This morning, I had a little exchange of messages with my friend, LeRoy.

I have known LeRoy for many years through various online forums. We have never met in person, but I feel that LeRoy and I are good friends, and share many similar interests.

After I got into a Keto diet and later into fasting, LeRoy saw my results and started down the same path. I believe he is mostly doing the keto diet with some Intermittent Fasting, and I think he is getting some good results with it.

I am going to share our emails, with LeRoy’s permission.

LeRoy’s original message:

While searching for other things, I ran across something that I had not heard about previously. Exogenous ketones. Used for getting your body into ketosis quicker or keeping it there if you eat carbs.

Seems that some people use it to cheat on their diet. There are several different ones. I asked a friend that is a natural health source and she recommended 7Keto as a brand that gives value for the cost. Some are very expensive but seems to be somewhat related to marketing style.

Also, I saw mentioned about a meter called Keto Mojo that tests blood glucose and ketones.

Don’t know if you know about either of these but writing a blog about health, thought I would pass along if you could use it.

My original reply to LeRoy:

I don’t use exogenous ketones. It is so easy to get into ketosis, I see no reason to use them. Also, I never have a temptation to cheat, so would just never be any need for those.

Until you sent this, I had never heard of Keto Mojo before. There are lots of other brands of meters that do both blood glucose and ketosis measurements, but this was my first time to hear of that one. Apparently, it is new on the market because I see it is still in “pre-order” status.

The biggest problem, to me, with these ketosis meters, is that the strips are quite expensive. With Keto Mojo, I see that the strips are $1 each. Other meters are even more expensive.

If I were going to get a meter to measure my level of ketosis, I would look at Ketonix. It is a breath meter that you breathe into and no strips are required. It is more expensive, but over time it would turn out cheaper due to the fact that no strips are needed.

For me, though, I don’t feel a need for a ketosis meter, although I often feel that it would be nice to have one. I find it easy to know when I am in ketosis. Mostly, I know I am in a pretty deep state of ketosis when I get bad breath (of a certain type, which I can tell). So, I know when I am in that state. A meter, though, would give me more information, such as how deeply I am in that state.

Follow-up from LeRoy:

I was interested in them from the standpoint that as I mentioned, occasionally I have to eat something out of the vending machine when my medicine gives me problems. The lowest thing has about 15 grams of carbs and I hate getting kicked out of ketosis if I have to do that. I carry a lunch but do not have time to go get it on break since the walk to the breakroom is longer than the time given for break.

I’m working with my doctor to see if there is something that I can take that wouldn’t bother my stomach so badly. Without food, I risk a return of bleeding ulcers, without the medicine, I am unable to walk due to arthritis in my feet.

My follow-up Reply:

If you have to eat something to “cushion” the use of medications, and you eat something with carbs or such, you can still get back into ketosis easily. This is true, especially if you are fasting. For example, if you eat 15 or even 20 grams of carbs, and you have been fasting, probably within 3 hours or so you will be in ketosis again!

So, for me, I just don’t see a need for exogenous ketones. But, it is a personal choice.

If you need to eat in order to use your medication, what about eating something like beef jerky? Maybe some pork rinds? Those would be easy to carry with you, yet they are suitable for a keto diet too!

Final thoughts

I thought that the topics that LeRoy asked about might be of interest to others. I particularly see a lot of people asking about fasting problems with taking medications.