Differences in ending ketone levels for 4.5 day fasts separated by 3 years

(Bob M) #1

4.5 day fasts, water + black coffee only, separated by about 3 years. Shows how “efficient” my body became with ketones:

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#2

Thought provoking data Bob. Fits with the thoughts that metabolic adaptation does not ‘waste’ the ketones over time.

(Bob M) #4

I think that’s true.

Now, I actually made this because someone on Twitter said that since I got 0.1-0.2 mmol/l blood ketones, I wasn’t in “ketosis”. He irked me. So, I did what I do best: overwhelm him with data.

And I created the above chart specifically because some people believe protein affects ketones. While I have my doubts about that, I wanted to show an example that is completely devoid of protein (or fat or anything but coffee or water). This removes any food as a variable.

It’s obvious something changed in three years. It’s still not clear to me exactly what, but I’ve restarted taking ketones…and I’m still at 0.1 or 0.2 mmol/l every morning.

Now, not all people are like this. Some people can still get higher ketones than I do, even though they’ve been in ketosis as long or longer than I have. I don’t know what the difference is.

I do note the right part of my spreadsheet goes from Monday to Wednesday but the date is only one day off. I’m not sure what’s up with that, but I specifically searched for “4.5” since that’s the number of days I used to do a long fast. I know then ending days are correct, and I specifically remember that 1.9 mmol/l, as I thought it was low for fasting that long.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

:+1: :rofl: :bacon: :bacon:

(Doug) #6

Bob, :clap: great post - there is so little of this kind of information around. Excellent to see real world, individual examples.

(Central Florida Bob ) #7

Individual differences. We’re all the product of an endless variety of nature and nurture. I haven’t done blood ketone tests in years, all I’ve used is one of the cheap breath alcohol meters. I’ve noticed that my usual levels have gone down and wondered if the cheapo meter is aging out or if I’m changing. Could be both.

My wife’s have even gone lower than mine.