Keto made easy

Urine Colour and Hydration: The One Test You Need

Quick answer: Look at the colour. Pale yellow means you're drinking about the right amount. Clear or near-clear means you've had plenty, possibly too much. Dark yellow, amber or orange means drink more. KetoDick uses this check instead of any glasses-per-day rule, with one exception: medications that change your urine colour (video RGfWR5jQNDQ).

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Why colour beats counting glasses

A fixed number of glasses a day ignores almost everything about you: your size, the weather, whether you trained today, how salty your dinner was. KetoDick says the glasses rule has "kind of been debunked" (auto-caption), and says the easiest way to tell whether you're getting enough water is the colour of your urine (video RGfWR5jQNDQ).

The other reason he likes it on keto: it protects you from overdoing water. More water means more trips to the bathroom, and each trip takes some electrolytes with it (video RGfWR5jQNDQ). A colour check tells you when to ease off, not just when to drink. That side of it is in Can You Drink Too Much Water on Keto?.

And it's free. No app, no bottle with lines on it.

The colour scale in plain words

Here's the scale as he describes it across his videos.

What you see What it usually means What you do
Clear or near-clear, and lots of it Plenty hydrated, likely too much (videos RGfWR5jQNDQ, UygKGoP_BtA) Slow down on water; keep salting your food
Pale yellow About right (video UygKGoP_BtA) Keep doing what you're doing
Dark yellow, amber, anything toward orange Not enough (video RGfWR5jQNDQ) Drink more

He adds a frequency check: you should need to go somewhat regularly through the day. If you're going all the time, in big volumes, and it's clear, you may be flushing enough electrolytes to bring on cramps or keto-flu symptoms (video RGfWR5jQNDQ).

How to run the check, step by step

  1. Judge across the day, not by one trip. You've gone hours without drinking overnight, so one morning reading on its own tells you little.
  2. Look in good light. A white toilet bowl or a clear cup works. You're judging shade, not exact colour.
  3. Match it to the scale. Clear, pale yellow, or dark yellow to amber.
  4. Notice how often you're going. Regularly through the day is the target (video RGfWR5jQNDQ).
  5. Adjust a little, not a lot. Dark: add a glass or two. Clear and constant: cut back a little.
  6. Check your symptoms against the colour. If your urine is pale to yellow and you still have cramps, headaches, low energy or irritability, he says to look at your leafy greens and your salt before you look at water (video lbRPlGZ3Rvw).
  7. Recheck the next day. One reading is a snapshot. A few days tells you the pattern.

If symptoms persist even when the colour looks right, see Leg Cramps on Keto and talk to your doctor.

When the colour can fool you

Medications. He makes the exception himself: the colour test works if you're not on medications that alter urine colour (video RGfWR5jQNDQ). If yours does, ask your doctor or pharmacist what a reasonable hydration check looks like for you.

New supplements. If the colour shifted the same day you started a new pill, the pill is a more likely explanation than your water. Ask the pharmacist rather than guessing.

Kidney conditions and fluid limits. If you've been told to restrict fluids, that instruction wins. He says anyone with kidney history should involve their doctor on electrolyte questions (video lbRPlGZ3Rvw). See Medications.

Using it to read a dark ketone strip

This is where the colour check earns its keep on keto. Beginners see a dark purple urine ketone strip and get told "you're dehydrated." His answer: don't look at the strip, look at your urine (video GojQvo_2GS0).

If your urine is pale, you're hydrated, and a dark strip most likely means early ketosis, with ketones spilling into urine before your body uses them well. If your urine is very dark, that explains a very dark strip (video GojQvo_2GS0). He makes the same point in his video on testing methods (video 8wOheKcBEd8).

He adds a caution: that's his read for people without diabetes and with healthy kidneys. Anyone with type 2 diabetes or kidney risk should talk to their doctor, because for them a dark strip could matter (video GojQvo_2GS0). More in Are Dark Ketone Strips Dangerous?.

What the research says

Plainly: the evidence pages behind this site don't include a study testing urine-colour charts. Nothing here can tell you how accurately a given shade maps to a given fluid level. Treat the scale as a rule of thumb, which is how he presents it.

What the literature does cover is the context. Reported keto-flu symptoms in online posts cluster in the first weeks and are mostly described as passing (Bostock 2020). That's the same window when beginners get told to "hydrate, hydrate, hydrate," and when a quick colour check can keep them from overdoing it. The kidney side of why keto changes your bathroom habits is in Why Do I Pee So Much on Keto?.

KetoDick's take

He's put the same test in three different videos across two years: the 2017 water video, the 2017 ketone-strip video, and the 2018 beginners' video (videos RGfWR5jQNDQ, GojQvo_2GS0, UygKGoP_BtA). He calls it the easiest way for any healthy adult to tell if they're getting enough water, especially people new to keto (video RGfWR5jQNDQ).

It fits his habit of de-complicating. One look, three outcomes, one adjustment. He also uses it to push back on two pieces of online advice at once: "you're dehydrated" for dark strips, and "drink more" for everything (videos GojQvo_2GS0, lbRPlGZ3Rvw).

He's also clear about what it doesn't replace. Before starting, especially if you're older or have health history, he suggests baseline labs with your doctor so you have something to compare against at six to twelve months (video GojQvo_2GS0). See Blood Tests Before Keto.

Key takeaways