ApoE4.Info

Hi Everyone. I have been monitoring my ketone and glucose levels for over a year and have based many dietary decisions based on these results. I have sometimes been surprised by some of my results, but have assumed that I can handle a higher carb level and still stay in ketosis. Last week after a surprisingly higher ketone reading (2.8) after a few higher carb days, my husband became suspicious and asked me to re-check my level. On my second testing, the meter registered "LO." I tried a third time, and it came up .8. Now both my husband and I have been re-checking our results and seeing that they're all over the place. No consistency. The device is calibrated and we are carefully following all of the procedures. I contacted customer service and they reminded me of the variability in results. I understand some variability, but these are huge extremes. (I know there is a .3 range of accuracy.) I have ordered the control solution so that I can check the reliability of this device, but I am so discouraged that I may have been wasting my money for the past year! Not to mention that I may have been making nutritional decisions based on totally false info. Have any of you re-checked your results? Thanks!

I've used the KM for over a year. Prior to that used a Precision Xtra (and ran them a little in parallel and they agree within the error bars) and purchased my first glucometer (for diet testing, not diabetes) in 2006. All meters can have strips with bad readings. I've been keto-adapted for over 9 years, so have a pretty good idea where I'll come out when I test and usually the strips are in the ballpark. If a get a big surprise, I will retest. Any more I test fairly randomly and relatively infrequently except when multiday fasting. My ketone strips, both KM and PX, correlate qualitatively (big is big, little is little) with breath acetone (Ketonix meter) and urine strips. Urine strips are likely a poor choice for someone trying to see if they are in ketosis and their serum levels are <1 mmol. I'm also well aware that all three of these measure different substances. Serum BHB is a storage form, urine acetoacetate is always what is excess and breath acetone is more "real time" indicator as ketones are being made.

Because my diet is relatively high carb (lots of leaves & fiber), the breath acetone is less useful as the sensor will also spike on methane, which is made as the gut bacteria process carbs. So I tend to use it only when extended fasting. I do know a person who has a brain cancer who used the breath acetone meter to fine tune her diet to keep her serum BHB above 3 mmol/l. She also eats a lot of leaves and found that broccoli was a culprit for her. She's 5.5 years after diagnosis of a baseball size brain tumor. She was statistically given 12-18 months to live, if she went on chemo & radiation. She declined and used lifestyle instead. She is doing well and is extremely strict. The developer of the Ketonix also used it in the same way. He has adult onset epilepsy and needed to keep his ketones high to keep the seizures away and function. He found that high acetone was a better metric for seizures than high BHB.

Tincup wrote: Because my diet is relatively high carb (lots of leaves & fiber), the breath acetone is less useful as the sensor will also spike on methane, which is made as the gut bacteria process carbs. So I tend to use it only when extended fasting. I do know a person who has a brain cancer who used the breath acetone meter to fine tune her diet to keep her serum BHB above 3 mmol/l. She also eats a lot of leaves and found that broccoli was a culprit for her. She's 5.5 years after diagnosis of a baseball size brain tumor. She was statistically given 12-18 months to live, if she went on chemo & radiation. She declined and used lifestyle instead. She is doing well and is extremely strict. The developer of the Ketonix also used it in the same way. He has adult onset epilepsy and needed to keep his ketones high to keep the seizures away and function. He found that high acetone was a better metric for seizures than high BHB.

Quite amazing stuff!

Linda, yes I've seen this too, once, with the Keto-Mojo! I was suspicious of a reading and ran it again twice in short order. The results were way outside the margin of error, but not as much so as yours. I didn't know the K-M needed to be calibrated. Will have to look into that. If I weren't low on keto strips I'd run a bunch of checks in a row, but now I'm hesitate to spend more money on them just to test the meter itself.

circular wrote:I didn't know the K-M needed to be calibrated. Will have to look into that.

There is a calibration chip (not needed for glucose on the KM) that comes in each vial of strips. You put it in, like a strip the first time you use a strip in that vial. The meter will produce a number, like "946" that is linked to that batch of strips. So this only needs to be done once per vial of strips.

Tincup wrote:

circular wrote:I didn't know the K-M needed to be calibrated. Will have to look into that.

There is a calibration chip (not needed for glucose on the KM) that comes in each vial of strips. You put it in, like a strip the first time you use a strip in that vial. The meter will produce a number, like "946" that is linked to that batch of strips. So this only needs to be done once per vial of strips.

Oh that, thanks, been doing it

Linda, I had low readings on the first two batches but now my third batch I consistently have 1.2-1.7 . Puzzling as my fast, diet, weight, exercise and supplements have not changed. I have also noticed that my blood glucose is lower (61-76) during this last batch testing , so possibly something has changed and I am finally able to achieve ketosis. The company will work with you if you have an unreliable batch.

Thanks so much everyone for your responses and support! Both my husband and I have continued to re-check our ketone levels, and the results are consistently WAY different (i.e. .3 and then 1.6, less than a minute later.) I contacted KM and ended up purchasing a tiny bottle of "Control Solution" for $20.00. It is supposed to be used to test your meter so you know that it is giving accurate results. I just received the control solution and it has a test range of 1.8 - 3.0. That seems to be too wide a variance to test a meter for accuracy! I am now finding postings on KETO websites from others who have expressed similar concerns. I have relied so heavily on these meter results to help guide my diet and the amount of carbs/fats/protein that I eat. Being in nutritional ketosis is such an important part of this program and I'm not sure how to proceed. I haven't been very successful in just using my physical symptoms to tell if I'm in ketosis.

You could always do OMAD = One Meal A Day, which will keep you in nutritional ketosis all the while you're not eating. Your eating window could be 1-2 hrs to get enough calories for the rest of the day. It's like a Feast-Fast schedule that is easy to follow once you're keto adapted.

Linda wrote:I just received the control solution and it has a test range of 1.8 - 3.0. That seems to be too wide a variance to test a meter for accuracy!

I agree, especially given the price of the strips, even though they may be the cheapest available (?).

genie wrote:You could always do OMAD = One Meal A Day, which will keep you in nutritional ketosis all the while you're not eating. Your eating window could be 1-2 hrs to get enough calories for the rest of the day. It's like a Feast-Fast schedule that is easy to follow to once you're keto adapted.

I wish this could work for me. For those of us with either small stomachs and/or early satiety, there's no way to fit 24 hours worth of calories into one meal.