Time to Get Started Testing Glucose, Ketones, and Lactate

Collecting glucose, ketone, and lactate data is optional, but also highly recommended and very valuable.

This kind of real-time data can serve as an early warning system for shifts in your health. For example, if you take a new supplement and notice that your lactate levels triple within an hour, that’s a strong signal — like smoke indicating a fire. It suggests your body is under stress, and continuing that supplement may not be in your best interest.
‍
On the other hand, if your lactate levels drop significantly — say, from 1.7 to 0.7 within an hour — that’s a green flag. It’s a strong, quiet signal that the intervention is working in your favor, helping your metabolism behind the scenes in a beneficial way.

Order of Testing Matters
‍The lactate meter is finicky, it requires more blood and needs it quickly.

Until you’re confident using the devices:
✅ Draw for lactate first, but only after you see a good amount of blood.

Once you’re comfortable, you might prefer a more efficient routine, such as:
‍1. Glucose → 2. Lactate → 3. Ketones

‍Some users also find that doing lactate last (after several drops have cleared) can help reduce contamination and improve accuracy.

Minimum Required Measurements

‍To get the most value from your Mitome protocol, we recommend:3 days of baseline measurements before you begin your protocol.

3 days of data before and after each phase of protocol implementation.

Each testing day, collect:

- Morning (fasting) measurements of glucose, ketones, and lactate.
- A second measurement during the day based on:
- A health concern timepoint (e.g., post-workout tingling, 3am wake-ups), or
- A standardized time like one hour after dinner.
- You may also take multiple daily readings for a few days to identify abnormal patterns.

Reference Ranges

‍These are general healthy target ranges to compare your results:

‍1. Glucose 70–89 mg/dL (fasting) <140 mg/dL (1 hr post-meal)
‍
2. Ketones 0.1–0.2 mmol/L (waking, non-keto) 0–0.1 mmol/L (post-meal, non-keto) 1–5 mmol/L (if keto)
Should drop after eating when not on keto.
‍
3. Lactate 0.5–0.9 mmol/L (fasting), 0.5-1.2 (1hr post-meal).
Should rise slightly after eating carbs, stay <1.2 unless post-exercise

If one marker consistently appears abnormal, use that timepoint as your second daily measurement.

If no clear abnormality appears, pick a consistent time like one hour post-dinner.

Set a Reminder

Build this habit with consistency.

We recommend using a digital calendar or app (like iPhone Reminders or MinimaList) to set daily repeating notifications.

Enter Your Data

‍Log everything into your tracking spreadsheet each day.
‍
This data becomes a powerful tool when implementing your personalized protocol, and can often reveal issues before problems even arise.

💬 Common Questions
‍
What should I do if markers diverge? Is one more important than the other?
Understanding patterns is key. Here's how to interpret some common ones:

Glucose ↑ and Lactate ↓
→ Indicates inhibited glycolysis. This is not a good sign, you may need to adjust the intervention.

Glucose ↓ and Lactate ↑
→ Suggests improved glucose utilization, but mitochondrial output may be lagging behind. This is a tradeoff.

If lactate stays elevated, even while glucose looks better: Give it up to a week to normalize. If it doesn’t resolve, consider this an adverse effect and scale back the intervention you are testing.

You may need to introduce a supportive step from later in your protocol to create the synergy required for proper glucose utilization.

What about ketones?

Often in hindsight, you will have additional interpretative value, but they're usually not immediately important.

Glucose, Ketones, and Lactate: Why This Matters for Diet and Optimization

Glucose, ketones, and lactate (GKL) tracking isn’t just about collecting numbers. It’s about discovering how your body responds to specific inputs - what’s helping you, and what’s holding you back. There’s so much insight to be gained when you compare these markers with:

- What you ate the day before
- How late you ate
- Any supplements added to your routine
- Your sleep quality, energy, or mood

For example: If you had a heavy, carb-rich meal like pizza and your lactate spikes the next morning, that might be a signal. Try a low-carb dinner the next night and compare the results - it’s a real-time experiment that can teach you what your mitochondria prefer.

We recommend keeping a simple spreadsheet where you log your meals, supplements, sleep, and health metrics alongside GKL readings. Even subjective metrics like “mental clarity” or “morning energy” can be meaningful when compared over time.

If you have a health metric that tends to show up under certain conditions - or vary depending on diet - this is the perfect opportunity to explore them. These markers can often be leading indicators of deeper shifts in your physiology, revealing good or bad changes in your body before they fully emerge.

Example: You try a new supplement and your lactate triples the next day. That spike is like smoke to a fire - it’s your body telling you something important, long before you might feel the burn.

The ultimate goal of the Mitome protocol is to bring these numbers into their optimal ranges and use them to drive mitochondrial precision to thrive.

Keep up the great work. 

Let us know if you have additional questions by emailing: support@mito.me.