Ketones puzzle

(ishaisagi) #1

My flat mate and I were talking about Keto and I took out my ketones meter. My reading was 3.8 (after 2 days water fast) which I was happy with. She is a carb consumer, eating potatoes and noodles and chocolate etc…her reading was 4.3!
How can she have such high ketones while eating carbs? she is having some weight issues, having recent gained 20kg after being skinny for most of her life and at 50 years old she is starting to worry about her eating habits. Her work is manual labour - which could explain this, and the test was in the evening when she hadnt eaten since her breakfast (oats and dried fruit).
It took me months to get to ketosis when I started - what is going on here?

#3

If your meter was a breath meter, they are highly inaccurate from my experience. Thankfully when I found out how inaccurate, I was still within the time limit to return the silly device. Mine would show my hubby and sons, all carboholics, to be in ketosis. Put no stock in that device, return if you can. I use a blood meter , strips are expensive, but since I am still learning how my body reacts to different foods, its valuable information to me.

#4

Agree about the possible issues with the meter, but if she’s fasted after a day of physical labor, that explains some of it.
Also keep in mind these two things: there’s a huge range of ketone production for different bodies. Some folks just tend to have a lower range. The other thing that’s interesting - just in case you are actually getting accurate readings -is that those are a measure of the ketones that your body is not actually using. The longer you’ve been fat adapted, generally the lower your ketone readings will be since you’re not wasting as many.
Typing on my phone so hope this is clear …

(Running from stupidity) #5

Mine is fine. If you use to them to see if you get a reading or not, they’re great. If you want a detailed reading (which most don’t give anyway, the allowed tolerances are large) then yes, a blood meter.

(ishaisagi) #6

The meter is a blood meter, not a breath one.
It is just hard for me to explain to her why she should cut carbs when my go-to “your body isnt burning fat” is proven wrong by the keton levels. Her body must be efficient at processing carbs while maintaining fat processing facilities - which probably means her weight gain is due to other factors rather than carbs.

#7

What kind of meter do you have? The one I returned was less than $50, maybe even $45. I was disgusted when I tested it on my family and it showed they were in ketosis (sometimes even higher readings than me!) while ice cream, cookies, cakes, bread all slid down their gullets and I dutifully stayed at or below 20 carb grams a day.

(Jennibc) #8

Is it possible for someone in early stages of diabetes and not knowing, be in ketosis? Once they stop producing insulin would there body start producing ketones? I know they have to worry about ketoacidosis at some point, so would regular ketosis happen prior to that?

(ishaisagi) #9

its the same one I used to get into ketosis - showed me as 0.0 and 0.1 for the first two months until I really figured out the diet, where upon it started climbing (0.3 at first) and after a few months I was in full ketosis. So I trust the meter. I forget the brand name, but it is a trusted one.

(ishaisagi) #10

Jennibc - that is scary! I hope that is wrong, but if right then I should tell her to go get tested?

(Bunny) #11

Could be that her body is not using the ketones effeciently, the higher the readings your seeing on those ketones meters; the less your body is using ketones for energy, although you are burning fat, your not really using the energy from the ketones, your body is basically being powered by adrenaline (hence; adrenal fatigue); rather than ketones and that’s where you get your energy from instead of mostly glucose when fasting extensively or under caloric restricted conditions; those blood ketone numbers may increase when doing an extensive fast which may differ if fully fat-adapted (ketones will be very low which is normal) and fasting intermittently.

That said, our body is being powered mostly by the HPA-axis (flight-fight survival responsiveness mode) rather than mostly glucose and a little bit by ketones until you reach the 27 week mark and your metabolism re-adjusts (esp. the brain and liver) to being fully powered by ketones and less by glucose without the increased prioritized degree of assistance by the HPA-axis!

Physiological insulin resistance (skeletal muscle tissue; glucose sparing) becomes the norm (the way nature intended it!) rather than pathological hepatic insulin resistance (VERY BAD) being that you don’t have a fatty liver when starting out or develop a fatty liver from lack of vital micronutrients like choline or methionine rich foods (prior to IF/EF) while doing the ketogenic lifestyle?

Ketone resistance? Yes! We got it all wrong?

We are born into mild ketosis then weened onto a high octane (jet fuel for a tiny engine) carbohydrate diet of highly processed and refined foods/fuels and that’s what kills us eventually with time?