Hey guys,
This is just a short post (by my standards, so…not short) because I hadn’t seen it written anywhere else. I have seen a lot of different expressions of joy and frustration with results from the ketone urine test strips. Of course, it has been written about extensively here that these are strips that are testing only for acetoacetate in the urine and are therefore not a great data point for understanding what is going on metabolically in terms of what your body is actually using for fuel.
These simple and only let you know that your body is actually producing one type of ketone and in an amount that is detectable in urine (and therefore, not actually utilized in energy production…because you peed out that ketone instead of it being used for energy…we’re all on the same page on this, right?).
I found them interesting to use in a particular way that is helping me understand how well my body is fat-adapting as opposed to “proof I am in ketosis.” In the past little over 3 weeks or so, I went from producing none morning and evening (days 1-3) to moderate (days 4-7) to high (days 7-17) back to moderate (18-20) to low-low moderate (21-present), while my net total carbs have gone from about ~20 most days to now, pretty naturally, between 5-10, so I feel confident that I haven’t been kicked out of ketosis and that this is indicative that my body is utilizing the ketones it is producing more efficiently.
I usually read about people early on looking for consistently “dark” results" or people well into keto looking for pretty “light” results, but I am approaching this as a continuum and a relatively minor, inexpensive data point.
I don’t think that the strips are necessary at all, but if you are new and going to be using them, perhaps don’t be discouraged by the fluctuations, but think of it a little more holistically in terms of what the changes in colors over time might be signaling. I am looking forward to getting my blood results back in the next few days so I can better understand the bigger picture, but in the interim, I found both the initial increase in acetoacetate reassuring and I have found the rapid decrease in excreted acetoacetate without any carb increase similarly reassuring. It has been a tidy arc that is supported by my more subjective markers of ketosis, to date.
I totally, totally get it. It can be really reassuring to have a tiny visual indicator that yes, your body, like all other bodies, is capable of producing these magical molecules called ketones that we spend so much timing talking and thinking about, but can’t really visualize in our bodies. I totally get that. Just remember to take the results with a grain of salt, remember that they do NOT tell you if you are in ketosis, and don’t get too hung up on what color you are producing at any given moment.
If you use them, promise yourself you won’t panic with any individual result (in this sense, these are nothing like pregnancy tests 
) There will be fluctuations, and those fluctuations should be more meaningful to you than any one result in isolation (unless you are type 1 Diabetic, in which case, I hope and trust that you know enough to know to please already disregard this post!)
Okay, and hopefully if I did this right, this will link you to @BillyJay’s great summary of what strip results “mean” or, more accurately, what they’re really measuring:
https://www.ketogenicforums.com/t/keto-sticks-and-what-it-means/5701/2
Did I do the thing? Did it work? Internets are hard.
xoJGL