Best time of Day for blood ketones?

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #7

Evening is highest for me, before my 20/4 IF meal

(Allison B) #8

So, After a lengthy fast? What do your number usually run?

#9

Do you use coffee or caffeine pills to blunt your hunger throughout the day until your eating window arrives?

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #10

I’m a coffee drinker. It’s normal for me to indulge in an Americano (3 shots espresso) early in the day.

I’m used to IF, and my body doesn’t ask for food till late afternoon out of habit now.

#11

Of course you drink coffee black, right? If you add cream and butter then it’s technically not IF. Please clarify on that. :slight_smile:

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #12
(John Somsky aka KetoGrinder) #13

If you want to see how you are trending, then I think the best advice is to try to measure at the same time everyday. After all the goal should be to make the meter read as high as possible (although I’m guilty of that). It should be to measure how you are doing and evaluate if changes you are making are positive or negative.

But also keep in mind that the body is complicated, so readings can seem random. Unfortunately it may take more readings than are practical to completely overcome the natural variance. But you should be able to get a general idea if you are on the right track.

(Allie) #14

Morning’s for me are anything between 0.6 and 1.1
Highest reading I’ve had any other time is 2.4
Lowest I’ve had is 0.5 and that was after training one evening.

(Nick White) #15

Check out the “Dawning Phenomenon” that happens when you’re about to wake up. Your body somehow anticipates the start of the day and begins producing glucose. I haven’t tested how this affects my ketones, but it does affect my glucose. Highest reading I’ve gotten was in the evening.

#16

I’m now 3.5 months into ketogenic diet. Lately I check BS and Ketones morning (upon rising) and before dinner and before bedtime. I’m a boring eater. Eat the same breakfast everyday and dinners are a select few. I skip lunch. Contrary to most I have generally higher ketones in the morning. I don’t know why. My pre-dinner and pre-bedtime numbers are usually about the same and a little lower than mornings. I feel like I am seeing a general trend here. I have noticed fluctuations based on heavy activity and exercise which is usually weekends; and more typical numbers during the work week.
I enjoy tracking them, and good numbers are motivating; but the more I read about it- the less concerned I am, because as mentioned previously it is more complicated than it appears. For example, I am trying to wrap my head around how “efficiency” affects the readings i.e. what we measure are ketones not being utilized. I’m hoping that soon, I can stop monitoring all together. Good luck!

(marc heverly) #17

I completely agree with you Brenda. You can’t overthink this and learn to listen to your body. My first couple of weeks I was OCD macro nutrients but then my body started letting me know when and how much to eat!

(Adam Seal) #18

I am new to this but I noticed after completing a 16 day fast ( 10 just water and 6 coming off the fast) my Blood glucose was 64 and my Ketones were 4.8 (GKI .74) but after 3 days of eating 79%-20%-1% (fat-pro-carb) my blood glucose id now 61 and ketones 2.0 (GKI 1.69) Is that normal or have I done something wrong?

#19

Triplebgirl
Allison B
Jun 27
So, I got my Precision Xtra meter today. I got a reading of 0.4 :frowning: I expected higher. I’ve been doing Keto since April 10. I haven’t lost since losing 10 lbs in the beginning, but I feel like I’ve been in Ketosis for well over a month. Lot’s of energy, a need for much less sleep, decreased appetite and cravings. I keep my carbs below 25 net. What could be the problem? My blood glucose also is never under 90 for some reason, even when fasting. Any advice for me?? Thanks :slight_smile:

Try cutting the fat grams down. Need your body to use body fat instead of dietary fat for energy. The when you reach your goal weight you add back in fat grams till you stabilize.

#20

Double post

#21

Actually there is an analysis that says that the factor that keeps one fasted is the absence of carbs, not the absence of fats. However, for females who have not fully completed the climacteric - we have a profound biological wiring that throws us into starvation-mode fat storage rather quickly on behalf of the species - there is the argument that just a tiny bit of carbs (1 or 2 gms of half n half) added to the fatty coffee, helps the primal biology be successful at maintaining fat burning.

Also, IF with fats gives the digestive tract an enormous rest whilst feeding the brain’s neurological work. This plays a role in not only reducing enzyme load and enhancing the restoration of natural enzyme balance - but helping folks show up to things that benefit from an awake brain - like driving moving vehicles, producing at jobs and communicating in relationships!

I have been implementing IF with fatty coffee and 2gms carbs the last month and have found it remarkable for addressing the mama-bear belly fat (irrelevant to poundage as I don’t believe in weight scales for myself on more than a quarterly or yearly basis).

I’m a night owl and still becoming keto-adapted I think, in month 5 and as a midlife person at age 51. I occasionally check my ketones with ketonix sticks before bed, in the wee hours of the morning. Consistently high - and undisturbed by modest wine w/dinner a few times a week. I tend to be convinced that the real action of ketones is seen in blood levels - weak ketonix sticks during the day may not mean ketones are inactivated or “low”, they are at work in the physiology. This is apparently validated when one has the funds to get regular lab biomonitoring and medical overviews on progress, which is generally not covered by insurance (if one even has it).

(Consensus is Politics) #22

An observation concerning morning BG levels and Ketones in urine (currently the only ketone Test I have. I believe blood testing will show much different results as will breathalyzer results.)

I had heard about “sunrise syndrome” for diabetics. Before I was Dx with T2D I never heard such things. Never cared. I now do, so I’m interested in anything I read about it.

Sure enough, my BG levels were much higher in the mornings. Before Keto, my BG levels were hitting the low 300’s while on Metformin. An hour or two later before breakfast, it will have dropped into the low 200’s.

After starting Keto and quitting Metformin, my morning BG would be just under 110. An hour or two later, breakfast or not, BG levels would be in the 80’s.

Shorty after stating Keto I began testing urine for Ketones. I didn’t follow any pattern for testing, just whenever I thought about it. Results were very low. Almost no change in color. I stopped checking for a couple of weeks. Once I began testing again, I was testing first urine of the day. Wow… the Test strip was maxed out. Had me worried for a minute. So I tested again next time I had to go. Reading was down by 25% on the Test strip. A big difference, so I tested again the next time I needed to go (typically between 4 and 6 hours, I never bothered with checking the time). Progressively lower with each reading, and my bedtime reading was the lowest, barely reading at all. Next morning a complete repeat. I didn’t bother trying to log the results, but they were about as identical as I could remember. Same thing a few days later. I did 4 or 5 tests throughout each day with near identical results. Basically a slow reduction in urine Ketones until the end of the day.

A few days later I over indulged in a meal around 3pm. It included a few carbs, maybe as high as 5 grams, but that was it for the entire day. The next morning my BG was 134. I thought, that maybe, I just blew myself out of Ketosis. So I did a urine Ketone check and again it was maxed out.

I did some thinking. I was pretty sure riding my stationary bike for an hour would burn off the excess sugars, but what would happen to the ketones?

N=1 experiment it is. Bike for about 1 hour. Gave myself a cool down of about 20 minutes. Just relaxed a bit. Took readings again. BG level was in the 70’s and ketones were barely visible on the test strips. I went from one extreme to the other in less than two hours.

This leads me to believe that checking ketone levels by urine will be skewed depending on amount of exercise done prior to the reading.

The ketones in the urine are the excess ketones not used for fuel. So I would suspect not seeing any, or trace amounts just means that your body is simply using them. And if you want an accurate assessment of ketone levels, do blood tests or breathalyzer. I’ll be looking for one of those cheap alcohol breath testers soon.

(Kitty) #23

Maria Emmerich’s book says to test first thing in the morning in a fasted state.

(Betty Holden) #24

Allison - I’ve had that problem too. I’ve been on keto for about 4 months, and have not reached ketosis yet. I eat under 15 carbs per day, lots of fats and good vegetables. In the beginning I lost about 7 lbs. Then nothing. In fact, I have gained about 3 lbs back. I don’t get it. I’m doing something wrong, but don’t know what it is. Did you ever come up with a solution? Thanks!

#25

Have you tried fasting? It’s guaranteed to work. Just stop eating until you get into ketosis. Then resume eating and monitor it. You may need to do intermittent or extended fasting on a regular basis.

(Dan Morrison) #26

It sinters\esting to test, but more ketones doesn’t mean you are going to lose more weight. Don’t chase ketones. You will save yourself hard ache and money