Best way to measure Ketone level

(Scootch) #1

Hi Eveyone,
I am a newbie, been doing Keto since the beginning of January 2018. I am mainly doing it for weight management. seeing nice results, and enjoying finding new ways to ketofy recipes.

Question - how are most people measuring their ketones? Am I doing this correctly?

I have purchased the following, and have noticed that my ketones are always fluctuating. I am tracking what I eat daily. sometimes low (1.5), sometimes medium (4.0)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SODYZQK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thank you,
Tony

Started Keto and have some questions
(Sarah ) #2

Spend your time money and energy on good food, that’s what really matters in a successful keto diet

(Chris W) #3

There are 3 ways of attempting to qualify and/or quantify that you are in ketosis.

  1. There are urine strips which test if you are spilling ketones in your urine. These provide some feedback when you 1st start Keto, but many report that as the body becomes better adapted, they become less informative.

  2. There are Blood Test devices, similar to blood glucose testers that quantify the concentration of ketones in your blood. Many people swear by these, but it is more of a measure of the availability of ketones than a reflection of the degree to which the body is using ketones for fuel. When the body is heavily using ketones for fuel, the amount in circulation may be relatively low.

  3. There are breath testers. These are said to most accurately reflect that the body is indeed burning fat as a fuel source, but still may not differentiate if it is burning dietary fat or body fat.

Many of us have all 3 of these devices and have chased numbers at various points on our journey, but in the end, there is little to be gained by trying to achieve a higher number on any of the devices.

For me, I find that I do best when I target an appropriate amount of high quality protein matched to my goals and activity level, paired with other quality, real foods that are very low in carbs. This will nearly always result in being in ketosis most, if not all of the time.

(Ethan) #4

These are pretty much useless for determining anything other than whether you are in ketosis for the first month. After that time, it’s likely that they won’t do anything.

I use a blood meter. I have two, but I have been using the Keto Mojo more now, since the strips are cheaper. I don’t test often anymore, since it doesn’t matter if my ketone level is 0.9 or 1.4. What does matter is how foods affect that number, especially relative to glucose. So I do test after I eat a new food that might be suspect. For example, let’s say I went out with friends to a restaurant and had only meat, but I suspect that the meat may have sugar added in its sauce. If I can, I will test both glucose and ketones PRIOR to eating to get a baseline. Otherwise, I just use my expected glucose and ketone levels for that time of day. (I have tested enough to know where I generally will be.) Then I test glucose 1 hour after eating and 2 hours after. If my glucose levels spiked (e.g., baseline was 90, 1-hour level was 120, 2-hour level was 130), then I have reason to believe I had too many carbs. I will test 6 hours and 12 hours later for ketones. If my ketones go below 0.5, I never eat that food again.

#5

That’s not what the creator of this thread asked for though… He asked for a good method of testing ketones.

Anyway, I use a keto mojo blood meter. It works pretty good and is accurate.

Link:

#6

I haven’t tried the urine strips, since it’s my understanding that they are the least reliable way of determining when you’re in ketosis.

The experts that I’ve read (and listened to in recorded interviews & lectures) say that testing ketone levels in the blood is the “gold standard”.

I own three testing devices, a Ketonix, which measures acetone in the breath, and two ketone testers for the blood.

I purchased the Ketonix first as I liked the idea of a one time cost. It works, but I find the warm up time - at least ten minutes - to be excessive. Also, getting an accurate result is highly dependent on technique. You must endeavor to expel as much air from your lungs as possible. I am able to sometimes get successive results which are close, but most often, the levels of acetone shown by back to back tests will vary quite a lot. So, clearly there’s something to be desired with my technique.

I also own a Precision Xtra which can be used for testing both blood glucose and ketones too. It functions okay, though in my back-to-back tests of blood glucose, it’s not uncommon to see a difference of 10 mg/dL or more from one reading to the next. By way of contrast, the Bayer Contour Next varies by at most 1 mg/dL in the back to back blood glucose tests that I’ve performed.

Finally, I also own a Keto Mojo. It, too, measures both blood glucose and blood ketones. The test strips that it uses are more affordable than those for the Precision Xtra. In some recent back-to-back testing using the same drop of blood, I saw 97, 92, 97, 100 for blood glucose and 2.0, 1.2, 1.2, 1.4 for blood ketones.

I’m now using the Keto Mojo for most of my testing. If I had to do it all over again, I’d only get the Keto Mojo for measuring blood ketones.

(Scootch) #7

Thank you everyone. this was very helpful