Always at the low end of ketosis, why?


(Vic) #1

I have a question, just out of curiosity.

I own a Ketonix breath analyser. I used it intensively when I started keto almost 3 years ago. It was always reading sky high when I was loosing the weight in the beginning.

For the last 2 years it is always reading low, around 6ppm. Even after a 24h fast it will read low nutritional ketosis

Ketostix show the same thing.

I don’t own a ketomojo.

I was wondering.

Is it the high protein way of eating?
50%P 50%f zc
Or 270gr protein, 120gr fat, 0gr carbs.

Or is it the extreme fat adaption ?

I just seem to be always in ketosis but not breathing or pissing them out.

Just curious?
Should I buy a keto mojo just to satisfy my curiosity?


(Carnivore for the win) #2

There are dozens of results with good answers on the subject if you use the search function in this forum.


(Vic) #3

Thx for the link.

Did your levels go down / change after keto and then after a year carnivore?

Do you care/manage the amount of proteins you eat?


(Carnivore for the win) #4

My breath ketones bounced around quite a bit when I started carnivore, but the normal breath reading for me was 2.5. some readings were less than one and some were over six. Not sure how accurate my meter is.

I had been fat adapted for well over a year when I started ZC. I haven’t checked my breath ketones in almost a while. I should dust of the meter and see if it’s still works. My gauge for ketosis is a metallic taste in my mouth, and that has been pretty much constant two and a half years.

These days, I don’t monitor anything other than how I feel, and if I’m hungry or full. If I eat too lean, I start to feel sick, so I add extra fat with my meat, usually just some butter.


(Carnivore for the win) #5

Had to recalibrate the Qetoe ketone meter after months of it sitting in the box. Ended up reading 2.7, which is about normal for my breath reading.

I added some butter to my fairly lean sirloin steaks yesterday.


(Vic) #6

So pretty much the same, low ppm readings after long time carnivore, nonetheless always in ketosis. :sunglasses:

I could never tell with taste if I was in ketosis, not even when the ketonix was reading 60ppm.
Guess I destroyed my taste butts smoking cigarettes when I was younger.

Yep, made a lot of stupid mistakes in my days, smoking and junkfood amongst the worst :relieved:


(Carnivore for the win) #7

Same here.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #8

Since ketones in breath and urine are being wasted, they are not the best indicators of the production and consumption of ketone bodies, especially as the body gets more efficient at not wasting them. Moreover, while we can use urine strips and cheap breath meters to provide indications of ketosis, the former were developed to provide Type I diabetics with enough advance warning of a possible crisis to get to the hospital in time, and the latter were developed to keep drunk drivers off the road. So it is to be expected that they are not as well-adapted as they might be to providing us ketonians with the information we want.

Not only that, but even measuring serum β-hydroxybutyrate tells us only something about the gap between production and consumption, not about the amount of ketone bodies being produced in the liver and consumed everywhere else. The best indicator I’ve seen is a somewhat joking comment I read on these forums: If you are not eating carbohydrate and are still breathing in and out, then your liver is producing ketone bodies.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying you’re doing fine. Keep calm, and keto on.


(Joey) #9

Yup - to everything @PaulL said. +1

… blood serum BHB levels (e.g., a KetoMojo) will tell you pretty much the same story. Unclear how that will satisfy your curiosity? :thinking:

You’re doing great. Enjoy your improved health and well being. Happy 2021! :vulcan_salute:


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #10

Unless there’s a medical reason to maintain ketones at some arbitrary concentration, measuring ketones is interesting, but primarily simply to confirm ketosis. So-called ‘deep ketosis’ is a nonsense term. Your liver synthesizes what what you need and eventually gets pretty good at matching output to need. Keep carbs low and you’ll be fine.


(BuckRimfire) #11

I stopped taking the Ketonix seriously after I realized that they have a false-positive disclaimer in their FAQ. My thoughts in full at this old thread:


(Vic) #12

I see, thanks, thats answers it.
No ketomojo, the money goes to a few lobsters, let see if that satisfies.


(Joey) #13

SHORT REPLY: Make sure there’s plenty of melted butter on hand for those lobsters!

LONGER REPLY: I confess that I have a Mojo and used it a lot for a while - but it stopped telling me anything even remotely useful after a while.

Since I’ve run out of strips, I essentially stopped using it. Sure, it was “interesting” for a while as @amwassil notes above, but it just doesn’t offer up anything actionable. So even though the strips are cheaper than others (about $1 each for BHB levels), it got to be more wasteful than useful for my own purposes.

FWIW, before too long my BHB levels began to hover around the bottom of the “reported” range - primarily because my production vs consumption of ketones were (and remain) pretty much in sync.

My ketones must be sufficient to keep me going … because I’m not eating more than about 20-30 g/day of carbs - and these are merely the extraneous grams found in eggs, green veggies, and the like. I feel amazingly good. Moreover, I’m not dead :wink:

So again, Vic, you’re on the right track and - unless you’re just a data freak - you aren’t going to get much joy by drawing blood on a regular basis (and fussing over what hopefully have settled down to very low ketone numbers).

Better to chow down on those delicious butter-drenched lob’stahs’ . :lobster:

Enjoy!


(BuckRimfire) #14

I’ve been meaning to use my KetoMojo to do an experiment, but have been too lazy. I’m fairly ambivalent about them, but my wife likes to indulge sometimes in the cheating(not-cheating?) low net-carbs items like Franz keto bread and Carb Balance tortillas. My plan was to have a repeatable (carefully weighed) and strict dinner (e.g. some roast pork and broccoli), then in the morning test, eat some eggs and one of the cheat items, then test again a few hours later. Then repeat the next day but replace the cheat item with an equal number of grams of something like cauliflower or spinach. Get an n = 2 or 3 for each condition and see if there’s anything consistent about the readings. If I ever get off my butt and do this, I’ll report, of course.


(Joey) #15

Using the Mojo for self-experimentation can be its most useful purpose. Food for thought: I found Mojo’s glucose test (much cheaper strips than the ketone strips!) is really the more relevant way to discover which foods have a significant insulin effect on your own unique n=1 metabolism. Ketones are interesting, but remember: it’s all about the insulin.

A sudden drop in glucose strongly suggests that your body has released a surge of insulin. And you can run through a series of glucose test strips every 30-60 minutes for a few hours before/after eating without breaking the bank.

OTOH, if you’re truly restricting your carbs, you’re in ketosis. That’s the only way your brain could continue to function without shutting down. Period. :vulcan_salute: