I’m new here and just started a keto diet. I started right after my 3 day fast, which made it real easy to get into ketosis. At least I hope I am in it… Testing with keto urine sticks, which show that I’m in light ketosis period since I started I had salads for the first two days which really upset my stomach so today I had some vegetables and meat from Chinese/Korean barbecue which knocked me out of ketosis I’m assuming from the sauce of the teriyaki chicken because it may have too much sugar in it. I thought just the sauce would keep me under maybe 10 g of carbs, but I was wrong. So rather than taking a couple of days to get back into ketosis, I will probably do a half day fast and see if I can get back on. I’m hoping to connect here with some people for good advice and experiences.
New here ... got right into ketosis
If you’re using the urine strips, you might still be in ketosis. I found that the urine strips were the least accurate because they can be effected as to how much you drink, etc. And I’ve tested eating carbs, and I could eat 100g of carbs two days in a row and still be producing lower levels of blood ketones. (Stopped at 2 days because I got sleepy, hungry, etc., all the bad things that happened to me on high carb.)
Any time fasting will help improve ketone levels, though.
It’s nice to have you here.
Most sauces are shockingly full of carbs. Next time you go to the grocery store, just read the labels on a bunch of different kinds of sauce. The amount of carbs per serving might seem reasonable until you look at the serving size. For example San J Teriyaki Sauce and Marinade has 3 g of carbs for a serving size of only 1 tablespoon. Who only eats only one tablespoon of teriyaki sauce when eating a meal-sized portion of Asian food?
It’s hard to gauge when you are eating out, but if it has a sauce, you can assume it has a lot of carbs.
OK , yes I figured it will not be as accurate as other tests. Which tests are you using?
Despite what others may tell you not all carbs are created equal. Sugar will pull you right out of ketosis with not much effort. In my experience I just have to stay away from sugar. I use sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit, allulose, etc. In fact I find some carbs to be useful, and try to get some soluble fiber in every meal. At breakfast this usually takes the form of organic berries and often a red grapefruit. At dinner, this is usually a cruciferous vegetable, asparagus, peas, or a kale salad. While this does serve to slow my ketosis, it seems to prolong my fat burning, and I believe has cardiovascular benefits.
OK thank for the tips. How do you measure your ketones ? Do you have experience with Oranges ? ( since you eat Grapefruit, I’m assuming its not for off !? And if you got out of ketosis how long did it take you to get back in ?
Welcome mactube!
It might be useful for you to get a fuller understanding of the keto diet and how it works by reading some literature on it. You can fumble around for ages without ever getting to where you want to be even if you are asking questions. A good basic book with step by step instructions is Atkins. You can simply do a web search if you want.
Wishing you success in your goals.
I typically don’t. I’ve been doing this for 5 years now. If I want to measure I use our keto-mojo. However, I can typically smell ketones when I pee after having my breakfast of goat yogurt, eggs, and yes even a grapefruit. When I was on my fasted OMAD day, I recently did a full lab testing and tested with a trace of ketones. Dec 1 of 2024 I measured at 1 in my lab test.
I realize the grapefruit puts me in borderline ketosis, but I eat it for the luteolin, and because I like them. Oranges have too much sugar and will stop my ketosis. I want to continue the fat burning from the night, and one graprefruit is not enough to completely stop it. I have increased my BMR on keto.
I seem to be able to maintain a borderline ketosis with net carbs of 50 gr/day, and even a little higher. If I eat too much sugar, I can typically be back in ketosis the next day. As long as I am not going too hog wild, and building back up all my glycogen stores, I can get back into ketosis by the next day. My wife is different, and it will take her longer. At this point I am fine being metabolically flexible, because I am trying to gain muscle, and don’t want to lose any pursuing a strong ketosis. It does sometimes seem to noticeably affect my strength when I first get back into ketosis, so I try not to overdo the carbs.
The Keto Mojo device seems to be the most popular method for testing ketones. Some of the research publications use Keto Mojo as their quantifier, so I guess it is fairly reliable. If you are really interested in knowing your blood ketones, it will work, at the cost of using the consumable test strips every time. I’m on my second Keto Mojo because they changed the design of the strips several years ago and the original design became an unsupported orphan. Hopefully they won’t do that again! (The packaging of the current strips changed a little a while back, and they now have less waste material in the package but they’re harder to open. Use scissors and be careful!)
Urine strips are not really meant to monitor your level of nutritional ketosis, but rather pathological ketoacidosis. Early on, I could almost never get a convincing signal on a pee strip, except after multiple hours of exercise, while my spousal critter saw a low but obvious signal fairly often.
I would not bother with a breath device. I bought a Ketonix when I was fairly early in keto and could not trust it. When you read the manual, they admit that it is a terrible false-positive generator if you are eating carbs, so what is the point? I also bought a very cheap breath device which I think was just a relabeled breath-alcohol meter, out of curiosity. It seemed pretty insensitive.
I think I read within the last year that continuous ketone monitors are now available, but I know nothing more about that.
Welcome to the forum !
I began a few months ago by using urine strips and also a KetoMojo meter.
The strips will indicate ketosis but as noted, not with much accuracy compared to the meter that measures blood ketones.
I’ve settled into just checking by smelling my urine. When my urine has a strong fruity smell I’ve found the strips will always show ketones.
I did use my meter today to check my GKI (glucose/ketone index)
My GKI index indicates I’m in a low level of nutritional ketosis today. That’s despite me eating a lot of carbs the past few days.
The carbs came from artichoke hearts, kimchi, asparagus, and riced cauliflower. All have a decent amount of fiber.
When I started a few months ago even 5 net carbs would push me out of ketosis. Now it seems I’m ok with 20-25 grams net carbs per day. Hopefully that means I’m finally fat adapted.
Anyhow, as mentioned by others, you don’t have to measure ketones if you are restricting your net carbs dilligently. But using a blood Ketone meter can motivate us, and seeing a GKI in the therapeutic range is very motivating for me personally.