ONE Actionable Takeaway from Ketosource
Takeaway: Know Your Daily Ketone Range
Testing blood ketones (β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB)) with a blood ketone meter is the gold standard for understanding your personal ketone metabolism. However, you may not be sure when to track as ketone levels are highly individual and vary between people and throughout the day.
For this reason, Ketosource created and tested a protocol that allows you to know your ketone range and average which will give you the confidence to leverage your ketone metabolism for fat loss.
When Is The Ideal Time To Check Your Ketone Levels?
Knowing when to test your (BHB) blood ketones can be difficult. This is why we have come up with a step-by-step guide on how to do it. All you need is your blood ketone meter, six ketone strips and six glucose strips.
- Step 1. Choose a place to write down your readings. You can do this on your phone or in a notebook.
- Step 2. Take your first reading first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. For example, at 8am upon waking.
- Step 3. Take your second reading immediately before your evening meal on an empty stomach. For example, at 6pm before dinner.
- Step 4. Repeat this process for 3 days to get an average ketone reading and to understand your ketone level range. This is important to note as any singular data point can be a statistical outlier.
This will give you an understanding of your personal ketone metabolism. Below is a visual illustration of the steps.
What To Avoid When Testing Your Blood Ketones
There are a couple of things to avoid doing in order to get accurate results:
- Don’t eat or drink anything besides water for three hours before taking your blood ketone reading.
- Don’t exercise for three hours before taking your blood ketone reading.
How To Understand Your Results
Here is an example of what three days of testing and an average ketone reading may look like:
In the case above the individual has a keto range from 0.4 mmol/L to 0.9. mmol/L. This means they are in appetite reduction ketosis for most of the day. Knowing this information can help them to make adjustments, such as taking C8 MCT oil in the morning, to elevate their ketone levels.
Another example would be a person whose keto range is from 2.0 mmol/L to 3.5 mmol/L. By being 1.5 mmol/L above 0.5 mmol/L appetite reduction ketosis at their lowest point, they have a high safety margin. They are clearly in appetite reduction ketosis and will get the fat loss benefits from the production of ketones.
The Dawn Effect
If your morning BHB ketone level is less than 0.5 mmol/L when you first wake up, it might be due to the Dawn Effect.
The Dawn Effect (otherwise known as the Dawn Phenomenon) is thought to be caused by cortisol and insulin which rise before waking. These hormone changes can temporarily raise glucose levels and therefore lower your circulating ketones.
To get clearer results you should wait two hours before taking your first reading.
Repeat Testing
A quick note on testing. Tracking your ketones can be disruptive to your daily routine as it requires you to limit food and exercise. So it’s only worth repeating your One-Time Metabolism Status Check if your results look strange.
For example, it’s worth repeating if your ketone level drops below 0.5 mmol/L when you don’t expect it to.
Actionable Takeaways
Now that you have your ketone range you can confidently leverage your personal ketone metabolism to adjust and tailor your approach for optimal fat loss. Just remember to:
- Take ketone readings with a blood ketone monitor.
- Write down these readings once in the morning and another before your evening meal.
- To ensure accurate readings: avoid eating, drinking (except water), or exercising for three hours before each ketone test.
- Wait two hours before testing if your morning ketone levels are below 0.5 mmol/l.
- If your average reading is lower than expected adjust your diet or take C8 MCT oil to raise your ketone levels throughout the day.
ONE Quote from a Credible Expert
Takeaway: Avoid Surplus Calories to Make Your Ketogenic Diet Work
This quote comes from Dominic D’Agostino, Ph.D. Dominic is Associate Professor at University of South Florida a Research Scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). His laboratory develops and tests metabolic-based strategies (focused on ketones) for targeting CNS oxygen toxicity (seizures), epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.
“People are like I’ve been on a ketogenic diet, it didn’t work for me, I didn’t lose any weight and if you probe a little bit more and ask them what they’re eating you know they’re eating nut butters and sort of these [foods]. So if they gravitated more towards a carnivore diet or just eliminated nut butters and nuts and maybe dairy too then you’d probably start to get better [results].
But many people are of the opinion that if you just eat ketogenic or low carb then you’re automatically going to lose weight and maintain your weight which is the case for the majority of people. But there’s definitely people [for who] it’s very easy to get an increased surplus of calories on a ketogenic diet.”
Source: Metabolic Health Summit – Metabolic Link Episode 9 (timestamp 1:10:58)
ONE of Your #1 Questions Answered
The Question:
The top question sent in from you this week was from Anthony C. Thank you Anthony!
“After jumping off the wagon for a week do I start back on 5 ml to build back up to 15 ml a day? Or can I carry on with the 15 ml I had built up to?”
The Answer:
If your goal is fat loss, taking your C8 MCT oil regularly is important for achieving your goals. However, we have seen with clients that this isn’t always possible. Whether it’s travel or a misstep in their routine, the result is a break in taking the oil.
This can cause confusion on how to restart. But there are only a couple of things to consider when getting back to your C8 MCT oil regime.
Do I Need to Start Again with My C8 MCT Oil?
How you begin again with taking the oil depends on your stomach tolerance. Nobody wants to experience stomach upset unnecessarily. That’s why it’s important to plan how you restart with C8 MCT oil.
Here is a quick guide to help you make the best decision.
Let’s go over these questions in detail below.
- Question #1. How Long Has It Been Since I’ve Taken C8 MCT Oil?
- If it has been more than three weeks you should stick to the original protocol. If you need a refresher on how best to take C8 MCT oil for fat loss you can find a step-by-step guide here.
- Question #2: Did I Have Stomach Upset The First Time I Took C8 MCT Oil?
- If it has been less than three weeks and you experienced no stomach upset the first time taking the oil you can continue with the full tablespoon (15 ml).
- If you experienced nausea, loose stools or general upset stomach scale back your dose from the full tablespoon (15 ml) to two teaspoons (10 ml) and see how you feel.
Whether you restart from the smallest dose or scale back before resuming the full dose, these steps will ensure that you don’t experience negative symptoms.
Actionable Takeaways
- If you have not taken the oil in more than three weeks restart taking the oil at a teaspoon (5 ml)
- If the time is less than three weeks consider if you were sensitive to the oil initially and then decide to take the full dose (15 ml) or two teaspoons (10 ml)