Test Breath Ketones without a Ketonix (using a cheap breathalyzer)

ketonix
acetone
breath
(Tovan Nhsh) #158

Same here. I’ve been using it as a more affordable alternative to the blood strips. The highest reading I’ve seen so far is .8

(Linda Culbreth) #159

Wish you a quick recovery. Smart move to ask for saline vs. glucose. It’s important regarding ketosis and you can double that if you happen to be a diabetic.

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #160

Thank you. :slight_smile: It was only minor non-invasive surgery for kidney stones. Still, I was under full general anesthesia for it though. All good now, but things were hurtin’ for a week or so afterwards.

Edit:. Looking back, I should have asked what concentration the glucose was (just out of curiosity). I don’t think it would have been all that much. The nuse said it speeds the recovery time for the anesthesia.

(Dude Man) #161

I got this one. What did you use?

(Crystal ) #162

I bought a cheapie off ebay and I can’t wait to try it! I don’t personally care what exact amount the test shows - I feel if I show something, I’m good. The higher the number goes, the deeper I am in ketosis! Just a fun, simple tool to play around with and I’m stoked :slight_smile:
I’m following this thread to see if anyone is able to actually make a table of readings to mml, but I’m gonna have fun with this thing regardless I think haha

(Todd Allen) #163

Here’s my first meter.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291988911355
Super cheap and consistent results. But the display can be hard to read, mine doesn’t have the orange backlight shown in some pictures. And while I find it useful I’d like more precision. I’m confident when it reports BAC% 0.04 I’m solidly in ketosis. Sometimes I get 0.03 when I know I’ve been a bit lax and had too much fruit, nuts or meat but sometimes it’s after having been fairly strict for a day. I’d really like to see another digit to see how far I’ve dropped. My wife who will eat the keto meals I prepare but otherwise still eats bread and some carbage has used this meter and blows anywhere from 0.00 to 0.02. A meter with more sensitivity in the lower ranges might encourage her to further cut carbs.

The second one I bought looks much like yours, but I bought it here:


I thought this one didn’t work to read acetone because when I first tried it I always got 0.000. But I swapped in fresh non-rechargeable batteries and now it works pretty well. The readings are a little lower than my first meter, but fairly consistent within +/- 0.005 blow to blow and I need to use it more to decide how much advantage there is in having the 3rd digit. It seems a good choice though probably not worth several times the cost of my first one.

This is my 3rd one:


It looks nice, great display with a 3rd digit after the decimal point but the readings are very inconsistent. I can use it several times in a row and get wildly different readings each time.

How to approach fiber when figuring macros
#164

I was on the verge of ordering a Ketonix when I happened upon this board. Not sure my brain is really taking all this in, but looks like I will order the Greenwon as it is so cheap, fast to ship from Amazon and many here seem to like it. Could one of you possibly post a chart with what the numbers mean? I have been eating low carb forever, but just found out via Mercola’s new book (Fat for Fuel) that I was way overdoing my protein. Within two days my fasting glucose went from in the 110s to under 100, and then a few days more and it was in the 80s! I am thrilled! But my brain is still sluggish and I would appreciate help understanding what the numbers on the Greenwon mean. Thanks in advance.

Ketosis Check
(KCKO, KCFO) #165

From what I have read (Phinney, etc.) anything .04 or higher is nutritional ketosis. I find eating strict keto gets me there. If I fast it climbs to 1.1. YMMV

(Jim Russell) #166

Yes, this is pretty much what I have seen. Eating keto I am usually at .05. Fasting, the highest I have seen was around 1.5 at the end of an 80 hour fast.

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #168

I bought mine on Amazon (Canada) and it was under the brand “Homasy Breathalyzer”

(G. Andrew Duthie) #169

Starting to think my meter may be on the fritz. I don’t think I’ve changed my eating habits significantly, but of late I’m reading either 0.00, or 0.20 max. Sometimes when it reads 0.00, if I run a cycle without blowing, it then reads 0.20, which makes me wonder whether something is up with the sensor.

Maybe the sensor has a limited lifetime (given how cheap these are, it wouldn’t surprise me). Maybe I’ll take it apart and see if it looks like any dust or gunk has accumulated, since the moisture from breath might tend to increase the likelihood.

#170

My doctor friend told me the sensors only last about 6 months. She works in a rehab hospital and they use them all the time. She says you’ve just got to buy a new one every 6 months. Mine is still going okay.

I’d be curious if you can clean it. That would be ace.

(G. Andrew Duthie) #171

Interesting. I’ve not had mine anywhere near that long, but again, given what I paid for it, wouldn’t surprise me if it was bad.

That said, I blew a 0.5 this morning, so it may just be that I’ve been eating too frequently, or things that are not beneficial for keto (had a case of Bai coconut drinks, which are very tasty, but probably best as an infrequent treat, even though they are mostly erythritol sweetened).

(Crow T. Robot) #172

That’s all I’ve ever got on mine and I eat under 10 carbs/day. I’m thinking it’s not worth it for me. (Greenwon)

(G. Andrew Duthie) #173

@Chris_W I’m not sure it has much (or anything) to do with carbs in my case. I think it’s more likely that I’ve let myself slip into a habit of eating more frequently throughout the day (snacking on cheese, pork cracklins, etc.) such that I don’t have enough periods of low insulin to burn as much fat as I would otherwise do.

Going to spend some time focusing on not eating between meals, particularly if I’m not actually hungry, and see what effect that has. I’m also overdue for an extended fast, so I’ll probably do that sometime this week as well.

If the meter is still working right, I should see the needle move from one or both of these.

#174

No. Police breathylizers only detect alcohol not acetone.

(Todd Allen) #175

For the past week I’ve been doing a 1 meal per day IF with no snacks and my ketones have been slowly increasing each day despite also increasing carb intake. Yesterday I ended my meal with a mango for dessert which would have been keto death without IF and this morning my ketones continued rising. I followed the mango with an intense for me weight lifting session so maybe that helped keep me out of trouble.

(G. Andrew Duthie) #176

I took the meter apart today. Very simple construction, and unfortunately, does not look like there’s any way to clean the sensor.

Started a fast after dinner last night, and still showing 0.00. Could be that I busted myself out of ketosis through too much snacking or too much protein, but after nearly 24 hours, I’d expect at least some movement.

Given the pattern I usually see when fasting, I do expect to see some change. If the meter doesn’t register it, I’m probably going to write this one off.

(roxanna) #177

I still only get zero and I am only eating beef this month.

(Todd Allen) #178

Have you tried fresh batteries? Regardless, get another meter or two. They are less than a 10 pack of ketone blood test strips. I’ve got 3 meters now and when I get an unexpected result on one I’ll try the other two. If they all show something similar then I’m pretty confident it’s me and not a flaky meter.

One of my meters I used to get very inconsistent results with but I realized it was my technique. It doesn’t have a separate mouthpiece, just a port. When I blow into the port from a distance I get varied results, sometime 0.000. But I found if I press my lips around the port it reads much more consistently giving me results roughly matching my other meters. Also, I need to wait an additional second or two after the warmup countdown timer expires. If I blow immediately I get a low result.