Are your urine ketone sticks showing that you're not in ketosis when you really think
they should be?
In this video I'm going to explain exactly why that is and what you can do about it.
Hey, carb dodgers.
Dr. Dan Maggs here, I'm so glad you've landed on my channel, which is all about living a
longer, leaner, healthier life through low-carb nutrition.
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This is a photo of me back in 2016, before I started my low carb weight-loss journey.
To be honest, I've never really used these keto sticks in order to track my ketosis,
but I know a lot of people really find it very reassuring to be able to simply just
dipstick their urine and test to see if they're in ketosis.
Except a really common frustration that people have with this is that after a few weeks they
start to get negative ketone readings despite not having done anything obviously wrong with
their diet.
But there is a well-known reason why this happens, and in this video I'm going to explain
exactly why that is and what you can do about it.
Your body is adapting to being in ketosis.
You are still in ketosis, except you're not leaking ketones into your urine anymore.
It's all to do with your kidneys.
You see, your kidneys are a filter.
They are filtering your blood in order to let the bad stuff out and keep the good stuff
in, and they pass the bad stuff out in the form of urine.
And in doing this our kidneys are really key to helping us maintain the right levels of
all the stuff we need in our body, like salts and minerals.
And so one of the things that we can measure in our urine is ketones.
Now, are ketones a waste product or are they a valuable energy source?
Well, ketones are produced by the liver, from our fat, in times when our carbohydrate intake
is very low, such as when we're on a ketogenic diet.
So it's pretty clear that ketones are a valuable energy source and we really shouldn't be passing
them out in our urine anyway.
So what's going on?
I mean, they're definitely there, we can measure them with the ketone sticks.
So what is happening?
Well, our kidneys aren't used to dealing with ketones and they're getting confused.
They're getting confused with another chemical.
You might have heard of it, it's called uric acid.
The reason you might have heard of it is because uric acid is what crystallizes in our joints
sometimes and causes gout, most typically in the toes.
So what's this got to do with ketones?
Well, in the early stages of a ketogenic diet, your kidneys can't tell the difference between
uric acid and ketones, so it deals with them all the same.
So they're essentially competing with each other, and what we actually see is ketones
coming out in the urine, but in the blood your uric acid levels are rising.
And something that's quite common in people who are predisposed to gout is that they'll
actually get a flare when they start on a ketogenic diet.
They actually get a painful joint when starting a ketogenic diet and that's because the levels
of uric acid in the blood have gone up.
But over time, weeks, maybe months, the kidneys learn the difference and they stop leaking
out that valuable energy store, ketones, and they start leaking back out the uric acid
and our uric acid levels go back down to normal over time.
So this is one of the signs of keto adaptation, the process at which our body adapts to being
in a state of ketosis, and it's completely normal.
And that's why the keto sticks don't lie, there is no ketones in your urine anymore
because your kidneys aren't letting them through.
It's also the reason why people who suffer from gout should probably expect a flare of
gout when they start on a ketogenic diet.
But actually, their longer-term risk actually returns back to normal once they become adapted.
It's also the reason why people who suffer from gout probably shouldn't go in and out
of a ketogenic diet, because they'll go through this process all over again every time.
So rather than seeing this as a negative, you can actually see the fact that you don't
see ketones in your urine anymore as a positive, in the fact that your body is actually adapting
to being in a ketogenic state.
Is this something you've experienced?
Let me know in the comments below by typing yes or giving the video a thumbs up.
And so the next question is what can you do about it?
Well, you can switch to measuring ketones with a device like this, which is a blood
glucose and ketone monitor.
It does require you pricking your fingers whenever you want to do a test, so it's a
bit more invasive, and the strips can get quite expensive.
They're initially quite cheap to buy these things, but the strips can get quite expensive.
So it's not a simple, cheap option like the ketone sticks, but it does give you an actual
reading of what your blood ketone levels are.
So from that side of things it's probably your most accurate way of telling whether
you're actually in ketosis or not.
But there is another way of going about this, you can just monitor the symptoms that you're
in ketosis.
I've made a video about this and the link is going to be in the description below and
up in the corner here.
So what happens if you test your blood ketones and you're not in ketosis on here?
Well, I think you can probably trust that to know that you're actually not in ketosis.
Now, that could be due to several reasons.
The first and most obvious one is you consumed too many carbohydrates in order to be able
to stay in ketosis.
It might be that you know exactly where those carbohydrates have come from.
It might be that it was something that was hidden in something you consumed, maybe when
you were out at a restaurant, something that had some hidden sugars, like a salad dressing.
You may not be able to find the source of carbohydrate.
But there are a load of other reasons why you can be knocked out of ketosis quite aside
from carbohydrate consumption and I've actually made kind of a cheat sheet, which is called
Why Am I Not In Ketosis.
And that is available as a download from my website and the link is the description below,
so check that out.
Also, you're very, very welcome in my Facebook group, which is a group of like-minded people
who are trying to improve their health and some of them are trying to lose weight.
We share tips and tricks and succeeding in this way of eating, and sharing recipes, things
like that.
Again, the link is in the description down below this video.
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Thanks for watching.