Ketone meters

[A Jay]

Thanks for the thread Arwenn, and thanks for the tips Odyssey and Gaby! <3

I may have a friend that has a spare meter, so I may only have to buy some strips. But we shall see, and if not then I'll try another one of the methods suggested here.

Personally, I'm more interested in how my dietary protein is affecting my ketone levels than what my carb tolerance is, since I'm getting over 40 g of protein per meal 3 x a day. Anything less than that and I'm hungry again just a few hours later, even with a fat bomb to top it off! Just want to be sure I'm not putting myself over the edge, ya know.

 

[Arwenn]

Thanks for the thread Arwenn, and thanks for the tips Odyssey and Gaby! <3

I may have a friend that has a spare meter, so I may only have to buy some strips. But we shall see, and if not then I'll try another one of the methods suggested here.

Personally, I'm more interested in how my dietary protein is affecting my ketone levels than what my carb tolerance is, since I'm getting over 40 g of protein per meal 3 x a day. Anything less than that and I'm hungry again just a few hours later, even with a fat bomb to top it off! Just want to be sure I'm not putting myself over the edge, ya know.

I purchased strips from an online pharmacy through eBay.com.au: (all prices are in AUD)

A pack of 100 glucose test strips was $30 (inclusive of postage)= 30 cents a strip
A pack of 60 ketone test strips was $51 (inclusive of postage) = 85 cents a strip

So ketone strips are waaay more expensive, but definitely worth it to refine the ratios of carbs: protein :fats. If someone comes across cheaper prices online, please let us know.

 

[Jacques]

The Precision Xtra blood ketone is free with the purchase of 100 Precision Xtra® test strips for canadian up to 31/12/2014:

_http://www.abbottdiabetescare.ca/adc_ca/url/content/en_ca/product/product_profile_0016/precision-xtra-blood-ketone-test-strips.htm

 

[hlat]

In US, within a week of filling out the online form, I received the free Precision Xtra Blood Glucose and Ketone Monitoring System.
_https://www.choosefreestyle.com/select-your-meter.html

 

[Arwenn]

So I received my monitor on Friday & have taken a glucose & ketone readings at the same time every evening. It was slightly earlier this evening because I cut myself while I was cooking & wasn't going to let the blood go to waste! (anything to avoid having to prick my finger again) :D

1st reading: G 6.7 (mmol/L). K 0.5 (mmol/L) Time 8:20pm
2nd reading: G 3.7 " K 0.5 " Time 8:00 pm
3rd reading: G 4.7 " K 1.6 " Time 5:10 pm

I have been eating way too much protein! I looked at a keto calculator and adjusted my intake on Saturday & today, & voilà! I also purchased a new set of kitchen scales, and will have to start looking up the nutritional facts on everything, because you really can't guesstimate the fat/protein/carb analysis in foods.

Oh, and another thing- I had been snacking on nuts (they don't seem to cause me inflammation) & also the homemade chocolate; it's amazing how the carbs can creep in there if you're not watchful!

 

[A Jay]

I cut myself while I was cooking & wasn't going to let the blood go to waste! (anything to avoid having to prick my finger again) :D

LOL! Good thinking!

I have been eating way too much protein! I looked at a keto calculator and adjusted my intake on Saturday & today, & voilà! I also purchased a new set of kitchen scales, and will have to start looking up the nutritional facts on everything, because you really can't guesstimate the fat/protein/carb analysis in foods.

What did your meals look like, because now I'm curious about if I've been over-doing it?

I got a Nova Max meter from a friend, and will be ordering the strips from amazon. Are there any suggestions on when to do the testing? I'm thinking that it would be best to try and figure out the time when my ketone levels are the lowest, so I can see if I drop below .5 mmol/L.

 

[Arwenn]

What did your meals look like, because now I'm curious about if I've been over-doing it?

I got a Nova Max meter from a friend, and will be ordering the strips from amazon. Are there any suggestions on when to do the testing? I'm thinking that it would be best to try and figure out the time when my ketone levels are the lowest, so I can see if I drop below .5 mmol/L.

A Jay, I measure my ketone levels in the evening (roughly at same time in the evening), because I want a way of measuring the impact of foods I eat on my ketone levels. Also, I tend not to eat first thing the morning, (so it's like an intermittent fast) & I would assume that checking them in the morning could possibly give me higher readings.

One thing for sure, while there is an art (see the keto recipes thread for the beautiful keto cakes being produced by the Chateau crew), there is definitely a science. What has helped me was to look up a keto calculator (I used this one _http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/), estimate my energy expenditure and body fat, and get an idea of the amounts of macronutrients I can consume. And get a set of weighing scales! I had no idea that 30 gm of cashew nuts was virtually only about 20 nuts! I was easily eating 1/2 a packet or more as a snack through out the day!

The most significant impact for me has been restricting protein- I think it's easy to underestimate how easily excess protein gets converted via gluconeogenesis pathway to glucose, and kicks you out of ketosis. For me, I need to keep my carbs to 25, protein to 60 and fat to 100 gm per day. Once I have steady readings, I may drop the protein and up the fat a bit more.

I am going to have to re-think my meal plan (and work out ratios of the macronutrients), but so far, the Fat Bomb Custard is the best way of getting near that amount of daily fat required without the proteins and carbs. There are also some great recipes on _ketodietapp.com/Blog/. I find it better 'snacking' on fat 'treats' rather than having it all in 2 meals a day.

 

[theos]

I got a Nova Max meter from a friend, and will be ordering the strips from amazon. Are there any suggestions on when to do the testing? I'm thinking that it would be best to try and figure out the time when my ketone levels are the lowest, so I can see if I drop below .5 mmol/L.

According to Volek and Phinney, (Art and Science of Low Carb Performance, I believe) you get your lowest ketone readings in the am after fasting overnight. So if your morning reading is 0.5 or above you should be pretty confident that you are in the keto zone for the rest of the day.

 

[Gaby]

I got a Nova Max meter from a friend, and will be ordering the strips from amazon. Are there any suggestions on when to do the testing? I'm thinking that it would be best to try and figure out the time when my ketone levels are the lowest, so I can see if I drop below .5 mmol/L.

According to Volek and Phinney, (Art and Science of Low Carb Performance, I believe) you get your lowest ketone readings in the am after fasting overnight. So if your morning reading is 0.5 or above you should be pretty confident that you are in the keto zone for the rest of the day.

That seems to be pretty consistent with other people's experiences. Jimmy Moore reported his ketosis experiment, and he had around those levels first thing in the morning. At night he would have around 3 or so.

It makes sense if we are waking up after a night of gluconeogenesis to make sugar. Like with diabetics and their Dawn phenomena:

_http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/gluconeogenesis.html

Everyone experiences this process of gluconeogenesis every night. Over the 6-9 hours that you are sleeping and not taking in food, your body is busily making new sugar to maintain its narrow blood sugar range.

For some people, this nightly process is so robust that morning blood sugar levels are higher than they were when the person went to sleep.

This higher than normal morning blood sugar is called the Dawn Phenomenon, and is especially important to understand for Type 1 and insulin dependent Type 2 diabetics, as more insulin has to be injected to counteract the higher blood sugar overnight.

Bottom line is that there is no requirement for dietary carbohydrate, because your body can make all the sugar it needs from the protein that you eat, or from the glycerol released when fatty acids are broken down.

 

[fabric]

This was our result as well here in the house. We would all have lowered readings in the morning and they would climb as the day went on. I'm starting to run out of ketostix for testing so I'm now just checking in the morning.

 

[Arwenn]

This was our result as well here in the house. We would all have lowered readings in the morning and they would climb as the day went on. I'm starting to run out of ketostix for testing so I'm now just checking in the morning.

I haven't measured ketones in the morning at all, I would assume they would be higher. Evening measurements reflect what I've eaten, which helps me gauge how to refine the diet to suit me best. When I was eating bacon and eggs every morning, it was too much protein. So now I'm measuring every thing and trying my best to work out calculations of macronutrients of foods, so as to organise a meal plan.

 

[A Jay]

I got a Nova Max meter from a friend, and will be ordering the strips from amazon. Are there any suggestions on when to do the testing? I'm thinking that it would be best to try and figure out the time when my ketone levels are the lowest, so I can see if I drop below .5 mmol/L.

According to Volek and Phinney, (Art and Science of Low Carb Performance, I believe) you get your lowest ketone readings in the am after fasting overnight. So if your morning reading is 0.5 or above you should be pretty confident that you are in the keto zone for the rest of the day.

That seems to be pretty consistent with other people's experiences. Jimmy Moore reported his ketosis experiment, and he had around those levels first thing in the morning. At night he would have around 3 or so.

It makes sense if we are waking up after a night of gluconeogenesis to make sugar. Like with diabetics and their Dawn phenomena:

_http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/gluconeogenesis.html

Everyone experiences this process of gluconeogenesis every night. Over the 6-9 hours that you are sleeping and not taking in food, your body is busily making new sugar to maintain its narrow blood sugar range.

For some people, this nightly process is so robust that morning blood sugar levels are higher than they were when the person went to sleep.

This higher than normal morning blood sugar is called the Dawn Phenomenon, and is especially important to understand for Type 1 and insulin dependent Type 2 diabetics, as more insulin has to be injected to counteract the higher blood sugar overnight.

Bottom line is that there is no requirement for dietary carbohydrate, because your body can make all the sugar it needs from the protein that you eat, or from the glycerol released when fatty acids are broken down.

Thanks for the info Gaby, Odyssey, and Arwenn!

I'm still waiting on my test strips, so I'm going to check TASLCP and Jimmy Moore's results and figure out a consistent time in the morning that works with my schedule before they arrive.

I've already cut back moderately on my protein, and I'm feeling much more stable throughout the day. May cut back a bit more, but with a lot more fat from the lard version of the fat bomb.

 

[Arwenn]

Thanks for the info Gaby, Odyssey, and Arwenn!

I'm still waiting on my test strips, so I'm going to check TASLCP and Jimmy Moore's results and figure out a consistent time in the morning that works with my schedule before they arrive.

I've already cut back moderately on my protein, and I'm feeling much more stable throughout the day. May cut back a bit more, but with a lot more fat from the lard version of the fat bomb.

Hey A Jay, what's TASCLP? I can definitely vouch for cutting back on protein. I made a lamb stew today, with forequarters- when I asked the butcher to weigh me a piece that was about 50-60 gm, you'd be amazed just how small it is. Aside from the finger pricking part (which I detest), I am really gaining valuable information with my ketone meter. It'll be interesting to see what readings you get :)

 

[A Jay]

Thanks for the info Gaby, Odyssey, and Arwenn!

I'm still waiting on my test strips, so I'm going to check TASLCP and Jimmy Moore's results and figure out a consistent time in the morning that works with my schedule before they arrive.

I've already cut back moderately on my protein, and I'm feeling much more stable throughout the day. May cut back a bit more, but with a lot more fat from the lard version of the fat bomb.

Hey A Jay, what's TASCLP? I can definitely vouch for cutting back on protein. I made a lamb stew today, with forequarters- when I asked the butcher to weigh me a piece that was about 50-60 gm, you'd be amazed just how small it is. Aside from the finger pricking part (which I detest), I am really gaining valuable information with my ketone meter. It'll be interesting to see what readings you get :)

It's short hand for 'The Art and Science of Low Carb Performance,' sorry for the confusion. Glad you're getting good info from the testing!

I cut back a little bit more today on my protein portion sizes, and I feel a little more level than yesterday. Although, keeping my daily total this low (~1.1g/kg) seems a bit counter-productive for trying to gain weight. Perhaps it's just successful marketing that is driving my desire for more protein, since Dr. Ellington Darden has found that all you need is 1g protein/kg with excess calories to build new muscle?

In any case, I'm ready for my strips to arrive so I can have some concrete numbers to deal with! :D

 

[Arwenn]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up A Jay! Yes the ketone meter has been invaluable. The past two days, I have been under a bit of stress. It's is amazing just how much that can throw up the sugar levels, even though I have not been consuming sugars/ carbs. Yesterday was a particularly stressful day, and my readings were:

Glucose: 7.7 mmol/L
Ketones: 1.6 mmol/L
Measured at 7.30 pm. My meal plan was pretty close to my allotment of macro-nutrients for the day.

This is the highest sugar reading I've had since monitoring!! I can only assume that the cortisol from being severely stressed, had activated the release of sugars. Yikes. I wonder if being continually stressed can kick someone out of ketosis?

Cortisol (along with its partner epinephrine) is best known for its involvement in the “fight-or-flight” response and temporary increase in energy production, at the expense of processes that are not required for immediate survival. The resulting biochemical and hormonal imbalances (ideally) resolve due to a hormonally driven negative feedback loop. The following is a typical example of how the stress response operates as its intended survival mechanism:

1. An individual is faced with a stressor.

2. A complex hormonal cascade ensues, and the adrenals secrete cortisol.

3. Cortisol prepares the body for a fight-or-flight response by flooding it with glucose, supplying an immediate energy source to large muscles.

4. Cortisol inhibits insulin production in an attempt to prevent glucose from being stored, favoring its immediate use.

5. Cortisol narrows the arteries while the epinephrine increases heart rate, both of which force blood to pump harder and faster.

6. The individual addresses and resolves the situation.

7. Hormone levels return to normal.

So what’s the problem? In short, the theory is that with our ever-stressed, fast-paced lifestyle, our bodies are pumping out cortisol almost constantly, which can wreak havoc on our health. This whole-body process, mediated by hormones and the immune system, identifies cortisol as one of the many players.

_http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/111609p38.shtml

Don't underestimate the power of stress!!