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Would any person prefer peeing on a tiny strip of paper at least once daily for weight loss? Believe it or not, many ketogenic diet followers do this to know if they shed pounds. The ketogenic diet is the hottest low-carb diet, claiming to help people lose weight quickly without starving. The diet involves getting 70-80% of total calories from fat and consuming less than 50 grams of carbs daily. And to reap the benefits of going keto, one has to go into ketosis. Read on to learn how keto strips help one lose weight.

The Basics of Ketosis

Ketosis occurs when an individual completely uses his body’s glucose stores (sugar from carbohydrates), and his body starts metabolizing fat for energy instead. So, if a person says he is in ketosis, it means that his body has depleted the entire glucose store and is now primarily burning fat.

Here, the question is how a follower of the ketogenic diet can know if he is in ketosis. It is where ketone or keto strips come into the picture.

How Do Ketone Strips Work?

The ketone test involves the tiny paper strips that an individual pees on. Like pregnancy tests, ketone strips help test the levels of a specific type of ketone, or acetoacetate, in human urine.

The acetoacetate levels in the urine will roughly indicate the levels in the blood, which further helps gauge the person’s ketosis level. Most people can be said to be in ketosis when their blood ketones level measures 0.5 mM/dL. However, the optimal range indicating that the body is burning fat is 1.5 to 3.0 mM/Dl.

How to Use Ketone Strips

Using the keto strips is quite simple. Ketone tests are usually available in sticks (that can be held in the urine stream) or strips (that can be dipped in a cup of urine). These strips are covered with a paper specifically designed to react in the ketones’ presence by turning the strip’s original color into a different color.

Now that the ketone test can’t give the measurement in figures, like a blood test, most ketone strips will come with a color chart, helping people estimate what level of ketosis they are in. Although ketone strips are usually less accurate, acetoacetate levels in an individual’s urine will help them know the approximate ketone levels in their blood.

Keto Strips

How to Interpret the Ketone Strip Results?

The darker the strip’s color, the higher the level of ketosis. Ketone strips usually come in light beige, which gets darker with an increase in the ketone level.

Conclusion

Significant benefits of ketone strips include- determining dangerously high blood ketones and checking if the body is in ketosis. Therefore, an individual following the ketogenic diet can quickly know the ketone level in their blood and if they are in ketosis. Furthermore, an individual can track the ketone levels with ketone strips once a week or as advised by his doctor. This measurement will further help him modify the ketogenic diet and regulate the weight loss journey.