Best Ketone tester/meter

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  • posted by Tululah
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    Hi peeps, I know you will all have answered this a thousand times so if there is a thread you can direct me to I’d appreciate.
    What are your opiniions? From research it seems that blood monitors are the most reliable? Im looking at one recommended by Diabetes UK on Amazon – its around £20 with 50 strips. (I DONT have diabetes but want to check how far I can go with carbs over the next month).
    NOt sure about the breath testers – seem a bit unreliable?
    Are the pee on strips accurate? I remeber using them on Atkins many moons ago and they seemed to work? I wonder if they will show me quickly & accurately when im going in and out of Ketosis.
    In awe of all of you warriers!
    Txxx:):):)

  • posted by Tululah
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    So….I forgot I could search for a word and bring up past posts!
    I have just read over some of them related to ‘ketones’ and ‘test’ so no probs. Will continue researching but if anyone has any input still interested. I’m doing 20 carbs per day from veg for acouple of weeks and not particularly counting calories so was just looking to try and test particular foods to see if some take me out quicker or not. Would a blood spike equate to coming out of ketosis faster? Sorry if Im asking the wrong questions for this forum? Txxx

  • posted by JGwen
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    Hi Tululah,
    I think you may have fallen into the pitfall of presuming that monitoring blood sugar levels is the same as testing for ketosis. –
    While testing blood sugar levels can be helpful to monitor the impact different carbs have on your blood sugar levels, unless you want to take blood samples at regular intervals during the course of every day its not really going to work. I was quite gungho about the idea myself when I started out but the T2 people on the forum put me off the idea by telling me how sore your fingers get from taking the blood samples. — There was someone on the forum who did that a few months ago by wearing one of the patches you can use to constantly monitor blood sugar levels but they are quite expensive and each monitor only lasts for a couple of weeks. – I did watch an interesting TV program a while ago about a research project in Israel where they were doing just that. – Fitting one and combining it with a food diary to see how different food sources impact on blood sugar levels.
    However, – if staying in ketosis is the issue, then the background level of insulin even when you haven’t eaten anything will have an impact, as will learning to know how you feel against the level of ketosis. Which is why I think testing for ketosis is more appropriate.
    There is an article I posted a while back on the Take a Look at this thread which compares the different ways of testing for ketones. – The pee sticks only measure surplus ketones, after a while our bodies start to only produce as many ketones as they need so thats why they don’t work after a while. – Blood and breath testing both tests the by products of burning ketones. Again with blood tests you have the issue of either having to prick a finger for a blood sample after every meal if you want to use it to monitor the impact of different food types. With the breath testers there is a knack to using them, its important to use the last of your breath, but you can test away after every meal, every hour after every meal as often as you want to build up a pattern an all it costs you is maybe the need to change the batteries sooner. So the breath testing method seems logical to me.
    I watched a podcast (and put a link to it on the Take a look at this thread) where someone tested both a cheap breathalyser and the expensive breath tester to compare results and found they were consistent. The cheap breathalyser he was using is the AT6000 which is about £10 from amazon. That’s what I have been using for the last few months and I am happy with that system.

  • posted by Tululah
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    Thanks JGwen, You are quite right. Having thought about it, what I just need do is concentrate on keeping the actual carbs low as possible for now and just trust that the weight loss is ketosis related. (lost about 3lbs few pounds from Monday and calories have been up to 1500+ so could be ketosis related (and water of course!). I just dont feel as bad as I normally do going into ketosis. Maybe Im just doing it better this time and it is still early days. I
    lll check out the breathalyser out as I really dont fancy jabbing myself daily either even though some of them do test for ketones as well.
    Can I ask how things have levelled out for you after all this time? Where are you with calorie, carbs intake, fasting etc.
    T:)xxxx

  • posted by LouiseKangooroo
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    I was reading on another thread that after 48hrs of eating very low carbs (ie below 20gr) you are either in ketosis or dead. Point being no need to test for ketosis if one keeps its carbs low.
    A bit cheeky but it gave me a chuckle (and stopped me from using ketostix! I have the breathalizer but I could never get it to work properly 🤷‍♀️)

  • posted by JGwen
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    Hi Tululah,
    I am doing really well thank you. – I am down 7 stone so far which takes me half a stone below my initial target. – But my initial target was to get back to my “traditional” adult weight which I admit was overweight. – Now I am working on achieving a healthy body both metabolically and body composition.
    For me the BSD book (and its promise of lots of lbs lost in a few weeks) was the doorway into learning more about nutrition and understanding that the model of calories in/calories out is a myth, but there are problems with it. The most important of which is a lack of coverage on what to do after the initial round if you have a lot of weight to loose. However, for me that omission has become an advantage because it provided me with the motivation to look at the work of the different low carb experts out there and read up on the latest research.

    To answer your questions based on my experience.

    One of the reasons it can be a struggle when going into ketosis is due to a fluctuation in electrolyte levels which causes “carb flu” where people feel like they are coming down with flu when they cut out carbs. – A high carb diet tends to be higher in salt than a low carb diet. – Also when we go low carb our kidneys automatically release electrolytes with the stored water our bodies release. This drop in electrolytes is easy to fix by increasing our salt intake. Maybe this time you happened to have more salt in your diet? – Also the more time we spend in ketosis the more our bodies heal and become what is known as metabolic flexible which means we can go in and out of ketosis easily.
    —————
    I think you are right to spend the time researching the impact different carbs have on your ability to enter ketosis. – The figures on the carbs in each food source is not the same as its impact on insulin. – The level of fibre in a food will change the rate at which it is digested, changing the rate at which it impacts on blood sugar and therefore insulin levels. However, it gets even more personal. – the mixture of gut bacteria you have will change how rapidly your body processes food. – The research in Israel using a continuous blood sugar monitor and food diary was about comparing the results with tests on the range of gut bacteria that person has to produce a personalised diet.

    Also a persons level of Insulin Resistance will effect the background level of Insulin, how high and long the Insulin spike for each carb level. Which is why Dr’s working with elite endurance athletes describe < 100 g carb as a ketogenic diet, while at the other end of the scale someone who is very Insulin Resistant as a result of being overweight and eating a high carb diet for decades has to be under 20g of carbs a day to be sure of being in Ketosis.

    Staying under 20g of carbs for months at a time to loose the weight is difficult, so knowing your personal response to different meals has the potential to give you a wider diet range.

    Those who are very IR and have to stick to the 20g limit because just a small error in calculating the carbs could be enough to knock them out of ketosis for 48 hours, not only benefit from knowing that is where they are at, but also by tracking their ketone levels they gain useful information on their progress on reversing IR.

    Which is better yo yoing between being in and out of ketosis by including carb intake during each week, or staying in ketosis for a number of months? -There are some people who are so addicted to carbs that they can not face the idea of not including carbs in their week, and for them its obviously better to be low carb / fast occasionally rather than do nothing. However, the benefits of ketosis, including its potential for healing various health problems, is an area where there is a lot of research being undertaken.

    I believe that the science demonstrating that being in ketosis for longer periods results in the body repairing so it can use fat for fuel suggests its better for me to stay in ketosis so thats why I am choosing to monitor my response to different meals.

    The following link is written at a very general level. – Me being me I have been watching hour long podcasts that talk through the chemical processes within cells on burning fat. I have had a few aaaahhhhh moments when I realised that I have been showing signs of being very IR since my 20’s, so I am under no illusion that its going to be a long journey for me personally, not just a eat keto for 6 weeks and you will be fixed. – But I think it gives a good explanation.
    https://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-to-metabolic-flexibility/?fbclid=IwAR2POVph2BXUxG77qIgPuSa8I4Vr-5tA1MTMWo6poMdkLUzA9okJKaFb6o8

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