ketosis

[Mel Strong]

:flowerki:

If a person remains in ketosis everyday and the stick turns pink at the end of everyday, is this a garantee that you are burning body fat and are losing weight.

Can a person be in ketosis everyday and not lose weight, say from consuming too much fat in the diet or does that matter?

[Elizellen]

Yes Mel - if you eat more fat then you burn then you will not lose weight. :sadblinky

What are your fat/protein/carb ratios?
An induction ratio should be 65%/30%/5%

[californiacasey]

I was always under the belief that if my ketosis sticks turned any pinkish color meant that I was burning fat from my body (not from the foods I was eating).
Can anyone tell me what is actually the case?
Which is true and what is your source?

[FightingTheFight]

The Idea is to be in ketosis. You know all of us atkineers that are planning or have been on induction for 6 months? Ketosis the whole time.

What changes the sticks color are ketones, ketones are byproducts of fat that has been burnt and some has been deposited in your urine. Whether they are Pink or dark purple you are in ketosis.


And yes if you eat more calories than you are burning you will not lose weight. Now comes in the best part about Atkins, the Metabolic advantage. You will learn to love it

[Effie]

The ketostix will even turn pink/purple for those losing weight on a low-fat, high-carb diet -- IF they are burning more calories than they consume and therefore, burning fat.

If your concern is that your sticks are pink, but the number on your scale doesn't show a loss, then just ditch the scale. They lie.

[Moochiecat]

The stix can't tell you whether the ketones are from the fat in your thighs or the fat in that pork chop you just ate.

I was watching a weighloss program the other day (One of those shows where they follow a group of people through a few months of weight loss...I'm sorry but I forget what it was called) and one fellow was on Atkins. A woman who worked with Dr. Atkins (sorry, again I don't remember her name) told the fellow that the sticks really didn't signify a whole lot so not to get too hung up on them. She said that what shows up are excess ketones that are excreted, but that we can have a negative reading, and yet be in ketosis.


this was just on a few nights ago, so maybe someone else watched it.


Edited to add:

Look what I found in the FAQ forum on our board -

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=68063

[fatchic]

but how can we eat toomuchcalories if we are in ketosis i thought ketosis reduces our appetite? ensive

[jroche5998]

Keotis is a natural appetite supressant. But you can can absolutely overeat your atkins. Remember that the plan is to "eat until your hunger is satisfied" then put the plate away and eat more in a bit if the hunger returns.

But what has been posted before is correct the ketostix just measure excess ketones in your urine from processed fat. That fat can either be from what you ate or from stored body fat.

The atkins sail team used Atkins to gain weight to make weight for a race and then used Atkins to lose it after.

If you have too much dietary fat than the body fat never gets a chance to be burned. But the concept of the plan is the satiety that the fat provides, meaning you aren't hungry for a longer period of time. That's why we have the ratios for each phase. Besides on this plan you eat high fat but you are probably still eating less fat than you were before.

I hope this helps.

[thornbirdskkk]

I also thought that if you were in ketosis you were burning fat which equals weight loss. So you have to count the fat you eat a day on Atkins? I can't say I remember reading that in the book, watching the amount you ate? So I have been doing this all wrong? The first time I lost on Atkins I did not watch the number of calories I ate in a day let alone a ratio of protein, fat, or carbs. I thought if I stayed under 21 carbs that was all you had to do? Oh I so confused!!!

[jroche5998]

No you don't have to count the fat. The key is don't overeat. Just because you are eating Atkins that isn't a license to stuff your face (not that implying you are doing that). But there are stated preferred ratios of fat/protein/carbs. I don't happen to know them off the top of my head.

When you are in ketosis you ARE burning fat. Ketones are the byproduct of lypolysis. The diet counts on the fact that benign dietary ketosis is a natuiral appetite supressant. You don't count fat or calories because the assumption is that you just won't eat as much. If that is not the case (which is rare) then you would need to watch the calories as well.

Atkins is a calorie restricted diet, it's just that the foods we eat are more saisfying thus eliminating the need to actually count calories. You'll see posts here all over the place of people not able to eat enough calories.

Do you eat just until the hunger is satisfied, or do you clean the plate? Little things like this make a difference.

[thornbirdskkk]

There are days that I eat only one meal. This is a sample of my diet that I follow during the week

Breakfast: Slice of Pizza quiche (atkins recipe)
Snack - stick of cheese
Lunch: a slice of Bacon cheesburger quiche, salad ranch dressing sometimes some feta cheese on it.

dinner: Either buffalo wings Atkins friendly, with a salad, ranch dressing, broccolli with ranch dressing, or 2 hamburgs with cheese, piece steak grilled, or 2 pork chops grilled, or chicken grilled.

snack: creme brulee Atkins recipe

This is a good day, usually on the weekends I am busy and will eat only one meal a day.

Water water water all day, no diet soda.

[jroche5998]

There are days that I eat only one meal.

That can be a problem. The book specifically states that you should not go more than 6 waking hours without eating something. It doesn't necessarily have to be a meal. But you need to fuel the engine (your body) otherwise your body will go into starvation mode and not allow you to burn body fat at all.

[Moochiecat]

Just wanting to support jroche's statements here.

You do need to eat more than one meal a day...maybe take some time to re-read the chapter on Induction in DANDR again. It has to do with keeping your blood sugar levels stable...very important on many levels...you stay happier, less cravings...better weightloss. Atkins is not a diet of denial.

If you are following the Rules of Induction, and eating the correct amounts from the Acceptable Foods list, you will pretty much be right at the optimum range of 65%fat/30%protein/5%carbs without even trying.
(I discovered www.fitday.com a few weeks into Induction, and when I entered in those weeks I was happy to see I was right where I needed to be. The plan is set up really well if you follow it as it's laid out.) Here's a link to help with fitday

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=66107

[Kelani]

:yes As long as you start off with a clean induction and continue the suggested path to OWL....you should stay in ketosis. Ketostix should only be used as an indicator that your body is burning fat for fuel. It gives you measurements like small, large, 20, 40 etc as a guideline that people often equate to how deep in ketosis they are. This guideline is misleading. The deepness of color is only indicative to the amount of ketones you are expelling in your urine as previously stated in a member's reply. Also, if you are drinking a lot of water, your ketostix will show up more on the pink side as the ketones in the urine become diluted. The reverse is true if you do not drink a lot of water. The result is a person with a deep purple stick feeling awesome because they think they are burning large amounts of ketones when you may just be dehydrated. It is true that the ketostix cannot decipher whether it is fat burned from your stored fat or simply fat burned from incoming fatty foods. Having said that, the point is its still detecting ketones which means burned fat. This is good because at least you know that the incoming fat you are digesting is immediately burned rather than stored and going through the fatty acid degradation pathway. Eating one meal a day :nono :nono :nono . Atkins or not, eating one meal a day is not recommended. I understand that one loses his appetite on this diet but you must eat something every 4-5 hours at least. To each his/her own but it is imperative that eating regularly scheduled meals be done. Having said all of this, please stay away from the scale (as it is sometimes ur pal and sometimes ur enemy). Do not eat a whole rack of ribs or lamb or three and four cheeseburgers just because you are low carbing. Watch the amount of cheese as you can build up an overgrowth of yeast in your GI track (not good trust me) and please please do not be a slave to that ketostix. Be a slave to 2002 DANDR and you will burn fat efficiently for life! ha forever.

[byugrad]

I am one of those who has only registered on ketostix after I've had a very fatty meal...but yet I've lost 45 pounds so far and have felt the other evidences of ketosis.

I've been reading an interesting book called Living the Low Carb Life. Here's a quote from that book about ketosis:

"Ketosis doesn't cause weight loss. You can easily be in ketosis eating 10,000 calories of fat a day, but you'll never lose any weight that way. Ketosis is simply a by-product of fat burning...There are three ketone bodies [he names them] and the strips detect only two of them which are less than one-fifth of the total ketones produced."

"The vast majority of people can lose weight over time on a low-crb diet by hovering around the border of ketosis...The point is this: if you keep your carbs low enough (and your daily calories reasonable), you will be lowering your insulin levels and breaking down fat. Exactly how low they have to be for you to continue to lose weight is something you will have to experiment with." And we know that this level is our CCLL.