is that you might or might not be producing BOHB, but if you are, your body is using all of it. If you are feeling well, your body has to be producing at least enough ketones to supply your brain’s needs, if nothing else.
I’ve been on Keto 5 months now so yes I am sure I am adapted, I can fast for 4 days without even feeling a flinch of hunger.
I have aproximately 17kg of body fat, at 26%
Your response makes sense also, that’s what I was assuming.
It’s harder to understand Ketosis and checking your ketones when you are fat adapted, sometimes the results are so confusing!
Maybe. I will test again now.
0.2 lol
I feel great though, I’m on hour 38, no sign of hunger yet.
It sounds as though you are okay. KCKO for now, and if you start feeling bad, or something weird happens, then re-evaluate. Let us know how things are going. :if there were a fasting icon, it would go here:
What do you think a fasting icon would look like? 
Im on hour 41 and Ketones are at 0.4 lol
What does your blood glucose look like?
Does your blood ketone meter do blood glucose too?
“…You will likely have some blood ketones in your bloodstream when your blood glucose levels are low, but they may not be at the levels that many consider to be ‘optimal ketosis.’ As shown in the chart below, if your blood glucose levels are at 4.5mmol/L or 80 mg/dL then you you might expect blood ketone levels to be somewhere between 0.3 and 0.7mmol/L. If your blood sugars are as 4.9mmol/L or 88 mg/dL your ketones might be somewhere between 0.4 and 1.1 mmol/L. …”
0.4
“…While measuring ketones can be interesting, they tend to be a much noisier measurement. As the glucose in your blood reduced your body will be forced to turn to your body fat stores, so you will increase your fat burning. Part of the reason that you may not see high levels of ketones in your blood though is that they are being used efficiently for fuel and not backing up in your bloodstream. So if you have limited funds for test strips and don’t want to be pricking yourself too often then I would focus on blood glucose levels. …” …More
PERCENTILE (BHB %ile)? WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?
Crowdsourced ketone and glucose values:
”… In late 2015 I pooled a range of data from myself and a number of people on the Optimal Ketogenic Living (OKL) Facebook group. After sharing this data initially, a number of other people sent me their data. Later, Michel Lundell from Ketonix agreed to share an extensive set of anonymised data for me to analyse.
I hope that this crowd-sourced data will help to provide more clarity about optimal ketone levels in a similar way to Dr Bernstein surveying the glucose metre sales reps helped to provide a better understanding of what normal ketone values are.
The chart below shows the sum of the blood glucose and ketones (i.e. total energy) from nearly three thousand data points from a broad range of people following a low carb or ketogenic dietary approach.
On the right-hand side of the chart, we have a high energy situation from both glucose and ketones. While not as extreme, high energy situation is similar to someone with Type 1 diabetes with high glucose and high ketone levels due to inadequate insulin. High levels of energy in the blood causes the pancreas to secrete insulin to hold the glycogen back in the liver and stop lipolysis (i.e. the release of fat from storage) until the energy in the bloodstream is used up.
On the left-hand side of the chart, we have a low energy situation. These people do not have too much energy floating around in their bloodstream. They are also likely insulin sensitive and can easily access their body fat stores for fuel.
As shown in my fasting ketone data above, we may see high blood ketone levels when we go without food for an extended period. However, trying to replicate high ketone levels with high levels of exogenous ketones or an oversupply of dietary fat will not provide the same positive benefits as endogenous ketosis.
Based on this crowd-sourced data it seems the body tries to maintain a blood glucose level of around 4.9mmol/L and a blood ketone level (BHB) of around 1.5mmol/L. The table below shows this data in terms of average as well as the 25th percentile and 75th percentile points. …” …More
I have to say that that data is suspect. Unless you get data from random people, you don’t have good data. Those people giving him data are a very select subset of people who actually take data, for instance.
Also, my morning reading today was 0.9 mmol/L BOHB and 96 mg/dL (5.3 mmol/L) or 6.2 on that scale (about 36 hours fasting). After a 50+ minute workout (no food, only coffee), the results were 0.3 mmol/L BOHB and 115 mg/dL (6.4 mmol/L), or 6.7 on that scale. Based on that graph, it appears I’m killing myself. But I have no control over this, and it’s just the way my body is right now. I can’t make my blood sugar go down if I’m fasting. It’s not possible. I only get into low blood sugar in the evenings (even if I eat low carb), as my blood sugar pattern is that my blood sugar nadir occurs around midnight, then rises until about noon or so, then decreases all day long. Food intake adds small bumps to this pattern, but this is my pattern, determined using a continuous glucose monitor. My last HbA1c was 5.0, and this is about as low as it’s going to go.
So, that graph is fearmongering.
Maybe you should discuss this with your treating physician?
I know nothing about your individual health conditions to comment either way!
Just a general exchange of information, read it or don’t read it, the choice is yours!
If your looking at the skull and crossbones that means it MAY NOT be a endogenous state of ketosis and has nothing to do with death (unless your blood ketones are too high 10+)!
My gut is telling me that you maybe dumped some ketones from the crap eating, so the body had to build them back up, but that you’re also becoming well adapted now, so the body is processing ketones more efficiently. I was well adapted probably around the 6 month mark. I’ve also never been able to go above 35g of carbs without concluding that I likely dropped out of ketosis (diabetic, so basing my thinking on glucose reading behavior instead of a ketone reading.) I noticed from tracking that though that during fasting my average glucose consistently increased a few points. It could be a combination of the crap eating having more carbs + a glucose bump from the fasting. If I know I probably got knocked out of ketosis or skirted a line, instead of fasting, I go back to < 20g carbs with high fat for a few days. My body seemed to switch right back over once well adapted; for me about 24-48 hours. Also, fighting a cold or something can really throw things off. I would imagine that if sick or fighting allergies that ketones would be used at a faster rate to provide energy to the fight.
The measurement of the ketones is making you nuts. If you were getting nutty results like this from the scale, everyone would tell you to weigh less frequently. 90% of the posts about ketone measurements is people bother and confused by their readings, with no actionable correction suggested.
This is why I tell people not to chase ketones. It only makes most people nuts.
That was an amazing amount of information, thank you @atomicspacebunny
