Explain this

(Rusty Lee Rusk) #1

I keep my carbs at 20gm a day or lower. On days I don’t work I can turn a ketostik purple but days I work I sticks hardly change color at all. My job is fast paced and reasonably physical. I thought maybe I was burning fat just sitting around and kicking into carbs on days my activity levels are up but I thought at 20 grams a day I would burn those up pretty quick and have nothing but fat to use for energy.

(TJ Borden) #2

Easy explanation. Keto sticks are pretty much only good for detecting if ketones are present. They’re worthless for checking keytone levels. If checking your actual keytone level is important to you, get s blood meter. Personally, I don’t think the keytone levels are important anyway.

(Rusty Lee Rusk) #3

I agree, I know the sticks aren’t accurate but that still doesn’t clear it up for me. Ketones on days of, none on work days

(TJ Borden) #4

You answered your own questions. THE STICKS ARENT ACCURATE. The reading can change just based on how hyrated you are.

With that said, in general, it would make sense that you would have lower reading after physical activity because you’re USING ketones. The pee sticks can only measure (again, inaccurately) the excess keytones that you’re flushing out of your system.

(Chris W) #5

I went through about 100 sticks, mainly because I had that many, they show you two things for certain. That your body is currently producing ketones if you are unsure like if you had an accident with carbs or protein. And they are showing you how much extra keytones you have in your system at that moment in time. The sticks are reading the first level or acetoacetate of keytones. This is reading the excess of that you have not used, so for instance in the morning I am almost always purple even to this day some 6 months in. The level hydration for me at least had little to do with it as far as I could tell. The biggest changer was how much exercise and or work I was doing. I checked this frequently and I can tell you after for certain if you work hard enough even in a short time the amount of excess drops pretty dramatically pretty quickly. I think that makes sense, since you are grabbing what ever excess energy you can. So about an hour before I would work out every morning for several months I would check, and it would be purple, to light purple. The longer I was in keto the more purple that became. I would work out from 10 minutes (when keto adapted but not fat adapted) to 50 minutes(after I fat adapted) and almost every time I would pee nearly negative. This was esp the case early on, when typically I would hit a wall working out and loose my energy. The pee sticks confirmed this. Now about 4 hours later when I leave for work I would often check again and I would start to be back on the purple end, esp the later on when I fat adapted. The amount of fat I would eat during the day also seemed to effect it, if I was eating typically it was a ltitle less purple. Just as my breath meter was lower when I eat more fat recently like not fasting. When I fast both tend to go up a lot.

When I bought a cheap breath analyzer it also would show me that if I was lower on the pee stick I could still be kicking out acetone again this makes since since I am using the BHB or second level of keytones that come from the spontaneous break down of the acetate. I could blow .05 on the breath analyzer and have purple sticks, go work out for an hour and the breath analyzer would be lower probably .03 but the pee sticks would be nearly negative. One of the reasons I believe that the BM would be lower is acetone is volatile and you are normally breathing heavy while working out and getting out of your system much faster.

The stick are also more designed to detect ketoacidoisis in T1D mainly so they are not really calibrated for our use per say.

(Allie) #6

The pre sticks should never be used as a measure.

(Trace) #7

On days you work your body is using all the energy, so less is left to be detected on a stick.
When you dont work your body has ketones to spare and so you get a stronger result on the pee sticks.

This is how i believe it works :slight_smile:

#8

This is how I have experienced it with testing, Trace.

(Chris W) #9

in what sense, feed back is feed back is it not?

(TJ Borden) #10

Because too many people stress about keytone levels. In of itself, that’s its own debate as to the importance of a number, but combine that stress with a test that is wildly inaccurate and it ends up doing more harm than good.

The only thing pees sticks are good for is when you’re starting out. It tells you you’re making keytones, that’s it.

#11

No, Not if it’s not accurate and doesn’t do what you want it to, you want usable ketone levels and ketone pee test strips don’t give you that. Do you think any of us would be paying for blood strips and meters if we could just piss on a stick and get even a REMOTELY accurate number? Those strips are designed for diabetics to check for ketoacidosis, they were never designed for what we want and that’s why they suck at it.

(Chris W) #12

A measure of feed back does not have to be accurate, it can be a simple yes or no. To the extent of my statement above I know they are not designed to be used as a measure of blood levels, I go to great extent to say that they are excess spillage of aceteate as state they are designed for ketoacidosis. But for someone like me who has not invested in a meter and does typically care what my blood levels are it is a feedback tool and mostly a novelty. But it told me I was not in keto a few days ago, and I used my feeling and the breathalyzer as well this allowed me to figure out why later on with some CSI.

The original question was asking why the sticks would show purple when there was no activity, and show negative on days there was a lot of activity with someone who is highly active at work. To dismiss them as inaccurate is actually going against that and my posts observations. Unreliable to determine your blood level, I would say yes. and to show your BHB level without question worthless.

(Ron) #13

I do have a ketone blood meter and also use the sticks as well. The meter constantly verifies if I have fallen out of ketosis when the sticks show low or no change in color. It also verifies when I have excess ketones and the sticks are a darker color. Now I do understand that this is subject to change but for now it allows me the means to maintain a ketonic state without the high expense of burning through EXPENSIVE test strips all the time for “peace of mind” that I am still on track. That IS value to me.

(Chris W) #14

out of curiosity how far along or what level of keto are you at? I am six months in and I am still turing the stick purple, despite what most people say and I should not be anymore.

(Ron) #15

I started Feb 1 of this year so only a couple months. When I first went into ketosis I was seeing .4 - .5 on the meter after the first 2 weeks (the sticks would barely show color if any at all). I now regularly see .6 - .7 resting reading in morning and have seen as high as 1.5 in evenings. Sticks show light color between trace and moderate color in morning to between moderate and large on high end. I started keto for diabetes so keep that in mind.

(Rusty Lee Rusk) #16

I’m about 4-6 weeks in

(Allie) #17

Because they’re inaccurate and misleading. They only detect one of the three types of ketone and only the amount your body is wasting, no indicator of what is actually being produced / used as fuel, and give wildly different readings depending on your level of hydration.

(Chris W) #18

Well hang in there, in a few more weeks fat adaptation will start to kick in and it will improve things even more. I hope you understand now when you use the sticks what you are seeing? For me at least my real indicator is my body and how I feel I use the sticks(and the cheap breath meter) to just confirm things are as they seem.