Poll: Do you monitor your ketones?
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Replies
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Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »I have tested both urine and blood for several days at a time, several times a day just out of curiosity
Which blood ketone test did you use?
How good/bad was the correlation of ketone levels in blood vs. pee?
I use Nova Max ketone/glucose meter. Here's an offer for a free one when you buy strips (probably US only).
https://storefront.novacares.com/storefront/specials.html
I did both types of testing quite a while ago and I don't know where/if I have that data saved anymore, but my urine tests are almost always dark to very dark. They have been from about 2 days into keto, so, while the blood meter would vary from about 1 to 2, the urine tests pretty much looked the same. And a more recent time I tested urine for a few days, I purposely tried to dilute my urine to see if I could lower the result on the strip and I could just by drinking a lot of coffee causing me to go the bathroom about every 1 to 1.5 hours. Having eaten zero carbs and fasting... I didn't test blood then because I don't have strips right now.3 -
No, I never felt the need to check. The wight and fat loss, appetite control, and overall health improvements are enough for me.1
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No, I don't. I can tell based on my appetite control and more that my body has switched from carb burning to fat burning. Because I don't have a health condition that makes it critical for me to stay in ketosis, I don't feel it's necessary for me to measure my ketone levels.1
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I test just because I have the pee strips, but I don't stress about the reading. I can tell by the smell of my urine even if the strips say trace. Just got the Nova max but haven't tried it yet.1
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I used to monitor my ketone levels religiously, quickly giving up on urine strips and turning to blood strips and the breath meter. I spent hundreds of dollars monitoring them. That's not an exaggeration, blood strips are expensive!
In the end, it didn't make a significant difference. The levels were higher sometimes and lower others, but it rarely strayed outside what I considered acceptable ranges. When things went outside the range I wanted, it was usually because I had eating higher carb foods. When I went carnivore, those foods were no longer a concern.
These days, I don't worry about ketone levels. High or low, I worry more about what goes into my mouth.3 -
I occasionally use the ketostix. Usually if I've eaten something like a quest bar and I want to check it hasn't thrown me out of ketosis. 4 years eating keto and I still like to check occasionally.2
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No. I live in Japan, have no meter. Not diabetic so no medical reason to get one. Have thought about it, but it is too much trouble and expense to do. I am lchf, maintaining weight and my blood markers have all improved. If that changes, I will probably start testing.0
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KetoGirl83 wrote: »Used to, several times a day, when I started (2 years ago). I used both in the beginning but then moved on to use only blood. I'm a T2D and it was more convenient to measure ketones and BG at the same time.
I still measure occasionally but it's more to check that everything is OK with BG, and plain curiosity re ketones. I'm not really sure why (too much protein, maybe) but even when I'm ZC my ketones are never high. I think the highest I ever had was 1.6 and that is uncommon, it is not unusual for me to be 0.1 or 0.2.
::flowerforyou::
Now that seems odd, unless, as you suggest, your protein intake significantly exceeds what your body needs.... ??
Suppose insulin resistance could also be keeping too much of whatever glucose is produced from protein in circulation?1 -
Gallowmere1984 wrote: »I smell myself when deadlifting. It's free, and has 100% accuracy.
Either you're good at yoga, or you bend differently than most people.....0 -
KetoGirl83 wrote: »Used to, several times a day, when I started (2 years ago). I used both in the beginning but then moved on to use only blood. I'm a T2D and it was more convenient to measure ketones and BG at the same time.
I still measure occasionally but it's more to check that everything is OK with BG, and plain curiosity re ketones. I'm not really sure why (too much protein, maybe) but even when I'm ZC my ketones are never high. I think the highest I ever had was 1.6 and that is uncommon, it is not unusual for me to be 0.1 or 0.2.
::flowerforyou::
Now that seems odd, unless, as you suggest, your protein intake significantly exceeds what your body needs.... ??
Suppose insulin resistance could also be keeping too much of whatever glucose is produced from protein in circulation?
Something is not going to plan but I don't know what it is or how to fix it. I've just had some lab work, I'm really interested in insulin values.
::flowerforyou::1 -
If I eat a new food that tastes really sweet or if I eat way over my carb/calorie goal then yes I will use ketostix to make sure I'm still producting ketones and to make sure it's not knocking me out of ketosis. If I'm eating the same day to day food then no.1
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KetoGirl83 wrote: »KetoGirl83 wrote: »Used to, several times a day, when I started (2 years ago). I used both in the beginning but then moved on to use only blood. I'm a T2D and it was more convenient to measure ketones and BG at the same time.
I still measure occasionally but it's more to check that everything is OK with BG, and plain curiosity re ketones. I'm not really sure why (too much protein, maybe) but even when I'm ZC my ketones are never high. I think the highest I ever had was 1.6 and that is uncommon, it is not unusual for me to be 0.1 or 0.2.
::flowerforyou::
Now that seems odd, unless, as you suggest, your protein intake significantly exceeds what your body needs.... ??
Suppose insulin resistance could also be keeping too much of whatever glucose is produced from protein in circulation?
Something is not going to plan but I don't know what it is or how to fix it. I've just had some lab work, I'm really interested in insulin values.
::flowerforyou::
@Ketogirl83 -
Keep us posted?
I'm about to switch PCPs, and I hope to finally have someone willing to work with me on insulin testing1 -
Gallowmere1984 wrote: »I smell myself when deadlifting. It's free, and has 100% accuracy.
Either you're good at yoga, or you bend differently than most people.....
I don't need to bend at all. I can smell nail polish remover and rotting dumpster corpse from a mile away, so when it's coming from six inches away, it's pretty noticable.
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Gallowmere1984 wrote: »Gallowmere1984 wrote: »I smell myself when deadlifting. It's free, and has 100% accuracy.
Either you're good at yoga, or you bend differently than most people.....
I don't need to bend at all. I can smell nail polish remover and rotting dumpster corpse from a mile away, so when it's coming from six inches away, it's pretty noticable.
Mmmmmmm. A bouquet fit for Valentine's Day.0 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »I have tested both urine and blood for several days at a time, several times a day just out of curiosity
Which blood ketone test did you use?
How good/bad was the correlation of ketone levels in blood vs. pee?
I use Nova Max ketone/glucose meter. Here's an offer for a free one when you buy strips (probably US only).
https://storefront.novacares.com/storefront/specials.html
I did both types of testing quite a while ago and I don't know where/if I have that data saved anymore, but my urine tests are almost always dark to very dark. They have been from about 2 days into keto, so, while the blood meter would vary from about 1 to 2, the urine tests pretty much looked the same. And a more recent time I tested urine for a few days, I purposely tried to dilute my urine to see if I could lower the result on the strip and I could just by drinking a lot of coffee causing me to go the bathroom about every 1 to 1.5 hours. Having eaten zero carbs and fasting... I didn't test blood then because I don't have strips right now.
Thanks for the link!
If $ were no object, how often, at what times, and for how many days would you ideally test blood ketones to get an accurate picture?
For diabetics, would you (ideally) couple them with insulin tests (in addition to blood glucose)?
I'd appreciate any insights. Thx!0 -
No, because it is one more thing for me to constantly obsess about...I already try not to think about the scale and checking ketones would just give me another bad habit.
But I do know many use the finger stick machines to get accurate readings.1 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »I have tested both urine and blood for several days at a time, several times a day just out of curiosity
Which blood ketone test did you use?
How good/bad was the correlation of ketone levels in blood vs. pee?
I use Nova Max ketone/glucose meter. Here's an offer for a free one when you buy strips (probably US only).
https://storefront.novacares.com/storefront/specials.html
I did both types of testing quite a while ago and I don't know where/if I have that data saved anymore, but my urine tests are almost always dark to very dark. They have been from about 2 days into keto, so, while the blood meter would vary from about 1 to 2, the urine tests pretty much looked the same. And a more recent time I tested urine for a few days, I purposely tried to dilute my urine to see if I could lower the result on the strip and I could just by drinking a lot of coffee causing me to go the bathroom about every 1 to 1.5 hours. Having eaten zero carbs and fasting... I didn't test blood then because I don't have strips right now.
Thanks for the link!
If $ were no object, how often, at what times, and for how many days would you ideally test blood ketones to get an accurate picture?
For diabetics, would you (ideally) couple them with insulin tests (in addition to blood glucose)?
I'd appreciate any insights. Thx!
Just for curiosity sake, if money were no object, I would love to test every hour. Imagining the graph of that data gets me all geeky! Lol
I may try to do a "sympathy" trial of wearing a glucose monitor and insulin pump if I can. It might be hard to arrange since my daughter is 22! But they offer for parents to wear them as a way to sympathize with your child. I just want the glucose data for inner geek! I have a whole box of CGM's worth over $1000 collecting dust because my daughter doesn't like wearing it, but I can't use them because it has to communicate with a pump and she's kinda hogging it! Lol1 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »I have tested both urine and blood for several days at a time, several times a day just out of curiosity
Which blood ketone test did you use?
How good/bad was the correlation of ketone levels in blood vs. pee?
I use Nova Max ketone/glucose meter. Here's an offer for a free one when you buy strips (probably US only).
https://storefront.novacares.com/storefront/specials.html
I did both types of testing quite a while ago and I don't know where/if I have that data saved anymore, but my urine tests are almost always dark to very dark. They have been from about 2 days into keto, so, while the blood meter would vary from about 1 to 2, the urine tests pretty much looked the same. And a more recent time I tested urine for a few days, I purposely tried to dilute my urine to see if I could lower the result on the strip and I could just by drinking a lot of coffee causing me to go the bathroom about every 1 to 1.5 hours. Having eaten zero carbs and fasting... I didn't test blood then because I don't have strips right now.
Thanks for the link!
If $ were no object, how often, at what times, and for how many days would you ideally test blood ketones to get an accurate picture?
For diabetics, would you (ideally) couple them with insulin tests (in addition to blood glucose)?
I'd appreciate any insights. Thx!
Just for curiosity sake, if money were no object, I would love to test every hour. Imagining the graph of that data gets me all geeky! Lol
I may try to do a "sympathy" trial of wearing a glucose monitor and insulin pump if I can. It might be hard to arrange since my daughter is 22! But they offer for parents to wear them as a way to sympathize with your child. I just want the glucose data for inner geek! I have a whole box of CGM's worth over $1000 collecting dust because my daughter doesn't like wearing it, but I can't use them because it has to communicate with a pump and she's kinda hogging it! Lol
So you can't even get a glucose reading from CGM unless a functioning pump is connected?
Do you have any control over the sampling frequency?
Back to ketones, I ran into a guy with a damaged pancreas who was accompanied by a ketone-sensing German shepherd - a perfect service dog, with a gentle temperament and an unfailing sniffer (maybe on par with @Gallowmere's).0 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »I have tested both urine and blood for several days at a time, several times a day just out of curiosity
Which blood ketone test did you use?
How good/bad was the correlation of ketone levels in blood vs. pee?
I use Nova Max ketone/glucose meter. Here's an offer for a free one when you buy strips (probably US only).
https://storefront.novacares.com/storefront/specials.html
I did both types of testing quite a while ago and I don't know where/if I have that data saved anymore, but my urine tests are almost always dark to very dark. They have been from about 2 days into keto, so, while the blood meter would vary from about 1 to 2, the urine tests pretty much looked the same. And a more recent time I tested urine for a few days, I purposely tried to dilute my urine to see if I could lower the result on the strip and I could just by drinking a lot of coffee causing me to go the bathroom about every 1 to 1.5 hours. Having eaten zero carbs and fasting... I didn't test blood then because I don't have strips right now.
Thanks for the link!
If $ were no object, how often, at what times, and for how many days would you ideally test blood ketones to get an accurate picture?
For diabetics, would you (ideally) couple them with insulin tests (in addition to blood glucose)?
I'd appreciate any insights. Thx!
Just for curiosity sake, if money were no object, I would love to test every hour. Imagining the graph of that data gets me all geeky! Lol
I may try to do a "sympathy" trial of wearing a glucose monitor and insulin pump if I can. It might be hard to arrange since my daughter is 22! But they offer for parents to wear them as a way to sympathize with your child. I just want the glucose data for inner geek! I have a whole box of CGM's worth over $1000 collecting dust because my daughter doesn't like wearing it, but I can't use them because it has to communicate with a pump and she's kinda hogging it! Lol
So you can't even get a glucose reading from CGM unless a functioning pump is connected?
Do you have any control over the sampling frequency?
Back to ketones, I ran into a guy with a damaged pancreas who was accompanied by a ketone-sensing German shepherd - a perfect service dog, with a gentle temperament and an unfailing sniffer (maybe on par with @Gallowmere's).
The CGM's that I already own require connection to a pump. There are some that can be connected to other devices though.0 -
I don't bother as if I am doing it right on the plan I follow, eventually the ketones would stop showing so just know that if I stick to what I need to do I will be fine1
