Blood Measure with Keto Mojo

(Susan Zelisko) #1

Hello everyone, I’m new to the group. I started Keto in June and doing pretty good. My weight loss is very slow (16 lbs so far) but I feel amazing. Originally I was testing my urine for Ketones which showed I was doing well. Then all of a sudden I wasn’t showing any in my urine. So, I bought a blood monitor. My last reading was 2.1 ml. So, please correct me if I am wrong, but that would mean my body is producing Ketones. Correct?

I’m just concerned since my weight loss has totally stopped for the past 2 weeks. Is that normal?

#2

That’s because those strips are designed for T1 diabetics to check for ketoacidosis. They don’t check for ketosis, just excess amounts of a single type of ketone body in the urine. That type of ketone body typically isn’t manufactured in quantity later.

If you are under 20 net carbs for several days, you should be in ketosis. No need to test. Testing levels can be unreliable anyway because the body gets more efficient at creating and using ketone bodies, so there may not be “excessive” amounts hanging around.

https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq#wiki_is_testing_for_ketosis_necessary.3F

Yup. Early weight loss is mostly water. Then the body needs to adapt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq#wiki_what_will_my_weight_loss_progress_look_like.3F

But there is a possibility you may be consuming too many calories. Being in ketosis is no guarantee of weight loss. Calories still count. Give it some time before you do anything. You can check your macros and track to see how well you’re meeting those macros?

(Susan Zelisko) #3

OgreZed, yes I do count my macro’s. My calorie count is between 1200-1400 a day. And I’m between 15-25 carbs per day. My glucose has been amazing!! Fasting glucose is now in low 90’s.

#4

Sounds like you’re doing things correctly. Just stay the course, or KCKO (“Keep Calm, Keto On”).

Unfortunately, caloric restriction is just a slow process to lose weight, no matter which diet someone is on. :frowning:

Unless someone has a lot of weight to lose. Some of those patients on My 600-lb life have lost over 60 pounds per month, for multiple months. But, as the doc on that program has said, “It takes a lot of calories to maintain a body that large.”

#5

Yes, at 2.1 mmol/L, you’re definitely in ketosis.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

As your body adapts to your ketogenic diet, your kidneys get better at scavenging ketone bodies and returning them to the bloodstream for use. Also, we think the liver gets better at matching production to need, once the muscles fully re-adapt to metabolising fatty acids. This is why the urine strips often stop registering the presence of acetoacetate in the urine.

The coiner of the term “nutritional ketosis” was Dr. Stephen R. Phinney, who defined it as a serum β-hydroxybutyrate level of 0.5 mmol/dL or higher. The range of nutritional ketosis rarely goes above 5.0 mmol/dL. (Starvation ketosis generally runs a bit higher.) The term was coined to distinguish healthy levels of ketone bodies from the types of levels seen in diabetic ketoacidosis. The latter doesn’t start being a concern until ketone levels rise above 10.0, and the ill effects of ketoacidosis aren’t generally seen until around 20.0, or so I understand.