Jimmy Moore’s N=1 Experiments: Nutritional Ketosis Day 1-30
Before I went on the 2012 Low-Carb Cruise last month, I started reading a book that my low-carb research friends Dr. Jeff Volek and Dr. Steve Phinney had written as a follow-up to their fantastic 2011 release The Art And Science of Low Carbohydrate Living (listen to my interview with Dr. Phinney about this book in Episode 479 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show”). The sequel is called The Art And Science Of Low Carbohydrate Performance and was written specifically to share the latest science behind ketogenic diets for athletes who are keenly interested in optimizing their exercise performance with fat and ketones serving as their body’s primary fuel source once they reach what Dr. Phinney refers to as “keto-adaptation.” But the information these low-carb stalwarts provide in this handy dandy little book goes much deeper than that as you will read about in this blog post. Most low-carbers have traditionally been using urine ketone sticks under the brand name Ketostix to measure their level of ketones being produced by color (from pink to dark purple) as a result of their low-carb diet. But as I previously shared in this YouTube video, this can be a frustratingly inaccurate way of measuring whether you are producing enough ketones in your blood to see the kind of results you are hoping for on your low-carb lifestyle change. But thanks to the cutting-edge information provided by Volek and Phinney in The Art And Science Of Low Carbohydrate Performance, we now have a new and better way to measure the actual ketones that are in your blood which determines whether you have become keto-adapted and burning fat and ketones for fuel. They refer to getting into this state as “nutritional ketosis” to obviously distinguish it from ketoacidosis which is only an issue Continue reading >>
Quality Of Urine Ketone Test Strips: Name Brand Vs. Store Brand
I've been using urine ketone test strips for the past month to make sure I'm maintaining a state of nutritional ketosis. I started off with the Walgreen's store brand test strips, 100 strips for $17. I ran out of my Walgreen's test strips and figured I could replenish my supply at the UCLA Medical Center Pharmacy today. They only carried the popular Bayer Brand Ketostix and the cost was double what I paid for at Walgreen's; it was $18 for 50 test strips. This got me wondering if there is a difference in quality between the two brands, so I did a little research. I performed a scholarly article search on UCLA's public library WiFi and searched the following terms and phrases: Brand comparison for urine ketone test strips Accuracy of urine ketone test strips Quality of urine ketone test strips Inconsistent results for urine ketone test strips Ketostix vs. Generic ...and I found nothing. My next step was to perform a regular online Google search using the same search phrases. I found a low-carb forum thread that put out the question if all strips were equal BUT there weren't any substantial replies. Then I did what any other smart researcher would do and compared store and Amazon.com reviews to see what consumers thought about them. I looked at the Bayer Ketostix reviews on Amazon.com and the lowest review was a 3/5 star rating where the consumer was satisfied with the product but complained that her local drug stores didn't carry the Bayer brand. Such a review makes me think that the Ketostix are pretty legit. I looked at the reviews for the Walgreen's brand strips on their own store site. The lowest rating was 1/5 stars and it was because the consumer compared the results of both strips on the same sample of urine (Ketostix vs. Walgreen's store brand). The store brand st Continue reading >>
Walgreens Ketostix
Questions & answers I also eat a truly healthy diet - lean meat, fruits, veggies, not big on sweets and desserts - yet I seem to hang in the air around the. I excercise 5-6 times a week for at least 30 minutes doing a combine of cardio, conditioning and strength training. Go low-carb. When you do that you go into Ketosis, which means you are blazing fat at a faster rate. You can go into Ketosis by keeping your carbs under 20 mg/day. In the kitchenette I peered into the crowded cabinet where I stash hard stuff wipes, lancets, a glucose meter and check up on strips, insulin reservoirs, Ketostix, and backup syringes ... then out to Walgreen’s in Newton. As I lay there, I reason about ditching ... Ketostix - TheKetogenicDiet.org What are ketostix. Totally put, Ketostix are. We answer all that and more in our complete guide to Ketostix and ketone urinalysis testing. What are Ketostix. If you’ve been reading up on keto dieting for a while, you’ve no doubt come across people talking about Ketostix (on improperly spelled as ketosticks or keto sticks). Source: Google news feed Walgreens has partnered with Have Dreams, an advocacy association for children with autism, on a new training facility in Evanston, Ill. It's generally of a growing awareness of the value of workers diagnosed with the fitness and other disabilities that for Propose sponsors that choose to include Walgreens as part of the Percipient90 program for their pharmacy benefit will provide their members who have continuing conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood insist upon and diabetes, the choice to receive 90-day Walgreens recently introduced its "Healthcare Clinic" at exceptional Walgreens as the new branding for the more than 370 in-store retail clinics, replacing the latest Take Care Clinic name Continue reading >>
A New Toy Measuring Blood Ketones
I just got a new toy: a device for measuring blood ketones. This is a far more exact and reliable measurement than testing for urine ketones using cheap dipsticks. Ketosis is of course the state the body is in when eating very low carb. Ketones, made from fat, will then fuel the brain instead of glucose. So who needs one of these gadgets? Perhaps nobody. Obviously it’s easy to eat LCHF without it. This is for curious nerds (like me) and for those who want definite proof that they are eating so little carbs that insulin levels are low and fat burning is maximized. A ketone level somewhere between 1.5 – 3 is said to be an optimal level for maximizing weight loss. It means that insulin levels are very low. As you can see my first measurement was 0.2, after a caesar sallad dinner. I’m not surprised as I’ve probably eaten at least 50 grams of carbs a day lately. I will try it out fasting in the mornings during the coming days. Perhaps I’ll try being really strict with the carbs for a while to see what happens. Have you tried one of these or are you interested in doing it? 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 >>
