Hello. I recently been dealing with a quandary I could use some help clarifying. My blood Ketone meter has been giving me readings as low as .2 mmol/L. The highest I’ve been able to get in the last week is .4. I’ve been ketogenic for 5 months, with only one or two days with carbs over a hundred grams. For the most part less than 30, and those mostly incidental from nuts and eggs. I work out every morning from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., running and lifting (fully fasted aside from water) and am a carpenter by trade, so I am rarely ever sitting. On average I get about 30000 steps on my Fitbit each day. so I am thinking that my increased activity and exercise make my body extremely efficient at using the ketones? I’m not really sure. I wanted to test it, so I purchased some exogenous ketones. I have tried taking them pre work out in the morning, and tested my ketones after a workout. I have attempted post-workout, at midday, before/after dinner, and test an hour and two hours later, just to see if I can flood my body with ketones and get a really high reading. No dice. The highest I’ve gotten is .4. the only thing I can think of is that my body uses ketones extremely well, and when they are available I do not waste them. There is nothing in my diet that would cause me to fall out of ketosis. And aside from Bulletproof Coffee at 6:30am, I typically only eat once a day at around 6 p.m. So I fast generally 22 or so hours a day. I’ve been trying to find some information on the forums about this, but I have yet to find and extremely well-trained person comment on having very low Ketone levels
Low Blood Ketone Readings - Exercise Related?
To clarify, I have been testing my blood ketones inconsistently for the last 3 months. It’s only in the last week I’ve been testing multiple times a day to gauge my level of ketosis.
12 months ago I was a daily alcoholic for 10 years. 7 months ago I was 335 lb. Today I am 230 lbs and I’ve been sober for 11 months and a week. My 230 lb is solid though. I’m 5 foot 11, I Run 3 to 5 miles every morning, deadlifts, squats, lunges, glutes, abs, I do it all. Every week day. My daily food consumption is typically as follows: 4am half gallon water. 6:30a - 20oz. Organic coffee w/ approx. 300 KCal of ghee butter and heavy whipping cream. Noon I’ll typically have a kevita probiotic drink (2g sugar total) and at most 1 cup of deluxe mixed nuts (pistachio, cashew, almond, macadamia mix). Sometimes 3-6 slices of dry salami, 1 to 3 sticks mozzarella cheese. Water. 5:30p to 6:30p usually salad w/ meat or riced cauliflower/broccoli with meat. Lat night 2 pieces of cod on a bed of 2 cups riced cauliflower w/ a bit of ghee butter. Half pint protein ice cream (enlightened, Halo top, or breyers carb smart). That is definitely an average day right there. I was thinking perhaps the fact that almost all of my carbs are in the small amount of ice cream I ate late, perhaps it was kicking me out of ketosis overnight and therefore making it hard for me to get into it the next day, but since I’ve been playing around with the exogenous ketones, I have not been seeing that as a result. If I eat the ice cream, and test my ketones in the morning, they’re the same as if I were to eat the ice cream drink Exotics ketones at the same time, and then test in the morning. Is that surprising? No?
do you use a food tracker like myfitnesspal to track food intake? I’d be curious to see a few days worth of tracking. It cant be like that (low) if everything is according to what you say…
I would guess it could have something to do with eating so many times during the day, you’re keeping your insulin elevated which will suppress ketone production.
I dont think that’s the case given the reduced carb content of the foods he claims to eat.
Just curious, how are you measuring your keton levels?
Insulin rises whatever you eat, there’s protein going in with every meal there.
It’s hard to tell from your description, are you IR or metabolically healthy? What’s your A1C?
Eating a HFLC diet and having ketones ~0.4 mmol is normal. If your BG level is low, you’re good. If you’re wondering whether your body is capable of getting into a deeper state of ketosis, the answer is yes. Fast for 24 hours while maintaining your routine and your ketones will rise.
I’m metabolically healthy. Don’t often test my blood glucose. Last time the doctor did it was low, but healthy. Can’t remember the number.
It is. I did use MyFitnessPal consistently for 4 months but there’s hardly anything to track now. What I listed above is about all I eat. Seriously. No keto bread, no heavy gravy keto dinners. Coffee and butter, nuts sometimes, cheese, meat (not a ton) insoluble organic veg. And bacon!
Insulin rises indeed, but not to the same level. Different meals can exert lead to different insulin secretion. For example, I tested a few days ago both my blood glucose and blood BOHB before and after a meal of ~1,500kcals, 44g carbs (18 fiber), 62g protein and the rest was fat (about 125g fat)…Before meal:
BG 64mg/dL (3.6mmol/L)
BOHB 1.2mmol/L
After:
BG: 84 mg/dL (4.7mmol/L)
BOHB: 1.0 mmol/L
Right. Excellent! Thank you guys very much. I appreciate all the help. I do understand all the biochemistry and the nuances of the diet. I’m quite well versed in the information regarding ketogenic metabolism. This isn’t going is at all the way I anticipated. If any of you have any experience in full ketosis and also are extremely fit or are extremely active, I would very much like to know your typical BOHB readings. None of what I’ve seen so far would explain my experimenting with exogenous ketones either. If I were not in ketosis, and I were taking exogenous ketones, would I not have an extreme surplus of ketones in my blood, waiting to be unloaded because my body can’t utilize them? Half hour later? Hour later? 2 hours later? I’ve tested for all that. How would you explain me working out for 2 hours in the morning at a heart rate of 147 average, fully fasted, after eating less than 20 grams of carbohydrates for over a month, and then taking exogenous ketones and my Ketone readings dropping from .4 before my workout to .1, 1 hour after I took exogenous ketones (1 hour post workout). ? Again the only conclusion I can possibly come up with is that I’m just using them like a super-efficient monster machine!
I interpreted your original inquiry to be about ketone production. When you fast, your ketones should increase. Is that not happening to you?
They don’t increase to levels that would be considered deep ketosis. I’ve never gotten a reading over 1.0mmol/L.