Blood Ketone Testing Questions
JanetLynnJudy
Posts: 173 Member
Hello,
I've done low carb for quite a while, but I've only tested for keto using keto strips and have not tried blood testing prior to today. I just got a free blood ketone meter in the mail (it does glucose testing too, but it has separate strips for testing ketones). I tested but I have no idea how to interpret the results. The insert that came with it is no help at all (it just says that I'm in a danger zone for ketones and the healthy zone for glucose, but I assume that's because my use is outside the normal intention/use of the product as I am not diabetic).
It gave me a reading of 1.6. Based off of that am I in keto? I did a separate blood glucose testing and it gave me a reading of 81, but I don't know if that information is relevant. I do know that 81 appears to be in the normal range for glucose levels.
Edit: Okay, I finally found a page that explains this and it appears that above 1.5 is an indication of keto, though it gets confusing because my concern is that I want to be in a healthy and controlled dietary ketosis (good) while these charts are usually speaking in terms of being in diabetic ketoacidosis (bad).
I've done low carb for quite a while, but I've only tested for keto using keto strips and have not tried blood testing prior to today. I just got a free blood ketone meter in the mail (it does glucose testing too, but it has separate strips for testing ketones). I tested but I have no idea how to interpret the results. The insert that came with it is no help at all (it just says that I'm in a danger zone for ketones and the healthy zone for glucose, but I assume that's because my use is outside the normal intention/use of the product as I am not diabetic).
It gave me a reading of 1.6. Based off of that am I in keto? I did a separate blood glucose testing and it gave me a reading of 81, but I don't know if that information is relevant. I do know that 81 appears to be in the normal range for glucose levels.
Edit: Okay, I finally found a page that explains this and it appears that above 1.5 is an indication of keto, though it gets confusing because my concern is that I want to be in a healthy and controlled dietary ketosis (good) while these charts are usually speaking in terms of being in diabetic ketoacidosis (bad).
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Replies
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I don't remember where this is from, but 0.5 is the lower threshold indicating ketosis. Below that - nope.
Measure in the morning in a fasted state.0 -
Jimmy Moore has a great series on his experience with nutritional ketosis: http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/n1.
From the book The Art & Science of Low Carb Living: "nutritional ketosis is defined by serum ketones ranging from 0.5 up to 5 mM, depending on the amounts of dietary carbohydrate and protein consumed". So as long as you're above 0.5 you're in ketosis.
It's said that the ideal range for NK is 1.5-3.0, but everyone is different. For example, my range seems to happiest 0.5-1.2 in a fasted state. It's the highest I can get my ranges to no matter how I work my macros.0 -
Thanks for the information.
When I took the test yesterday it was around 6 PM and I the last time I ate anything was around lunchtime (12:30/1:00). I'm not sure what exactly constitutes a fasted state.
I went to the link you posted and it's funny because I was just listening to the Livin' La Vida Low Carb Podcast for the first time on Friday. I listened to two episodes. It's amazing to me that I can read so much about low carb eating for such a long time and I still learn something new everyday!
I like to listen to things while I'm working (yay multi-tasking) and I'm definitely wanting to buy an audio book about low carb eating. I'm hearing that the books Gary Taubes wrote are great so I'm thinking of starting there. I have seen some YouTube videos with him speaking at universities and I'm definitely interested in what he has to say. Good Calories, Bad Calories is on Audible for $34.96. Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It is on there for $24.50. I was thinking of starting with Good Calories, Bad Calories since he wrote that first.
Learning about the low carb lifestyle is so interesting because it just turns everything that you think you know on its head. Of course growing up I heard lots of people talk about the Adkins diet and the good and bad things about it and of course lots of misinformation. How many times did people quip that he died of a heart attack when if you look on wikipedia, you see that he died of a head injury (though he did have a heart attack earlier in life that was confirmed by his cardiologist to be caused by caused by a chronic infection, not poor diet.) I started to really learn more about low carb eating as an adult from places like reddit which has a great keto community and the documentary Fathead.
I'm interested in learning more and I'm open to any suggestions or input.
This is definitely my favorite group on MFP.
Thanks everyone!0 -
Good Calories, Bad Calories is very scientific and n depth. he wrote Why We Get Fat because GCBC was so complicated, the masses wouldn't read. So maybe start with Why We Get Fat?0
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Another one on my list to read is Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by Michael Moss.0
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Thanks for the suggestions. I was at Goodwill today and saw these, so I picked them up for 99 cents for the paperback and $1.99 each for the hardbacks.
I'm going to get the Gary Taubes books as audiobooks.
Also, I just wanted to share this because it's awesome. We were cutting up avocados for brunch and my SO said that he bet we could make "potato" salad with avocados instead of potatoes. I took some full fat Greek yogurt, mayo, a small amount of Dijon mustard and course brown mustard, onion powder and pepper and mixed it with the avocado chunks. It was really good. It definitely had that potato salad taste and I'm looking forward to having this more often this summer. Another bonus is that it's easier to make than potato salad (no boiling). Maybe next time I'll add in cilantro.0 -
I'm glad that this came up! I was wondering too! My blood ketone level this weekend was 2.8.. I guess that's good?0
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Also, I just wanted to share this because it's awesome. We were cutting up avocados for brunch and my SO said that he bet we could make "potato" salad with avocados instead of potatoes. I took some full fat Greek yogurt, mayo, a small amount of Dijon mustard and course brown mustard, onion powder and pepper and mixed it with the avocado chunks. It was really good. It definitely had that potato salad taste and I'm looking forward to having this more often this summer. Another bonus is that it's easier to make than potato salad (no boiling). Maybe next time I'll add in cilantro.
That sounds delish! I am going to have to try this.
With respect to your concerns about ketoacidosis, this is normally not a concern unless you are diabetic. Because the blood glucose monitor you got (I assume Nova Max? I got that free recently, too. - I'm at 1.5 on my ketone strips), is geared toward diabetics, it would naturally include many warnings about ketoacidosis as that is the main reason they expect their ketone strips to be used. You can Google "ketosis v. ketoacidosis" and there will be lots of websites to explain the details of the differences.0
