Ketostick Question
irishjeepgirl1969
Posts: 188 Member
I have been low carb for three weeks. Made some mistakes in the beginning, but I've been below 20g carbs for two weeks now. Week two, the sticks were in the middle pink color. This past week, they've been dark! Today, the color shifted back to medium pink. No cheats. Well, one diet soda. Other than that, no cheats. Is this color change good, bad, or inconsequential?
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By the way....those dumb sticks are the devil
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Don't bother with ketostix: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/comments/2xhxd3/faq_ketostix_and_measuring_ketosis_v3/2
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Pretty much if it registers any ketones at all, it's good enough. And it if doesn't register ketones and you're following 50g carbs or less a day, you're making ketones all day long. Even if under 100g, you're making plenty of ketones.
If you're going for brain benefits or something medical and not just weight loss, you would want to get a blood meter to check. But there's no reason to do it just for losing weight and/or controlling blood sugar.
Even how much water you drink can effect the test strip results.2 -
Thanks, y'all.
@Sunny_Bunny_ , I need to be doing this for my brain! Everyone seems to "get" all this stuff, but I'm blundering through it in a daze.
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irishjeepgirl1969 wrote: »Thanks, y'all.
@Sunny_Bunny_ , I need to be doing this for my brain! Everyone seems to "get" all this stuff, but I'm blundering through it in a daze.
Brain benefits weren't my initial goal, but when I started feeling it, I was amazed! I eventually added a high caprylic acid MCT oil (MiCkeyT 8) and ginkgo Biloba and krill or fish oil (whichever I can afford when it's time to buy it) in addition to 10,000 mg ascorbic acid and currently 700mg magnesium carbonate. I was taking about 1000mg of the mag, but since I've gone carnivore this month I don't seem to need as much. Or I'm just more efficient with magnesium for some reason all of a sudden.
If brain benefits are what you're after I highly recommend supplementing with that specific MCT oil and krill or fish oil for sure. Though I do feel the Ginko makes a difference for me too. I add a scant amount of a powdered form (Bulk Supplements) to my coffee in the morning and in my water once or twice a day.
I have ADHD and have taken a maximum dose of Adderall for over 5 years and was able to reduce the dosage by 1/3 recently.1 -
I bought ketostix because I felt I needed the confirmation that I was in Ketosis, even though technically there would be no reason I wasn't. However because they say that once your body starts burning the ketones for energy, you no longer pee them all out so the stix can register a lot weaker because of this.
Plus they are renowned for being wholly unreliable in general.
Like someone else said, you could buy a home blood test kit, which people find much more accurate, if you really "need" to keep testing yourself to feel good about it.
Think it only takes about 3 days to get back into ketosis after burning off your glycogen stores so there is absolutely no reason you wouldn't be in it, plus your carb intake. You can eat upto 50g and still be in ketosis.0 -
I went out and bought Keto stiks. Never registered a thing. I have been low carb for a few months but recently went all the way down to 25g/day. Still nothing registered.
I am definitely in Ketosis since I am averaging about 3.5lbs/week of weight loss... and I need to pop breath mints whenever I am planning on meeting anyone. Ha Ha.
Log honestly... and review your log.0 -
Don't bother with ketostix: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/comments/2xhxd3/faq_ketostix_and_measuring_ketosis_v3/
This is an excellent article. I've had a few other really good ones on this site as well.
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