2 questions for a newbie thinking about switching

(Jawshoewah) #23

Explain how an alcohol breathalyzer works to tell you that you’re in ketosis. My mind is blown

(Rob) #24

The cheap ones can’t separate alcohol and acetone. The expensive ones can so aren’t useful for keto. Go figure? :exploding_head:

(Chris W) #25

When in ketosis your liver produces the ketones as a by product, there are 3. The first is actetoactate its the first form. The second and third are created from the breakdown of the first and BHB and acetone is created. The urine strips pick up excess actetoactate which the body has gotten ride of, the breath meters pick up acetone, and the blood meters pick up on the BHB which is generally considered the one you get a ketone level from.

(Jennifer ) #26

Dude it’s been 6 years of keto & research and I’m still learning boatloads every day. You know how the old saying goes…the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. I even did a year as a pro athlete while eating keto, including my bulking and training season.

A lot of us don’t use a meter. We just keep track of our food to make sure we’re in the conservative zones of carbs (under 20 net grams), and protein (I’m trying to lose weight, so I’m about .5 grams per kg of lean mass.). In the first 6 months, I weighed every piece of food I ate to be double sure.

In terms of protein, Jason Fung has some interesting things to say. I’m paraphrasing, but when the “powers that be” set the recommended protein goal, they took the data that suggested a recommended dose between .3 and .8 grams per kg of lean mass…and they rounded up just to be safe. Hence how we got to 1-1.5 grams. In fact, the United States eats more protein than any other country.

I guess part of going down the keto rabbit hole is accepting just how much guesswork, manipulation, and BS goes into the “common sense advice” that we get.