Greetings. I'm 72 yo man, been eating carnivore for past two years, kinda dirty keto for a couple years before that. Have been on one meal a day for over 6 months now, basically fatty beef, tallow, salt. I raise my own beef, 100% grass fed and grass finished. They never see corn or other grains. I render nice golden yellow tallow from the fat. No metabolic issues, no prescriptions. Have lost 5" off waist and 35# over past two years and now within 10# of what I think is a good weight. I'm 5-7 and 162#. Blood pressure was creeping up (140/85) and HbA1c was approaching the Type 2 diabetes point 2 years ago. BP is now 110/70, HbA1c was 5.4 last year, will be getting new blood work in January. So, that's the background.

Bought a Keto-Mojo a few months ago and have been checking each morning and lately before eating. I did six weekly 90+ hour sardine fasts and my morning ketones were smoking (3.0-4.5) throughout the fasting period with morning glucose 65-85, but immediately that I went back to one meal a day, my morning ketone/glucose dropped back to 95-105/0.5-1.0. Meals are meat and tallow only with only snack some pork rinds an hour or three later. This has been going on for a while and it's getting frustrating. I am only measuring significant ketones if I skip a daily meal. I don't really want to eat every other day, but is that the only way for me to see a decent level of ketones in the mornings?

I tried multiple daily ketone measurements and didn't eat until my ketones went up, but that took a "mini-fast" of about 30 hours, which really screws up my one meal a day schedule. Looking for thoughts, ideas, insights?

PS-I realize in ancient times it would have been normal to not eat every single day, and that does seem to work. But damn! I like my meals, as simple as they are! I've given up all carbs, all deserts, ice cream, whiskey, the good stuff. Don't even miss any of it any more, but I do enjoy my daily fatty beef, tallow, and once or twice a week a few ounces of beef liver. Any advice appreciated.

Pan

My advice would be to stop chasing ketones.

Ketone monitors can only measure, depending on the type of monitor, either excess ketones that are being expelled or ketones in the bloodstream sitting idle waiting to be used. They don’t measure those ketones that are actually in the process of being used.

Just because your numbers are low on the meter doesn’t mean that you aren’t in ketosis and burning ketones for energy because the monitor can’t measure that.

Do you feel weak, lethargic, no energy? If the answer is no then you are doing just fine. Add to that, when you measure makes a difference as well as what you are doing before you measure because your ketones are constantly fluctuating throughout the day depending on your activities.

Most of us never measure anything but our weight and our physical measurements and we do just fine. Adding the stress of worrying about your ketones just raises your cortisol levels hindering your weight loss.

Welcome to carnivoretalk and I hope this helps you.