Ketostix, again

DAM5412

I know there is a lot of controversy about using these, however, I have used them off and on for several months to see when I'm in ketosis--usually after a high carb binge. My understanding of why they are not reliable is as that after someone has ketoadapted, your body processes your fat burning differently and the ketones naturally subside and so you may read your stix as negative, however your body is still fat burning. So I expect, based on what I've learned here an online, that at some point I'll be ketoadapted and the stix will stop turning pink for me, but that i'm still burning stored fat.

However, I have never heard of the opposite happening.. Where the stix show ketones, when you suspect you've gone (way) over your carb limit? I am wondering if there is an opposite false-positive possible...has anyone had that experience?

Here's why I ask. Yesterday, I had a sandwich...well, a sub (6" white roll). I didn't 'cheat' as people like to call it. I choose to have a sandwich and accepted that I would knock myself out of ketosis and spend the next few days getting back into it. So, imagine my surprise a few hours later when I tested my urine and the strip was pink...yes, traces only, but still...after a sub? So, figured it was left over ketones, tested later in the day, then again after dinner and again today...Still pink.

Makes me wonder if the unreliability goes both ways on the stix.

KnitOrMiss

You're looking at this from an incorrect perspective.

The sticks don't "stop working." As your body becomes keto adapted, your body uses those ketones for fuel, so you don't pass as many wasted into your urine. The sticks measure the dumped ketones, not used, wasted ones.

So as you get into ketosis your body creates more ketones but doesn't use them effectively yet. So you're "wasting" them. When your body uses them, there will be less wasted, so you are becoming keto adapted, unless you have overage on carbs.

That being said, if you were strongly in ketosis, one sandwich may not have been enough to knock you fully out of ketosis, but if you were keto adapted, you'll have to get back to that level. Your body didn't stop making ketones, it just has fewer in the waste/urine, so 1 of 2 things happened: you dropped from your level of adaption and are now wasting some ketones again as your body adapts again or 2) you dropped fully out of ketosis, but you are still producing ketones, so you will get back into ketosis sooner.

So the sticks are not unreliable. They measure the wasted ketones in urine. This helps with measuring progress into ketosis and into keto adapting... I hope this makes more sense.

Mistizoom

I agree with the above. The urine sticks are unreliable in general, and one reason is that they only show that you were producing ketones recently. They don't tell you your current metabolic state. Maybe the sandwich knocked you of ketosis, maybe it didn't, though it sound like probsbly it didn't. Also the sticks are affected by your hydration level, more dilute urine = lighter sticks, more concentrated urine = darker sticks.

nill4me

the stix measure acetoacetone...once you adapt, your body converts acetoacetone to beta-hydroxybutyrate - not detectible by pee stix - only vampire stix, as we know.

Anyhoos....Your carb load for that day was 50g net, if you logged everything, so you might be reading a real positive, as opposed to a false one (for what its worth), as 50g is still a tolerable carb level for many folks once they have adapted. Or...maybe you just lucked out...there is just no real way to tell, given what they (the stix) measure.

Think of it on the opposite side once. My blood ketones have been steady 1.0-3.5 for weeks. A good sign I've adapted right? so if I show purple on a ketostick, does that mean I'm not (adapted)? probably not. It could just mean I've eaten a bunch of coconut oil or had a few BPC's with MCT oil.

KCKO and keep doing good things for your body

DAM5412

Thanks all, I definitely had a brain fart when I posted. I know my carbs that day were still well below the average, and still within low carb levels. I had just psyched myself up that I would be out of Keto, so wondered if the sticks could read a false positive (as opposed to the false negative everyone talks about).