The Value of Tracking for Ketosis

The value of tracking for ketosis is easy to underestimate. The wonderful world of ketogenic living promises not just weight loss but a transformative approach to health. This is especially for those tackling metabolic health issues like pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. At its core, the ketogenic diet is about shifting your body into a state of ketosis. This metabolic state is where fat fuels the body, instead of sugars from carbohydrates. It is where tracking macros comes in to play. This switch unlocks your health! It improves blood sugar control, sustainable weight loss and the reversal of many health issues.

Diving into a ketogenic diet isn’t just about swapping bread for bacon and calling it a day. To truly reap the benefits of ketosis, it’s crucial to understand why you should track your macronutrient intake. We’re talking about carbs, fats, and proteins. While many embark on this lifestyle with enthusiasm because of the draw of rapid weight loss. However, a common roadblock emerges: not tracking macros closely. You might be eating “keto-friendly” foods, but overindulging in even these can prevent you from entering or staying in ketosis and burning body fat for fuel.

This misunderstanding leads to frustration; many report hitting a plateau or not seeing the results they expected. But here’s the good news: with the right guidance and tools, tracking your macros can become a simple, insightful part of your daily routine. For those managing pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, this practice isn’t just beneficial—it’s transformative. Monitoring your intake alongside glucose and ketone levels can significantly enhance your success on a ketogenic diet, turning it into an easily sustainable lifestyle.

I’m going to explain why tracking your macros is key to maintaining ketosis, how it directly impacts your health goals, and practical tips to make tracking an easier part of your life. I want you to understand the ketogenic diet so you can master this tool for health and wellbeing.

Why You Should Track Macros?

Understanding and tracking your intake of macronutrients, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, is the best way of effectively managing a ketogenic diet. Here’s why paying close attention to these numbers is not just beneficial but essential:

1. Achieving and Maintaining Ketosis: The ketogenic diet is all about entering a state of ketosis, where your body uses fat as its primary energy source instead of glucose. To do this, your carbohydrate intake must be drastically reduced. Without tracking, it’s easy to consume more carbs than your body can handle to stay in ketosis. By keeping a close eye on your macros, you ensure that you’re within the right range to maintain this metabolic state.
2. Optimizing Your Diet for Health: For individuals with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, the balance of macros can significantly impact blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity. Tracking helps tailor your diet to optimize these factors. This will ensure that you’re consuming enough healthy fats and proteins while keeping carbs low to manage your condition effectively.
3. Personalization for Better Results: Everyone’s body responds differently to various macronutrient ratios. What works for one person may not work for another. Tracking allows you to personalize your diet based on how your body responds, making adjustments as needed to hit your health goals, whether it’s weight loss, blood sugar control, or overall wellness. While you may have started with the standard ketogenic macro ratios – 75/20/5, this rarely is where people stay to achieve the best benefits.
4. Avoiding Common Pitfalls: It’s easy to underestimate how many carbs are in certain foods, especially when they’re marketed as “keto-friendly.” Without tracking, you might unknowingly exceed your daily carb limit. This is especially true for packaged “keto” foods that are marketed as “Only 1 net carb”. Tracking total carbs from whole foods will give you the best results, skipping all the highly processed keto treats you see in the store. Tracking macros helps avoid these common pitfalls, ensuring every bite aligns with your goals and nourishes your body for success!
5. Measuring Progress Over Time: Tracking your intake provides valuable data over time, showing you not just where you might be going wrong but also what you’re doing right. This information can be incredibly motivating, showing you tangible progress towards your health goals and helping adjust your strategy as you evolve.

In summary, tracking macros is not about restriction; it’s about empowerment. It gives you the control to fine-tune your diet to your body’s unique needs, ensuring that you’re nourishing yourself in a way that supports ketosis and your health goals. Whether you’re new to the ketogenic lifestyle or looking to optimize your current routine, macro tracking is your path to success.

The Role of Ketosis in Managing Pre-diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes

Transitioning your body into a state of ketosis by adopting a ketogenic diet can be a game-changer for managing pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Here’s how this metabolic state supports better health outcomes:

1. Improved Insulin Sensitivity: At the heart of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes lies insulin resistance, where the body’s cells don’t respond effectively to insulin. This inefficiency leads to high blood sugar levels. Ketosis helps by decreasing the body’s demand for insulin since fewer carbohydrates need to be put into storage. Over time, this can improve your body’s insulin sensitivity, making it easier to manage or even reverse pre-diabetic and diabetic conditions.
2. Stabilized Blood Sugar Levels: By significantly reducing carbohydrate intake, the ketogenic diet helps lower blood sugar levels. In ketosis, the body relies on fat for energy instead of the sugar from carbohydrates. This shift leads to more stable blood sugar levels throughout the day, reducing the spikes and crashes often caused by high-carb meals. For those managing pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, stable blood sugar levels are crucial for long-term health.
3. Weight Loss and Metabolic Health: Excess weight, particularly around the abdomen, is a key risk factor for type 2 diabetes and a sign of insulin resistance. Ketosis not only aids in weight loss by utilizing fat as an energy source but also helps in reducing fat stored around vital organs. This weight loss can improve metabolic markers, such as cholesterol, fatty live, and blood pressure levels, further benefiting individuals with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
4. Enhanced Energy and Well-being: Beyond the numbers, many report feeling more energized and less hungry on a ketogenic diet. This is because fat provides a more stable source of energy than carbohydrates, and ketosis helps regulate hunger hormones, making it easier to manage appetite. Improved energy levels and satiety can make it easier to maintain lifestyle changes that support diabetes management.
5. A Sustainable Approach to Health: For many, the ketogenic diet provides a sustainable way to manage their condition without the constant monitoring and medication adjustments required by traditional high-carb diets. With the right guidance and commitment, individuals can see significant improvements in their blood sugar control and overall health.

How to Track and What to Track

Embracing the ketogenic diet means becoming mindful of what you eat and how it affects your body’s metabolic state. Tracking your macronutrients and monitoring your glucose and ketone levels are pivotal steps in this process. Here’s a quick guide on how to do it:

Tracking Macronutrients:

Carbohydrates: The primary focus on a ketogenic diet is to limit carbohydrates to a level that allows your body to remain in ketosis. Typically this is between 20-50 grams of total carbs per day. Tracking every gram is crucial since even small amounts can affect ketosis.

Fats: Since fats will make up a significant portion of your diet, tracking intake helps ensure you’re consuming enough to stay in ketosis and support energy needs without overdoing it.

Proteins: Essential for muscle maintenance and overall health, protein needs to be consumed at every meal and I recommend a minimum of 30g at each meal. Finding your sweet-spot for protein takes trial and error and tracking helps with this.

Tools for Tracking:

Use digital food tracking apps to log your meals and snacks. These apps can help calculate your daily intake of carbs, fats, and proteins, adjusting as you input different foods. I like the Cronometer app as I find the entries for foods are very accurate.

Monitoring Glucose and Ketones:

Glucose Monitoring: Regularly checking your blood glucose levels can give you insights into how different foods affect your blood sugar. A Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) provides real-time data, showing trends throughout the day. Alternatively, the finger prick method is a reliable way to test blood sugar levels, though it provides less continuous data.

Ketone Testing: To ensure you’re in ketosis, monitoring ketone levels is essential. The most accurate method is through blood ketone testing, such as with the Ketomojo device, which measures both glucose and ketones. Urine strips are less reliable, especially as your body becomes more adapted to ketosis. This is the device I use.

Interpreting Your Data:

Understand what your target ranges should be for glucose and ketones. For glucose, standard of care suggests you aim for levels typically within the range of 4.0-7.8 mmol/L (72-140 mg/dL). When you work with a coach like me to reverse metabolic disease, I am going to suggest you aim to keep your blood sugars under 5.6 mmol/L (100mg/dL). Also, your blood sugar should not rise more than 30mmol/L when you eat a meal. If it rises more than this, re-evaluate your meal and other things going on at that time.

For ketones, levels between 0.5-3.0 mmol/L indicate nutritional ketosis, the optimal range for most on a ketogenic diet. If you want to read more on this, KetoMojo has a great article on these levels and you can read it HERE.

Adjusting Your Diet Based on Data:

Use the information from tracking macros and monitoring glucose and ketones to fine-tune your diet. If you notice certain foods spike your glucose levels or kick you out of ketosis, adjust your intake accordingly as those foods may not work for your body right now.

Remember, the goal is to find a sustainable pattern that keeps you in ketosis, manages your blood sugar levels, and feels satisfying.

How Long Should You Track?

One of the most common questions from those new to the ketogenic diet is, “How long do I need to keep track of my macros and health markers?” The answer isn’t one-size-fits-all, but tailored to each individual’s journey and goals. Here’s a guide to help you navigate your tracking timeline:

• The Initial Phase:

Start Strong: For beginners, tracking from day one is beneficial. The first 1-3 months are important for understanding how your body responds to the diet, establishing a state of ketosis, and learning the carbohydrate limits that work for you. It’s also a time to experiment with macronutrient ratios that best support your health goals.

• The Adjustment Phase:

Tweaking as You Go: As you become more comfortable with the diet and your body’s responses, you might adjust how frequently you track. This could mean focusing more on foods that you know fit your macros well, while still periodically checking to ensure you remain in ketosis. Continue to monitor glucose and ketones regularly, especially if you’re managing pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes. The feedback from these metrics is invaluable for long-term management and adjusting your diet as needed.

• The Maintenance Phase:

Finding Your Rhythm: After several months, tracking every bite may not be necessary. Many find a rhythm with a set of go-to meals that fit their macros. However, periodic checks are useful, especially if your weight loss plateaus or your health markers change.

• Lifelong Monitoring:

Sustainability: For long-term success, especially for those with metabolic health concerns, consider tracking as a part of a sustainable lifestyle rather than a temporary measure. This doesn’t mean logging every meal forever but maintaining an awareness of your carb intake and health markers. Regularly revisiting tracking for short periods can help recalibrate your diet and goals as your body and lifestyle change. It empowers you to make informed decisions about your health.

When to Be Extra Vigilant:

• Portion Creep: It’s easy for portion sizes to slowly increase without you noticing, a phenomenon known as “portion creep.” Regularly measuring and weighing your food can prevent this, ensuring you’re consuming the right amount of macros as you intended.
• Hidden Carbs: Some foods, like dressings, sauces, and even some vegetables, contain what I call “sneaky carbs.” These can add up without you realizing it, potentially knocking you out of ketosis. Continual tracking helps identify these hidden sources of carbs.
• Nutrient-Dense Foods: Foods like nuts are incredibly nutrient-dense and easy to overeat. A small handful can contain a significant amount of calories and carbs, potentially stalling your progress if not accounted for.
• Long-Term Management: After the initial phase, you may wonder if you need to track forever. For many, a periodic tracking approach works well, tracking diligently for a few weeks, then taking a break. However, during times of change or if progress stalls, returning to tracking can help identify issues and get you back on track.

If you’re working with a coach, continuous tracking becomes an invaluable tool. It provides concrete data that can be reviewed together, allowing for personalized adjustments. This collaborative approach ensures that your diet evolves with your health goals, making tracking a key component of your success.

While tracking may seem tedious, it offers great insights into your dietary habits and their impact on your health. The commitment to tracking should be flexible, adapting to different phases of your ketogenic journey. Always aim to maintain an awareness and control over your diet. Remember, the goal isn’t just to track for the sake of tracking but to use this knowledge to live a healthier, more balanced life.

Monitoring Glucose and Ketones

For those navigating a ketogenic diet, tracking glucose and ketones gives you feedback on what’s working and what needs to be adjusted. Understanding these metrics and their ideal ranges is crucial for ensuring your diet is steering you towards your health goals.

Glucose Monitoring: Blood glucose levels reflect how much sugar is in your blood at a given time, providing key insights into how your diet affects your blood sugar control.

Ranges: For individuals without diabetes, typical fasting blood glucose levels will be between 3.6-5.0 mmol/L (65-90 mg/dL) and less than 6.7 mmol/L (120 mg/dL) two hours after eating. For those with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes your levels will be higher. Set a goal of maintaining levels as close to non-diabetic ranges as possible is recommended through a ketogenic lifestyle.

Ketone Monitoring: Monitoring ketones, produced when your body burns fat for fuel, is essential to confirm you’re in ketosis. The presence of ketones in your blood signifies that your body is effectively utilizing fat for energy.

Measuring Ketosis: Nutritional ketosis is typically defined by blood ketone levels ranging from 0.5 to 3.0 mmol/L. This range indicates that your body is in an optimal fat-burning state, suitable for weight management and metabolic health improvement. Check out that article on KetoMojo I linked above.

Let’s talk about ketoacidosis for a moment as many confuse this with ketosis. Ketoacidosis is when you have high blood glucose AND high levels of ketones. Take my husband Dan for example. Dan and I were doing a 72 hour fast and near the end of that 72 hours, his ketones were over 8.0 mmol/L. Many would panic seeing this, but here’s the thing, his glucose was 59mg/dL (3.2 mmol/L) and he felt FANTASTIC! Now, if his sugars were high with that ketone number, he would not have felt good, and it would be a trip to the ER. I will add that Dan does not have any metabolic health conditions, but he still monitors.

Generally, if you are pre-diabetic or type 2 diabetic and you follow a ketogenic diet, your glucose SHOULD come down when ketones go up. This is why you test AND self-monitor, so things don’t go the wrong way. Work with your doctor and find out what levels they find acceptable.

Monitoring Methods:

Glucose: A Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) or traditional finger-prick blood tests can be used to monitor glucose levels. CGMs offer the advantage of providing real-time data and trends over time, while finger-prick tests provide specific point-in-time readings.

Ketones: Blood ketone testing is the most accurate method for assessing ketosis. Devices like the Keto-Mojo offer dual glucose and ketone testing capabilities. While urine strips can measure ketones, they are less reliable over time as your body becomes more efficient at utilizing ketones for energy.

The Importance of Dual Monitoring: Understanding the relationship between your blood glucose and ketone levels is key to personalizing your ketogenic diet. Monitoring both allows you to:

• Adjust your diet based on real-time feedback on how different foods and activities affect your levels.
• Identify and manage the “sneaky carbs” that might inadvertently increase your blood sugar levels.
• Optimize your fat intake to maintain nutritional ketosis while ensuring your diet supports your overall health and wellness goals.

Common Struggles with Tracking and How to Overcome Them

Adopting a tracking habit for your ketogenic lifestyle is essential for success, especially if you’re aiming to manage or reverse metabolic health issues. However, it’s not without its challenges. Let’s discuss some common hurdles and strategies to overcome them:

Time Constraints

Struggle: Many feel they don’t have enough time in their day to log every meal or snack. Life is busy, and adding another task can seem overwhelming.

Solution: Streamline the process by using apps like Cronometer that allow you to quickly scan barcodes, create favourites, or import recipes. Consider dedicating a few minutes each morning or evening to plan and track your meals for the day. Remember, investing a little time now can save you a lot of time and health complications down the road.

Measuring Fatigue

Struggle: Initially, weighing and measuring food portions can be daunting and annoying. Over time, it’s common to get sloppy, eyeballing portions instead of measuring, leading to inaccurate tracking.

Solution: Periodically recalibrate your eye by measuring out portions again, especially for high-calorie foods like nuts and dairy products like cheese. Remind yourself why accuracy matter. It’s easy for those “sneaky carbs” and extra calories to add up, stalling progress or leading to weight gain.

Overlooking “Sneaky Carbs”

Struggle: It’s easy to forget that carbs can hide in less obvious places like dressings, sauces, and even foods marketed as “low carb.”

Solution: Make it a habit to read labels and enter everything into your tracking app. Knowledge is power, and knowing exactly what you’re consuming can help avoid unintentional overconsumption of carbs.

Resistance to Tracking

The Struggle: Let’s face it—tracking every bite can be tedious, and there’s a natural resistance to the perceived hassle, especially on busy or stressful days.

Solution: Focus on the why behind your tracking. Remind yourself of your health goals and how tracking is a tool that empowers you to reach them. Consider tracking as non-negotiable as taking medication for a chronic health condition. If motivation wanes, remember the personal progress and how tracking has contributed to it. Sometimes, sharing the responsibility with a coach or joining a supportive community can make the task less daunting and more rewarding.

Navigating Nutrient-Dense Foods

Struggle: Foods like nuts and dairy, while keto-friendly, are also very nutrient-dense and easy to overeat. A handful of nuts or a few splashes of heavy cream in your coffee can significantly impact your daily macros. I know about this one – I was the girl who liked a bit of coffee with my cream!

Solution: Use measuring tools and a scale to ensure you’re not inadvertently consuming more than you intend. It’s also helpful to portion out snacks ahead of time rather than eating directly from the bag or container.

Plateauing and Getting Discouraged

Struggle: Even with diligent tracking, you may hit a plateau or see slower progress, leading to frustration and a temptation to give up tracking.

Solution: Use this as an opportunity to review and adjust. Sometimes, a plateau is a sign that your body has adapted. This means your macros needs a tweak or you need to switch up your eating window. You don’t need to keto harder, just differently. While it may feel cumbersome at times, the insights and control it offers are invaluable. Embracing tracking as a part of your journey can transform your approach to food and empower you to make choices that support your health and wellbeing. Every minute spent tracking is an investment in your future health.

My Journey Navigating a Ketogenic Lifestyle

I’m nearly five years into my ketogenic journey. I’ve experienced incredible transformations, not just in weight, but in overall health and wellness. However, my path hasn’t been without its bumps. I want to share some of these personal challenges and ah-ha moments with you, not just as a coach, but as someone walking this road too.

There was a time when I only tracked my macros periodically. It seemed to work fine until I hit unexpected stalls. I realized that without consistent tracking, I was over-consuming fats in my coffee, a common pitfall. This was a wake-up call; it underscored the critical role of diligence and accountability in maintaining progress.

Another lesson came from my love for baking keto treats. Initially, I thought, “They’re keto, so they’re fine,” and indulged in them almost daily. However, I noticed that this habit was also contributing to my plateaus. I had to face the fact that even keto-friendly treats can stall progress if not managed wisely. Now, I save these special treats for truly special occasions and focus on making individual servings, like a keto cheesecake in muffin liners, to enjoy the moment without leftovers tempting me later. I also cut recipes in half, so it makes less.

This adjustment wasn’t just about portion control; it was a deeper lesson in mindfulness and moderation. It also was an effort to re-create my favourite foods so I could continue to use them as comfort foods. This concept took me a long time to realize. It’s so easy to get caught up in the “it’s keto, so it’s okay” mindset.  True progress however, demands more nuance and self-awareness.

Sharing these experiences isn’t easy, but I believe in being transparent about my journey. Even as a coach, I face challenges and have to constantly reassess and adapt my strategies. It’s not a sign of weakness; it’s a part of growth. My commitment to tracking, being mindful of what and how much I consume, and staying flexible in my approach has been key to overcoming these hurdles.

I share this with you to illustrate that no journey is perfect. We all face setbacks, but they don’t define our path, they refine it. Whether you’re starting out or recalibrating your keto lifestyle, remember that every challenge is an opportunity to learn more about your body and how you can nurture it towards your goals. I am no longer in a race to get the weight off. I am working to nourish my body, insert times of fasting to allow for healing and times to “feast” and nourish my body. Tracking is just one piece of my health journey.

Let’s embrace this journey with openness and the willingness to adapt. Because when we do, the path to health and wellness not only becomes clearer but truly ours to walk.

Final Thoughts

Embarking on a ketogenic journey can be a transformative step toward reclaiming your health, especially for those of us navigating the complexities of many different metabolic health challenges. This path is rewarding but demands mindfulness, commitment, a willingness to adapt and learn, and most of all PATIENCE!

Through tracking macros, glucose, and ketones, we gain invaluable insights into our dietary habits. This enables us to maintain ketosis, optimize our health, and push past plateaus. My own journey reflects these realities. It’s taught me the importance of tracking, the power of mindfulness in consumption, and the need for adaptability in our approach to diet and health.

So remember that the ketogenic lifestyle is a journey of discovery—one that’s uniquely yours. Embrace the tools and knowledge at your disposal, but also be kind to yourself through the ups and downs. Together we can navigate this path toward a healthier, long life.

QUICK TAKEAWAYS

• Track Macros Diligently: Essential for maintaining ketosis and understanding your dietary habits.
• Monitor Glucose and Ketones: Offers crucial insights into how your body responds to foods, helping manage blood sugar and ketone levels effectively.
• Be Mindful of Portions: Even keto-friendly foods need to be consumed in moderation to avoid stalls.
• Address Challenges Head-On: Time constraints and measuring fatigue can be overcome with the right habits, strategies, and tools.
• Adapt and Personalize: What works for one person may not work for another. Be willing to adjust your approach based on your body’s responses.
• Seek Support: Whether it’s from a coach or a community, navigating the keto lifestyle is easier with support.
• Embrace the Journey: Accept that there will be challenges but view them as opportunities for growth and learning.