Ketone question

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #1

So I’ve heard that the test strips are not so reliable. But what I read, was that often, after a while, the test strips will start tp show very low, or no ketones, when the person actually is still producing ketones.

But do these strips every show that the person is making lots of ketones, when they “really are” making very few, or no ketones ?

I have to ask, because after the first week, I used a test strip and it showed I was in the 1.5 to 4 range. After the second and 3rd weeks, it showed I was in the 6-10 range… maybe even higher !

I was actually a little worried about that thing where you start burning proteins, but have since seen a few vids that say this is not that much of a concern. Still, I’m trying to not go crazy with proteins, and shovel in some extra fat every day…

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

Two links for your ketone concerns:



And one for your protein concern:

Enjoy!

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #3

You might get more responses if you make your title more specific. But maybe you don’t need to because @amwassil give you some good links.

(Ethan) #4

Uneducated guess here, but since you had just started, the initial ketone reading makes sense. The higher reading later is perhaps because your insulin had dropped enough that your body really began letting the fat go from storage, but you were not actually using the ketones as energy—just peeing them. When I think about it, it sounds like a “light” version of what happens in a T1 diabetic, where insulin is zero, so the body just lets all the fat flood into the blood as ketones. Your body would not do that, since it still has insulin, but perhaps you were insulin resistant before so much that insulin was always high and keeping fat stored.

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #5

Amwassil, thank you very much. Great article. But still, I feel like my situation is not the norm. Even in this article, it talks about how a low ketone reading might be okay… But mine seems extra high !

I’ll check it again a few times today, and will even take a pic of the test strips to post here. Interesting the author said, you would need a money tree to test often… Really ? I bought 100 strips for $5.95

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #6

It’s always possible that you are that one-in-million medical anomaly, and if so please offer yourself to science for study. :face_with_monocle:

More likely, as @EZB suggested you’re just experiencing wide variations due to any number of possible reasons, none of which indicate abnormality. We’re dealing with a very dynamic system that changes minute by minute and commonly produces very wide variations in ketone concentrations. As long as you remain conscious and functional, don’t worry.

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #7

That said, I might try testing my ketones every time I urinate, for a few days, just to see if I can detect these fluctuations.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #8

That will be interesting, for sure. Keep the following in mind:

The ketones detected by the ‘keto stix’ are acetoacetate. There can also be smaller or larger amounts of β-hydroxybutyrate and even small amounts of acetone, neither of which will be detected. The amount of acetoacetate in urine may or may not correlate to the actual concentration of the three ketones in blood. Apparently, it sometimes does and sometimes does not. As far as I know, why or why not remains to be determined. Finally, acetoacetate in the blood is an unstable molecule that readily converts to β-hydroxybutyrate (its slightly more stable storage form), back again and breaks down spontaneously into acetone. At any moment 30-40% of acetoacetate in the blood can be breaking down into acetone. Most of the acetone is exhaled in breath although some actually evaporates through body tissue and out the skin. Due to these and likely other unknown factors, urine ketones basically tell you that your metabolism is producing ketones, not how much nor how efficiently they are being utilized.