@tiny
Nope, I don’t get above 2 very often. I only get above 3 if I’ve fasted at least 3 days or so (as best as I can recall). So, not very often. I do find the following several things very helpful.
I try to keep my meals discrete. I eat until I’m very full and keep meals to a 90 minute window. Then I don’t snack between meals (this becomes easier the longer you’ve been eating ketogenically and the more “fat adapted” your body becomes). I try to mostly stick to 2 meals a day. This lets me stretch the time between when I stop eating in the evening and my first meal of the day. This limits the times I’m getting increased insulin levels over the day. I believe controlling my blood glucose this way helps reduce inflammation which I believe helps control pain and aids in improving my energy. That said I usually have at least a couple of days a month when I am much hungrier. I eat more (and more often) on those days.
I also am becoming very vigilant in avoiding corn, canola and soybean oils (really I’m avoiding all seed and vegetable oils) which I’ve recently discovered cause me to have greatly increased inflammation with an accompanying noticeable impact on my pain, energy and stamina. This has complicated my meals since I no longer use purchased mayonnaise or creamy dressings but make my own using avocado oil.
I also use a good quality MCT oil as a supplement. I am using it to support mitochondrial health and biogenesis and it helps with brain function as well.
Here are a couple of articles (but not the one I remember reading before, I’ll add a link later if I come across it) that I came up after a quick google search: https://blog.bulletproof.com/mct-enhance-exercise-endurance-2b/ ; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5805166/
I don’t use any of the Bulletproof brand of MCT oil products but a different brand that contains C8 & C10 MCTs. If you decide to use an MCT oil, start slowly (with maybe a teaspoon a day) and build up from there. It also helps if you take it with food. Otherwise, people have reported incidences of disaster pants!
I also wish to note that the more effective your body becomes at using ketones, the fewer “excess” ketones you will find in either urine or blood. This is a normal progression that occurs as your body becomes more and more fat adapted. This is a GOOD sign. Here is a link from the tuitnutition website run by Amy Berger. I think it is very helpful in explaining this idea: http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2016/01/dont-be-a-ketard1.html?m=1
Edit: typo
