 Hello friends, today I'm talking about how to do a ketogenic diet safely because I know a lot of you are either already doing it or thinking about doing it, right? But a lot of you are also asking about safety. I'm Dr. Ahmed Ergen. I'm an endocrinologist, diabetes and weight loss specialist practicing in Florida. I looked up a few ways to keep you safe while you're attempting to do the keto diet, which could be for weight loss purposes or diabetes control purposes, right? Well, the good news is that if you have diabetes and are looking for ways to incorporate a keto diet, I found a way that can safely allow you to do so. Yes, I'm talking about ketone testing. Ketone testing is an essential part of managing diabetes anyway, but it becomes more important if you are trying to go on a ketogenic diet. This is because diabetes makes it difficult for your body to regulate its levels of ketones. If you did not already know, ketosis means the presence of ketones that are formed when your body burns fat instead of glucose. It's not harmful, but very high ketone levels can be dangerous. Now, when it comes to measuring ketones, make sure you use keto sense. If you are trying to get the most accurate ketone measurement, this product is perfect for you. I will talk more in depth about this ketone meter in a second and what it is and how it can help you achieve your goals. But let's talk more about some basics that you may want to remember if you are not already a keto pro. As you might know, your body goes into ketosis when you eat a low carb high fat diet. This is when your body actually burns fat as your main source of fuel instead of carbohydrates. For many people, being in ketosis can help improve blood sugar levels, reduce hunger and help retain the muscle mass. All of these things may help people lose weight automatically. I also get the question frequently, which is whether there is a level of ketone bodies that you can lose the most weight. Well, yes, there is and that is the whole point of measuring your ketones too, which we will talk about in a second. Remember, it takes a few days for your body to adjust to the low level of carbohydrates diet after you begin. If your liver and muscles and carbohydrates, they're full of glycogen, unless you work out all day and couple hours a day and you burn them off. And in the absence of glucose intake though, your body would shut down unless ketones kick in, right? Which your body uses as a fuel or a source of energy. At this point, your insulin resistance will start going down and you may find yourself already losing weight and your blood sugar may dramatically improve. A word of caution here though, you need to be under medical supervision if you are already taking insulin or sulfonylurea drugs for your diabetes. Otherwise, you will be at risk of severely low blood sugar on insulin and some oral diabetic medications such as sulfonylurea drugs like Glypozide, Glymoporide, etc. Regardless, provided that you are not on insulin or being medically supervised, you may be able to detect ketones in your blood at that point after a few days of a very low carbohydrate in your diet. While on the ketogenic diet, your blood ketone levels will probably range from 0.5 to 3 millimoles and ketosis occur when your body starts using fat as its main fuel source due to limited access to the glucose or the blood sugar. Typically caused by fasting or following a very low carbohydrate diet like we discussed. And the optimal levels to be in in ketosis is 1.5 to 3 nanomol per liter. So when your levels grow towards 5 millimole per liter, you are at risk of falling into DKA, diabetic ketoacidosis. That makes your blood too acidic, which can change the normal functioning of internal organs like your liver and kidneys. This is why having an understanding of your ketone level is so critical on a ketogenic diet. Let's talk about how you can use this little, mighty device called KetoSense. KetoSense actually is a blood ketone monitoring system that takes a very tiny drop of blood and calculates the exact amount of ketones you currently have in your blood. Your ketone levels may change throughout the day, so this device will allow you to monitor the exact levels as frequently as you like. Now, how do you use a device? KetoSense is quick and easy to use. First, insert the strip into the device. You will hear a beep as the device recognizes the strip. Do you hear that? Remember to insert the flat side of the strip, not the pointy part. See, the pointy part is pointing you. Take your lensing device and prick your finger. Okay, put this down a little bit here. You don't need a lot of blood, just a little bit, just like here. There you go. When your device shows ready, touch your finger like I did. As you can see, my ketone levels at 0.1. The little dot on the end of the strip is called the confirmation window, and that dot will turn red to indicate enough blood has been received. The device will count down for 8 seconds, which it did already in my case, and give you your ketone reading level. Again, mine was 0.1. Again, your target range is somewhere between 1.5 and 3. Obviously, I'm not on a keto diet, you can tell. But the good thing is that the KetoSense is FDA-approved and available for easy purchase and delivery through Amazon, and check out the link below for the description to get your device with one click. Now, you may be asking what about testing for ketosis via breath and urine. If you want to know if you are in ketosis, you can use urine test strips as well or breath test to see if you are. Urine test strips are the cheapest, but also the least accurate way to test your ketone levels. However, they're not most accurate, so it may be a waste of time if you want precise results. Results are even more inaccurate if you are dehydrated. For example, your urine is most concentrated in the morning, but you probably want to test your ketone levels in the morning as well. So, testing your urine for ketones in the morning is probably not such a great idea because of that accumulation or concentration. I would stick with the finger stick blood levels again. If you already have a urine ketone strip, depending on the presence of ketone acetate in your urine, a urine test will change color. Just follow those instructions on your testing kit to interpret the results. You can also use breath analyzers to measure the acetone content in your breath in parts per million, which is more precise measurement, but that is an expensive way to go, I would say. I'm not a big fan of spending too much money on anything, so probably that's not the best way to do either. It's not required to test every day, but if you want to stay on a keto diet, it will be wise to do so. It's like a cell feedback mechanism, you know? Just like checking blood sugar, checking ketones gives you the reassurance that your diet is still working. And in particular, checking your ketone levels daily for the first few days after starting the keto diet can help guarantee that you attain nutritional ketosis. And then at least a few times a week after that can definitely help ensure that you are staying in ketosis while on a ketogenic diet. The bottom line, checking ketone levels can be a source of inspiration or motivation for some people who are trying to stick to ketogenic diet in a safe manner. Again, the keto-sense device is very cool, accurate and affordable, and I wish you success in whatever diet you're choosing to lose weight or control your diabetes. Let me know what you think in the comments below, and remember to like and subscribe, and we will see you in the next video. Stay safe, everyone.