Obesity is one of the most prevalent health problems in the world today and often leads to diabetes and high blood pressure which bring their own health risks.  The ketosis diet is specifically designed to be effective in combatting these health problems.  That's because ketosis happens when the body's metabolism uses fat for energy (when your body is in the state of lipolysis) instead of glucose.  Ketones, which are produced in the liver aid in ketosis, are fundamental to ketosis, which is why measuring your ketone levels indicates if you are in ketosis or not.  This is one of the reasons the ketosis diet is popular—you can measure how  you are doing on a daily basis with ketone test strips.

 

Urine test strips are average at best when it comes to measuring ketones.  Their measurements can be influenced by certain medicines, dilution of urine or excess vitamin C, causing inaccurate results and defeating the whole point of measuring your ketone levels.  Breath testing measures acetone in your breath, not ketones.  This is why we recommend blood ketone test strips to get the best results.  These ketogenic strips measure the amount of ketones in the blood. For a more in depth article on ketone test options.  Simply prick your finger, put a drop of your blood on the test strip, and have the meter read the blood sample.  If your levels fall within the 0.5 mmol to 1.5 mmol range your are in "mild ketosis," if you are in the 1.5 mmol to 3.0 mmol range you are in "deep ketosis" which is where maximum weight loss takes place.  A reading over 6.0 mmol is cause for concern as this is the threshold level for ketoacidosis which can be dangers, especially for diabetics.  Please note: it's almost impossible to reach this state through the normal ketogenic diet. For additional information on how to best test for ketones see our article for accurate ketone testing.