I am 8 days in to my Keto experience. Have lost 2 pounds which I am a little dissapointed with… but I have other NSV so I am pushing forward!!
I just wish I could have that awesome initial water weight loss a lot of people have.
Anyway, have urine strips and according to them I have been in Ketosis since day 3. First day I tested… moderate.
What is the benefit of getting a blood monitor? Keto mojo a good one?
Thanks! KIM
Hi Tex… from West TX. My wife just bought the keto mojo. It works pretty well. And she likes it.
The benefit of blood testing is accuracy. Urine test strips only test for excess ketones that you spill out, once you level out your strips will seem like they are not working so you will think you are not in ketosis. Blood measures the ketones in your blood, so more accurate. HOwever they are pricey and you are far better off, IMHO, in gauging ketosis by how you feel i.e. energy level, mental clarity etc. But I know in the beginning it’s important to know when you are in and when you get kicked out. So my best advice if you get a blood monitor to correlate and track your ketosis level with other physical attributes so you can get to know what ketosis feels like, then after a while you won’t need to test.
After about 5 years of low carb/keto, I can say that I have no idea whether I’m in ketosis or not (unless I eat a ton of carbs, of course), most days. That’s why I continue to test using blood.
I test for blood glucose daily and fight to keep it below 80. I write it next to my food chart and see what causes spikes. Cauliflower spikes my blood, so I stopped eating it. I switched out red tomatoes for green ones etc
You can learn a lot from blood testing
Oh wow! So much great info! I have been eating lots of cauliflower… I hope I don’t have to stop! Thanks so much, going to order the keto mojo… is that one good enough? Not too expensive… 60 bucks for monitor and 1.00 per strip I believe…
I am staying under 20 carbs per day… only in week 2 . Feel still low energy etc. Not great but I dont have awful headaches anymore… last week I had a bad headache for like 4 days.
I bought a continuous blood glucose monitor to test blood sugar. Never got a spike from cauliflower, though (although I also never eat it by itself).
My blood sugar is over 100 every morning, goes down all day until midnight or so, starts rising. Same pattern whether I eat or fast. HbA1c was 5.0 last time I tested it.
Headaches might mean lack of salt.
Hmm…let me see if I can post a picture.
This is the data over a 2 week period.
Multiply by 18 to get US units. For whatever reason, my blood sugar is higher in the mornings now. For instance, my blood sugar was 106 (5.9 European units) this morning, using a blood-prick type monitor. (I was paying for the FreeStyle Libre out of my own pocket, and it’s too expensive.)
Oops, I guess that’s almost a month of data. I didn’t remember I took that much at one shot.
Salad with cucumber, and just half a small red tomato spikes my blood too. Grow my own now and eat them green. Lovely with fried bacon!
The lowest my blood goes is when I have a fat day. It can drop to 48
