Ketone meter. New toy!!!! Question about readings

chalup

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Hi there, I am wondering if anyone could answer a question for me. I used my shiny new toy when I got home right after I had my extremely low carb lunch and got a reading of .4 :( which after 5 or so months of very low carb was disappointing. However my blood glucose at the time was 6.9 due to not eating all morning. (stupid liver has a mind of it's own) Tonight my blood sugar is down to 5 and the ketones are up to 1. So what does this mean? Am I in ketosis or not? All I can find online is .5 is the lower threshold for ketosis. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.
 

dbr10

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Hi there, I am wondering if anyone could answer a question for me. I used my shiny new toy when I got home right after I had my extremely low carb lunch and got a reading of .4 :( which after 5 or so months of very low carb was disappointing. However my blood glucose at the time was 6.9 due to not eating all morning. (stupid liver has a mind of it's own) Tonight my blood sugar is down to 5 and the ketones are up to 1. So what does this mean? Am I in ketosis or not? All I can find online is .5 is the lower threshold for ketosis. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.
DietDoctor.com has a section on this. Out of interest, what make of meter is it?
 

Indy51

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Here's a couple of charts that might help. The usual recommendations I've read for testing are that levels are usually higher at night or after vigorous exercise.

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2cdingm.jpg
 

chalup

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Thank you indy. I have seen these charts and that was why I was wondering if I got one reading below ketosis levels and another above in the same day, How do I interpret that? Am I bouncing in and out? Either way my ketones are very low for the level of carbs I am at. I am thinking about trying a fat fast and I guess I need to lower my protein overall.
 

Indy51

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Trying to measure ketones is like trying to hit a moving target - similar to BG - levels vary probably minute by minute depending on what your metabolism is doing at the time. I doubt there's any such thing as "steady state" ketosis. According to Dr Ron Rosedale, if your body is efficiently using ketones as an alternate fuel source, then levels should be low - higher readings indicate inefficient burning.

Dr Fung's recent blogpost on protein might help you:
https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/how-much-protein-is-excessive/

"the international group recommended that normal healthy people should get roughly 0.6g/kg/day. In order to make sure everybody was covered, the WHO added 25% (2 standard deviations) above the mean to get 0.75 g/kg/day which sometimes gets rounded up to 0.8 g/kg/day. In other words, 97.5% of the healthy general population loses less than this 0.75 g/kg/day of amino acids. This is not a low standard. This is a very, very high standard of protein intake. For a standard 70-kg male this is 52.5 g/day. Remember this is for absolutely healthy adults, not gaining or losing weight and the amount needed to cover the average amino acid losses are only 42 g/day (0.6g/kg/day)."

Calculating for myself, that would be about 40-50g. I can't imagine going that low without being ravenous - protein satiates me more than any other macro.
 
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chalup

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I used a calculator that said I need 78 grams of protein but I don't think I eat that much in a day. I might have say a chicken breast plus maybe bacon and a couple eggs for protein. Maybe a bit from nuts or cheese. I suppose I should start tracking protein. I may be eating more than I think. Carbs seem to be easier to count when you have cut most of them out. Just had bacon and eggs, a bit of onion and mushroom in the eggs. Sugar went from 5.4 to 6.3 at 2 hours arrrrggghhh

Bg is driving me nuts too. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just stop eating but then I remember that raises my blood sugar too.:banghead:o_O
 

Robbity

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I think you have to accept that, like your glucose levels, ketone levels will change as you're using and replenishing them all the time. The first of @Indy51's example charts shows these variations. Just monitor over time as you do with glucose.

Rather than being "in ketosis", you generally want to aim to be keto or fat adapted where you body has made chemical changes so that you can switch as necessary between carbs and fats for fuel - whichever is currently available.

I use a Ketonix "breathalyser" and although I don't check on a completely regular basis I definitely see changes all the time, but generally indicating I'm probably in lowish levels of nutritional ketosis. But it depends on what and when I've eaten, and how much and what kind of "fuel" (carbs or fat) is accessible to use. A fatty meal will usually show up later as a higher reading.

Robbity
 
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