Keto sticks always purple

[Chris_Murphy]

I have been doing Keto for just over 3 months now. My keto pee sticks are always purple no matter what time of day I test.

I thought they should stop indicating after a longer time on keto. Especially if fat adapted.

Any ideas?

[atomicspacebunny]

Any ideas?

How much do you move, meaning exercise or physical exertion do you get from doing things around the house?

If you were to pump some iron or do some jogging and then take a pee stick test it might turn negative or be barely pink but if your just sitting their doing nothing the sticks might always be purple? (in other words your not really using the ketones for energy or fuel, they are just sitting their in your blood because your not moving so thus the deep purple color?)

After around six months they will always look negative if you are strict keto and don’t go off the diet. That is because they are not floating around in your blood and being excreted in the urine, your body is using what little ketones you are producing.

Welcome to the forum!

[Rebj]

Welcome. I don’t use them so I can’t really give any advice. However, I have read on here that most feel they really serve no purpose after the beginning. I tend to agree with the previous poster…it makes sense.

[Fangs]

blood meter is best testing. the strips are a weak tool to use. they don’t show the truth of it all actually but help some as a step in learning about ketosis etc.

[JohnH]

I thought they should stop indicating after a longer time on keto. Especially if fat adapted.

I haven’t tested in a while, but when my little tube of strips finally ran out earlier this year, probably 7 or so months in, I was still turning them medium to dark purple.

I see posts from people saying they are a waste of money, don’t work, or stop working after you are fat adapted. None of that ever rang true for me - they always showed something, and would be darker when I was being more strict (fewer carbs), and lighter when I was slacking off.

There may be SOME people for whom they are useless, but they worked as expected for me.

I am not diabetic and am not going to do finger sticks to test for ketones.

[Ilana_Rose]

What @JohnH said applies to me as well. I’m almost three years in and still turn pee sticks purple. Also, like John said they are darker when I’m stricter. For some they continue to be an excellent, inexpensive tool seemingly indefinitely.

[Janie]

Same for me - still turn purple and really dark purple after 3 days of fasting. My body just makes more than I can use, I guess.

@amwassil ran a test among firum members and here are the results. I had to go buy a tube of pee sticks since I use a blood ketone meter now but it was a fun experiment that disproved the dogma.

Fat Adapted and Still Excreting Ketones in Urine: Survey

So we’ve all heard the reports that the lowly urine keto stix aka ‘pee sticks’ are only useful for the first few months for newbies. Once you’re beginning to fat adapt the wasted ketones, specifically acetoacetate, slowly and steadily decreases in the urine until the test strips show nothing. End of story. Maybe not. I recently became aware of anecdotal reports by fat adapted or presumably fat adapted individuals also showing colour on the strips months after they should be showing nothing. Wha…

[Ilana_Rose]

People on this forum really hate on them, but most keto clinicians swear by them.

Amy Berger still uses them herself and recommends them to help sort out stalls in keto-adapted people.

And Dr Bosworth, while admitting that ketone urine loss does decline somewhat after fat adaptation, says that it’s a fairly rare occurrence that one’s ketone production and utilization matches so perfectly that no color shows when one is well into nutritional ketosis levels.

Virta also insists people test to ensure they are in nutritional ketosis.

[JohnH]

People on this forum really hate on them

A vocal (textual?) segment of the people. But as you can see from that thread you linked, and our own experiences, they work for many of us. Perhaps a silent majority.

[Shortstuff]

Drink more water?

[ava_ad0re]

Have you actually reduced your dietary fat consumption as you are meant to when you become fat adapted to allow your bodyfat to fuel your energy needs?

A lot of people don’t realise this ^
You’re probably peeing high ketones because you’re still eating high fat.

As soon as I became adapted (6 weeks) I halved my dietary fat and always had a trace reading after on any sticks.

[Janie]

Yes. As one who still turns the pee sticks purple I am eating less fat than initially and I am at a stable weight so not trying to lose.

They also turn very dark after 3 days of fasting with no fat, protein or carb intake.