How long does the affects of eating impact ketone levels?

#1

Just wondering because I was around 0.9 ketone level this morning around 10am, but now it has dropped to low/0.1

For lunch I ate butter chicken, Chicken Saag, and Tandoori chicken. I probably had about 3-4 ounces of butter chicken, 3-4 ounces of chicken saag, and probably anywhere from 8-10ounces of Tandoori Chicken.

The butter and Saag had a little sauce. The Tandoori was made with chicken breast, no sauce, just a little onions and green peppers.

There wasnt any nutrition info, so I looked for an entries in MyfitnessPal that would overestimate my carbs. Right now it seems like I had 120g of protein and 33.5g of carbs from that meal (27 net), abd 109.4g of fat (1792 calories)

I’m assuming this is a regular response to eating my first meal of day (12pm EST) , especially since it was large; And also assuming that my ketones will probably be at the same level or higher tomorrow evening.

This will be my only meal until probably noon tomorrow and I’ll also be hitting the gym and hiit in a few hours.

Thoughts? Normal ketone fluctuation due to eating?

(Carl Keller) #2

I’m no expert but I would wildly guess that it might be a good 8-12 hours before you start seeing blood ketones rise since your body will be prioritizing the food you ate for energy. If you test your blood ketones every four hours or so, you might be able to tell us how long it was.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

The production of ketones is affected by the levels of insulin and glucagon, levels that are directly affected by how much carbohydrate we eat. In a low-carbohydrate diet, the ratio of insulin to glucagon is quite low, so the liver is stimulated to manufacture ketone bodies. When insulin is high in relation to glucagon, this process is stopped. It can take some time for these hormones to sort themselves out after we embark on a ketogenic diet. That is one cause of variations in ketone levels. Another cause of variations is how much of the ketones being produced our body happens to be using at any given time. Remember that the ketones you are measuring are the ones that haven’t been used yet. It appears from people’s experiences that it can take some time for the production and use to become properly coordinated.

If you are early on in your ketogenic diet, just relax and give yourself time to let your body sort itself out.