I have been doing keto diet for about week. I keep my carbs below 30 but for some reason when I tested during urine strips it’s still at .5. I started doing the 16/8 fast Friday to see if that would help. my questions are how can I get my count up? Secondly, I take 2 tablespoons of mct oil in morning should I be doing that or one in morning and one at noon?
Ketones count at.5?!
marklifestyle
(Mark Rhodes)
#2
wait awhile.
This is not something you do for a week or two. It takes time and should become a lifestyle. All that said, urine strips measure one of three types of ketones and not too accurately. They were designed to test for ketoacidosis and not really long term ketogenic living. Once your urine strips do register they will fade over time as your body starts using them rather than [spoiler]pissing[/spoiler] them out.
Better is a blood monitor which the majority of the research relies on. Or a breath monitor such as the Ketonix. In each case the monitor measures a different type of ketone.
Listen to this: http://2ketodudes.com/show.aspx?episode=37 and please read:
Nverlast1
(Travis Jackson)
#3
Thanks I appreciate the info. I just wasn’t sure when I researched how long it actually takes to get ketone levels up. I didn’t want to be doing the wrong thing wasting my time.
CarlKeller
(Carl Keller)
#4
Hello and welcome Travis.
Some might see it in 3 days and for others it might take weeks. It depends on things like stress, sleep quality, how deranged our hormones are from eating processed foods and sugars, how low our carb count is etc.
Just be patient and keep eating right and good things are bound to happen sooner or later.
Keep net carbs under 20.
~You can likely start a bit higher and work your way down but 20 is a good honest number that will allow you to eat plenty of vegetables along with fat and protein.
Use a carb tracker like cronometer.com
~so you can accurately track your carbs. It tracks many other things but this is the most important
Feed yourself plenty of fat and fairly moderate protein
~These two things are your best friend in regards to keeping hunger and cravings in check. You should not gorge yourself on these things but eat until you are not hungry. It’s very important to not starve yourself, so eat when you are hungry.
Keep your electrolytes up.
~At least 64oz (2liters) of water and 2+ teaspoons of salt per day. We don’t retain either of these very well on a ketogenic diet and those two things are paramount for reducing/preventing the Keto Flu
Don’t stress and get plenty of sleep.
~Growing, healing and losing weight work best when we are relaxed. So try to get 7-9 hours per day and don’t obsess with what keto is not yet doing.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#5
The ketones in your urine and breath are being wasted, anyway, so the fact that your urine strips are registering the presence of ketones at all, is all you need to know—you are in ketosis. You don’t really want to see more ketones being excreted, do you? 
The definition of nutritional ketosis is a serum β-hydroxybutyrate level of 0.5 millimoles/deciliter or higher. And even with blood ketones, that is still only a measure of what’s circulating, not a measure of how much you are producing and using.
So it sounds as though you are doing just fine. Don’t worry about anything, just keep calm and keto on.
And do let us know how you are getting on.