Random ketones

[Lucywyton18]

I have been type 1 diabetic for over 20 years and have in the past year gone in to a closed loop system.

I was away on holiday last week and as I know I tend to run on the higher side on holiday I reduced my carbs intake and ended up with ketones at 1.9. after advice from my diabetic nurse to drink beer and eat snacks I actually started to feel much better and ketones came down!

Since then I keep getting ketones. They were back up to 1.2 last night, I do think this was down to a dodgy cannula and high blood sugars for a few hours and again managed to get these down, ate some carbs and were ok.

Now I am a massive worrier and over thinker so I am now regularly testing my ketones however they are never saying 'low' that I am used to when I have checked them in the past. Just now they are 0.5 and I am unsure why. I am on my period this week, coming to the end but have never noticed this before, I am unsure if it is just because I am more aware or if there is something else I should be concerned about.

I will preface to say I don't eat a massive amount of carbs anyway but this isn't new and nothing else has really changed

Any advice would be useful as I am stumped!

Thanks in advance

 

[Inka]

Perhaps they were always there @Lucywyton18 but you weren’t testing so didn’t know. If you’re not eating enough carbs, you’re more prone to developing ketones. I’d eat more carbs, watch your cannulas and change early if in any doubt, and hopefully the ketones will go away.

 

[SimonP]

I don't think either of those levels is anything to worry about, though obviously being on a pump it's something to keep an eye on. It would be interesting to have more readings to understand what typical looks like.

What level of ketones is normal for, like, a non-diabetic?

What ketone level would we need to be to be the same as a non-diabetic? An average person, average day kinda thing. Like, would it have to be literally 0.0, or, for example, anything up to 0.3, or 1.4 "normal" etc?

forum.diabetes.org.uk

Normal ketone values?

I note a distinct fear of ketones amongst those new to the fold. Some people are diagnosed and are in DKA at that point, which will obviously make you weary (I've no idea what state I was in when diagnosed, long long time ago.) There's a risk for T1 on pumps if you have a diffusion set failure...

forum.diabetes.org.uk

To add an additional data point, I just tested mine and it's 0.3 mmol/l for ketones and 6.2mmol/l for BG. I've still got an (XDrip+) estimated 0.39U of Novorapid IoB from afternoon tea (3U @ 16:45 with ~40g of carbs made up of 3 biscuits + a white coffee.) I'm not fasted (I've had ~170g of carbs so far today) and I went on a Z2-ish bike ride for an hour at lunch time.

 

[Lucywyton18]

I don't think either of those levels is anything to worry about, though obviously being on a pump it's something to keep an eye on. It would be interesting to have more readings to understand what typical looks like.

What level of ketones is normal for, like, a non-diabetic?

What ketone level would we need to be to be the same as a non-diabetic? An average person, average day kinda thing. Like, would it have to be literally 0.0, or, for example, anything up to 0.3, or 1.4 "normal" etc?

forum.diabetes.org.uk

Normal ketone values?

I note a distinct fear of ketones amongst those new to the fold. Some people are diagnosed and are in DKA at that point, which will obviously make you weary (I've no idea what state I was in when diagnosed, long long time ago.) There's a risk for T1 on pumps if you have a diffusion set failure...

forum.diabetes.org.uk

To add an additional data point, I just tested mine and it's 0.3 mmol/l for ketones and 6.2mmol/l for BG. I've still got an (XDrip+) estimated 0.39U of Novorapid IoB from afternoon tea (3U @ 16:45 with ~40g of carbs made up of 3 biscuits + a white coffee.) I'm not fasted (I've had ~170g of carbs so far today) and I went on a Z2-ish bike ride for an hour at lunch time.

On average I'd say I eat around 80-100g carbs a day, I find I stick to around 30g for each meal time although sometimes at lunch etc I may have a no carb meal of salad or something not necessarily for the no carb aspect it more depends on the weather!

I do need to speak to the dietician as I think I have a phobia of injecting for carbs above the 30-40g mark (around a year ago I had a major hypo with 8+iob) and think this has terrified me now.

I will see how I get on the next few days with eating more after holiday I think ketones make me think high blood sugar and to reduce the amount I'm eating which has probably had the opposite effect to what I wanted!

 

[Inka]

Sorry you had a bad hypo @Lucywyton18 Its completely understandable that that’s still affecting you. I think something like that takes time to get over. When I had a bad hypo which affected me in a similar way (scared to eat, had ketones), I split my bolus. That meant I might spike a little higher but I spread the bolus out so I knew it wasn’t all going to hit at once if I’d made a carb miscalculation. At first I delayed the second part of the bolus quite a while but I was gradually able to bring the two injections closer. I also changed my meal ratios so I ran ever so slightly higher. Again, this gave me confidence.

For salads, I usually accompany them with some sourdough bread. I weigh it and know the carbs, so I can bolus for it with confidence. I find my blood sugars are more predictable if I do that - have some carbs with a non-carb meal.

It takes time to get over something like that. You need to go very slowly and build your confidence over quite some time. I found sticking to similar breakfasts and lunches helped. They felt ‘safer’.

Wishing you well - it’s not a nice thing to have a big hypo.

 

[Lucyr]

On average I'd say I eat around 80-100g carbs a day

That’s low carb so is likely why you’re getting ketones, I’d get ketones and feel ill from them at that low carbs too

 

[trophywench]

For me, 80-100 ish grams of carb in a day is completely normal - but there again I'm 60kg and 155cm high so there's less of me than there is of @Lucyr - and I know this cos we have met once.

 

[Lucyr]

For me, 80-100 ish grams of carb in a day is completely normal - but there again I'm 60kg and 155cm high so there's less of me than there is of @Lucyr - and I know this cos we have met once.

Normal for you but low carb is defined as under 130g so 80-100g is low carb.