Over the weekend a couple of questions popped up from two former clients who have both successfully been enjoying a ketogenic diet for several months now – the questions had to do with seeing progressively lower ketone readings on their surveillance testing (one serum, one breath).
In the midst of an all hands on deck family issue this weekend limiting my ability to expand in detail today, somewhat fortuitously Mark Sisson’s team, over on Mark’s Daily Apple, had reposted an article addressing the issue they’d written several years back – Why Am I Getting Low Ketone Readings on a Ketogenic Diet?
Sisson’s team covered most of the bases quite adequately, and in most cases where this question arises, from where I sit these days, most often what we’re seeing ketone/fat adaptation and/or the free fatty acid adaptation initially described by Volek and Phinney. And the discussion of whether or not physicians may or may not understand the keto phenomenon in the comments is fairly entertaining as well.
Most importantly, it’s imperative to look at the big picture – how does one feel and perform in day to day function and during workouts, are you where you want to be with regard to body composition, are you still dropping body fat if that’s your intent, are you symptomatic at all with anything resembling the “keto flu”, and how are you performing in aerobic level (vs anaerobic) exercise and activities?
Successfully implementing a nutritional ketosis program has very little is anything to do with readings on your serum or breath analyzer at home, don’t fall for anyone telling you otherwise.
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