Hello. So I tested myself after 2 weeks of what I thought was probably ketosis but couldn’t be sure. It showed about 2-3 levels, middle of the road on the purple scale.
But I have questions. With this strip, it measures not how much the body is using ketones, but how many you have in urine right? So wouldn’t that mean that as long as you are in ketosis, the lower the level the better, showing that your body is actually using ketones to burn energy?
At first I thought my strip wasn’t dark enough (it’s dark, but not too dark), but then I came to the logical conclusion that it may actually be a good thing, but I can’t be sure.
Anyone know the science of those strips and how the body gets ketones into urine when you first enter ketosis vs after a long while being in ketosis? Will there come a time when you’re definitely in ketosis but ketones don’t show up at all in urine? Or is darker better on the strip?
Your body doesn’t know what to do with ketones at first, so it dumps a lot of them into your kidneys to simply be excreted.
Once you adapt, this pretty much stops, which is why it’s advised to avoid them. If you’re under 20g carbs (and I prefer people stay away from net carbs), then you’ll be in ketosis.
I just did another test, after the first one yesterday (no, I’m not getting addicted to the tests, only did it because I was curious to my own inquiry on this post), and it says about 6mmol/L, I think definitely higher than yesterday’s 2-4…
I am not sure how to take this, does this mean I am in ketosis but my body is not using all the ketones? I am having trouble understanding the science behind this, and I’m a scientist (albeit, all biological science has never been of interest to me, astrophysics is my thing).
Really, I don’t need the science, just tell me what I need to know
So you probably are in ketosis, but you haven’t yet adapted to burning fat preferentially over glucose. Give it another 4 weeks at least and your transformation to the dark side will be complete.
I bought the strips and decided I had better things to do than hold a strip and pee on it. I later found out that I can taste when I am in ketosis by the tell tale metallic or acetone flavor. At the end of the day if you keep carbs low your body doesn’t have a choice in the matter.
Use your strips. They are cheap and reasonably indicative of your ketosis – we’ve been using them for 40 years when we didn’t have home meters for ketones.
I still use my strips every day because I want to calibrate my new meter to them to determine how accurate they are.
Technically the urine test is showing you what your body did NOT USE, but if you are spilling a “large” (or even a moderate) into your urine then you are definitely in ketosis and almost certainly losing weight if you have extra fat to lose.
Apparently there are people who after weeks or months of ketosis get so efficient at using ketones that the strips may show little or no spillage but for starting they really useful, largely correct, and motivating.
I have been on carnivor 8 months, fasted 12-days, off 5 days, now on day 7 and my strips show LARGE (8) in conjunction with 4-5 on my meter.
The meter is more direct since it shows actual ketones in the blood but mine are correlated pretty well.
My wife is just entering a ketogenic diet showing a “Trace” (minimal but clearly pink) with a 0.5 to 0.7 on the meter.
Ok, that explained it pretty well Martin. This is my 13th day on the diet and 3rd day of testing, and I’m always above 4mmol/L, sometimes up to 8. Usually between level 3 and 4 on the meter that goes from 0 to 5 on the bottle, so definitely I’m producing ketones, but also urinating a bunch of them, which you say is not a problem, my body is definitely using them…
Thank you for that…
Now, if only I could know for sure if my body is breaking down the fats properly to get all the vitamins and minerals I need since I don’t have a gallbladder, and I need to find out if supplements are the way to go, if they do anything at all or are damaging (I take fish oil, vit c, vit b complex, even calcium/magnesium sometimes but rarely since I get a lot from food).
For the sticks I generally just use the words, trace, small, moderate, large – they are useful and indicative but the amounts are just a gross approximation.
For WEIGHT loss is doesn’t much matter whether you use them or expel the ketones – you are breaking down fats if they are spilling in quantity and you are certainly using others and suppressing your insulin (which is a good thing.)
As your body adapts you will use more and when your brain is making use of ketones strongly you will likely feel REALLY good (clear headed and focused but good).
For therapeutic value we likely want more of the ketones to be used by more and more tissues, but that takes time to become “fat adapted”, perhaps weeks or even months in solid ketosis.
Your body is breaking fats down properly. It’s probably getting most of the micronutrients you need too, but I follow a mega-vitamin regimen because I’m old school and started with Dr. Atkins decades ago.
The guy who did a 382 day fast was ONLY given a good quality multi-vitamin and he did just fine.
You are most likely to mess up your electrolyte balance since burning glucose and losing weight frees a lot of water that gets excreted.
Watch your sodium/potassium (a little) even though you probably won’t have this problem.
I’ve come to believe that most people are magnesium deficient so it’s good you are taking that one.
For later when you doing long fasts if you decide to do that, it’s really important to ‘re-feed’ properly because phosophorous and other minerals can get out of whack on long fasts if you refeed blindly and eat the wrong foods.
I’ve heard that can actually be VERY SERIOUS so all fasters reading this be careful to read up on “refeeding” before coming off a long fast, especially if you don’t drop to a really good diet.
I’m a carnivore so I dropped out of a 12-day fast into a luxurious supply of meat for 5 days with no issue, but I also had my minerals and micro-nutrients heavily supplemented.
(And to be honest I probably would have been better off not doing that.)
