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Originally Posted by Bintang
I am not pretending that any of this is super accurate. It is just indicative and I agree that the P&V chart, which you object to is 'cartoonish' since the vertical axis has no units of measurements.
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That's what got me curious about that chart, that there was no data points on it and I couldn't quite figure out what the vertical axis might be. The way P&V talk about it, the vertical axis is "good ketosis". That is, the maximum point of optimal ketosis is about 0.5-ish. That then requires a scientific definition of "good ketosis" which is where P&V get suddenly very vague.
So then I tried to figure out what the vertical axis was really. I *thought* it was 1-RQ or maybe 1/RQ. But then what does RQ really mean anyway? RQ is simply a measure of the hydrogen to carbon ratio of the calories we are burning. Attia clued me in on that one with his gibbs free energy blog post. So then what is the chart? On the far right hand side it goes down into ketoacidosis. Does that mean that those in ketoacidosis have a RQ~=1 and high ketones at the same same? I guess..... That kinda makes sense. On the left, there are no ketones and that is bad too I guess.
So that line becomes a baby-bear line. IOW Momma bear's ketones on the left are tooo low. Poppa bear's ketones on the right are tooo high. Baby bear's at 0.5 to 0.8 are juuuuuust right.
If that's too hard for people to understand then some internet hack put a green zone under the point where the line is at a maximum. Just to bring home the point where baby bear is, I guess.
I've used the phrase "I guess" way, way too much and that what really bugs me. IMO, people attribute way too much meaning to that picture.
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However, the only feature of the chart I am using is the blood ketone threshold values for indicating the start of nutritional ketosis (~0.5 mmol/l), low to high nutritional ketosis range 1.0 to 3.0 mmol/l) and the onset of starvation ketosis (> 3.0 mmol/l)
Converting the ketonix readings to an estimate of blood ketone levels provides a way of understanding a bit better what the ketonix values mean in terms of one's level of ketosis. For example the following screenshot shows the default colour band values of the Ketonix software for the 'nutritional settings' option.
Green range: 40 to 70 (~0.4 to 1.5 mmol/l)
Yellow range: 70 to 90 (~1.5 to 3.1 mmol/l)
Red range: > 90 (~> 3.1 mmol/l)
Based on the above here is my interpretation of the ketonix nutritional settings:
1) If blue you are probably not in ketosis
2) If green you have entered nutritional ketosis
3) If yellow you are well into ketosis and humming along
4) If red you may have been fasting to the point of starvation or you may have just finished intensive exercise.
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But you already kind of knew all that without the meter. If your carb intake is near zero then you MUST be burning protein and/or fat (or be dead). You also know, without the meter, that you are not in ketoacidosis. You know you are sitting next to baby bear wherever he is sitting.
So what is the right measure? IMO the scale and only the scale. A few weeks of readings and how you feel over that time is the truth. Some blood ketone, urine ketone or breath ketone meter does not tell me if I am burning body fat. The bathroom scale tells me that.
What the meter does give me is instant gratification which is why hospitals use it with diabetic patients. They need to know if ketones are unreasonably high right away and with a breath meter they don't have to wait for a urine sample.