Not in Keto =(

Nicole9187

I've been eating around 21 carbs for about 7 weeks. I've been losing at a great pace. I feel good, but I still feel hungry. My cravings are starting to go away. But I want to achieve keto. So I purchased a blood ketone meter and yesterday afternoon I tested my blood because I had never used anything like it before and wanted to make sure I understood how to do it. Anyways, when I tested yesterday my blood ketone level was .6, this morning (fasted state) .2. So not really close at all to keto.

Any ideas of what I should do to ensure I enter keto?

christineellis

If you are not in Ketosis, I would up your fat and lower your protein a bit. What do you have your macros set to?

EddieHaskell97

I don't want to tick you off, but are you sure you're using it properly? If you've been at 21 grams of carbs per day for seven weeks, it shouldn't be physically possible that you aren't in ketosis. The fact that you're willing to draw blood for this, combined with 21 grams for seven weeks clearly demonstrates your hardcore resolve. (Damn, that's tough!)

I only use the pee strips, and they do quite well by me (Wally World sells house-brand strips 'ReliOn' for $6.47) but sometimes I still feel hungry (not ravenous), and I'm in ketosis. Maybe you have a similar physiology?

kiramaniac

My husband is the same way. My blood ketone readings are always 3-4x higher than his. 0.2 is a common number for him.

Jimmy Moore recently finished his year long n=1 nutritional ketosis experiment, where he measured his blood ketones both am and pm. He had a few months where blood ketones were consistently lower, with some measures down in the 0.2 range. He had some theories, but there wasn't a clear explanation on why this might occur.

A couple of the more pertinent months from Jimmy Moore:
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/jimmy-moores-n1-experiments-nutritional-ketosis-day-211-240/17390
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/jimmy-moores-n1-experiments-nutritional-ketosis-day-241-270/17905

The "Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance" chapter 10 does a good overview of blood ketone measurements. They also identify that MCT Oil can drive these up fairly effectively - although they weren't sure if ketosis resulting from MCT supplementation has the same metabolic benefits with ketosis purely from carbohydrate restriction.

If you want to try to boost ketones with MCT oil, coconut oil is a good source (coconut oil is about 60% MCT oil). You can also buy pure MCT oil and use that in your bulletproof coffee instead of the coconut oil.

Do a couple days of readings though. You just might have lower natural readings and more sensitivity. Or, today may have been an oddball day. For my husband, he just gets punished more readily for very minor deviations off of keto. For him, meals that are protein heavy without fat are sometimes enough to do it.

GamerGirly

I agree with Eddie. Seems impossible to not be in ketosis. Most people can hit ketosis just by going lower than 100g a day.
I would, too, suggest trying a different method of testing. Otherwise make sure you're logging accurately or modify your macro's.

kiramaniac

I was just looking at your diary. My guess is that last night's dinner was too protein heavy without fat. That meal shows 1-2-24 (C-F-P).

Nicole9187

I started with the strips, and I did not use them yesterday or today to see if they measured anything but the main reason I purchased the meter is because I have heard such great things about being keto and I felt close but not fully there.

My macros are currently set to 5% carbs/20% protein/75% fat.

I have MTC oil, although have not been drinking it lately because it can really make my stomach hurt. But I guess I should just try a little bit each day.

Perhaps kiramaniac is correct and that my dinner was too protein heavy, or at least I hope. I did have a cream cheese cloud afterwards, but that wasn't enough.

I'm still thankful that I am losing and so far at a very steady pace.