Help . In and out?

#1

Question… I’ve been doing this several months (2) about…
what does it mean if the keto strips stop turning or barely turn… so u can’t really tell… for sure… ( I thought that meant u are getting keto adapted.)!
Then suddenly they turn purple again today?
Does that mean I wasn’t really getting keto adapted and was out when they weren’t turning and now I’m back in? Or is that normal?

(Chris) #2

Unfortunately you kinda wasted your money. Once your body stops panicking about energy sources and starts actually using ketones for fuel, it drastically reduces the amount that is wasted in the urine. Those strips are better suited for type 1 sufferers who need make sure their ketones aren’t too high indicating a possibly fatal condition.

(Consensus is Politics) #3

I used them. Mostly for the cool factor. Just to know I hacked my body to do something. I loved telling my health nut coworkers that I didn’t burn carbs for fuel. That I actually didn’t even eat any if I could avoid it. They all stared at me like I had a third eye. One of them spoke up, “but if you don’t eat carbs, you’ll die”. I responded with a, “when?” :sunglasses:

The urine strips measure ketones in your urine. Waste ketones. Ketones that didn’t get used. Having a lot of ketones could mean you fell out of Ketosis, or just made too many for the energy requirement at that time. To go with that, when it shows non or very light, it could mean you aren’t in Ketosis, or you used most of them for fuel.

Basically, they really are for type 1 diabetics to be sure they aren’t heading into Keto acidosis. But they are useful for us geeks to have something to measure and geek out on with :cowboy_hat_face:

(Chris W) #4

At about 2 months you are probably starting to fat adapt. That means the cells mitochondria are taking in fat directly if you have kept your ketones high long enough to get that process rolling. That is all a matter of how much damage to the mitochondria, IR, ketone levels, and insulin levels so everyone is different.
That said what you are see on the pee strips is actetoacetate which is the lower level ketone which the body uses to make BHB which is what people measure on the blood tests if they have one. When you urinate the ketones you have EXCESS which means one of several things IMHO.
First you are generating a lot of keytones that your body did not feel it needed so it dumped them, this would be a classical model of being in ketosis for a while and you have ample fat intake, your insulin is low and your body is bleeding off the excess. This could because you were sleeping, fasting, had recently exercised (several hours before) and have extra again. At fat adaption you are needing less ketones so you have more to spare, its not normally a light switch on, but more of a slow to boil pot.

Or as you suppose you were not really heavily into ketosis and you are now generating ample ketones so you are dumping the extra. This could have been because of insulin being to high and or poor diet leading to insulin spikes which shuts down glucagon the primary trigger outside of the liver.

I tracked my urine every day(i had a whole lot of strips) and I almost every day would hit purple unlike many people, who after a while show only a little after fat adaption. EAch one of us is different. The big take away should be that you are seeing excess, and that you are generating them. Things like hydration supposedly change them but you could not prove it by me. You cannot tell your level of BHB(blood ketones) by the urine strips only what you are bleeding off of a lower level ketone.

#5

Thank u so much!!! I had just excercised about half hour prior.

What other measuring types would u recommend? I guess I’m a geek. I want to know… lol

Thanks so much for the time it took to answer so Informatively !!

(Angelica Lopez) #6

Honestly, don’t waste your time or money because results will not be accurate and you will drive yourself mad.

(Chris W) #7

I don’t think you need to either, I do it mostly as novelty and I am a little bit of a geek with numbers myself. I don’t think it matters much if it upsets you or makes you tense, that is actually a bad thing and could increase insulin through a back door. So if you think you need to chase the ketone level you are pretty wrong.

I got a batch of 300 from a relative, and have just about used them all.

They are useful to know you are in ketosis, and if you are trying to track down a problem that may have knocked you out. After that point if that is all you have they are not of great value as they don’t correlate to anything outside knowing you are kicking some out in pee.
The cheap and easy method but it will not give you a volume is probably still the sticks if used infrequently. Also some people get very good at not expelling excess ketones so they become almost useless, I am not one of those people. If I fast or fat fast I was still peeing purple a couple weeks ago 6 months in.
The cheap breath meter will give (at6000 is what i use $15 or so) the acetone reading being released this is also a byproduct but at a the next level. They are not as rock solid easy to use as a pee stick, but can give a slightly (only) more accurate idea of what you are producing in BHB at that moment in time. It still does not tell you your blood level numbers and there correlation is probably not all that accurate as its based on a couple people using both the blood meter and the breath meters and making a chart.

You can buy expensive breath meters, but they are not much different than the cheap ones so I see no point. They are calibrated better, and have a useful chart to tell you things. For some insulin sensitive people this is more important of an issue. But I think they are actually using the blood meters the most.

Blood meters are expensive to buy and operate on a daily basis, and I am not really sure at this point what there value is outside of people who are really struggling to maintain keto(IR,T2D, etc). They are excellent feedback and give you accurate results, but for someone like me I am just fine with the cheap breath meter to confirm or deny if I am producing ketones.

The cheapest and easiest meter for me to use, is me! I can tell more or less when I am in keto and when I am not. I have verified it time and again with sticks and my meter.

KCKO