How do you know if you're knocked out of ketosis?

(Melissa Carver) #1

Hi all! I’m new here and to ketosis, 10 days in and feeling great!

So I was listening to the 2 Keto Dudes episode on sweeteners and they were talking about how one sweetener or the other would “knock them out of ketosis.” How do you know when you’ve been knocked out of ketosis? Is it a blood sugar thing? Or are you using a ketone tester (blood/breath/urine strip) to verify?
(Note: I’m T1D, 25 years now, diagnosed as a kid. I just started wearing my CGM again today to try to level off the blood sugars and adjust my basal rate in my insulin pump as needed. If I can tell by blood sugar if I’m knocked out of ketosis that would perfect and so easy for me!)

Thanks in advance everyone!

(Ernest) #2

Most likely from experimentation to test tolerance.
I did a protein tolerance experiment and I’d test my ketone readings, using the Precision Xtra, a few times after eating a large amount of protein .
I bet one could do the same experiment with sweeteners.

#3

There are a few sure ways to know if you are in ketosis. In my opinion the most reliable and easiest way is to acquire a blood ketone test meter. Many people here like the Abbott Precision Xtra. The strips to test ketones are a few bucks each but if you try eBay you can usually get them a little cheaper. You will have to do a fair amount of testing in the beginning to see what foods do what to your ketone levels but after awhile you’ll become familiar with the do’s and don’t and will only need to test or occasion.

Testing for ketones isn’t a requirement but it is nice to know what’s going on without resorting to guessing.

(Adam Kirby) #4

You need to read this article.

The main point: what is your reason for being “in ketosis” (as opposed to being in a fat-burning state which is not necessarily the same thing). Because depending on your reason, being “kicked out of ketosis” isn’t always a bad thing. Also, ketosis is a spectrum not a binary on or off.

#5

I measure my blood glucose and ketones daily, looking for trends. I’ve noticed that if I eat something that increases my glucose above 100 mg/dL my ketones will drop below .5 mmol. Conversely, when my glucose is below 65, my ketones are invariably high.

Of course, n=1 and may certainly not be applicable for everyone, especially those who are insulin sensitive. I dunno about T1 diabetics.

(mark whittaker) #6

How long is the lag in ketone levels? Like if you have meal that raises your glucose. How long does it take for your ketones to drop?

(Ernest) #7

It depends on a lot of factors.
Are you just starting out?

#8

Extensive fasting over a 6 month period significantly improved my IR. Last year, my BG could remain 120 mg/dL the day after eating a SAD meal with dessert. It took a couple of days of fasting for it to return to normal. Nowadays, my 2 hour postparandial BG is never above 100 regardless of what I eat. My ketones drop by about 1.5 mmol per carbacious meal. So if my BK is 3.5 and I eat pizza, it’ll drop to 2 mmol. If I start fasting thereafter and do a workout, my BK may bounce back up by the following morning. Alternatively, if I eat a second carbacious meal, my ketones will drop by another 1.5 by the following morning.

I take BG measurements every morning, plus whenever I’m curious about how my body is responding to foods. Thus I have a slew of data points. But I only take BK once a day, first thing in the morning. Therefore I’m not capturing my highest ketone level, but rather, the most reproducible circumstances. This is more useful in tracking progress than the actual numeric value.

I hope this helps…

#9

Thanks for this. I decided to stop tracking my food for a couple days and got all worried I “knocked myself out of ketosis” because I ate some snow peas. Also been drinking various items with different sweeteners in them. Not a tone but some mio sport squirt here (traded off the ace-k for the little extra potassium, I had a diet fountain pop there. A couple of drops of liquid stevia in my poor atempt at a fat bomb).
I was super grumpy this morning and thought “yup this is it, I’ve done it (gone out of ketosis)”. More likely just mad because I woke up with a tension headache and annoying dogs wouldn’t let me get back to sleep.
Anyway this article and a bullet proof coffee made me feel a bit better. Also I’m back to tracking my food for a while. Not because I think we as keto people need to, but it keeps me from freaking out. I’m still in early days.

(LJ Christensen ) #10

I’m a newbie as well and has been doing my sbest to follow my macros for the keto diet. I work around food, which means I’m exposed to a lot of specificly processed meat all of the time. I don’t want to be strict so I let myself eat it, but now I’m confused whether I’m still in ketosis. To begin with I never experienced the keto flu or had bath breath. I only felt a bit tired and weak in the beginning of my journey, I’ve slipped up on my diet a few times, but I still lose weight even though I’m not very active and consume more than my recommended grams of protein every day. I make sure to keep my carbs low and fat high, but my consumption of protein isn’t “perfect” for my macros. I have a blood ketone tester and it fluctuate between being in ketosis and in the first stages of ketosis. It’s usually around 0.4~1. I can’t count my macros when at work so I’m confused to whether I’m in ketosis or not. When I have a slip up meal I usually go straight back to eat g keto.

(Running from stupidity) #11

Sounds good to me, assuming weight loss is your goal. I wouldn’t sweat the numbers too much.