Newbie looking for advice on Test Strips

#1

Hi All!
I am new to Keto and excited to continue but I cant help but be discouraged. I have been testing my ketones with the pee strips and ever since I started it has not changed any color. I know a lot of people are saying to just throw them out but I am a visual person and like to see progress by measuring. What am I doing wrong? I definitely feel better, my clothes are looser as well as a lack of appetite and frequent urination. I also exercise 5 out of 7 days. Ive been tracking my food on an app- 139 g of fat, 106g protein and 25g carbs. Any advice would be awesome!
Thanks!

(Robert C) #2

Hi Newbie,

A few points I’d like to make here:

  • Frequent urination due to drinking too much water will make urine strips pretty useless - if you want color, slow down on the water - if you want any real accuracy, get a blood ketone monitor
  • If you are doing so well on keto - your strips may be bad (also, they have a short shelf life - a few months after opening)
  • Both blood and urine ketone measurements are measuring what you over produce but under use. You could just be a person that - very early in keto - just creates what you need, I think this is rare through. Also, I think blood is more accurate because the ketones still have to get to your brain - so measuring 0.0 in the blood would definitely mean you’re not producing ketones - 0.5 is accepted as minimum for ketosis so maybe that is the smallest amount a person producing and using ketones will have in their blood.
  • Better visual aids are before and after pictures and tape measurements (stomach, legs, arms, chest - everything).
(Allie) #3

Best advice is to throw them away and don’t waste any more money buying more. Judge by your results.

(Turtle Dove) #4

If your clothes are loser then you’re losing lbs or inches or both! So, what do the keto sticks matter? Mine only got above “trace” once even with IF. After 10 weeks, I’ve lost 20 lbs and have accepted that the sticks don’t mean a thing for me!

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #5

Hey Newbie,

Here’s the advice.

Don’t pay the pee strips any attention. Finish the box or pitch the box and never buy them again and never worry about the level of ketosis based on your urine again. Get in touch with how you feel, like pants are loose, feel better, not hungry, and focus on that type of thing.

(Robert C) #6

Your macros come out to about 1775 calories per day.

There is a big difference whether you are a 5 foot nothing female and a 6 foot 6 inch male.

The much larger male could be making the clothes fitting gains through calorie restriction and the “good feeling” because of the new exercise plan instead of actually being keto (unlikely with the low carbs).

But, if you are a big person working out really hard 5 days a week, you might want to go with the blood meter to ensure you aren’t just over-exercising and calorie restricting (which usually fails in the long run).

#7

Wow! Thats amazing!

#8

I think strips are only good for confirming ketosis everytime u go on keto, for actual measuring there is more accurate methods but i doubt its worth dropping money into rn. Measuring tape and logging results would be ur best bet for now.