What affects ketone blood levels?

(Dee Eichler) #1

I tested 0.8 last week on my keto mojo. Today I tested at same time and it was 0.3. I did eat carbs two days ago, cake but back on since then. I also was drinking electrolytes with stevia when testing.?
Can one day off k lock u out of ketosis or is it the drink?

#2

I’d say the cake knocked your levels down. Also, are you exercising before your test? Exercise lowers your ketones level. Easier said than done, but stay away from the cake! I don’t think the drink would have knocked your levels down that much. Still new to this too though.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #3

Your levels will change throughout the day. There’s no reliable data to be taken away except that ketones are present! Really testing should maybe be reassuring to a beginner but after a while when you become fat adapted you might test a 0.0 but that doesn’t mean you’re not in ketosis, it means your body is using them for fuel. I don’t test myself and never have. You can tell you’re in ketosis by how you feel. Just stay under 20 carbs and ketosis happens. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Dee Eichler) #4

I have been on keto fir 7 weeks. Only went over carbs once with the cake 2 days ago. I have never gotten the great energy or clear thinking that everyone talks about. So how will I know if I am fat adapted.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #5

Are you consuming enough fats?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

Fat-adaptation occurs when muscle tissue starts using fatty acids for fuel, instead of glucose or even ketone bodies. If you exercise, you should find yourself returning to your pre-keto perfomance level, or even exceeding it. By the time fat-adaptation occurs, the brain will have become accustomed to metabolizing β-hydroxybutyrate, so many people report a sensation of mental sharpness they had not experienced before. Some people experience a persistently high level of energy that makes them want to clean the house or get out and do things.

Fat-adaptation generally occurs sometime between six and eight weeks on keto, but it can sometimes take longer.

#7

I did experience greater mental clarity with the keto diet but now it all feels normal.

It was only once I hit 50 that I Started experiencing brain fog due to excess carbohydrates. So I reckon if I went on keto 10 years ago I probably would not have noticed any extra mental clarity due to the ketogenic diet. I was already clear enough back then.

For me, The best way to know if you’re in a keto diet is just stick to the 20 g limits be patient and watch the fat fall off (albeit never as fast as we’d like).

Don’t worry about the cake incident Keep moving forward. And if you do you get knocked out of keto it goes to near not .4 or .3 (according to Phinney/Volek In the performance book)

If you measure ketones in the blood the time of day and everything matters. One day I had 0.4 then later the same day 1.3 or while on the 20 g carbs And no cake

(Carl Keller) #8

Out of curiosity, do you mean to say that your current mental clarity has reverted back to what it was before keto? Or do you mean that greater mental clarity is the new normal? I often wonder if I have started getting used to things being better than before and I fear that I might start taking them for granted. Maybe it just means my keto honeymoon is over…

(Urmi) #9

How long have you adopted the keto lifestyle, Carl? You seem like you’ve been doing this a long time based on your previous (awesome) suggestions

#10

The greater clarity is the new normal, but it feels “normal” now without the initial euphoria or buzz. So in that sense the honeymoon is over but I know I have a constant supply of energy (too much if anything, must watch any extra cups of coffee).

I also know the new supply of energy is more constant.

When I’m working in a team at work by mid morning they will pause to catch their breath, try to clear the brain fog and more or less hit a wall. I keep going. Cheers for keto power.

I think that can definitely happen to people, we forget the misery of low energy (I didn’t have that pre 50 but after that I had to organize my life around it “when I have energy”).

I think one reason some people don’t continue with a keto type diet is food boredom (only themselves to blame, we have tons and tons of options, more than than a low-fat diet). And the other reason is starting to take it all for granted - it’s all oh so normal now.

(Carl Keller) #11

Thanks Urmi :slight_smile:

I’ve been keto since Sept 9, 2018 and I am such a data nerd that I try to learn something new every day about it and how it relates to various health problems and solutions. It truly fascinates me.

I credit a good part of my apparent knowledge to an ability to plagarize @PaulL’s replies, change the language a little and make it appear as if they are my own. :sunglasses:

But seriously, I’ve learned so much from him and others in this forum. This forum is such a wealth of knowledge… not just keto knowledge.

I feel exactly the same way. It’s the euphoria that really opened my eyes and made me excited about everything and I dread the idea of everything reverting back to ho hum “normal”. I believe this forum and helping others will help keep the reminders of where we came from and what we survived, fresh in our minds.

(Allie) #12

Every single thing in your life / body affects ketone levels. They’re used for energy so every time you move they are affected. What you eat affects them. They’re up and down all the time.

(Dee Eichler) #13

I have been taking magnesium citrate advised by dr barry to help with constipation and sleep. It works but when I read the symptoms too much magnesium…lethargy, …exc makes me wonder? Do I need supplements? I dont pee alot ,not sure why? Drink only about 32oz per day. Strict on my carbs. Weight loose slow
.

#14

Very much the same here, I wrote about it back in December. I think you get used to all the benefits after a while and don’t realise until you see where you are relative to others around you.

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #15

32oz of water isn’t nearly enough. Aim for at least double that. The general recommendation is 8-10 8oz glasses a day. That’s 64-80oz! And even more is needed if you are active.

(Carl Keller) #16

Something @atomicspacebunny said recently resonated with me in regards to this. This question is a response to “Do the benefits of keto fade over time”:

I wouldn’t say “fade” over time it just means the metabolically shifting of the HPA-axis from the higher carbohydrate diet we were use too is returning to normal. We tend to have a little more adrenaline going on during the transition phase and that does fade when things return to normal again but with different fuel!

Less adrenaline makes sense.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #17

Some people do. Whether you are one of them is something you’ll have to figure out for yourself. I personally believe that we ought to be able to get everything we need from our diet, because through 2,000,000 years of evolution they managed to survive without a GNC nearby (am I dating myself with that reference?). But especially these days, some people do need supplements.

If you are keeping your salt intake up and drinking to thirst, you could experiment with doing without the magnesium supplement, and see what happens. Plenty of foods contain magnesium, so you might be getting enough in your diet, now. And many of the experts claim that micronutrients in food are generally better-absorbed than when taken in the form of supplements. I don’t know how true that is, but I’d sure like to believe it!