Blood ketones at 1.1 after higher carb lunch? Or maybe it wasn't so high carb after all?

Sunny_Bunny_

So today was my daughters 17th birthday and she wanted to go to an Asian buffet we used to love. I stayed away from rice except for what was in my 2 pieces of sushi and planned to get only meat/veg with broth like sauces but there weren't any! They all had brown sauces on them that tasted sweet to me. So I decided to allow myself to go ahead and have them still without rice or any other carbs aside from the veg and suspected sugar in the sauces. I figured since I'm adapted after over 2 months that I would bounce back pretty quickly. Plus I'm nursing some major sore muscles after some remodeling I did for my dad a few days ago.
Anyway, since lunch I couldn't stop wondering how many carbs were in the food and how many calories I should count it for and how badly it was going to affect ketones. So I decided to check and I was surprised to see that it was 1.1 and was actually higher than the .6 I tested at about 10 days ago. I checked it about 2 hours after eating and all I did once we got back home was lay down and watch a movie with her.
So my questions are:
Am I wrong to think that I would see a change within a short time after eating carbs? When we are trying to get my T1D daughters ketones down, they respond very quickly to her body using the glucose again after insulin.
Or
Was I just completely wrong that the food had all the carbs I assumed it did? But it was certainly sweet tasting.
Or
Is my TDEE just higher right now while I am healing my insanely sore muscles and I burned through the carbs quickly despite inactivity and got right back to burning the fats up?

AlabasterVerve

What you essentially did was a "carb refeed" which replenishes your glycogen stores in your liver and muscles. That's why people who exercise intensely or lift can eat more carbs than someone who doesn't -- they regularly deplete their glycogen stores so the carbs they eat have a place to go. ETA: Only liver glycogen needs to be depleted for ketosis; not muscle glycogen because the rest of the body can't use it.

Sunny_Bunny_

But I thought that given the presence of glucose the body would immediately switch back to use it for energy instead of fats until it was no longer available, and only in the event there was more available than was needed would it store it as glycogen.
Is that idea just completely wrong?

Sunny_Bunny_

Also, I suppose my reading earlier in the day could have been higher and actually did come down in response to the carb intake... But I haven't had one read that high for weeks. Though, I really only check it once every 10-14 days or so out of curiosity. I also haven't had muscle strain as severely as I do at the moment either...

wabmester

It depends on a lot of factors, but your brain is the main consumer of ketones. You're just measuring leftovers when you measure venous blood levels.

The amount of leftover ketones is not tightly regulated. It's mostly a function of available substrates and genetics, but sugar will temporarily shutdown production.

Your brain also has a daily minimal need for glucose of about 40g. If you restrict carbs below that, you're forcing your liver to make glucose via GNG. No other option. By increasing intake up to 40g, you may simply be relieving your liver of that burden with little impact on ketone production.

Above 40g carbs, you'll slow down ketone production. As AV mentions above, you'll be able to refill glycogen stores -- up to 120g.

So above 120g, you'll slow ketone production way down. At around 200g carbs, you essentially shut down ketone production since both the brain and other organs have all the glucose they need.

At above 200g, you'll convert glucose to fat. That's the danger zone, but only if you sustain it long term (like most people do).