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Pharmasave Summerland

9515 Main Street PO Box 70 Summerland BC V0H 1Z0

Phone: (250) 494-7088

Pharmasave Summerland

9515 Main Street PO Box 70 Summerland BC V0H 1Z0

Phone: (250) 494-7088

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Why you don’t need to use Ketostix™ on a Ketogenic diet!

People everywhere have been enjoying great weight-loss success following ketogenic diet protocols.

Ketogenic diets promote ketosis. Ketosis is when your body is using fat for fuel rather than carbohydrate. This is especially useful in weight loss because a dieter’s body will convert stored fat into energy rather than storing energy as fat.

When you eat a high carbohydrate diet your blood sugar levels increase which triggers the release of insulin. Insulin lowers blood sugar levels by delivering the glucose (sugar) in your bloodstream to your cells (like muscle cells, brain cells, etc.) and whatever isn’t used by the cells gets stored as fat. Carbohydrate is a quick and easy fuel source so if your diet is rich in carbohydrate, it negates the need for your body to convert stored fat into the energy it needs in favour of the carbs. Unfortunately the leftover glucose from a high carb diet keeps getting stored as fat and eventually you could end up being overweight or obese unless lifestyle changes are made. A lifestyle change that works for many is a ketogenic diet.

How do you know if your body is in ketosis?

This is where you may be misinformed about the usefulness of ketone urinalysis strips (or Ketostix™) in determining whether you’re in ketosis or not. Here is a summary of an excerpt from The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living by Volek and Phinney

  • Ketostix were designed to help diabetics avoid ketoacidosis which is a dangerous condition involving very high blood sugar and very high serum ketones. If you have near normal blood sugar and serum ketone levels consistent with nutritional ketosis, you don’t need to worry about this.
  • Ketostix only measure excess levels of acetoacetate, which is not the type of ketones that correlate with nutritional ketosis.
  • The ketones that correlate with nutritional ketosis are known as beta-hydroxybutyrate. This type can be measured only with a blood ketone meter.
  • There is a built-in time lag. Ketostix are measuring what has happened in the past since it takes a while for the kidneys to produce urine.
  • Exercise can influence how many excess ketones are excreted.
  • You can be in nutritional ketosis even when Ketostix show no excess acetoacetate. In the keto-adapted state, very little acetoacetate ketones will be excreted in urine even though blood ketones may be high.

Having learned that, perhaps the most economical and simple choice is to avoid the use of Ketostix™ and let the fat loss speak for itself. A low carbohydrate diet, weighing yourself on a scale, body composition analysis, and simple low-tech measurements (waist to hip ratio et al.) will confirm whether your body is in ketosis.

Speak to the Live Well Team at Pharmasave about weight loss solutions and lifestyle changes that can work for you!

 

Dan Cassidy, Nutritional Product Advisor

Pharmasave Summerland is an independently owned and operated center authorized to promote and sell Ideal Protein® products and the Ideal Protein ® Weight Loss Method. Consult www.idealprotein.com for more information about the Ideal Protein ® Weight Loss Method and Ideal Protein ® products and services. Any express or implied statement herein that is not made by Ideal Protein itself or is otherwise inconsistent with or different from the express or implied statements contained in www.idealprotein.com materials, including regarding any benefit, performance or specific weight loss expected or achieved with the use of the Ideal Protein ® Weight Loss Method or Ideal Protein ® products or services is made solely by ● Pharmasave Summerland, and Ideal Protein specifically disclaims any and all such statements that are not explicitly or implicitly made in, or that are otherwise inconsistent with statements in www.idealprotein.com materials, and Ideal Protein explicitly disclaims any and all responsibility relating thereto.