Bumped out of Ketosis?

[purezion]

Hello! I started my 16hr fast an hour or so ago and just peed on a test strip and found that I have only trace amounts of ketones! Can anyone please help? Will they go back up on their own in a fasted state, or should I break the fast to add some fat? I have included photos of my tracking for today. Thanks! (Ps- I know that the test strips are not that accurate, but I am only 1 month in and am still peeing purple all the time.)

[kaclp]

You’re not out of ketosis if you’re eating 7 g of carbs. And there’s no point in breaking a fast just to get higher ketone levels.

[lfod14]

Pee strips aren’t reliable and once you’ve been in ketosis a while are more or less useless. Eating fat isn’t what puts you into ketosis, not eating carbs is.

[amwassil]

You’re fine. Carry on. Ketones will take care of themselves. Your only task is to keep glucose and insulin out of their way and on a fast you’re doing that as well as it can be done.

[Chantarella]

Possibly you are burning those ketones. So urine shows less. Its ok.

[beccs]

Ketosis & Measuring Ketones: All You Need To Know | KetoDiet Blog

3. Urine ketone strips

Ketostix, Uriscan and other urine detection strips are not as accurate. They only measure the level of acetoacetate - excess ketone bodies that are not utilised by the body and are excreted via urine. Urine ketone strips can still be useful during the initial phase of the ketogenic diet when you simply want to test the level of carbohydrates in order to enter ketosis.

Some people use them to test if they are sensitive to certain foods that may be keto-friendly but still have a negative effect on their progress. They are easy to use and fairly cheap. You’ll pay about $10 for 50 strips, that’s $6 a month if you test yourself daily. If urine detection strips don’t work for you, use one of the other two methods.

[purezion]

Thanks everyone! This all makes sense. I thought that eating more fat would create more ketones vs low carbs actually does. For some reason I also thought that fasting would somehow boost my ketones too lol, but I see now that they are being burned.

[Fracmeister]

Pee strips aren’t reliable and once you’ve been in ketosis a while are more or less useless. Eating fat isn’t what puts you into ketosis, not eating carbs is.

I would emphasize the “less” in your statement. If you are in k you shouldn’t be urinating that much ketones

[amwassil]

@Fracmeister @lfod14 You may be interested in this.

Fat Adapted and Still Excreting Ketones in Urine: Survey

So we’ve all heard the reports that the lowly urine keto stix aka ‘pee sticks’ are only useful for the first few months for newbies. Once you’re beginning to fat adapt the wasted ketones, specifically acetoacetate, slowly and steadily decreases in the urine until the test strips show nothing. End of story. Maybe not. I recently became aware of anecdotal reports by fat adapted or presumably fat adapted individuals also showing colour on the strips months after they should be showing nothing. Wha…

[amwassil]

Thanks everyone! This all makes sense. I thought that eating more fat would create more ketones vs low carbs actually does. For some reason I also thought that fasting would somehow boost my ketones too lol, but I see now that they are being burned.

The human metabolism is an extremely dynamic system of complex biochemical reactions, some protagonistic others antagonistic. Ketones are a by-product of fatty acid metabolism. Their synthesis and utilization varies widely and rapidly. If there were such a thing as a ‘continuous ketone monitor’ that was cheap and portable, you could watch it all in live-action. Unfortunately, we’re out of luck and have to content ourselves with occasional peeks through a keyhole. So we don’t see the process ongoing, just snapshots.

About the best we can do is detect some ketones as evidence of ketosis and accept that they are taking care of themselves and doing whatever they need to do to keep us healthy. Eating lo/no carbs and fasting keep both glucose and insulin at low enough concentrations that they don’t interfere with ketosis. Generally, ketone concentrations will rise the longer you eat lo/no carbs and/or fast. Or maybe not. You could be using them as fast as your liver makes them and never detect anything. Your liver could be synthesizing ketones in overdrive way beyond what your body cells can use, and you’ll just pee out the excess. Or exhale their spontaneous break down product acetone.

[Fracmeister]

Interesting