Keto test strips confusion

Shron123

I find it weird that my glucose reads .2 or .3 before I eat my first meal - between noon and 2pm. Then about 3 to 4 hours later I show 1.1 to 1.6. I wld think my ketones wld be higher after a 12-14 hour fast.

Also my carbs are consistently around 20g per day yet my ketones usual register less than 1. I only discovered this week that I seem to have higher readings between my two meals. I believe optimum fat burning / weight loss is 1.5-3. Which I rarely hit. Not sure why that is.

Sunny_Bunny_

Ketones don’t cause fat burning.
You mention glucose reading .2 or .3. I’m guessing you mean blood ketones?
You are probably reading higher after a high fat meal because some of the fat became ketones.
Ketones are energy in your blood. They aren’t the only energy, but after you eat, you have more energy in your blood. Therefore a higher reading.

After a long fast, you don’t have as much total energy in your blood.

This also demonstrates why trying to achieve higher ketones because of a belief that a certain level is better for fat burning isn’t true.
You can make more ketones by investing fat, but doing that means you’re not burning body fat. Not until the provided energy is used up or stored as the case may be if over supplied.

Shron123

Well now I’m really confused.

“A ketone level somewhere between 1.5 – 3 is said to be an optimal level for maximizing weight loss.” — Diet Doctor . Com

Dr. Phinney and Volek recommend a range of .5 to 3.0 millimolars to be in ketosis - found this statement in a lot of literature.

I lost about 35 lbs from Aug until mid Dec — 255 to 219. Gained 13 lbs over Christmas. Had lost 11 of those lbs but now I go down to 222 then back to 225 or 227. Has been this way for two weeks. Getting really frustrated. I am going to stick to the program but help wld be much appreciated

kpk54

This copy and paste from Dietdoc:

"Below 0.5 mmol/l is not considered “ketosis”, although a value of, say, 0.2 demonstrates that you’re getting close. At this level, you’re still far away from maximum fat-burning.
Between 0.5 – 1.5 mmol/l is light nutritional ketosis. You’ll be getting a good effect on your weight, but perhaps not optimal.
Around 1.5 – 3 mmol/l is called optimal ketosis and is recommended for maximum mental and physical performance gains. It also maximizes fat burning, which can increase weight loss.
Over 3 mmol/l is higher than necessary. It will achieve neither better nor worse results than being at the 1.5–3 level. Higher numbers can also sometimes mean that you’re not getting enough food (“starvation ketosis”). For type 1 diabetics, it can be caused by a severe lack of insulin that requires urgent attention".

It appears to me Dietdoc and Phinney are saying something quite similar. Dietdoc breaks it down into "light nutritional" and "optimal ketosis" so a range of .5-3 mmol/l per Phinney.

bozmo

You should expect your ketones to fluctuate during the day. I can't find the article I read about this, but unless you are eating 100% fat then the protein and carbs gets stored as glycogen in your liver. As you liver releases that, you need fewer ketones from burning fat. This happens for a lot of people in the morning with the "dawn" effect. I would expect that after a longer fast (several days, not overnight) you will have used all the glycogen and would have higher ketones.

Sunny_Bunny_

Ok but you can take MCT oil and raise ketones into what they are calling maximum fat burning but you won’t be burning any from your body just because you’re testing in that level.
People lose fat without ketosis. And people gain fat in ketosis.
Ketosis itself doesn’t cause the fat loss. The energy deficit does.