Europe’s #1 ketone blood test
Highly accurate ketone and glucose measuring
Recommended by leading keto coaches, doctors and scientists
User-friendly, for professional and home use
The Go-Keto Meter Kickstart Set includes everything you need for ketone measuring
The different ketones that your body produces can be measured in your blood, in your urine and your breath. The most precise and accurate method or gold standard to determine if you are in ketosis and at what level, is a blood ketone monitor, such as your Go-Keto meter.
Want to know if you are in ketosis? Measure your ketones and glucose with the easy-to-use Go-Keto Meter. Choose the starterkit for your first 10 ketone tests. And you’re good to go keto! Add extra strips and lancets for your daily testing routine. Not sure what you need? Read on to find out.
In this article:
When following a ketogenic diet, you’ll want to check that you’re in ketosis, the state when your body burns fat instead of glucose.
Without measuring, there is no way of knowing whether you are in ketosis. You can’t feel it or see it. The ketones that your body produces can only be found in your blood, in your urine and your breath by way of testing.
That is why you need to measure. Checking your ketone levels regularly gives you the information that your keto diet is working and will motivate you to persevere.
There are three main ways of measuring ketones. The ketone blood test with a ketone meter is by far your most reliable option. Let us tell you why.
Let’s look at these three options and their advantages and disadvantages.
Blood tests are the most accurate way of assessing ketosis. They’re user friendly and reliable and give you an instant result. And with a dual-purpose glucose and ketone meter, you also have the possibility of checking your blood glucose levels.
Blood ketone testing is the most precise way of measuring ketones because it measures β-hydroxybutyrate. This substance is present in the highest quantities in the blood. By measuring BHB, you are measuring the actual ketones that your body will be using. The other testing options only calculate the ketones that you haven’t used, as they leave your body through your urine or breath.
It’s quick and easy to measure BHB in blood with a blood ketone meter. You produce a tiny drop of blood from your fingertip by giving it a little prick with a lancet. You can then use the droplet to give a reading of the levels of β-hydroxybutyrate in your blood. Don’t worry about the little finger prick that is needed for the test. You will get used to it in no time. It’s very easy and quick.
Blood ketone meters are battery operated and are convenient to carry with you or when travelling. You’ll use a new test strip for every test, plus a disposable lancet.
Make sure to choose a ketone meter that can measure not just ketones, but also blood glucose, like the Go-Keto Meter.
When you start your keto journey, it pays to closely monitor your ketone levels. Keep a diary of what you eat, your activity level and your ketone (and glucose) levels. And of course, use the Go-Keto App to track your results.
Measuring often will help you to find out how you react to certain foods and food combinations and adjust your diet and exercise accordingly. For instance, if you eat a good handful of strawberries, your measurements may show that it lowers your ketone level or even kicks you out of ketosis. By experimenting and regular testing, you may find out that you can have the strawberries after all, provided you eat them with whipped cream (how good is that!).
If you keep track of your glucose levels as well, all the better. Here, you can read more about tracking ketones and glucose and how to use the GKI (glucose-ketone index), which is the most precise way of tracking your keto diet.
For the first 2 months of your keto diet, we recommend you measure your ketones 5 times a day:
Once you are well adapted to the keto lifestyle, measuring 1-3 times a day will be sufficient. If you measure glucose as well, you might do this up to 3 times a day.
IMPORTANT
Choose the right brand for your ketone test, as some meters might be cheap but the test strips may be very costly.
Urine Ketone Sticks are a low-tech option that can be very helpful in the early stages of your keto diet when want to know if you are really in ketosis. They are cheap, readily available and easy to use.
Urine sticks show the level of acetoacetate – the ketone bodies that are excreted in the urine. The paper strips are impregnated with sodium nitroprusside, which reacts and changes colour to show the ketone levels. Go-Keto offers Glucose – Ketone Urine Sticks, with which you can test for both with a single stick.
Urine sticks give you a rough idea whether you are in ketosis or not. This might sound good, at least in the beginning of your keto journey, but within a few days, you will want to find out exactly what the effect of specific foods is on your ketosis. And then you will want to use a keto meter.
Dip the stick in urine and then wait for the recommended number of seconds, which varies between different brands. You will see a colour change in the squares printed on the strip that will show whether you are in ketosis.
IMPORTANT
Over time, when you are longer in ketosis, the ketone levels in your urine drop, making the urine testing less useful.
A breath analyzer does not measure the actual ketones, but instead the acetone in your breath. This is a way of checking ketosis, but it’s less accurate than blood testing.
Acetone is one of the substances created when the body breaks down acetoacetate, and the acetone concentration reflects the rate at which the body is burning ketones. It’s thanks to this process that you can sometimes smell acetone on the breath of someone who’s in ketosis.
Choosing a good breath analyzer is difficult. The affordable ones are far from precise, while the better devices are very expensive. And doing a breath test is not as easy as it seems. If you don’t follow the exact breathing instructions, the results may be inaccurate, without a warning from the analyzer.
These devices are battery operated so you can use them anywhere. With set-up complete, exhale deeply into the device. Make sure to force all the air out of your lungs. The ketone level will then appear in the window of the device.
Even a small glass of wine can cause a breath analyzer to show much higher ketone levels, so wait until all the alcohol is out of your system before testing.
IMPORTANT
1. Bear in mind that acetone levels in your breath can be affected by factors such as hydration levels and alcohol consumption, so they don’t always reflect blood ketone levels accurately.
2. Over time, when you are longer in ketosis, the acetone levels in your breath drop, making the breath analyzer less useful.
| Urine testing | Blood testing | Breath testing | |
| What is measured? | Acetoacetate (AcAc) – these are unused ketones that are spilling over into your urine. | Ketones = beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) – BHB is the most important ketone; can only be measured in the blood. | Acetone – the ketones that show up in your breath. |
| How to use? | “Pee” over strip | Fingerprick droplet on teststrip | Breathe, but results may be inaccurate, without a warning from the analyzer. |
| Who is it for? | Beginners | All ketonians | Beginners |
| Accuracy | Low | High | Variable |
Important | When you are longer in ketosis, the ketone levels in your urine drop, making the urine testing less useful. | The most accurate and reliable method | When you are longer in ketosis, the acetone levels in your breath get lower, making breath analyser less useful. |
| Ketones | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Glucose | Some brands | Yes | No |
| 👍 BEST CHOICE |
When you choose your Go-Keto Meter, just keep the following points in mind.
As the next step, you need to decide on the number of test strips and lancets that you need. If you follow the ketone measuring plan for beginning ketonians outlined above, you will measure your ketones five times a day. You can use each strip and lancet only once, so based on that, you can choose the correct number of strips and lancets (5 per day of each).
Remember that you need to make the same calculation if you want to test for glucose as well, including the lancets.
Finally, when you order a Go-Keto ketone and glucose meter, we ask you if you want your meter to measure glucose in mmol/l or mg/l.
Why is this? Historically, different countries have adopted a different standard measuring unit for glucose (ketones are always measured in mmol/l). If you wish to measure glucose, this is important, because this cannot be changed later in the settings of your meter. And you will want to measure in the unit that’s in use in the country where you live.
When ordering your Go-Keto Meter, you can easily select the glucose measurement unit. If you don’t care which unit of measurement you get, we ask you to choose mmol/l.
| Country | Glucose Measuring Unit |
| Austria | mg/dL |
| Belgium | mg/dL |
| Croatia | mmol/L |
| Czech Republic | mmol/L |
| Denmark | mmol/L |
| Estonia | mmol/L |
| Finland | mmol/L |
| France | mg/dL |
| Germany | mg/dL |
| Greece | mg/dL |
| Hungary | mmol/L |
| Ireland | mmol/L |
| Italy | mg/dL |
| Lithuania | mmol/L |
| Luxembourg | mg/dL |
| Malta | mmol/L |
| Netherlands | mmol/L |
| Poland | mg/dL |
| Portugal | mg/dL |
| Slovakia | mmol/L |
| Slovenia | mmol/L |
| Spain | mg/dL |
| Sweden | mmol/L |
| United Kingdom | mmol/L |
