are ketones supposed to disappear after a while?

arcadia1983

I heard after a while that you are steadily into ketosis, ketones are supposed to just disappear, cause your body has switched fully to just burn fat instead of carbs as fuel.Is that true or it's just being out of ketosis if they don't register at all on ketosticks?

Golightly17

http://ketopia.com/why-you-need-to-stop-worrying-about-the-color-of-your-ketostix/

Changes in the types of ketones you produce

When you first start your ketogenic diet and you are not yet fully ketoadapted, your kidneys actively excrete two types of ketones into your urine: beta-hydroxybutyrate (not technically a ketone, but it is generally referred to as one in the literature) and acetoacetate. These ketones are created in the liver in a roughly equal ratio (Note: Technically, acetoacetate is created by the mitochondria of liver cells, and from this beta-hydroxybutyrate is created and acetate is produced as a side product. (source)).

When you start restricting carbs, Phinney and Volek assert that at first your muscles use both beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate for fuel, but after awhile, they begin taking the acetoacetate and converting it to beta-hydroxybutyrate, and returning that to your serum. As mentioned before, beta-hydroxybutryrate is not technically a ketone. It is more of a “ketone reserve. When plasma acetoacetate concentrations begin to decrease, more of it is produced from beta-hydroxybutyrate” (source).

As a result of the continued conversion of acetoacetate to beta-hydroxybutyrate, the serum and urine volume of acetoacetate (the only ketone detected by ketostix) is significantly reduced. Your takeaway point is this: If you stay on your keto diet for long enough, the primary ketone circulating in your serum (and consequentially, present in your urine) is not detected by your ketostix.

Golightly17

Hope the above helps! I am fat adapted and, though I do not regularly use keto sticks, my results reflect this.

darlingdani83

It varies from person to person, but the only truly accurate way to know how many ketones your body is actually using is to get a blood ketone monitor and testing strips. I don't do this myself so I don't actually know where to obtain one, but I do know that the ketostix do only monitor the "spillage" from what the body cannot use, and yes, it has been hypothesized that as the body gets better at using ketones efficiently, this spillage will decrease, thus decreasing the amount detected by ketostix.

astartig

I've been doing keto since july and most of the time the keto stix do not register with me. basically the only time they register is if I've let myself get a little dehydrated.

fruttibiscotti

I went to my pharmacy and bought the small digital blood ketone tester, and even the ketone strips. They have it behind the counter where they hold prescription medicines (although you don't need a prescription to buy the tester). It is a dual blood sugar and blood ketone tester and they keep a stock of them because usually diabetics buy them for only the blood sugar testing capability. The pharmacist says they usually keep tons of blood test strips and only one or two boxes of ketone test strips, as it is usually less requested item. But if they run out, all I have to do is ask for them to get more in and then they arrive a couple of days later. If your pharmacy doesn't have it, you can buy online. The Canadian online pharmacies are much cheaper than American, and you get the same exact product (tester and strips).

Ninanator

Amazon.com has a good selection of monitors and keto strips. Keto strips are a bit more expensive, but worth the purchase.