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Ketosis FAQ – Your Questions Answered

We have created a handy Ketosis FAQ to answer all of your ketosis questions that we repeatedly hear.

What is Ketosis? Ketones are huh? Am I in it? What are these urine strips you speak of? Should I buy a ketone blood monitor?  If you are on the hunt for answers, we have them. And if you have more questions, please leave them in the comments below and we will add them to our Ketosis FAQ. 

What is Ketosis?

How Do You Know If Your In Ketosis?

How Long Does It Take To Achieve Ketosis?

How Do I Tell if I am In Ketosis With Strips?

What is a Blood Ketone Meter and Blood Ketone Strips?

What are Keto Urine Strips?

What is The Keto Urine Smell Test?

How To Tell if You are in Ketosis Without Strips

What Are Ketosis Sign io Tell Me If I Am in Ketosis?

How Long Does It Take to get Into Ketosis?

How Long After I Cheat Does It Take to get Back into Ketosis?

What Are Ketones?

Can Ketosis Be Dangerous?

How Do I Achieve Ketosis?

Where Can I Learn More About Ketosis? 

What is the Keto Flu?

What is Keto Kitty?

woman measuring waist graphic features ketosis guide

What is Ketosis?

You’ve been doing this KETO diet thing for the last month, you are shedding weight and inches but did you know there are easy ways to find out if you are in ketosis?

Just for those who aren’t familiar with ketosis, it’s the place we want to be with the KETO diet. Ketosis is a state or process that your body gets into to help you survive when food intake is low.

During ketosis, you will produce ketones. Ketones are produced from the breakdown of fats in the liver. When you are on the KETO diet – you are forcing your body into this metabolic state.

Rather than starving your body of calories, you are starving it of carbohydrates (evil carbs!)

graphic asking what is ketosis
What is Ketosis?

So basic understanding of ketosis on the KETO diet. You stop eating carbs. Your body is starved of carbs so it kicks into ketosis mode.

In ketosis, your body turns fat into ketones in the liver, that can in turn supply energy for the brain, reduce blood sugar and insulin levels, WEIGHT LOSS and many other health benefits. I’m not a diet expert, so I am providing links at the bottom with more information if you want to deep dive into learning about ketosis.

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How Do You Know If  Your In Ketosis?

Are YOU in ketosis? I have no idea – I wish there was an online ketosis test or we would host it. Unfortunately, there is not BUT there are several ways to tell if you are.

Let’s look at questions that many KETO and low carb dieters have about ketosis and finding out if they are in ketosis.

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How To Tell If You Are In Ketosis With Strips

Want to find out if you are in ketosis with strips? Let’s first talk about keto strips. There are 2 types of ketone strips (or keto strips) that will tell you if you are in ketosis as well as a KETO Breath Test (also known as a KETO breath analyzer.)

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How Long Does It Take To Achieve Ketosis?

The amount of time it takes to achieve ketosis varies per person. I know, not the answer you want to hear. If I could look into my magic ball and tell you how long it will take you to achieve ketosis – I would tellyou!

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What is a Blood Ketone Meter and Blood Keytone Strips?

If you are looking for accurate results as to testing for ketones and your glucose levels, blood testing with a blood ketone meter will get you the best measurement results.

Do note that the keytone blood strips require a blood ketone meter. You can’t just buy the blood strips. These are more expensive, but again provide the most accurate results in regards to ketones AND glucose levels.

Here is an Amazon Blood Keytone Meter – I resort to Amazon as they typically deliver for free and it arrives at my door. Boom.

Ketosis FAQ - Your Questions Answered 1
ketone meter

Buy on Amazon

This particular Blood Keytone Meter comes as a kit and is specifically designed fro KETO dieters. The results take only 5 seconds for glucose levels and 10 seconds for ketones. This is great for the serious KETO dieter.

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What Are Keto Urine Strips

If you did the Atkins diet back in the day, you maybe familiar with the urine strips. This is a subject that in the KETO world is debatable – do KETO urine strips really work?  The general census for urine strips is this. The KETO urine strips are only useful in the beginning to see if you are spilling ketones into your urine. After you become fat adapted you may not spill ketones anymore as your body is better using them as an energy source.  The blood meter is the best way to see the level of ketosis to see if you are in the range of nutritional ketosis.

Ketosis FAQ - Your Questions Answered 2
Ketosis FAQ - Your Questions Answered 3


Buy on Amazon

Wherever you are in your journey – you choose whatever is best for you. Remember, here at KETO Dirty – you do you.

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How To Tell If You Are In Ketosis Without Strips

Not ready to spend money on a blood ketone meter? No worries!  Yes, you can tell if you are in ketosis without strips – but remember it’s all about listening to your body.  A blood ketone meter will give you a definitive YES or NO to whether you are in ketosis, but learning to read your body can give you a pretty good hint if you are or you are not in ketosis.

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Does Keto Urine Smell?

If you are curious about keto urine smell – we’ve heard from several keto dieters that they experienced an ammonia urine smell when they enter into ketosis. While the keto urine smell test isn’t a scientific way to verify you are in ketosis officially. Consider it a sign to test.

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Is There Really a KETO Breath Analyzer?

Yes, we’ve looked at several ketone breath reader reviews and the jury is still out on whether this is an effective way to measure ketosis.

There is a ketone breath meter that Amazon sells, but we have no done a review or test to give a conclusive answer. (But if you are in the market for a portable breath alcohol tester – Amazon does sell that as well.)

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What Are Ketosis Symptoms To Tell Me If I Am In Ketosis?

Here is a list of ketosis symptoms – these were gathered from several KETO dieters. This is what they experienced and what their bodies were telling them,  how they found out they were in ketosis without strips.

graphic that says signs of ketosis

Weight Loss

Winning! If you are losing weight, you could be in Ketosis! Weight loss varies by person. There is no definitive guide to tell you how much weight you can lose on the KETO diet.

I am just putting this out here, men always lose quicker. Yes, ladies it’s unfortunately just part of life. So that said, I don’t recommend comparing weight loss with your husband or partner.

Losing Inches

Sometimes you may not see the results on the scale but you can with your pant size! Make sure to take your body measurements, not just your weight. Often times you can see drastic results in regards to inches loss without seeing the scale move.

Appetite Suppression

Are you all of a sudden NOT hungry? Yes, this is a huge benefit of eating this way. Again, some people do not experience this phenomenon but if you do – it is absolutely amazing and mind blowing, especially if you previously were a binger.

Increased Energy

Did you all of a sudden feel like you have a few extra shots of espresso in your coffee? Increased energy is a common occurance with ketosis and the KETO diet.

Sweating

Oh the sweat. If you are someone who tends to sweat a lot – better double up on that deodorant. The KETO SWEAT is REAL. And also….

Stinky Pits

That sweating leads to smell. So I am serious about using that deodorant. Stinky pits also can mean….

Keto Kitty

Ladies, let’s just break down all barriers here and talk about KETO kitty. I’ll be raw and just say this. Many women report that their private regions smell extra bad when in ketosis. Hence the term KETO kitty.

I died laughing when I first heard this, and while fortunately I’m not struck with KETO kitty – don’t be surprised if you do. We will dive into what to do about KETO kitty in another post, because there are suggestions to help cure this!

Smelly Urine

OH the smells. Nope, you will not smell like flowers on this diet. Your urine may stink as well. And speaking of urine.

Lots of Peeing

Don’t be surprised if you pee a LOT. Frequent urination is another sign that you are doing great and in ketosis.

Clear Thinking

Ketones doing their job can make you think clearer!

Metallic Taste

What in the hell is that metallic taste? Yes, this is another ketosis sign. And along with taste…

Bad Breath

KETO breath – YUCK. Yes, bad breath is a VERY common tell-tell sign that you are in ketosis.

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How Long Does It Take To Get Into Ketosis?

Don’t you wish their was a black and white answer for everything?! How long it takes to get into ketosis varies by individual. We’ve read from several different dieters’ experience and it seems with KETO it typically takes 3-7 days.

graphic that says how long does it take to get into ketosis

Now you may not see immediately weight loss, but start to see some of the ketosis symptoms.

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How Long After I Cheat Does It Take To Get Back Into Ketosis?

If you cheated on your diet, DO NOT WORRY. Remember, we are doing this as a lifestyle. We do not worry about a glass of wine here or there, or the occasional MUST HAVE CHIPS AND SALSA moments. Yes, strict KETO dieters will care – but we are KETO Dirty and we do it our way.

Back to your question – the good news, if you are just cheating or should I say TREATING yourself for 1 non-KETO meal, typically people have reported being able to get back into ketosis in 24-72 hours.

That’s shorter than the 3-7 days that people reported initially seeing symptoms after first starting this way of eating.

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What Are Ketones?

Ketones are chemicals made in your liver. Everyone has them. You produce them when you don’t have enough insulin in your body to turn sugar or glucose into energy.

So since there is no sugar to burn – you body uses fat instead. Your body turns this fat into ketones. Ketones are a type of acid. Your liver sends them into your blood stream for your muscles and tissue to use as fuel.

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How Do I Achieve Ketosis?

Achieving ketosis is done with the KETO diet. We are achieving it by starving our body of carbohydrates. You can also do this thru intermittent fasting and low carb eating. Again, we are NOT experts on this, as we are just KETO dieters!

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Where Can I Learn More About Ketosis?

Here are several resources that can give you the down and dirty about ketosis.

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Don’t forget, we want this to be the ultimate resource for all ketosis questions, so if you have an additional questions – drop it in the comments below.

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