GKI Glucose Ketone Index Guide Updated

In fact, we see a good number of people starting out on the keto lifestyle that continues to have high blood glucose levels despite having high blood ketone levels. The glucose ketone index (GKI) measures the ratio of blood glucose and blood ketone levels to determine the level of ketosis you are in, indicating whether you are in nutritional ketosis or therapeutic ketosis. Recent clinical studies assessing the effects of dietary therapy on brain cancer progression have not measured both blood glucose and ketone bodies throughout the study periods [43,44].

The chart below shows the sum of the blood sugar and ketones (i.e. total energy) from nearly three thousand data points from a broad range of people following a low carb or ketogenic diet. Blood ketones are shown in blue (on the bottom), while glucose is shown in orange (on the top). It seems that your body also adapts to use blood ketones more efficiently the longer you follow a lower carbohydrate diet. Most people move beyond the ‘keto adaption’ phase as their bodies learn to use fat more efficiently, and their ketone levels reduce further. But the problem is that prioritising more dietary fat is typically counterproductive over the long term if your goal is weight loss or diabetes management. Before long, you’ll likely find that you are putting on extra body fat, which in turn will lead to higher insulin levels and elevated blood sugar levels.

What Is GKI?

The primary purpose of the glucose ketone index is to track the metabolic management of brain cancer patients. Unfortunately, there is insufficient evidence to state the ideal GKI for losing weight. You can judge the balance between glucose and ketone levels in your blood by looking for physical signs that your body is burning fat for energy.

  • Aerobic fermentation (Warburg effect) is necessary to compensate for the insufficiency of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation in the cells of most tumors [9,12-14].
  • Exercising when you have ketones can cause your blood sugar levels and ketones to go even higher.
  • Even my mega chillax morning yoga practice usually lowers my blood ketones by .2-.5 mmol/L and increases my blood glucose by 5-10 ml/dL despite my not consuming any food.

Using glucose and ketone values to calculate the glucose ketone index ratio, the chart gives you an indication of the depth of ketosis you are in. A program was developed (Glucose Ketone Index Calculator, GKIC) that tracks the ratio of blood glucose to ketones as a single value. In Dr. Seyfried’s study, they discussed the use of a low-calorie ketogenic diet, which may have helped the patients drop their glucose and raise their ketones enough to reach a GKI approaching 1.

Glucose-Ketone Index for cancer treatments

You may have stumbled across the term GKI in various keto forums, social media, or even some research studies and wondered, what exactly is GKI? Plainly put, GKI, or the Glucose Ketone Index, is a simple formula that tracks the ratio of blood glucose to ketones as a single value. But more important, it’s a biomarker for tracking your metabolic health as well as your level of ketosis, and it’s easily tracked if you have a blood glucose and ketone testing meter like Keto-Mojo.

The glucose ketone index calculator: a simple tool to monitor therapeutic efficacy for metabolic management of brain cancer

It seems that once your body uses up the excess energy (both glucose and ketones) in your bloodstream, it can get on with using body fat. For optimal health and weight loss on a ketogenic diet, you are striving for moderate https://cryptolisting.org/blog/what-is-a-supply-doc ketosis or a GKI between 6 and 9. At this stage of ketosis, your blood ketone levels typically fall between 0.5 and 3mg/dL, and your glucose reading falls within the normal blood sugar range of 70–125mg/dL (3.9–6.9mmol/L).

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They are a reflection of the general consensus based on those in the blogosphere. I go into more detail about adaptive glucose sparing in this article.

GK+ COMBO Test Strips (60 Glucose & 60 Ketone)

I’ve noticed that as I’ve become more fat adapted over time, it’s harder to stay in the sub-unity range without extended fasting. The GKI was not designed as a measure for weight loss on a ketogenic diet, but it has been adopted as such. We could not find any scientific rationale for adopting the GKI for general health or dieting, and at this stage, it seems a bit arbitrary due to the lack of scientific study. So, keep that in mind if you are looking to use the GKI as a reference for the effectiveness of your keto diet.

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And like you say, your numbers are great so it’s really just curiosity now. Some folks (like me) are super sensitive to protein – it spikes me more than whole veg carbs. You need it, obviously, and you’re eating the right healing sources, so this would just be to confirm that it’s the cause of the spike and set your mind at ease. In the chart above you can see that daily tracking of my GKI (blue) revealed an issue much more clearly than just blood glucose alone (red).

In fact, we see a good number of people starting out on the keto lifestyle that continues to have high blood glucose levels despite having high blood ketone levels. The glucose ketone index (GKI) measures the ratio of blood glucose and blood ketone levels to determine the level of ketosis you are in, indicating whether…