How to test for ketosis

(icky) #1

Hi… how can I test wether I’m in ketois? Do you use urine strips?

(Ohio ) #2

Yep. Breathalyzer and bloodwork diagnostics are more accurate though. :v::peace_symbol:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

Ketone bodies are found in the blood and excreted in breath and urine. It is easiest and cheapest to measure β-hydroxybutyrate in the blood (the most accurate measurement), acetone in the breath, and acetoacetate in the urine, but all three are found in all three locations.

The urine strips tend to indicate higher levels of ketones at the beginning of a ketogenic diet; later the excreted amount tapers off, as the muscles switch from ketones to saturated fat. But just remember–the measurements are of ketones that were not used, and there is no way to measure the actual production and consumption of ketones in the body. Keep bearing in mind that, if your carb intake is low enough, your insulin will also be low enough to permit ketosis, so after a certain point, a lot of people stop measuring.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #4

I found exactly what Paul just said. When I first started Keto the Urine strips seemed very good, accurate as far as I could tell.
I got under 20g Carbs and the strips showed a nice dark purple, after about 3 or 4 months and doing the same carbs, I noticed the strips not showing many ketones, or even no ketones!
While great initially the urine tests don’t work. For the reason found above.

(Allie) #5

Really, don’t stress about it. Just track carbs, stay as low as possible (ideally below 20g), and trust the process.

#6

I have been back on strict keto (under 20 carbs a day) for 55 days and just decided to go pull out the electronic ketone meter and got a red flag 9.2 reading! Damn too high. I ate very little yesterday and 11 g of carbs but did not expect them to be so high. Guess I will up my carbs a little today and tomorrow and see if I can get that down a bit.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #7

Is the red flag not a Type 1 thing? hypoglycemia

#8

As @Shortstuff said, just track your carbs and let everything do it’s thing. Unless you’re truly managing a medical condition with keto, tracking ketones is a waste of time and money, especially if you track blood ketones. You ketone number doesn’t correlate with fat loss speed, or really anything else, it’s the main tracking metric that people become obsessed with for no reason at all. Don’t do it to yourself.

If you’ve never had a complete metabolic panel done, that can tell you useful things, as can Thyroid panels, hormonal panels etc. All checking Ketones does is tell you what you already know, since you wouldn’t have been eating carbs. Goal depending, there’s way better things to get obsessed with.

(KM) #9

You’re getting a red flag reading because this device is designed to detect ketoacidosis in people eating a standard diet that is 50 to 70% carbohydrate. Someone eating that level of carbohydrate should not have detectable ketones at all, so 9.2 would be an alarming reading. However, with a diet of such a low carbohydrate level, for long enough that you have used up your glycogen stores, 9.2 shouldn’t be an issue.

(Jane) #10

They still work for me and I am 6 years on a keto diet. :woman_shrugging:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #11

If your pancreas is secreting any insulin at all, you are not at risk for diabetic ketoacidosis, which occurs only in the absence of insulin. Moreover, even if your reading was accurate, diabetic ketoacidosis does not start until over 10, and symptoms are not seen until ketones reach 20. Diabetic ketoacidosis is always accompanied by runaway hyperglycaemia, which is the other consequence of the lack of insulin.

Anyway, it’s more likely that you didn’t wash your hands properly, and that affected the reading. Also, if the strip was from a new batch, the batch could be defective or simply not properly calibrated.

#12

Thanks for the comments. I had a full blood panel done October 12. Everything there was ok. Fasting glucose was 4.9 mmol/L and Hemoglobin A1C/Total Hemoglobin was 5.4 mmol/L. Triglycerides are nice and low. Total cholesterol a bit high but not terrible.

#13

I use a handheld breath tester, not strips.

(KM) #14

I use urine strips. I’m kind of in agreement with others that we don’t really need to test our ketones at all, if our carb consumption is low enough, we will more or less by definition be producing ketones. Still, it’s fun. I know that’s weird, but I like reassuring myself. The strips are inexpensive and yeah, 100% painless.

And after 2 years on keto, it’s still interesting to me to observe the point where I’m actually producing a pink stick. How low must I go? It’s absolutely not necessary, but, especially in the beginning, the sticks are a very good way of getting a yes or no answer.

I would say if you go with pee sticks, that yes or no answer truly is all you should worry about. If your stick is absolutely beige, you’re eating something you don’t want to be eating right now.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #15

You’re doing great.

By the way, the only lipid number that really seems to track with cardiovascular risk is the ratio of triglycerides to HDL. If that is under 2.0 (U.S. measurements) or 0.9 (units used elsewhere), then your risk is minimal.

Given that lipid numbers are only markers for cardiovascular risk, attempts to manipulate them are usually unsuccessful at dealing with the actual cause of the disease. The exception is a low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diet, which addresses the root cause (hyperinsulinaemia/insulin-resistance) of cardiovascular damage.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #16

Wish they did work for me. I’m holding a strip as we speak, it’s say no ketones. I’ve been almost Zero carbs for 3 days!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #17

Ah, that makes a difference. But remember, you are measuring a waste product, and the correlation with blood levels of circulating ketones is not precise. You might have gotten a high reading precisely because your body was excreting ketones in order to remain in balance.

In any case, the diagnosis of diabetic ketoacidosis requires hyperglycaemia coupled with serum β-hydroxybutyrate of 10 mmol/dL or above. I doubt that with a breath reading of 9.2 you were in any danger.

The main point of testing ketones on a ketogenic diet is not a concern for diabetic ketoacidosis (unless the person is a Type I diabetic), but rather as a convenient indication that insulin is sufficiently low for us to return to metabolic health and to shed excess fat.

(Rossi Luo) #18

I used urine strips to test it at the beginning, and like the others said, if there is no ketones in y our urine, it can’t indicate you are not in ketosis.
After the beginning stage, I never test the ketones for tens of months, because many symptoms can tell me I’m in ketosis, for example, I don’t feel hungry in ketosis.