Hi everyone I’ve been doing the Fast 800 diet for 2 and a half weeks following Clare’s recipes very closely. I’ve lost 15 pounds so far. I purchased urine strips to check on ketones and they still say I have low ketones. Anyone out there know what more I can do to kick start ketosis?

Hi Fiona130,

The urine strips are not a reliable method of testing for ketones.

When you start in ketosis your body produces surplus ketones which it gets rid of in your urine. But after a while it gets clever and does not produce more ketones than it needs. so the readings on pee sticks don’t reflect how deeply you are in ketosis.

Point 2, all that matters is your body using ketones for fuel, if that is happening then you know 1, your insulin levels are low, 2. your body is burning fat for fuel.

If you want to test if you are burning ketones then the two options are testing your blood. Gets expensive with the test strips. Or testing for the byproduct of burning ketones in your breath. – I used one of the cheap breathalysers from that I bought via Amazon. AT6000 . If you search the Take a Look at this thread for AT6000 you will find links to articles that give you more information on measuring ketones.

Thanks for the response. What you have said seems to fit in with everything I’ve been reading about this so far. I might give the breathalyser a try before spending out on costly blood tests. Thanks again

Hi I have only posted a couple of times since 2017 but have not had much success until I found these keto and fasting threads in November. I would just like to thank all who have contributed to them as I now understand how to lose the weight and have lost nearly all I wanted to. I now know how I am going to maintain that loss as in the past I have put it all back on. This light bulb moment is all due to your research and trial and error and for that I am very grateful.
Norma

Sounds like what your doing is working tbh. Ive just started and faffed about worrying about whether I should get urine strips or breathylser test and went for urine as cost effective and give me a rough indication. I know if i keep ny carbs very low ill be in ketosis and if im not its not end of world as know im losing weight anyway.