Out of Ketosis

Atkins Diet, Low Carb Questions & Answers Out of Ketosis

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Rico

Senior Member

Joined: 24 Jul 2003

Posts: 438

Position: Louisville, KY

Tue Aug 26, 2003 3: 35 pm    Post subject: Out of Ketosis

I just used a ketostix for the first time in over a week, and I was shocked to see I am 100 % out of ketosis! [ / icon_evil. gif]

I have NOT CHEATED and have kept my carb intake to about 25 - 30 gms per day. I am shocked and I guess this explains my 1 pound gain last week. Anybody have any comments to keep me from freaking out?

Rico

northernlady

Senior Member

Joined: 23 Apr 2003

Posts: 3458

Footing: Middle of the country! Columbia MO

Tue Aug 26, 2003 3: 51 pm    Post subject:

doesn ' t mean anything. There is WAYYYYY too much stress put on the ketostixs.

Could be the ketostick was exposed to humidity - thereby ruining the whole crowd.

Could be you are over hydrated - and the urine shaft is so diluted, it couldn ' t register the ketones.

Could be that you are not in ketosis - does that mean you stopped losing weight - NOPE! Ketosticks merely indicate that your body is creating ketones. Your body makes ketones when it is burning something other than glycogen. ( ketones being a by product of burning something ( like protein or fat ) other than glycogen.

Can people lose weight and not be in ketosis? Positively. I am one such person. I only registered moderate a few times since January 6. I stopped checking in May - my clothes were looser, I lost weight and I didn ' t care about whether or not the sticks were pink anymore.

Go next the plan. You will lose weight because you will eat less. There is no magic to this - just good common mechanical sense.

BabyCakes2802

New Member

Joined: 26 Aug 2003

Posts: 6

Tue Aug 26, 2003 4: 39 pm    Post subject: suggetion

Still new but they say to go back to induction, and the induction foods.

See this link, you ' ll have to cut and paste

http: / / atkins. com / Archive / 2001 / 12 / 26 - 51503. html

this is helpful too!

blueskyes2

Senior Member

Joined: 11 Jun 2003

Posts: 2742

Bearings: Durham, NC

Tue Aug 26, 2003 5: 25 pm    Post subject:

Doesn ' t necessarily mean anything, as northernlady said.

They do go bad pretty quick once opened ( i. e. not as sensitive ). I have first hand experience of that.

Also, depending on how much you have been drinking you can have diluted the ketones out enough that the strips can no longer pick them up.

Have you taken any medications the last couple of days such as ibuprofen or sudafed?

Finally, according to the Atkins Center ( at least one of the people on the help desk ), the best time to test your ketostix is 1 to 2 hrs after eating dinner. I have tried this myself and have found for me that is true. I got a dark color that I have not seen before.

ChattyGirl

Senior Member

Joined: 29 Jul 2003

Posts: 223

Whereabouts: Philadelphia, PA

Tue Aug 26, 2003 6: 00 pm    Post subject:

I am forgetting completely about those silly sticks. If I paid attention to the sticks, my weight should be in negative numbers now. I used metabosticks and they ALWAYS showed dark purple, but the scale doesn ' t budge and the mirror still says I ' m fat.

I think the sticks are a rip off. It is just one more thing to buy. If you feel good and look good that is the important part.

blueskyes2

Senior Member

Joined: 11 Jun 2003

Posts: 2742

Location: Durham, NC

Tue Aug 26, 2003 8: 45 pm    Post subject:

One thing I will say is don ' t use the Metabostix. I have heard more bad than good about them. Get Ketostix or something similar. You must get them from the pharmacist in the US. These are used by diabetics and are much more reliable. To mind the metabostix are worse then useless. I had a friend test them using only water and got a color change!

o2bthin

New Member

Joined: 24 Aug 2003

Posts: 5

Location: Florida

Wed Aug 27, 2003 1: 37 am    Post subject:

This is a very interesting discussion. I am on day 11 of induction. My daughter and I started together. I have never been purple or even pink once and hers are deep purple. We were using from the same bottle but I gave her the bottle to take home and just laid mine open on the dresser. I do take lots of med. for diabetes. At any rate I was very disappointed by the sticks. This gives me more incouragement.

blueskyes2

Senior Member

Joined: 11 Jun 2003

Posts: 2742

Location: Durham, NC

Wed Aug 27, 2003 1: 38 pm    Post subject:

If yours were open, then my guess is that they have gone bad pretty quickly. The Ketostix come with a little packet of silica in them to keep the moisture out and to help keep them from going bad, so to speak. Mine get insensitive easily within two month or less even with being tightly sealed with the silica in there. That ' s why I only get packs of 50 now. Try getting some new or one from your daughter ' s bottle if she has kept hers sealed and try it 1 to 2 hours after dinner and see what color you get.

The true measure of the Ketostix is that your body is now burning fat for fuel. Just because it turns dark purple does not necessarily mean that you are burning a lot of body fat. You may be burning dietary fat. The idea is to see whether you have knocked yourself out of ketosis or not in OWL or in induction that you have gotten into ketosis. The take home message is that darker is not necessarily better, so don ' t get caught up on the intensity of the color.