I just dont understand what is going on. I was on the carnivore diet (very strictly) for over a month before I started this fast. Im on day 3 right now. When I was on the carnivore, when I used my pee strips to test for ketosis, I was lucky to get a trace result, even from two different brand of pee strips. I thought it was possible that maybe I had too much protein, but I was only having around 16oz of meat per day, tops.
So I was like, ok, fine. Maybe I will try a fast and see if I can get a ketosis boost or something. My wife can go a day on 10g-20g of carbs and her pee sticks turn into freakin smurfs.
Here I am on day 3 of my first fast. Surely I am spewing ketones like mad, what else could possibly burn right now? I pee on my strip both last night before bed, and this morning after I got up at hour 68.
Trace to small results! What the hell, man?! Where is all my stinkin’ ketones at? My weight also stayed the same from day 2 to day 3. Does my intestines have some hidden store of skittles down there? I honestly dont get it.
Should I keep going on this fast? I could eat my office chair right now.
Ketone strips are useless and inaccurate. Your body has likely been fat adapted so long that you are fully utilizing the ketones your body is producing, hence pissing less of them out. I don’t mean this in a bad way but I really suggest you read up much more on the mechanisms of ketosis and lchf, carnivore diets in general. Again not to be rude but it’s really better to understand what you are doing to your body.
Those strips only detect one type of ketone. That ketone is produced most abundantly during keto adaptation, because it is what the body make when it is inefficient at metabolizing fat. After you are fully adapted your body makes different ketones prominently, so the strips don’t work anymore. You can buy special glucose testers that also measure ketone in the blood.
For me when I knew that I was in ketosis, is when my sweat began to smell different when I worked out. It isn’t a bad smell, but is distinct. Another way is when my blood sugars are in the 70s or below and I feel fine.
I’ll note that around 80% of ketones are released through exhalation, just through breathing! Maybe they don’t really show up in your urine because most of it is being released by breath, or possibly by sweat.
Something to consider I suppose
Dude, don’t lose sleep over the strips. Its only measuring one type of ketone that you’re pissing out as waste. And really those strips more than anything are mesauring how hydrated you are. I’ve pulled a blood 5mmol/L ketone level while fasted, and pee strips only showed normal purple since the sample was so diluted.
If you want to know you blood ketone level, the relevant number, get the meter or the blood test. Testing your blood ketone level is the only way to know truly.
But dont worry about just keep fasting my guy, you’re burning fat
It took me about a month of occasional fasting to get to the same spot. This is a sign of keto adaptation. It takes time for your muscles to start participating in converting acetone and acetoacetate produced by the liver to BHB. It’s quite likely that your month of carnivore did this to you.
The ketone strips are specifically testing for acetoacetate in your urine (because it simply shows up as acidic, there’s nothing fancier than that going on). The only way to test ketones right now is to check BHB in the blood. This is a good sign.
Those strips are only helpful if you’re new to ketosis. Once your body become used to it, it becomes much more efficient with ketones, meaning fewer ketones will show up in your urine ;) (wasted energy).
If you want accurate ketone measurement, you’ll have to pony up for a blood meter or a breath analyzer, sadly.
Also, I would be really careful with an all meat diet mid or long term. There’s no data to suggest that it’s safe, and no reason to think it would be. We didn’t evolve eating only meat. (Even if our ancestors ate meat as often as they could, and as much as they could kill, that’s still not the same as eating only meat…and before someone says it, no, the Inuit didn’t eat only meat..they ate berries whenever they could. They have traditional desserts featuring carb sources like berries, such as Akutaq)
Furthermore, there is data to suggest that an all meat diet promotes the growth of undesirable bacteria in the gut. These bacteria release compounds that can damage the DNA of colon cells.
(putrescine and cadaverine)
Does look useful as a short-term elimination diet though to find out which plant foods are causing irritation.