Okay so I know that this has probably been asked a million times and I also know that urine test strips are not that accurate BUT…
I have had them since I started and the first couple of days I used them just to see what they said and they barely had a trace. After 12 days I said what the heck when I noticed them on the sink–today it read .8!
What is a roundabout number that I should be looking for on the urine test strips? Again I know they are not super accurate.
Thanks!
Stephanie
In my experience, and I don’t have strips with a number but just trace-high, that anything is good and you are in ketosis. You cannot see your blood level from the pee strips. What you are seeing is the lower level ketone acteoactate that is excess and dumped by the kidneys. So that is telling you that you are dong good, they are not going to tell you a level of ketosis if that is a matter for you they cannot do that. But all is well and they will get darker in the days to come. They are handy for telling you are in ketosis and are not if you have had problem day. But even then it may take a few days to see them again if you get kicked out. The next step up would be a cheap breath meter they are a little more real time. After that you are talking about the expensive blood test machines.
Thank you so much!! Was wondering if I was in ketosis Ana the strip made me feel better!
I didn’t know there was a breath meter! Are they pretty accurate?
Thanks again!
Stephanie (-:
They don’t test anything useful for nutritional ketosis. Period. End of story.
Stay under 20g/day carbs, and you’re good to go. Save your money.
I once had a Ketonix, and it was equally useless for me. The problem with testing for nutritional ketosis is you might get conflicting information. When I tested this way, it told me I was out of ketosis when I couldn’t have been, and then told me I was in ketosis when I shouldn’t have been.
The only number you can count on somewhat reliably is the carbs you eat. Stay at under 20g/day, and you’re guaranteeing ketosis - keep that up, and you’re good. I lost 140lb doing that. No one needs to test, you can do this just fine without peeing on anything, blowing into anything, or sticking yourself with anything.
The cheap breath meters are exactly as I describe. $10 on amazon, they only detect acetone which is a ketone that is created when acetoactate is broken down to make BHB. The relevance for you is that you can see more than excess ketones which when you are new or in many cases old is not happening much. After that its debatable, it has been helpful for me to see if I am or am not making BHB to what extent it is only a guess there are no real world charts, some people have made a few on their own but its hard to say as each person is different so outside of a diagnostic tool they are of little value. I am a numbers person, its a novelty, I used to take pee strips 2-3 times a day to see how I would react to certain events and try and correlate them to the breath meter and the said action. I also had said pee strips for free so it was not a money set back. Many people say the pee strips are useless and a waste of money, I believe in feedback, sometimes a simple yes or no is good enough. I can also pretty much tell how I feel now and base that on an acetone reading of similar magnitude. But I will also say this about the breath meters you can sway the results if you are not constant in how you use them.
Thanks so much for this! For me with the test strips it was more of a yes or no thing as well. The strip being so dark to me signify that I am in Ketosis. Just wasn’t sure if the numbers that correlated with it meant anything.
I have the urine test strips and it consistently says I’m in the highest ranges (doesn’t give #’s- just zero to high). Morning or evening same thing.
I got to wondering as it never went down below the heighest two colors so I made my husband, who is not on Keto, pee on one. It read that he had none. So I’m fine with my sticks. I’m not concerned about what my numbers are anyway. I just want to keep track that nothing I’m eating is throwing me out of ketosis, so if I see it go way down, I should be able to correlate it back to something I ate.
I am trace until evening. Then light pink. Is that normal? I am starting week four and have never gone darker than light pink. Carbs well under 20 and trying to increase my fat intake.
Sure, it might be abnormal too, there is no real way to know.
I trended for a long time, typically I would go lighter to no trace after exercise, and eating more protein. In my reading here there were people who were completely opposite of my reactions. I was almost always the darkest in the morning before my workout. Please keep in mind that what you are looking at is excess that your body is dumping. So how much SCT or MCT you intake will effect that and your timeline as well. Since you are early on in the WOE I would say that is fine, the highest I had was after I fat adapted and has slowly dropped, each time I extended fast I was a little lower while not fasting. My breath analyzer confirms this, and it makes sense I need less energy from the liver, there for less ketones are being made.
I generally believe that if you keep your carbs under 20g you will be fine, but if you over do the protein in my case you will not. If you are concerned about it there is not a whole lot you can do about, you can tweak things but it is what is.
I have been using just the Ketostix since I began in January and I feel they work fine for me. My daughter who got me started on keto is a physician, and she told me from the start not to worry about the numbers (quantity of ketones) because either you’re in ketosis or you’re not, and that’s all that matters. (Kinda like you’re pregnant or you’re not.)
I think that it’s misguided effort to fixate on achieving a higher “score” because the reasons for the ketone level in the bloodstream or breath or urine can vary, depending on whether the ketones are being created from dietary fat or from body fat, also whether you are using your ketones as fuel rather than “spilling” them.
The only reason I use the sticks is to provide feedback so I can gauge whether certain changes to my diet knock me out of ketosis completely. For example, will one glass of wine do it? Will two? Will a bowl of berries with cream do it?
We are all a little different in how we respond to certain foods, and the keto stix are just one tool to help you evaluate how your body responds. For example, some folks find they can be knocked out of ketosis with some artificial sweeteners but not others (even when keeping carbs below 20). Some people do better with more protein, some with less. Further, you will go through changes as you lose weight and/or heal your metabolism.
There is no keto rule book. With that in mind, take the information you find on this forum and test it out for yourself. Leaders in the community are coming together to make the essential information available to the lay public. The more you read and watch video presentations on the research that is being done, the better you will be able to adapt your way of eating to your health journey. Here is a good example:
I think the urine strips are fine for when you’re just starting the keto journey to tell you if you’re in or not. After that, I bought a breath meter and I THOUGHT I liked it, until it sabotaged me. I was always registering good numbers on the breath meter so I started slowly raising my carbs each day to see how many I could have and still be in ketosis. It kept telling me I was in keto. I’d add more carbs. Still registering ketosis. One weekend when I really went carb crazy it STILL told me I was in ketosis so I knew something was wrong. I grabbed another breath meter (they had sent me two) and this one registered zero. They both went in the trash and my blood meter just arrived today.
I have been thinking about a blood meter…Let us know how it goes!
I’m on day 32 and have never gone above trace? Is that normal?
This is an issue bugging me. Day 32 and have never gone above trace except for once. I am absolutely not cheating. I would just really like to know if I am in ketosis. Should I get a breath meter? Everyone is talking about pink and purple, and it’s never happened for me. I fully understand that the sticks are inaccurate, but I would like the feedback.
Yes it can be, I did not test for at least 2 weeks very often, I think it may be more like almost 4. But no I never really got heavy purple until two things happened, one I stopped eating things with sweeteners in them and I neared fat adaption. One may be subjective, it also matters when you take the reading as well as things like T2D and IR. I have noted the effect of exercise, food intake and sweeteners, but mainly the exercise and time of day seemed to effect me the most.
exercise was more noticeable after I went purple, when my diet is higher in fats they tend to be darker as well but not always.
I’m really confused. You say it might be darker as I get to fat adaption, but elsewhere members write that once you are fat adapted the body uses all the ketones and none are wasted in the urine. I walk and lift weights and home, and do not use sweeteners.
The other thing I hate about the sticks is the pictures on the tube really don’t match the results. So I am not even really sure if I have ever been pink. My result after 15 second looks in between two different colors. In the morning it is obviously negative, but after that I can’t really tell.
My understanding is if you’re showing at all, you’re in ketosis.
I did a little test on my husband who isn’t doing Keto. My ketones always show super high, almost no variance. I was concerned they weren’t reading properly, so I made my hubby pee on one. It was definately negative.
Is there someone close to you who is no -Keto you can ask to try and see where they show up? If there’s a difference, even subtle, I would say you are in ketosis and don’t worry about how much. From what I understand it doesn’t matter how much. You either are or you’re not. Like a pregnancy test.