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

[d_to_the_c]

Good chance you just aren’t doing it right too. I had that issue at first. I got the technique down eventually though. My wife still has problems.

[Gale_Dacalio]

My understanding is you blow most of the air out of your lungs and then blow into the ketonix. Maybe I mispoke. The ketonix did seem to match with my blood ketones - after I found a chart to give an idea of how they correlate. I just like the exact numbers. (comes with the territory of being a nurse for 28 years…lol) That way I can see what I ate the day before and how it affected me.

[Helewisa]

I just had my husband try the AT6000 after a slow…two beers, he blows a 0.02
As for me…nada. 0.0

[Brian_Chandler]

I just stumbled on this myself and was thinking about building one. (the Arduino Ketosense project) Have you built one yourself? If so, how did it do?

[keehan]

No sorry, I did not build one of these. I bought a pack of sensors to experiment with but life got in the way - as usual!

[Tracey]

After reading this with interest earlier in the week, I got a ‘cheap’ breathalyser from Amazon, and I’m blowing either 0.02 or 0.03. My boyfriend gets a big fat zero, he’s not keto (and it takes him longer to get a result - is it stopping sooner for me because it’s registering the acetone?).

[brownfat]

Yes, with most of these breathalyzers higher readings come back faster. The highest readings they are capable of come back almost instantly. I suspect the way they work is the sensor trips after crossing a cumulative saturation threshhold and the result is determined by how long it takes. There is quite a bit of variability in these meters so your 0.03 might mean anything from modestly in ketosis to quite deeply in ketosis. But keep tracking and you should get a sense of where you are at and what foods you want to more carefully restrict because they drop you low and what foods you can indulge with less concern. Note, there tends to be hours of delay between eating a food and it dropping your level and many more hours to rebound. So tracking is easier/more effective when you only eat potentially problematic foods infrequently. Combinations can matter too, mushrooms with bacon might be ok while mushrooms with lean chicken breast lower your ketone reading.

[justme]

Has anybody else had prescribed eye drops knock you totally out of ketosis and at the same time raise your blood glucose 40-60 points and it stay up?

[nalien2000]

Has anyone given you the advice to exhale most of your breath, before beginning to breathe into the AT6000 unit? You want to be consistent, but I find if you inhale deeply and blow directly into the device, it may register zeros. But if you breathe out first, and only leave just enough air in your lungs to have enough to blow into the unit, it gives a reading. And breathe slowly, not quickly, into the device. Also develop a consistency.

[d_to_the_c]

This is definitely the technique.

[Helewisa]

OK, yes, I’m doing it that way now and I am getting a consistent reading of 0.02. I also checked by blood ketones the first time I registered a 0.02 and I think I had a 1.6 on the blood ketone reading whilst showing the 0.02 on AT6000.

Thank you for the advice, and I know it’s not crucial to be checking this all of the time. I was just hoping for something, a device that could give some indication of ketosis without my spending so much on test strips. Also, if it is fairly reliable, it allows for much more frequent tests to check any correlation between foods eaten and also BG readings at the same time.

[Helewisa]

So, I “blew a 0.03” this morning on my AT6000, and sadly, I realize that I had no cheese yesterday But, but, but…I LOVE cheese!

[d_to_the_c]

Pretty much any reading on 5hese should probably be considered positive for ketosis.

[justme]

Just to clarify why I put the question here about the eye drops, I went from 93 blood glucose and .05 on cheapest breathalyzer and .03 on a little more expensive one to 160 blood glucose and .00 on both meters. Stopped drops, blood glucose down to 133 and getting a very minimum ketones on the cheapest meter, nothing on the slightly more expensive.

[Zimon]

For all that’s holy, please stop obsessing about numbers, especially ones of a 15 Dollar device! I fear this number tracking is not doing you any good. You don’t chase ketones, you chase progress in terms of your personal goals you want to attain with this WOE (weight loss, diabetes reversal, life quality improvement etc.)

[Helewisa]

Hahaha, @Zimon this is just what I needed to hear! Thank you again and yes, I am obsessing. So, I’m going to have a fast and just KCKO as I work my way through what may be a very stressful week.
Ketosis is not likely measured very well with this cheap device, true. And, as I follow the basics of the keto WOE, get to bed early and move along with life, all should be well. I just find myself to be so impatient sometimes and want results NOW. None of that is good. Thanks for the reminder.
Progress may be slow, but it’s better than that little blue number screen and the stress it’s creating!

[Zimon]

Well done! And everything I said was with all due respect of course! Treat the breathalyzer and all other ketone indicators as discrete variables! Much healthier and less fixation on the numbers. Always remember your reason for this WOE.

[Zimon]

Oh, and let me just annex this little piece on the lure of chasing ketones: there is ZERO evidence that there is any advantage for the average Joe or Josephine to be at 6 mmol/L as opposed to 3.5, or 0.5 mmol/L. I’d check out the youtube channel “Keto connect”. They have some great videos on ketone number tracking. Both of them have been keto for years and barely hit the 0.5 mark most of the times in the morning after fasting or after a full keto breakfast. It’s because their bodies adapted. Even with 0.2 they regard themselves as “in ketosis”, simply because they feel good and they know they have loads of experience in listening to their inner self.

From my own experience, I can tell you, most of the times I felt great, I have had the lowest numbers. Even though my lowest numbers most people still would regard as high (1.2 mmol/L in the morning after as 12 hour overnight fast). On days of a 3.5 mmol/L reading, I sometimes felt considerably worse. I knew at that point, it was time to up my protein, which I did. I used to eat up to 92% of fat per day. That worked well during induction up to a certain point (roughly the first 2 months). Now, I still maintain a 80-85% fat ratio, but I get in around 80-120 grams of protein per day and feel great. Also, my ketones have declined and recently went up again a bit to around 2.0 to 2.2 mmol/L in the morning, after my body got used to the increased protein intake.

[Helewisa]

Great information and encouragement, I appreciate this so much. Honestly, with life as stress-filled as it has been for the last 5 months, I can use all of the hope and truth I can get.

I will check out the keto connect duo, they are fun and always have something good to watch and learn from. Interesting about the ketones and adaptation/measurements etc. As I understand, your body will produce what you NEED for fueling and therefore there is not so much to be measured since it is being employed in fueling your cells and not being wasted. Interesting stuff, and good to remember when I hear the siren call of some meter from somewhere!

[d_to_the_c]

The acetone in your breath should always be present though. That’s what your body is actively using. However, I totally agree with Zimon on this, the numbers on these devices seem to be highly personal as I assume the QA on these cheap little devices is non-existent. I’m sure the accuracy and precision of them is questionable. I do note that my normal number (70-80mg/L) does raise if I’m fasting. These numbers are probably only good for me though and I know if I saw a very low number then I think it would be indicative of me having eaten too much of something I shouldn’t have. However I really just see this as a binary IN/OUT reading. Its definitely more of a curiosity to me.