Are high Ketones bad?
Hi everyone - completely new to keto diet (just started week 2). In my first week, my blood ketones were at around 2.5 mmol/L. This week they are getting as high as 6 mmol/L! I’m worried that this is too high. I’m eating at the 5:25:70 ratio, so about 17-22 net carbs a day. Should I be increasing my carbs? I feel fine with good energy, and I drink a lot of water, get 8 hours of sleep, and exercise for 30 minutes a day.
There’s a lot of information out there, but everything I’ve read says to be between 1.0-3.0 mmol/L. How do I bring my ketones down/should I bring them down? Can someone else share their experience if they went through something similar? Thank you so much!!
-
From the keto mojo website (blood ketone testing site): If your primary goal for integrating the ketogenic diet into your life is weight loss, achieving “light nutritional ketosis,” or 0.5 mmol/L-1.0 mmol/L, is a good starting point. From there, aim for “optimal ketosis,” which is when your ketone levels are between 1.0 mmol/L-3.0 mmol/L. People looking to use the ketogenic diet for therapeutic benefits for medical conditions such as epilepsy, cancer, or endocrine and metabolic disorders, are generally directed to aim for much higher ketone levels—specifically in the 3.0 mmol/L -5.0 mmol/L range, or somewhere in between. People who are fasting or eat a much higher fat-to-protein ratio will look to levels in the 3.0 mmol/L-8.0 mmol/L range. But you don’t need to go there. The optimal ketosis range is called “optimal” for a reason, and it’s exactly where you’ll want be for weight-loss and general health purposes, and you’ll get there, in time, if you practice patience and get in the groove of eating a keto diet.“
also, the information here on CM is worth a good read.
Hope this helps
-
Pat F thanks for replying! My question is should I be increasing my carb count above 20g/day since my ketones are higher than 3 mmol/L?
Or is it somehow normal for them to be high while your body adjusts? -
rooroo I think they’re okay - very good, actually! It means you’re burning a lot of fat. Increasing your carbs would mean your body would burn less fat (any combination of carbs and fats is a zero sum game - more of one means less of the other) so I would not recommend increasing carbs.
You appear to be doing easily what some folks struggle to achieve. Enjoy!
Keto on!
-
Pat F thanks pat! I read about keto acidosis and got scared that I was potentially getting close to causing serious harm. (The dangers of googling too much I guess lol.) I found another thread on here that said to stay below 10 and I’ll be okay.
Appreciate the encouragement!