Two questions I’m asked a great deal are about ketosis/lipolysis and using Ketostix ®️
- What colour am I aiming at on the testing strips?
- Where do I get them?
My answer goes like this:
What are the signs of Ketosis?
“Benign Dietary Ketosis” as a concept was championed by Dr Robert Atkins when he published the first version of his plan in 1972.
He mentions that you should measure your excreted ketones via urinalysis and be looking for a purple result.
If you are following Dr Atkins’ plan and so testing regularly, the preferable colour really is a pale pink. This is an indicator that your body is in its optimum fat burning zone, using everything that you are producing and not dumping any excess.
Where to get Ketone Urinalysis sticks (Ketostix ®️ is the Bayer brandname)
Buying via Amazon or any other online chemist is pretty much the easiest option these days.
You can also buy them from the pharmacy counter of any dispensing chemist. They are a “P” grade medicine, so you have to ask for them.
As these are usually bought by people known to have diabetes, they may question why you want them ( depending on how “gatekeeper” like your local pharmacist is) and possibly not want to sell you them if you have “no good reason” in their viewpoint. In this case, if you do want them it might be better to tell a white lie, or just go buy online.
Do I need to be purple?
Once you are effectively burning body fat, most people can tell they are “in ketosis” by the slightly metallic taste in their mouths. Some people say that their body odour changes (Not a BO odour, just personal smell) to incorporate metallic tinges. Others report that their urine has a more noticeable “healthy pee” smell. (Foul smelling urine is a sign of a UTI, go see a doctor immediately.)
However, being in ketosis is like being pregnant. You either are, or you aren’t. The colour is irrelevant, any shade of Pink/Purple will do.
What are the test sticks showing us then?
The body converts fat into ketones and burns these as fuel in preference to glucose right up to “100g of non-processed carbs a day” for most people.
Also for most people, Ketostix ®️ will only show ketones in urine at very low carb intake levels i.e. the Atkins’ 20g induction level and the level that “being keto” advises to stay at, which in my opinion is not required.
In fact, purple may well be a sign that you are pushing too hard. You may be eating too few vegetable based carbs. Purple means that you are dumping a great deal of excess ketones into urine, rather than burning them.
This can send the body into a bit of a panic…
Remember, the body is an open system
Your body wants to preserve its homoeostasis and keep you alive.
A sharp increase in ketone product signals a change that the body does not know if it wants or not…
If you are “purple” but find that you are not becomeing more slender, your body may well be fighting against your mind’s want to drop your excess fat stores.
Also, as the body adjusts over time to using its fat stores rather than the glucose we eat, it will adjust to improve efficiency and simply excrete less ketones.
Meaning that testing urine becomes pointless.
A side note: Holding carbs at the 20g mark long-term can lead to insulin sensitivity becoming “overly sensitive”. So much so that raising carb levels again even with veggies only can become problematic.
There are other factors to consider before purchasing…
and they may well make you want to just save your money and not test at all!
Your body make two main ketone bodies. “Acetoacetic acid”and “Beta-Hydroxybutyric acid” (HBA).
If it is not used as fuel, Acetoacetic acid spontaneously breaks down to form Acetone.
Acetone is the compound which gives the faint, but distinct “sweet and fruity” smell on ones breath.
The body must excrete acetone as it’s a waste product. It cannot be converted back into anything useful.
Ketostix ®️ and other testing sticks only detect Acetoacetic acid and Acetone.
Acetoacetic acid and Acetone make up less than one fifth of endogenous ketone bodies. (Endogenous means “produced in the body”.)
HBA goes totally undetected by Ketostix ®️ and other testing sticks.
Many people never produce enough Acetoacetic acid to cause these sticks to turn pink/purple in the first place. This leads to a whole bunch of “am I doing it right?” second guessing of themselves.
If you were to use a blood testing meter, you would have plenty of HBA kicking around in your blood. With a blood monitor, showing all three ketone type, a reading between 0.5 and 3.0 mmol/l is the indicator for nutritional ketosis.
This means that, whilst it may be interesting to use urinalysis as an initial check, it will have nothing to do with your rate of body fat reduction over time.
Is it worth urine testing?
I personally don’t think that Dr A did himself or us any favours by saying that you are aiming for Purple on the Ketostix ®️.
My opinion is that he popped the testing in there to give a “rapid indicator result” support crutch to people. Those that have accepted their training from the media etc to need those fast result type indicators.
If you do want to test, that’s your choice. Always.
I’d suggest taking a clean pair of scissors and cutting each test stick in half. Then you can do double the amount of testing.
I’d also suggest that a blood ketone meter is way more accurate.
Yet, I feel that all this testing is simply yet another stick with which to beat ourselves up whilst in Diet Prison ™️
In my opinion, follow The HOPE Protocol, enjoy life and save your money.
What are your thoughts? Drop them in a comment below
If you’ve been in ketosis for a while but one day eat too many carbohydrates will that cause you to go into glycolysis but only for a short time until those carbohydrates are burnt and then the body will quickly reverts back to ketosis? or will it prevent you from being in ketosis for a day or even longer?
If you are fat adapted, your body will resume this state easily once it has removed any restored glycogen. Depending on how many carbs consumed, this can take a day or more occasionally and will also have a small weight gain associated as well, which is quickly gone again as the glycogen is used up.
I have to say, years ago when I did the Atkins diet and I followed his book and used the keto strips when I was deep purple I would loose the most weight. I woke everyday a pound lighter. I am now retrying the low carb diet and I purchased the keto strips and I am familiar enough with my body to know I should be purple right now. My stick make me think they are faulty because they are not changing on little bit. I have lost 3 pounds in 4 days but the sticks remain the same color so I am purchasing new and different ones, because the color to me is a major indicator I am doing this right. Also, Atkins used this method to teach us our personal levels of ketosis. If you became dark purple and started adding carbs to learn your level, you would get lighter purple with the addition of the carbs, that’s how you learn how to loose weight at consuming 20 or less carbs a day and maintain your weight at 40-50 carbs a day. It’s quite an important tool.
Hmm – you’ve made me think of something I didn’t say in the article. As we progress with a low carb life, the body gets better and more efficient at using up ketones rather than dumping them out.
After all, the body hates wasting anything and is almost infinitely adaptable!
So, given ketone urinaysis sticks only measure one of the three ketone bodies, which is 1/5th of what the body produces in any case – as long as you are reducing in size & feeling fine and vibrant, as I said above, I really wouldn’t be worrying at all about what colour the stick is turning!