Ketone Strips: Are They Legit?
These days, everyone is a keto dieter, but very few actually know they’re in ketosis. Sure, you can follow the diet and take the supplements, but if it’s all predicated on reaching a certain metabolic condition, wouldn’t you want to know if you’ve achieved it? Ketone strips fall into two distinct categories that dictate the accuracy of the test you are taking. These two categories are urine and blood. The degree to which ketone strips help you to successfully monitor your blood ketone levels will be greatly affected by which of these you use. Think of a urinalysis as the book jacket version, and a blood test as the entire Moby Dick novel in regard to detail. Depending where you are on the commitment scale, you’ll want to make sure you’re using the right test for your needs. Below, we’ve listed the various types, brands, and benefits/detriments of each of the ketone strips. Check them out, and see which one suits your needs best, and most importantly, helps you remain in ketosis. Ketone Strips: Urine Analysis Using urinalysis to test for ketones is simply getting a “30,000 foot view” of the ketones in your system. The body regularly emits anywhere from 3 to 15 milligrams of ketones a day. Increased amounts of ketones in the urine (acetoacetate) can show you that there is in fact an excess of ketones your system, however ketone strips that evaluate the urine will not report the amount of ketones in the blood – ketonaemia – which is where the real work is done. The benefit of using the urinalysis ketone strips at the beginning of your ketogenic diet, is that you’ll save money of the bat in case you choose not to pursue the diet later on. And, as your body initially gets into ketosis, you’ll find value in the measurements. But once your body adapts Continue reading >>
Precision Xtra Vs. Novamax Plus: Ketone Meter Evaluation
With the rise in interest in the n=1 experiment I’ve been blogging about since May 2012 (read my latest updates about it here, here, here and here), so many of you have begun testing your own blood ketones to see how well you are doing in pursuit of reaching that glorious state of “nutritional ketosis.” Attaining blood ketone levels of 0.5-3.0 millimolar is the optimal level for producing an appropriate level of beta-hydroxybutyrate to commence fat-burning and to serve as an excellent alternative fuel source for your brain and body for optimal performance according to what Dr. Stephen Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek outline so beautifully in their outstanding MUST-HAVE 2012 book The Art & Science Of Low Carbohydrate Performance. If you haven’t already picked up your own copy of this book, then I cannot recommend it highly enough to you as an invaluable resource in your pursuit of living an optimally healthy low-carb lifestyle. As people have been shopping around for their own blood ketone meter, I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from readers who have asked me for my recommendation between which of the two major ketone meters they should get to test their blood levels. Is there any difference between the Precision Xtra and NovaMax Plus blood ketone meters? I’ve personally tried both of these meters and have been using the Precision Xtra results to document my n=1 experiment. Let’s take a closer look at the PROS and CONS of each: **Precision Xtra Blood Ketone Meter** PROS: – Accurate and clear blood ketone measuring – Sturdy and strong test strips – More precise than urine ketone testing CONS: – Requires more blood than glucose testing – Test strips can be quite expensive – Not available for purchase in stores **NovaMax Plus Blood Ketone Meter** PROS Continue reading >>
Testing For Ketones
Testing for Ketones 3 Types of Ketones How to go about testing for Ketones? There are 3 types of ketone bodies. Acetone, Acetoacetate and Beta-Hydroxybutryate (BHB, though technically not really a ketone body) The body (the liver) converts long and medium chain fatty acids into BHB and Acetoacetate. BHB and Acetoacetate live in reversible equilibrium (they can transform back and forth). Acetoacetate can also be turned into acetone. After converted to acetone, it can not be converted back. Acetone is typically excreted through the urine or breath. If your body has been in ketosis for a while, you will see a reduction in acetoacetate. Muscles begin to use acetoacetate and turn it into Beta-Hydroxybutryate for fuel, so less is present in urine as you get more keto-adapted. This is the flaw of the urine test. It only tests for acetoacetate so it will go down as your body gets more efficient at using ketones for fuel. 3 Methods for Testing Ketones Urine strips only test acetoacetate. Ketonix only tests acetone in breath. Blood Strips test for Beta-Hydroxybutryate (BHB), what your body uses for fuel. 1. Urine Test Strips Pros: Cheap. Cons: Very inaccurate in testing level of ketosis. Our bodies excrete excess ketones in two ways. Through the urine or through the breath. When you are testing for ketones in urine you will typically see higher levels in early stages of a ketogenic diet because your body isn’t using ketones for fuel yet. After you are fully Keto-Adapted (2-4 weeks or so), you will see less and less ketones in your urine because your body in now using more ketones for fuel instead of excreting them through the urine or breath. The urine test strip is also very susceptible to changes based on your state of hydration. The more hydrated you are (and we should all b Continue reading >>
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Nutritional Ketosis Tools
For anyone who is getting started nutritional ketosis or interested in how I track everything, I figure I would write a post showing all the tools I use. Something like this would have been helpful for me when I was just starting. Precision Xtra Blood Glucose and Ketone Meter: This is the system I use to track my daily fastingmorning blood ketones to determine if I am in the range of nutritional ketosis (0.5 mmol- 3.0 mmol). I’ve gotten pretty good at predicting what my ketones will be the following morning based on my diet and activity level. The system I purchased came with the meter itself, the lancet you see pictured on the right of the meter, and 10 needles. I had to purchase the ketone strips separately. There is another system out there, the Nova Max Plus, but I ended up going with the Precision Xtra system based on a review I read from Jimmy Moore and I wanted to the most accurate system available. The main draw back of the Precision Xtra system is the price of the ketone strips, which can be in the range of $5.00 a strip. Precision Xtra Blood Ketone Test Strips: These are the all important test strips to use with the Precision Xtra system. As you can see by the link, these things are costly! But in my searches online I found a Canadian pharmacy that sells these for a much more reasonable price of $1.99 per strip. Here is another one based in Canada that offers the strips for $2.49 per strip, depending on how many you buy. These prices also don’t include the shipping, so keep that in mind. I’ve had a lot of success with the first one so at least for the length of this experiment, I’ll continue to order from them. I have read in some places that eBay can be a place to look for these strips, but when I checked there the prices weren’t much better. FreeSt Continue reading >>
- Reversing Type 2 Diabetes with Nutritional Ketosis
- A Novel Intervention Including Individualized Nutritional Recommendations Reduces Hemoglobin A1c Level, Medication Use, and Weight in Type 2 Diabetes
- A Novel Intervention Including Individualized Nutritional Recommendations Reduces Hemoglobin A1c Level, Medication Use, and Weight in Type 2 Diabetes
Pruvit Keto Os Review, Results & Where To Buy
Keto OS | Supercharge your Ketones Keto OS Review. Ketosis in 1 hour or less. Here is my test & review of Keto OS by Pruvit exogenous ketones / ketosis product (Video below). I wanted to see if this really lived up to claims of putting you into ketosis within an hour or less. Watch the video below to see that within the hour my blood reading of ketones spiked to 5.4 mmo/l reading! I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT! This is my personal review of Keto OS. So yeah it works! But this does not mean you can eat pizza and drink beer all day and lose weight, get better sleep, be healthy, feel great, look young, (some of the many benefits of ketosis) because “you’re in ketosis”. NOT REALLY! To maximize the benefits of Keto OS, you need to make sure you’re following a low carb or keto diet (low carb, moderate protein, high fat diet), which is a ketogenic diet to take full advantage of this product. What Keto OS does is really supercharge your ketosis and results when coupled with a properly planned ketogenic diet (like my custom keto diet plan). News! Keto OS now in Canada TIP: HOW TO GET 22% OFF KETO OS ALWAYS! Ordering from me above? Well here is how you can save 22% using our “SmartShip” option (monthly autoship which you can cancel anytime). By selecting TODAY + SMARTSHIP when ordering Keto OS. You will get a shipment sent out today to you (paying only for that order) and will be setup for NEXT MONTHS autoship order which will ship out next month (you get charged next month when it ships), that one will be discounted 22% and always be 22% off as long as you keep your smartship! You can change flavors monthly! and cancel anytime without penalty! The Savings are AMAZING! How does ketosis happen? How does ketosis work in burning fat? This video shows how ketosis happens and ho Continue reading >>
