For Beginners

Learn How to Test Ketone Levels

Understanding your ketones is an important part of the ketogenic diet. To test that your body continues to stay in ketosis (the body burns fat storage instead of carbs for energy), many people like to measure their ketones. This requires a testing kit.

To learn how to test ketone levels while on the keto diet, we have put together this brief tutorial to help. There are primarily two ways of doing this. One involves urine strips and other involves blood strips.

If you’d like to know whether or not you are currently in ketosis, then urine strips are easy to use and quite affordable. Their original development was intended for individuals diagnosed with type 1 diabetes to quickly determine the patient’s immediate risk level for a condition called diabetic ketoacidosis, which can be fatal if not treated immediately.

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Urine Strips to Measure Ketones

Urine strips can be bought at many online outlets, supermarkets and pharmacies. They’re inexpensive and the packages typically contain anywhere from 50 to hundreds of strips.

These strips have expiration dates ranging from three up to six months once the packaged is opened. You need to keep this in mind based on how frequently you plan on using them.

If you’re going to check your levels of urine ketones daily, it’s best to do so at the same time each day. For instance, measure every morning or three hours after your last daily meal. This will give you the best possible comparisons over time.

To start the process of using your keto strips, wash your hands to prevent contamination of the sample. Collect a urine sample in an appropriately-sized container. Once you have the urine sample, take the absorptive end of your ketone strip and immerse it into the liquid for several seconds before removing.

The packaging should tell you how long to wait for the strip to do its color change. Once it does, compare the ketone strip to the color chart that should that is on the packaging.

The color that the strip turns to is equivalent to how concentrated ketones are in your urine. Darker colors mean higher concentrations. Once done, dispose of both the strip and urine properly before once more washing your hands.

Using A Blood Meter To Check Ketones

Another way to check for ketone levels is by measuring blood ketone levels. This is done using a blood meter. As with the urine strips, these were also originally designed for those with type 1 diabetes.

For this, you’ll need ketone blood strips but also a meter that can read them. Fortunately, quite a few blood glucose readers can also read keto strips.

Blood strips typically cost a dollar for each strip in most markets and they typically last for over a year before expiration. That’s a lot more time than urine strips give you.

To start to the process of using a blood ketone meter, wash your hands.

Read the directions that are provided, but they’re likely to start with loading the lancet with your needle.

Insert your blood ketone strip into your ketone meter, before pricking your finger. You do this in order to get a tiny drop of blood with the lancet. Make sure the drop of blood comes into contact with the strip so you can see the results.

Dispose of the lancet and strip properly, as indicated by the directions.

An ideal ketone blood level for your dietary ketosis is going to be a range of 1.5 up to 3.0 mmol/L or 15 up to 300 mg/dL.

Use These Methods To Test Your Ketone Levels

Learning how to test ketone levels on keto diet is not necessary but if you want to know if you are in ketosis, it’s a must. Measuring your ketones can also help you to determine how many carbs you can consume as your body becomes more fat adaptive. As you progress on the ketogenic diet, you can increase your carbohydrate consumption.