Hi. I started the keto diet 9 days ago. On the 3-4th day, my ketones were 8+ On the urine strip and alarmed me, but my ac1 averages around 5.3-5.4 I use the strips everyday and average around 3.5-8 no matter when I test. Is this dangerous or is my body just not that good yet at burning the amount of ketones it makes? Will my ketones eventually go down to normal levels? And will that mean my body is more efficient in burning fat and I’ll see even more benefits?
I feel pretty good and my neck pains and headaches I use to get before are practically gone! I have high blood pressure, some plague in my arteries and have inflammation. After going from one doctor to another who kept giving me pills as they were perplexed as I am only in my 40s. I took a statin and blood pressure meds on and off for a 3+ years and felt terrible, my blood pressure was high and inconsistent, went up to 155 pounds at only 5 feet tall, lost most of my hair, have intense major neck and head pain throughout the day, can’t sleep, high cholesterol, I’m uncomfortable tired and nauseated all the time! Finally, I had enough! Maybe not wise, but I just stopped taking all meds and began keto carnivore and 16/8 IF with 2 meals daily while adding a supplement. I have energy now and can walk across a room without wanting to throw up, and no longer falling asleep during the day, no more me I or head pains!! my hair isn’t falling out in clumps anymore, I sleep better with some trips to urinate, lost 4 pounds so far, etc…
I guess my next step is to get full panel blood work after doing this for at least 2 months.
My last question is about fresh herbs and vegetables. If I add them back and eat large amounts, yes I can eat 100 fresh herb leaves(mint, Ong choy, perilla…) in one meal, will these help my body better burn the fat and/or ketones my body seems to be able to make in abundance? Thanks in advance for reading my story and giving your advice.
Am I totally abnormal?
Urine strips are good for telling you your dehydration levels. Not much use for anything else. My breath ketones can be in the higher ranges, when ketostixs show nothing or barely register.
Glad you saw health benefits right away.
Get the blood work but keep in mind if you were a heavy carb eater, your LDL will probably be higher than you want early on, it will work its way down. Your HDL should rise and the triglycerides should lower nicely. But it will take time. For more on this check out
Eat any carbs you want, just keep them below 20 grams. If you eat much more than that in the earlier stages you will get hungry, so do yourself a favor and keep the carbs lower. There are good infograms on carb counts per 100 grams serving on
I suggest you visit those for an easy reference point, there are links to fruits, beverages etc. on that site. .
Good luck in your efforts.
Ketostix are not designed to test for nutritional ketosis. They are designed for type 1 diabetics to test for one kind of ketone behind being excreted as waste. As a consequence of not having any insulin to stop the body from creating them.
Sounds like the diet is working. Keep it up. Most doctors are trained to prescribe pills. Let food be your medicine…the right food.
That’ looks normal and that’s not high at all, it would almost be impossible for them be too high consistently. You should only test ketones when in a fasted state or morning when you wake up and if you go above 3.0 that means it is time to eat especially if blood sugars are low and you are not feeling so well.
VERY dangerous to simply stop taking your blood pressure meds. Measure your blood pressure daily and check! I think it is really better to take these pills until you see that you are overdosed and then let go of them. Not before.
Unless you want to get blood work done now, to establish a baseline, wait till you’ve been eating ketogenically for at least six months. The reason is that, although some issues (such as liver enzymes, blood pressure, and markers of inflammation) tend to resolve quite quickly, your cholesterol numbers after only two months are likely to alarm your physician unduly.
While the cholesterol scare is based on little or no actual evidence, most physicians are trained to worry about it, and the statin industry has a vested interest in keeping people (and their doctors) worried about their cholesterol levels. Most people find that their cholesterol numbers look quite good by the time they’ve been keto for six months, so if you care what your doctor thinks, discretion is the better part of valour.
You should see a fairly quick resolution to your hypertension once you go keto. A high-carbohydrate diet causes high blood pressure, because the chronically high insulin level resulting from too much glucose in the blood interferes with the production of nitric oxide (NO), which is the primary chemical the body uses to regulate blood pressure. With your carb intake low, and your insulin levels falling, NO production is soon restored. Anyone taking blood-pressure medication who decides to go keto should therefore be working with his or her physician to monitor blood pressure and reduce the dosage of the medication accordingly. Most ketonians find that they can quickly get off their hypertension medication.
When you say blood pressure resolves quickly, do you mean a month or 6 months? My top number averages right under 120 but that darn bottom number still fluctuates around 75 to 95, averaging about 88. I’m now on day 11 of keto and don’t expect changes instantly, just wondering. Thanks for your information, I think I’m going to wait 6 months before blood work testing. I just don’t want to deal with the “you must be on statins or you will die” scare lecture anymore. I’m thinking of doing a quick lipid panel at a nearby lab and just pay out of pocket just to see my baseline.
Blood pressure should come down fairly quickly. A reading of 120/88 is not bad, but it will probably improve as you go along. My reading is generally around 112/70, when I’m not nervous about visiting the doctor, that is!