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

ketonix
acetone
breath

(Dude Man) #161

I got this one. What did you use?


(Crystal ) #162

I bought a cheapie off ebay and I canā€™t wait to try it! I donā€™t personally care what exact amount the test shows - I feel if I show something, Iā€™m good. The higher the number goes, the deeper I am in ketosis! Just a fun, simple tool to play around with and Iā€™m stoked :slight_smile:
Iā€™m following this thread to see if anyone is able to actually make a table of readings to mml, but Iā€™m gonna have fun with this thing regardless I think haha


(Todd Allen) #163

Hereā€™s my first meter.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291988911355
Super cheap and consistent results. But the display can be hard to read, mine doesnā€™t have the orange backlight shown in some pictures. And while I find it useful Iā€™d like more precision. Iā€™m confident when it reports BAC% 0.04 Iā€™m solidly in ketosis. Sometimes I get 0.03 when I know Iā€™ve been a bit lax and had too much fruit, nuts or meat but sometimes itā€™s after having been fairly strict for a day. Iā€™d really like to see another digit to see how far Iā€™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 didnā€™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 Mercolaā€™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 ā€œHomasy Breathalyzerā€


(G. Andrew Duthie) #169

Starting to think my meter may be on the fritz. I donā€™t think Iā€™ve changed my eating habits significantly, but of late Iā€™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 wouldnā€™t surprise me). Maybe Iā€™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 youā€™ve just got to buy a new one every 6 months. Mine is still going okay.

Iā€™d be curious if you can clean it. That would be ace.


(G. Andrew Duthie) #171

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

That said, I blew a 0.5 this morning, so it may just be that Iā€™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

Thatā€™s all Iā€™ve ever got on mine and I eat under 10 carbs/day. Iā€™m thinking itā€™s not worth it for me. (Greenwon)


(G. Andrew Duthie) #173

@Chris_W Iā€™m not sure it has much (or anything) to do with carbs in my case. I think itā€™s more likely that Iā€™ve let myself slip into a habit of eating more frequently throughout the day (snacking on cheese, pork cracklins, etc.) such that I donā€™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 Iā€™m not actually hungry, and see what effect that has. Iā€™m also overdue for an extended fast, so Iā€™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 Iā€™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 thereā€™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, Iā€™d expect at least some movement.

Given the pattern I usually see when fasting, I do expect to see some change. If the meter doesnā€™t register it, Iā€™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. Iā€™ve got 3 meters now and when I get an unexpected result on one Iā€™ll try the other two. If they all show something similar then Iā€™m pretty confident itā€™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 doesnā€™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.


(G. Andrew Duthie) #179

Interesting thought on the batteries (though I wouldnā€™t expect to go through them that quickly). Worth trying a fresh set and seeing if that changes the result.


(G. Andrew Duthie) #180

Tried replacing the batteries, no appreciable difference in readings.

I got as high as a 0.5 today, but now itā€™s back down to 0.4. Given that at this point Iā€™m 48 hours into a water-only fast, I suspect that the meter is no longer measuring accurately. Either that, or my keto-fu is seriously off.


(Todd Allen) #181

Are you planning on extending the fast? If so it will be interesting to see if/how quickly your readings increase. I would expect to see increasing readings for 3 or 4 more days.