Hi everyone! I've done ketogenic/low carb plans before and I've always used keto test strips to confirm ketosis. But recently I've read different places that they are virtually useless and there are more effective ways to test. What other ways? What do you guys think about the test strips? Do you use anything to test for ketosis?

Frankly I've never cared whether or not I was in ketosis.

All I've ever cared about was the weight loss, or more specifically, the fit of my clothes and the joy as from time to time I'd try on an old pair of pants that would fall down because they were too big!

Keep up the good work, Mrs.K!

There are three ways to measure for the three types of ketones, the breath analyzer and blood meter are way more expensive than urine ketostix. Everything you ever wanted to know about measuring ketones and what is / is not useful in this three part article. http://www.tuitnutrition.com/search?q=Fat+adapted. Relevant to your question is Amy's key point, "YOU CAN BE IN KETOSIS AND NOT LOSE BODY FAT, AND YOU CAN LOSE BODY FAT WITHOUT BEING IN KETOSIS." (Why she put it in caps )

I have used blood ketones in the past to hit a certain glucose/ketone ratio for therapeutic use. If you are using ketostix for only weight loss, it can provide some encouragement as described in part three, or you can go by how you feel described in part one, but as Rosebud said, measuring is not necessary.

I will not give my opinion if "being in ketosis" makes you shed pounds or not. I have "been "mostly" in ketosis" for closing in on 2 years. I've lost weight, stayed the same and even gained weight. I'm more interested in using a measure to keep what I eat in check along with how activity can affect the level of acetone in my breath. Breath you say? This is what I've been using:

https://www.ketonix.com/

I've done some reading and comparisons to strips and experimenting with is. For this particular meter I'm using (the version before the latest one out there now) the threshold number I would like to stay above is 55 - I consider this "in ketosis" and it will generally show just a shade of light pink on strips if I'm normally hydrated.

Here's my ongoing recording. The device has certainly paid for itself if I were to use strips every morning. Once and a while I cross check, expecially when I fast. May 2017 I got another bottle and compared...

http://downhaul.com/lowcarb/daily.txt

I kind of lost interest in paying all that $$ every month to tell me something that was kind of interesting, usual unchanging, and not really necessary for success.