Are Keto Sticks Fat Burning Indicators Or A Fat Waste Of Money?
You will no doubt have come across keto sticks if you’ve ever done a ketogenic diet planor read any message boards about low carb diets. Whilst a lot of dieters use them, they do not always understand how to read the results and adjust their diet to optimise it. This article aims to resolve this and clear up the facts about keto strips. Ketogenic diets force your body to adapt to using fat for fuel when glucose (from carbs) is not present, this is known as ketosis Ketones are a by-product of ketosis and keto sticks (also known as ketostix or ketosticks) are urine testing strips which detect the presence of ketones in the blood. They are small plastic strips with an absorbent pad on the end, you urinate on the absorbent pad and it changes colour to reflect the amount of ketones present in your urine. They are also sometimes referred to as keto diastix, don’t get confused as these are two different products. Keto diastix are usually used by Type I diabetics to detect the presence of glucose, they are of no use to keto dieters. Where Can I Purchase Keto Sticks? Amazon is probably your most convenient option – the best I have found online is this: Nurse Hatty Ketone Strips. Diabetics use keto strips also, so sometimes they are with other diabetic products or behind the counter. Ask a shop assistant for help if required. Keto strips are cheap to purchase, no more that a few pounds and a pot will last you a long while. The pot contains a number of strips and a colour chart on the side which ranges from clear to pink to purple. Once you have urinated on the stick, you wait 10-15 seconds and then match the colour of the stick to the chart. Clear: No/trace ketones in your urine Pink: Some ketones in your urine Purple: High level of ketones in your urine Quite simply, No. P Continue reading >>
Acetone As Biomarker For Ketosis Buildup Capability - A Study In Healthy Individuals Under Combined High Fat And Starvation Diets
Go to: Ketosis or ketoacidosis is a physiological state sharing an outcome of increased ketone levels in the blood due to relatively high lipid oxidation rates. Monitoring rapid and dramatic changes in ketones offers us valuable diagnoses for lipid oxidation and metabolism [1]. Several studies have clearly demonstrated that metabolic imbalance in type I diabetes has led to ketoacidosis (KAD) of blood, leading to elevated ketone levels with arterial pH < 7.3 and bicarbonate < 15 mEq/L, and causing arresting of major organ functions [2]. In addition to acidosis, studies have also shown that elevated ketone levels are a natural metabolic response to negative energy balance, wherein caloric intake is smaller than total energy expenditure, and the body burns stored fat to produce the needed energy [3], leading to a state of ketosis known as fasting ketosis (FK). FK has been used as an indicator of the effectiveness of weight loss [4-6]. Furthermore, ketosis also occurs in situations where caloric intake equals total energy expenditure, specifically in a diet that contains high percentage of fat (>60%) and/or low carbohydrate. This state of ketosis has been referred to as nutritional ketosis (NK) [7,8]. NK has been investigated as a treatment for epilepsy because ketones are thought to provide energy to the brain, which reduces epileptic seizures [9,10]. In addition, ketosis buildup capability resulting from a combination of NK and FK has been associated with weight loss efficiency and positive health outcomes [11-13]. While KAD, FK, and NK are well-defined clinical and physiological states that can produce high levels of ketones, there are other conditions, such as exercise that can actually decrease ketone levels in the blood by using ketone as an energy source in the muscl Continue reading >>
Ketostix: What Are Ketostix And How Do I Use Them?
If you’ve been reading up on keto dieting for a while, you’ve no doubt come across people talking about Ketostix (sometimes improperly spelled as ketosticks or keto sticks). What are ketostix? Why do you need them? We answer all that and more in our complete guide to Ketostix and ketone urinalysis testing. What are Ketostix? Simply put, Ketostix are small, thin plastic strips with a small reagent area on them. When Ketostix are dipped in urine (or passed through a stream of urine), the reagent area changes color to indicate the amount of ketones that are present in your urine. This is an important indicator for those on ketogenic diets because it lets us know that our body has adapted to ketosis and we are doing the diet right. Do I need to buy Ketostix? Yes and no. Ketostix serve two very important functions for ketogenic dieters: Troubleshooting: Beginners find Ketostix useful because it is an indicator that they are doing the ketogenic diet correctly and have indeed limited their carbohydrate consumption sufficiently to force the body into ketosis, thereby starting the process of burning fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. More advanced keto dieters use the strips to help figure out exactly how many carbohydrates they can eat before they are kicked out of ketosis. It can also help determine how different foods affect one’s ability to stay in ketosis. For example, some people’s bodies can handle sugar alcohols without having trouble staying in ketosis, and Ketostix can help diagnose this. Psychological Motivation: Quite simply, it feels great seeing Ketostix turn purple. It’s a little bit of positive reinforcement that those of us on keto diets sometimes require to keep us motivated. It might seem stupid to some, but committing to a ketogenic diet is no Continue reading >>
