I've only had 10 carbs at the most today. The ketosis strips say trace!

How long have you been lowcarbing? For most people it takes a few weeks to adjust fully into ketosis.

Trace = Ketosis = Relax

The kidneys can reabsorb ketones, lowering how much ketone is spilled in the urine. Urine ketones can be quite low at the same time that blood ketones are elevated.

How much protein did you have? if it's a ton of extra beyond what your body uses, it could be burned as glucose. depending on where your body is and what exercise and all that.

Thanks. I haven't checked yet today. I doubt I'm eating too much protein.

Blood test is the only way to be sure. The pee strips can be misleading.

Read this series of blog posts. They contain a lot of information that is very valuable as you travel the path of low carb adventure:

http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2016/0...-a-ketard1.html
http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2016/0...-a-ketard2.html
http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2016/0...-a-ketard3.html

Pretty sure the SHADE of pink doesn't matter.

If it's changing color- you are all good! (Hydration levels can alter pink intensity)

There's an study from the 60s where obese people were fasted for weeks on end, and then supplemented with small amounts of glucose. As little as 8.5 grams was enough to make their urine ketones go from large to very low. Although urine ketones pretty much disappeared, blood ketones remained just as high as they were without the glucose supplement. That bit of glucose spared just about the amount of protein that would have been needed to synthesize that amount of glucose. This is an example of a situation where it's easy to argue that a decrease in urine ketones was not only not harmful, but probably beneficial. The kidneys regulate urine ph balance, when ammonia, which is alkaline, is being spilled as a byproduct of gluconeogenesis in the kidneys, they may allow more acids, such as ketones, to also spill.

Once your body gets efficient at using ketones for energy, few are shed into the urine. I stopped bothering with the strips since they never registered more than a pale pink. I go by how I feel - if my brain is sharp & I'm full of energy, I'm in ketosis.

You're lucky you have a brain.... of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most, ya know.....

I lived in "brain fog" while on high carb, low cal diets from age 15 to ~50, so it was nice to finally get my brain back on vLCHF & ketogenic diets.