Good Morning Everyone! Advise please.

Today is day 7 of my low carb eating plan.  I chose the Atkins induction to start with and have been feeling so much better since the carbs are being limited.

This morning I used the Keto sticks and find I am still negative for ketones.  I weighed myself to see where I was there and find I lost 1.4 lbs.

How long does it usually take to go into ketosis?

My food yesterday was as follows:

1. homemade beanless chili
2. Atkins protein bar
3. 1.5 eggs deviled
4. Atkins protein bar
5. 3 cheese sticks
6. pork burger patty w/provolone and broccoli w/butter

I have been drinking coffee with Atkins RTD as creamer and crystal light.

I am almost 4 years post op and still need to loose approximately 80 lbs.  I lost approximately 170 lb with a bounce back of 30 lbs.
  
Any and all constructive advise would be greatly appreciated.   

Thanks so very much..........................Goody

 Goody Sorry I am not going to be much help I just started day 10. just have a question where do you get the keto sticks and is that what they are called?

I got mine at Walgreens and they are called Ketone testing strips. Netrion.com carries them for less than $7.

I know the Atkins bars advertise that they are okay for all phases, but many people have found that the bars send them out of ketosis. All those sugar alcohols ARE partially absorbed - I don't for a second believe your body only absorbs 2 or 3 "net" grams of all those carbs they hide in there. I would try cutting out the Atkins bars.

Thanks, I will try that for a few days and see what happens.

Hi, Goody!

Some people go into ketosis and start improving their health and dropping pounds WITHOUT it ever showing on ketosticks!  Keep in mind that the ketosticks show the presence of ketones

1)  in proportion to the amount of urine, so if you're drinking as much as you should, you might not have a purple pee stick; and

2)  as a snapshot of your body's situation THAT MOMENT.  Later in the day is sometimes likelier than early, and vice-versa.


The Atkins protein bars might not be that great for induction, though they say it is.   The RTDs do not have sugar alcohols, but the bars generally do, plus a lot of other artificial stuff ... 

Thanks so much Whacka Doodle.  I will lay off the bars for a while and not depend on the sticks.

Way to go on keeping 140 lbs off and still working your wls tool after four years.

I have trouble getting into ketosis (metabolically challenged).  If after five days on 20g or less in carbs I am still testing negative, I try either:
* meat only until I hit ketosis
* raising my percentage of fats to 50% or more of total calories

The latterr is a recent discoveryand it has made difference in my weight loss/ weight gain cycles.  My focus is increasing "good fats".  

This is a last resort option.  You want fat loss not muscle loss.  Atkins 2002 version includes the "Fat Fast" which I posted on the tips/ resources sticky.  It is strictly for those who can not loose even on induction.  IT IS GROSSLY PROTEIN DEFICIENT EVEN FOR NO OPS.   This is why the duration is limited to three days.  It is a jump start for ruined metabolisms only. 

Metabolically I go in to spurts of rapid weight gain and I use this to halt the gain and kick my metabolism back in place.  This has nothing to do with wls, I am just a metabolic mess.  I don't reccomend or condem it.  Its out there so I share that it exists. 

 Thanks MSW.  If the weight loss does not increase and I am still not seeing it on the sticks after I eliminate the protein bars, I will try a couple of days of just meat and see if that will do it for me.

I think the High Fat option may be too drastic for me.  But I will keep that option open for review later.

Again thanks so much.

I've done Atkins several times in my life and not once has it registered on the keto sticks. I know I'm in ketosis because of the dramatic weight loss but it just never shows up on the sticks. I don't know what the deal is but as long as the weight loss is there I guess it doesn't matter.