Anybody know what's going on with these levels during fasting?


#1

I’ve had this experience more than once with 24-48 hour fasts, and it’s very puzzling. Maybe some old hands here have a theory?

I eat ketogenic routinely, so when I start a weekend fast, my BG is around 90 and I blow around 12 ppm on the Ketonix meter. After being fasted for 36 hours (just water, salt, a mug of bone broth and splashes of heavy cream in my coffee) I find that the BG is 115 and Ketonix says around 5 ppm! In other words, fasting seems to take me lower on the ketosis range! That seems to be just weird to me… How is that even possible?


(Sascha Heid) #2

I had a similar experience not long ago.
Using the ketonix sport i was stuck in the middle range and decided to increase fat and restrict protein.
This worked and my ketone-levels registered higher every day.
Then i fasted for about 36 hours and my ketones supposedly crashed, I went from a range of 25-30 (30 is max) during the feast to 7 during the fasting day.
I don’t think my metabolic rate crashed to a quarter of what is was during the feast, i was barely hungry. Supposedly the ketonix measures the amount of ketones that have been used, but it doesn’t look like it.


(KCKO, KCFO) #3

Your body has released stored sugars, ya, your fat stores some of that for when you need it like a famine or in your case a fast.

This is talked about on several of the podcasts out there. The Dudes joke about getting your energy from that dunkin donut you ate a while ago. Jimmy Moore has one about it, can’t remember which one, been listening to too many of them lately.


#4

Hmmm… I dunno. My understanding is that sugar is stored as glycogen, for fast release. But that should be depleted by that stage in the fast. So since I am already fat-adapted, I should be turning fat into ketones, which would give a rise in ketone levels (especially in the breath), and a drop in blood glucose…not the exact opposite! It may be from that dunkin donut, but it would be from the fat that your body converted the donut to in order to store it.

I still haven’t managed a logical explanation for my observations, and seemingly nobody else has either!


(KCKO, KCFO) #5

I think they used the term sugar for laymen, since it is common to say blood sugars. Of course it is glycogen with in the fat cells that is released, which will result in a raise of your BS levels. Lots of people report the spikes.


(Michael King) #6

Perhaps your body is using the ketones during the fast for energy and not replacing the amount used. I’ve heard of people measuring their ketones before working out and then thinking after a workout that working out messes up ketosis because their ketone readings drop for a time. Seems like you may be experiencing something like that.