Wanted to start a thread about ketone levels after waking up to see what every one had for a range.
Today one hour after waking .4 as tested with ketomojo meter, blood sugar 92
Last food at 630pm previous night which consisted of 3 fried eggs, 3 bacon, 3 sausage, all zero carb, no sugar or flavor added.
Today was 1.1 but that is unusual And I had more carbs then normal yesterday about 22
Usually I am between .3 and .7 in the morning and most days I have under 18 total carbs some days under 10 total carbs and I can wake up at .3
It does rise throughout the day usually over .5 well before noon, No matter what I eat
I dont know what any of it means
I do know things are working though
Almost 4 years ago: (right column after time is ketones, blood, mmol/l, Precision Xtra; column to the right of that is # from ketonix):
Currently (though Iām using Keto Mojo now intead of Precision Xtra for blood ketones):
Oddly, my morning blood sugar is about the same over all that time. Near or over 100 every morning, going down all day (as ketones go up).
@stryker291982 As Bob has pointed out with some of his relevant data, obsessing over ketone numbers is a waste of time. Unless you have some specific medical condition that requires maintenance of some specified level of Ī²-hydroxybutyrate chasing ketones for the sake of chasing ketones is Keystone Cops. Being in ketosis is a healthy place to be. Having your innards awash in acetoacetate and Ī²-hydroxybutyrate a good thing and I suppose more is better than less to a point. Sooner or later you reach āsynchā where ketone synthesis approximately matches the need for ketones. So thereās not a lot drifting around doing not much of anything to be measured. Itās a very dynamic system that fluctuates wildly rapidly. Glucose is probably a more useful thing to measure, if you like donating blood.
Yea, I dont stress the numbers, just every few day check the numbers to see where I am at. I also have read that levels in the morning can be off due to the body getting ready for the day and coming out sleep mode. My glucose tends to be highest in the morning and then when dip and flatten out in the mid to low 80s for the rest of the day
Like many people my morning ketone numbers are lower than later in the day. I typically wake up under 1.5 mmol but by late afternoon Iām often well above 3 mmol ( yesterday was 3.7). I actually do like tracking very much. It helps me identify where I might be going wrong. Also, my mood and energy is enormously impacted by my depth of ketosis.
just out of curiosity what are you doing to keep your levels as high as that? i mean your sitting at the high end of the optimal zone all the time
I donāt think chasing ketones is useful, unless you have cancer or some other reason to do so.
And I think the āoptimal zoneā is useless.
@stryker291982 I follow the paleo-ketogenic diet. Itās prescribed by the Paleo-Medicina clinic for healing various medical conditions including autoimmune. I have several such conditions all of which have been pretty much obliterated by maintaining the diet and the glucose/ketone ranges that they ask you to target. Itās changed my life. I used to be a very sick lady.
But the diet is strict. Itās ultra high fat (>80%), pure carnivore for one and there are other elements as well. Itās not for everyone especially if youāre not ill in any way. But it does lead to remarkable ketone and glucose control even unfasted (I donāt fast, and Paleo-Medicina doesnāt even recommend it to their patients). My glucose yesterday afternoon, when my ketones were 3.7, was 60
These are appropriate reasons for looking for high ketones.
Note also that if the PKD diet is based on beef and youāre eating beef fat, youāre eating a diet thatās high in stearic acid, and you can get a benefit from that in multiple ways (stearic acid is burnt, not stored; stearic acid causes fat cells to become insulin resistant, so youāre less hungry).
True, but in Hungary the clinic serves up an almost entirely pork based menu. They do say though, that there is an enormous quality difference between Hungarian and American pork. I myself do feel best when eating nearly entirely beef. But then Iām also subject to the North American pork.
Amber OāHearn wrote a fascinating article on Vitamin C[1]. Only thing she didnāt cover is how Vitamin C can effect ketone readings (false high) including Hematocrit levels[2] ect.
I think what matters even more is how ketones look when on a high carb diet 4 hours into sleep and 4 hours after that in the morning? Getting some general populous percentages on that could help determine metabolic fitness and flexibility (e.g. pre-indicative of insulin resistance, pre-diabetes), and the need to be on a ketogenic diet? On a need to be basis so it is not being forced into unnatural levels for long periods of time in nature that are not normal for the human body based on food choices and availability of types of foods?
The hypothesis:
METABOLIC FITNESS & FLEXIBILITY: For example if you eat all your high carbs in the morning rather than at night, that gives your body a chance to have a tiny fast and make ketones or oxidize fatty acids while you sleep?
Footnotes:
[1] āā¦Vitamin C is chemically similar to glucose, and its synthesis is intimately tied to glucose metabolism. You may have already read that vitamin C and glucose compete for uptake in cells. Thatās based on the fact they their chemical similarity allows them to use the same cell receptor (Glut1) [4]. ā¦More
She really did a good job on that (above footnote)!
[2] āā¦Also beware many things can effect ketone readings also like hematocrit levels and vitamin C and give false high readings. ā¦ā ā¦More
Great article. Thanks for posting @amwassil.
I bought a glucose and ketone meter a few weeks back. After 1 week of jabbing myself I decided it wasnāt interesting enough to continue. Unless Iām fasting, in which case I use it to calculate GKI. Iām also upping my carbs at present to treat persistent keto rash, so I am interested to know at what point (in grams of carbs per day) ketosis stops for me.
35 hours into fast woke up With .7 ended last night with 1.7
So I am leaning towards what other said as long as it registered and you know you eat right and feel right not sure if it matters much
This is my first fast longer then 20 hours, I donāt know how some constantly hit big Ketone numbers. I am guessing it is just different people metabolize differently I donāt know or understand it
My ketones are always lowest in the morning at around 0.8 to 1.0, which I attribute to the dawn effect. Because my insulin sensitivity is poor, I believe it spikes my BG higher than it should and takes longer for me to clear the glucose I am am producing through GNG. Toward the end of the day, before my first proper meal, my ketones are in the region of 1.5-2.0 and blood glucose can be as low as 3.6 mmol/L or about 65 mg/L.
I take 2 tablespoons of Braggs apple cider vinegar with the mothers before bedtime and my ketones in the morning are the highest for the day.
Terrible tasting stuff but it works wonders.