am I out off ketosis now?? pls help

[miu]

hi I started 3 weeks ago and i was in ketosis and all was ok and now i started to work out and the stix dont change color almost AT ALL and now I feel i want to eat more... past three weeks I was totally indifferent when i m gonna eat, i was never hungry .. now am still not hungry but am carving food. still managed not to eat more carbs though but am not happy with it bc am afraid i will get into a proper binge soon or later...


so is there anything to do with working out or is that normal that once i have the stix dark red and few days later nothing while i eat exactly the same ?

[miu]

....... btw I chew chewing gum almost always, I am kind of addicted to it I suppose. No sugar ones of course, but can this affect my weight loss?
thx

[miu]

.. i have just used this fitday website and realized that i have eaten 450 kcal today some 35 per cent of protein, and 65 per cent of fat 2 perc cent of carbs. I am frankly terrified... ok now am talking to myself

[FlorayG]

Hey Miu! That looks like a fair mix of nutrients to me...don't worry about the calories, once you get used to this diet you will naturally eat less. Don't panic and have faith! It isn't how much you eat that counts, it's how you process it and a low carb diet will change the way you process your food.

[miu]

thanks .. I dont weight myself bc once I start I cant stop and that really annoys me. I only feel the lost pounds on my clothes so I cant really say if am continuously loosing or not but who cares. I am not putting on weight thats for sure, first time in a looooong time i eat ( EAT) and am not putting on any weight. I have this insulin resistance and all the fun with it so maintaining my weight was all I did before ( and other eating disorders , the ugly ones, eats up loads of time and energy as well ). Now I am just feeling OK and calm . For me it is definitely the right way of eating I realized this the first week. So yes, I do have a faith. Lets see how it goes.

[Lissy]

How do you know if your in KETOSIS Im in day 2 of the atkins?

[miu]

Lissy, I use the stix. Pretty simple. I have learned later what did i do wrong and why the stix didnt show any results, i cut my protein too, stopped chewing gum, dont use any sweeteners, i am in perfect ketosis, the only trouble is that i ve been doing it 2 months now and i lost cca 3 kg and thats all... so what do u guys think... lol ( btw i use fitday so i know what i eat also work out) actually with this IR i never really could lose weight, didnt seem to be different to me. but i stay with it bc this way i dont crave carbs and dont spend my time binge..well, any idea, similar story? I think am gonna increase my l carnitine as atkins says and eat even less calories... it was 1500 to 2000 cca, carbs 10 to 15, protein around 200 but it was too much so lately i eat only 150 maybe 170

[scottie mike]

The stix are an unreliable measure of ketosis. They measure the "extra" ketones in your urine. While you are in ketosis, you may or may not be producing "extra" ketones. The body can remove them via the liver. In addition, exercise often reduces the levels. Generally speaking the more protein in your diet, the more ketones. Again, individuals respond differently. Some people require only small amounts of protein, other require excessive amounts of protein (several pounds per day) prior to seeing results on the stix.

Long story short, drop the stix. If you are following the Atkin's rules, you will be in ketosis by the end of two weeks.

Protein and fat are your friends. Calories are not important. Do not count them.


Good luck.

[Tril]

"Generally speaking the more protein in your diet, the more ketones."

Actually, it's fat that causes the ketones to increase because ketones are the by-product of fat metabolism. Unfortunately for low carbers they are produced from body fat AND dietary fat. If you eat a meal high in fat you'll produce more ketones which is easily misinterpreted as body fat loss if you're relying on keto-stix. The only thing the stix can reliably tell you is that there are ketones in your urine. How you use the information or interpret it is up to the user.

As Mike said, many factors influence the ketones in urine. Only ketones not used for energy spill over into the urine. So if you're eating what your body needs, you won't have extra. Also, we exhale extra ketones. Maybe your body removes more, or less, of them through exhalation. Exercise also uses up extra ketones. Dehydration concentrates the urine... so the reading is artificially higher. If you drink a lot of water, your ketones will be diluted... so less will show up in a sample. If you eat a high fat meal and then test, the ketones will be higher. If you eat a low/nonfat snack (like a cucumber) and then test... it will be lower. Finally, moisture quickly effect the stix. If you keep them in the bathroom or leave the cover off while you use a stix... they aren't as reliable.

Bottom line... don't waste your $ on the stix.

You'll know you're in ketosis when your energy comes back, your mood improves, your appetite goes away and you're losing weight. It really IS that simple. Oh, and you'll probably get "ketone breath". LOL

[Shrinkin'Sue]

I have dieted all this year AND used ketostix - I've rarely been in ketosis and lost over 50 pounds. Just forget it!

[Lissy]

Ive been on the atkins for 4 weeks and behaving!!! Ive only cheated 1x with a rasberry cream cheese cake. Ive been using the ketosis stick and it has been in the darkest it can get every time I use it until after that incident with the cake. Ive noticed that week 3 to 4 Ive stayed at the same weight I have not gone up or down. Im not hungry but still forcing myself with the meals. Should I just eat only if Im hungry? Is that why I have not gone down anymore because Im eating unwilling? Ive lost a total of 13 lbs since on my diet.
'

[Shrinkin'Sue]

I'm not sure how much ketosis matters; I've had times when my stick has been dark purple for weeks and I haven't lost; at other times it has stayed a pale sand colour and I have lost!

I know the book says to eat regular meals blah blah blah, but common sense tells me that most of us got fat by eating when we were feeling down, up, frustrated or whatever - but not genuinely hungry! Surely ultimate success lies in retraining ourselves to eat only when we are genuinely hungry? Just listen to your body!

[FlorayG]

Hang on Sue though, don't forget that 'listening to your body' got us all fat in the first place when it kept saying 'FEED ME'
Lissy, two things, first of all if you read other peoples diaries everyone hits that plateau where they stop losing, it starts again in a week or two if you persist and also you may find that although not losing weight you are still changing shape and losing inches somewhere. Also no, don't eat if you're not hungry, you may be intaking more calories than you need now that you are efficiently utilising your spare fat. I now regularly eat only two meals a day because I'm just not hungry by lunchtime. The important thing to remember with this diet is that you DO eat if you ARE hungry, don't ever let your body think it's starving.

[mickey]

I'm presuming you're talking about 450 kcal "so far" today. Not total?

[TonyMLake]

My opinion is unpopular. I use and love the ketostix. Many people stall for various reasons when they work out, as I've said in several other posts. Some reasons that working out will cause a stall if you've only recently started dieting include: muscle gain, water retention, and general homeostasis backlash.

I do think ketosis matters if you don't want to count calories. If you don't mind counting calories, it doesn't matter as much.

So, in all, it really depends what your goal is. If you just want the weight off quickly and you were sedentary before the diet, it may not be beneficial to start going to the gym for a few more weeks... there's always swimming and jogging if you just CANT wait to exercise. Swimming and jogging type things tend to cause less stalls than weight bearing exercise and HIIT type stuff.

If you'd rather go to the gym right away and because of that can't get into ketosis, I'd be watching that those calories are 500 less than your BMR (no fun but practical).

I know my opinion is not similar to what many others believe, but this is my two cent's worth.