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Jan3sons One week in and my keto strips are reading only "trace". Calories are under 1,000, carbs never go over 15, and I haven't logged sugars, grains, or high sugar veggies. But I'm going to hang in there...probably up my walking, along with the intermittent fasting. I've lost 7 pounds so SOMETHING is working. lol
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Lyndy228 The strips are only useful for a while. When you start keto, you are shedding ketones in your urine, sweat, etc. That's where the bad breath and metallic taste come from. Once your body uses up stored glucose and starts using the ketones, you don;t shed them anymore and the strips stop telling you anything. A week does seem pretty fast, though, so that may not be what's going on.
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You might not be eating enough. Days my calories are too low, I don’t lose weight. Also, you might be eating foods that are reactive to you and cause inflammation, We did The Plan awhile back, and have incorporated its concepts into Keto. For example shellfish is keto friendly, but if my husband eats crab, shrimp or scallops, he’ll literally gain 2 lbs overnight. Same for me and cauliflower.
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Ketosis is hard to track. The body can assimilate and mask if you are in ketosis. That is why I approached the change in lifestyle touching all parts. The main goal was not to lose weight. My main goal was to make changes that improved my overall health. If you are looking for the best read on ketosis, you might want to track blood and urine. and see if they match up.
Hope it helps. Have a blessed day.
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Ditto Moondrake--ketone urine strips will tell you when you've begun to burn fat (whether it says trace or looks like a higher reading), after that they aren't very useful.
Once your body starts using the ketones to burn fat, they won't be in your urine as much, plus if you are hydrating a lot, you'll your urine will be diluted so they won't show as much on the strip (and conversely, if you are not drinking enough your urine will be more concentrated and the test will read a higher level).
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kdentonxo I bought ketone test strips on amazon, also found them in the diabetic aisle of the supermarket.
When my dog was having UTI issues, I found I could buy test strips that covered 10 or twelve functions--ketones, leukocytes (for UTI) , protein, glucose, bilirubin.... for less than $20 for like 100 or 300 strips. So I used those the second time around.