Okay the bottom line is these blood ketone strips are expensive and we don't
want to be wasting them. There are several times during the day when
testing will give you misleading readings. By the end of this video, you're
going to know when you should be testing when you shouldn't be testing and how
often you need to be testing in order to get an accurate picture of your ketone
levels. Let's get started
Hey Carbdodgers! My name is Dr. Dan Maggs thanks for visiting my channel
where I help people achieve long-term sustainable weight loss through low carb
real food nutrition. I struggle with my weight pretty much my entire life until
about 2016 when I went from officially obese to a normal way, in just over six
months and I've maintained it ever since. And I'd love to show you how to do the
same. I release new videos here every Tuesday and I'd love it if you'd
subscribe to my channel and hit that bell to get notified whenever I release
a new video. Now I've never been a big tester of ketone levels and when I went
through my period of rapid weight loss back in 2016 I didn't actually check
ketones once. I didn't need to because I was consistently losing weight and
ultimately that was the goal and there seems to be this myth in the keto diet
world that we should be aiming for really really high ketone levels all the
time and it's simply not true. In fact, I think it often leads to an
overconsumption of fat and often an under consumption of protein and I've
made a separate video that deconstructs this myth about high ketone levels. And
you can check that out by clicking up here. It's also linked down below in the
description below this video. Now, a lot of keto websites or YouTube channels are
sponsored by the manufacturers of ketone meters. I'm not, so I'm not going to tell
you that you should be testing all the time because it's simply not true. But
testing does have its place and it can be useful particularly for overcoming
problems. Also I know some people who find testing their ketone levels just
really reassuring. It provides some sort of accountability to the data
and they know their on the right track also if you like me you're a bit of a
data geek and it can be quite fun to track these things. So, if you are testing
then blood ketone readings are by far the most accurate way to check your
ketone levels but whilst the ketone meters themselves are often relatively
cheap, the test strips are still quite expensive and we don't want to be
wasting them. Testing more often than we need to or testing at times of day when
we're going to be getting a misleading reading and there are several times
during the day when you're gonna get falsely low readings. The first time you
should avoid testing is first thing in the morning and that's due to something
called the DAWN EFFECT. Now the dawn effect is a normal physiological process
that happens to all of us. In the early hours of the morning, there's a surge in
number of hormones, cortisol and adrenaline and this is part of the
body's normal circadian rhythms. It promotes the release of glucose into the
bloodstream which is just there to help you prepare for the day ahead. Now a lot
of diabetics noticed a spike in their blood glucose levels at this time of day
but non-diabetic shouldn't actually see a rise because insulin should be
compensating for that rise in blood glucose but that rise in blood glucose
will also cause a reactionary lowering of the ketone levels. So, if you testing
in the early hours of the morning and you find that you've got a low ketone
levels it's due to the dawn effect you want to be waiting at least an hour
after you wake up as a minimum before you start testing your ketone levels.
The second time you should avoid testing is directly after a meal. Even a low carb
meal will cause some insulin to be released by the pancreas so it's not
uncommon to see a temporary dip in blood ketone levels at that point. Now ketones
will often quickly recover over the next few hours but not in an entirely
predictable way and it will vary depending on the meal. Now as a side note
some people do like to see the response their meals have on their ketone levels
and may like to test on a schedule such as
before a meal 30 minutes after that meal an hour after that meal or 2 hours after
that meal just to see what their response has been and this can be quite
interesting for a day to eat like me to see my body's response to certain meals
but it really doesn't tell us a lot about the long-term stable levels of
ketones that our bodies are achieving. So by all means do it if you're curious but
not really for any other reason than that. Talking of curiosity, I'm curious as
to how many people out there are data geeks like I am. So if that is you and
you enjoy testing in that way hit the like button below and type the word geek
in the comments just to let me know. Now the third time of day you should avoid
testing is after exercise. Now ketones are being used by the body for energy
and anything that causes them to be used faster such as exercise will cause a
temporary lowering of ketone levels that misrepresents your longer-term levels
again by all means test for curiosity but don't get misled when the levels
drop after exercise so that's when we shouldn't be testing but when should we
be testing and how often? Now I typically recommend the best time
of day to test is before your main meals so lunch and dinner, for me. Now that's
typically 12:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. which fits in with my normal 16 8 pattern of
fasting checking before lunch gives plenty of time for that dawn effect
phenomenon to pass and typically I usually work out in the mornings too.
Now, if you typically skip breakfast like a lot of lowcarbers who do intermittent
fasting do then it'll have been approximately 16 hours since your last
meal if you've not achieved a stable level of ketones by this time you're
probably not in ketosis and if I had to just test once a day it would definitely
be this before lunch check and the check before dinner gives
plenty of time for you to achieve a stable level of ketones after your lunch
but not if you've just exercised you may wish to consider testing before bed for
example if you often workout before your evening meal and twice a day we'll give
you a good idea of things are stable adding in a third testing point I don't
really think it really adds much to your data. So twice a day is what I usually
recommend and if you're going to be testing on a regular basis you're gonna
want to find a pattern that works for your particular lifestyle and stick with
it. Just make sure you avoid the common mistake times that I've mentioned above
work out what works for you and stick with it every day. Now be sure to check
out my video where I discuss optimum ketone levels for weight loss please
don't get caught in that trap of chasing hi ketone levels it doesn't matter
anywhere near as much as you might think you also might find it useful to check
my video which was all about monitoring the symptoms of ketosis to check you're
on the right lines I'll put the links to both of those videos down in the
resources section which you can find in the description of this video. So that's
it for today's video, I hope you've enjoyed that I hope it's been useful for
you and hope you've got something out of that. If you've enjoyed this video, please
hit the like button down below and why not leave me a comment in the comment
section I post new videos every Tuesday so
if you want to receive those videos subscribe to my channel and you can hit
the bell if you want to get notified when those new videos come out
otherwise I'll see you next Tuesday. Thanks for watching!