Not sure which is the right method for checking your ketone levels?
Watch this video, and I'm going to take you through the pros and cons of the three major
methods, and I'm going to even give you a fourth method.
Hey, carb dodgers, my name's Dr. Dan Maggs.
I make videos every Tuesday about how to live a long-term, low-carb lifestyle, so if you're
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There are a few different ways of measuring whether you're in ketosis or not, ketostix,
a blood ketone monitor, or a breath ketone monitor.
All have their pros and cons, and that's exactly what we're going to go through in today's
video.
You're going to have a really good understanding of what's probably going to be the best one
for you, and I'm going to add in a fourth way at the end, as well.
Let's start with urinary ketone sticks.
If these look a little bit different from the ketone sticks that you might have at home,
that is because these are my ones from my medical bag.
They'll tell me if you've got a urine infection.
They'll tell me if there's blood in the urine.
They will tell me if there's ketones in the urine, but they'll also tell me if there is
glucose in the urine.
If they look a little bit different to the ones that you have, that is why, but they're
the only ones that I have to hand at the moment.
Ketostix are pretty cheap.
That's the first pro.
The second pro is you can get them in most pharmacies.
You can get them available really easily online, delivered next day, Amazon Prime, all that
stuff, and the final reason they're so good is because they're not very invasive.
You don't have to get a blood sample or anything like that.
You just test your pee.
They sound like the perfect solution.
Cheap, noninvasive, easily available.
However, after a few weeks of being in ketosis, you stop producing ketones within your urine,
or at least the number goes down, so these stop becoming effective.
For some people, they remain effective.
For some people, they don't.
It's up to you to be testing, but if you're starting to get negative results, it doesn't
necessarily mean you're not in ketosis.
I've actually made another video, which is linked up here, about sometimes why you don't
get ketones in the urine when you're testing.
The other reason is it just doesn't correspond that well with blood ketone levels, so whilst
there is a graded scale on here, it doesn't necessarily correspond with the number of
ketones in your blood, so you can't really use it for monitoring the height or intensity
of the nutritional ketosis.
It really just shows you whether you're in ketosis or not.
In summary, it's a really cheap, easy way of getting started with monitoring, but just
be aware it may not last.
Let's talk about method two, blood ketone monitoring.
This is probably the most accurate of all of the three methods.
It basically gives you a number, which corresponds to your blood ketone level, so it's probably
the most accurate one at telling you exactly how high your ketone levels are, and these
are quite cheap to buy, but the actual strips that you have to put in them are quite expensive.
As a lot of low-carb, ketogenic dieters are buying these nowadays, they are getting cheaper,
so the price may come down quite a lot in the future, but they're still quite an expensive
way to be measuring your ketone levels on a regular basis.
The other downside to this is it's an invasive thing.
You have to prick your finger and get a blood sample every time, which I think [inaudible
00:04:05] anyone says, "It's not a nice thing to do," and I really do feel for people with
diabetes who have to do that several times a day.
In summary, definitely very accurate, but, unfortunately, can get quite expensive.
Before we get into number three, I just wanted to ask, have you been checking your ketone
levels?
Drop me a comment down below.
What method have you been using?
How have you found it?
Have you experienced the problems with the ketone sticks that I've described there, or
have you been using the blood glucose monitor?
How have you found it?
Am I being a complete baby about checking my blood levels?
Method number three is ketone breath monitoring.
I got really excited when I heard about ketone breath monitoring for the first time.
We do breathe out ketones when we're in a state of ketosis, so, theoretically, should
be able to measure the ketone levels in your breath, and these devices that you blow into
are quite expensive to buy, but it's a one-off cost.
You don't have to keep replacing the strips like you do with the blood ketone monitor.
Really, the only downside I thought would be the cost, but, actually, really, really
difficult to use.
You have to take a really, really deep breath out because the highest ketone concentrations
are at the very depths of your out breath, which supposedly, if you can get good at that,
makes it reliable, but it may be down to the poor technique on my part, and I really did
try and make it work.
I couldn't get it to work accurately.
It didn't correspond with my ketone levels.
The problem was that it wasn't telling me when I was in and out of ketosis, so I had
to send it back, to be honest, and on that grounds, I can't recommend it, which is a
real shame because I really wanted it to be the way that I monitored my ketosis.
It's a big shame, really.
The final method, bonus method, of how to measure your ketosis is not to measure it
at all.
Stay with me here.
When I lost 30 kilograms, took me little bit over six months.
I didn't use any of this.
I didn't need to, and I've actually made an entire video about how to just monitor the
symptoms of your ketosis in order to know whether you're in ketosis.
That video is linked down below this video and above here on the info cards, so please
check that video out.
It's really interesting and, actually, you might find that you don't need any of these.
There you go.
You've got three different ways to actually measure your ketone levels.
You've got the pros and cons of each, and you've got the fourth bonus method with the
video to go and check out.
If you want to join a community of people who are just like you, trying to lose weight
and improve their health on a low-carb, ketogenic diet, then please join my Facebook group.
We know that people are more successful doing these kind of things if they've got the support
of like-minded people, so join in the Facebook group, share tips, tricks, discuss how you
measure ketosis, if at all, share recipes and just generally get involved.
It's a great place to learn and to be supported by other people who have a shared goal.
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Thank you so much for watching.
I will see you in the next video.