Blood Glucose and ketone testing - interpreting results

newbies
science
(Naomi Brewster) #1

Hi everyone, I’ve been doing keto since 20/2/17 so 8 weeks now. I started monitoring my ketone levels about 18/3/17 and have been in ketosis every time. However, I notice that sometimes after I eat my ketone levels go up. For instance this morning before breakfast my blood ketone were 3.2. After breakfast they were 4.6 and 2 hours after they were 4.1. Does this suggest I am eating too much protein? I’m not sure how to interpret this.

Also, my glucose levels before breakfast were 4.4. After breakfast, 4.69, 2 hours after 4.6. I realise that this isn’t in a diabetic range but the fact that it seems to be taking me 3 hours after a meal to return to base rate indicates that I do have metabolic disfunction. I read Jason Fung’s book ‘obesity code’ and in that he suggests that fasting enables one to reduce resting glucose levels and improve spike lengths. Has anyone else been able to achieve this?

(bulkbiker) #2

4.4-4.69-4.6 that is well with the 15% variability of your meter if you are in the UK so your readings could all have been 4.5.
If your bloods had gone from 4.4 to 8.0 then you may have a problem . There’s nothing wrong with those levels be pleased.
If your ketone levels went below 0.5 then there is a chance you were coming out of nutritional ketosis. Your readings are great!
Don’t sweat you are doing fine…

(Naomi Brewster) #3

thanks Mark. I’m in Australia. So 15% variance between fasting reading and post-eating reading is the general rule of thumb then. Thanks. I don’t test all the time, just today I thought I would do a test over the whole day to see variances, I was just a little suprised by what I saw. Thank you for the reassurance.

(bulkbiker) #4

No the 15% is the permissable variance on your the readings from your meter…
i.e. if you meter shows say 5mmol/l then your actual blood sugar levels could vary from that reading by 15%.
Home meters aren’t that accurate so for those of us with Type 2 we tend to look at general trends rather than small differences in levels. Your differences are so small that it could just be the meter. If you want to waste a couple of strips you can take a reading then from the same bit of blood take another reading and the likelihood is they will be different.
Hope that makes it a bit clearer.
Regards
Mark