Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

[Georgiana]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

The thing about ketosis, the strips only turned light pink. I thought maybe it was because I workout, but I take off Sundays, so I tried testing on Sunday after lazing around. I still get the same result. Lately, however, I've barely gotten pink, and sometimes it's negative. This has me really confused. How can I possibly not be in ketosis while eating less than 20 grams of carbs per day? I even went online and ordered the liquid sucralose for my tea to cut out the fillers in the splenda packets.

The ketostix only measure one type of ketone, acetoacetate, and only the amount your body doesn't need and therefore spills out the excess into urine. If you are using (most of) the ketones for energy, the stix will not change color or they'll only turn light pink. But this does not mean you are not in ketosis.

Are you experiencing any of the physical signs of ketosis, like decreased appetite, more energy, nasty breath, metallic (or just different...) taste in your mouth, weird smelling urine and/or sweat?

[whiteisle]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

Oh gosh, that cream cheese is my worst vice now! To be honest, I thought the fat fast thing would be just fine by me because you can eat cream cheese 5 times a day. But, I have a feeling that would get old by the 2nd day. So, it might be the cheese...or jello. Or both.

[whiteisle]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

The ketostix only measure one type of ketone, acetoacetate, and only the amount your body doesn't need and therefore spills out the excess into urine. If you are using (most of) the ketones for energy, the stix will not change color or they'll only turn light pink. But this does not mean you are not in ketosis.

Are you experiencing any of the physical signs of ketosis, like decreased appetite, more energy, nasty breath, metallic (or just different...) taste in your mouth, weird smelling urine and/or sweat?

I don't think so. I did at the very beginning- the bad taste in the mouth and bad breath for sure- I noticed that. I wonder if something has me out of ketosis. Could the cream cheese do it? I eat it 5 out of 7 days a week, in the evening. Usually about 2 ozs with Davinci syrup, or liquid sucralose, with a tsp of cocoa.

[JulieB]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

Are you sticking with the 3 sweeteners or less per day rule? You are having it in tea & in the evening with cream cheese...I'm not sure if you are having it otherwise or how much tea you are drinking...

[whiteisle]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

Are you sticking with the 3 sweeteners or less per day rule? You are having it in tea & in the evening with cream cheese...I'm not sure if you are having it otherwise or how much tea you are drinking...

I have the liquid sweetener twice per day. And I thought that would help- to cut out the carbs in the packets by using the liquid.

[Georgiana]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

I don't think so. I did at the very beginning- the bad taste in the mouth and bad breath for sure- I noticed that. I wonder if something has me out of ketosis. Could the cream cheese do it? I eat it 5 out of 7 days a week, in the evening. Usually about 2 ozs with Davinci syrup, or liquid sucralose, with a tsp of cocoa.

I doubt... But the bad breath disappears after a while on the diet, so that might be the reason why you don't feel it anymore.

Forgot to add that stix will also show a lighter color if you are drinking a lot of water.

I took a closer look to your menu... What is the fat percentage in it? It seems a bit lower in fat than 65%.
I would eliminate any sweeteners for a while, until you get things moving again. I have an issue with aspartame (and maybe cyclamate, but I'm not convinced about this one), which causes my weight loss to stall. You could have a problem with any of the sweeteners you are eating and then you'll have to find one that works best for you. For me Stevia is okay, although I still get a cephalic response if I eat more than 1-2 servings of it.

Oh, and all sweeteners are limited to 3 servings per day, regardless of their carb count.

[ziggy]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

Thanks for the encouragement. I am holding my breath, not going back to fad dieting. I actually have never eaten this much food in my life (steak!!!)...well since I hit puberty and started dieting. But I really don't understand what causes people to stall for so long. I really think there's something to this fat/protein ratio. Protein is converted into glucose in the liver with about 58% accuracy, but fat is not. So, it makes sense to me to lower the protein and increase the fat. That coupled with the caloric restriction for up to 5 days should force the body into ketosis.

where you said
( I actually have never eaten this much food in my life (steak!!!)

with all that exercise and healthy eating do you think your body is just gaining muscle and loseing fat at the same rate?

along time ago with atkins i whent down 100 pounds of weight from 330 to 230 with just cardio but i still never looked that good

then i started going to the gym for about 2 years now with cardio and ofcourse atkins and i have stay'd the same weight 230 pounds but i look and feel ALOT better and can lift extremely heavy weights unlike when i started i could lift next to nothing

so the point is im up about 50 pounds worth of muscle and down 50 more pounds of fat since going to the gym so the same thing could just be happening to you

maybe sooner or later your muscle growth will slow down and your fat loss will remain the same and then finally you will see a little weight loss on your scale but really if your weight is staying the same then you should be looking at how good you look and not at your weight if you look and feel alot better then you prob have lost fat and gained muscle

[Slapshot]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

with all that exercise and healthy eating do you think your body is just gaining muscle and loseing fat at the same rate?

I highly doubt it. In most mere mortals, it takes weeks/months to gain just a few lbs of muscle. A pound of muscle a month for a female, with extremely intense weight training (which doesn't seem the case here), sounds about right.

[Stakk]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

It's going slow for me too But I stay pretty well into ketosis so that one's got me confused... Good luck to you Don't give up- It sounds like you are giving it 110%

[msanjelpie]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

I will then follow the plan as Dr. Atkins outlined and increase my calories up to 1200, while keeping the fat intake higher than the protein intake.

What have your daily calorie counts been? 1200 is way low...

It may be that 20 carbs is your current CCLL. You may have to lower your carb count to 15 carbs per day to see if that is the case...

If you lower your carbs to 15 and up your fat percentage to 70% it won't be as drastic as the fat fast, but it may be just enough to make your weight start to budge...

Do you enter everything you eat into a program like fitday.com?

My mother had to do the 15 carbs/70% fat in order to start losing again... because she wasn't able to exercise at all, it turned out that 20 carbs was her CCLL. She gave up after 2 months though because she was 'losing too slow'... I wish she would have stuck with it...

[Neverquit]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

Fat fast? Go ahead and try it! A few days won't hurt! I am perplexed for you regarding your lack of weight loss. When I don't lose, I usually decide it is simply because I eat too much - I should be grateful I'm not gaining!

Apparently, the taste of sweet can kick off an insulin cascade - it doesn't actually have to be sugar. Getting rid of sweet things could help.

I'm wondering if you developed gestational diabetes? That's usually a good predictor of your metabolic resistance - I think. I was borderline with my son. I have a very strong family history of type II diabetes - but I have tried to stay ahead of the game. I don't consider myself to be seriously metabolically resistant.

In the end - if I wasn't losing and felt I needed to kick start the process because I was in a hurry, and if I felt I had the willpower (NEVER!) to get through a fat fast for 3 to 5 days I would jump on it. From the sound of your dieting past, I don't think it could make your problems worse.

Of course, there is that other option of moving through the rungs...... I hear this really has helped some people start up weight loss after a stall on extended induction. Maybe try that first for a couple weeks and then move into the fat fast if that doesn't work?

Also - I work out with weights and do cardio too. Those darn strips hardly ever change color for me! It's so infuriating! I get all excited if one of them actually turns obviously pink! For the most part they are somewhere between the "no ketone" color and the "trace" color. Don't know why I bother!

Keep us posted and good luck!

[hopejoy]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

I sympathize with your dilemma...
How about trying 2 a day work outs to see if that would increase your metabolism. The second workout doesn't have to be that long... say 20 minutes of aerobic activity... also sprints in between walking, you know give yourself a push physically by doing something new to kick your body into higher gear???... just a thought.
please keep us posted on when the whooshi arrives. I'll bet it's just around the corner. Good job on sticking to this for so long. Excellent!
liz

[whiteisle]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

Thanks for all the responses! As far as the suggestions about working out, I doubt I have gained any muscle. I was actually a personal trainer for about 10 years, and a very good personal trainer; there are a lot of duds out there. I have weight trained and done cardio pretty religously, and without a change in my current routine, I doubt I gained any muscle.

I actually went ahead and started the Fat Fast yesterday. I did this after reading an interview on Jimmy Moore's blog, Livin' La Vida Low Carb, with Dr. Salerno. He worked with Dr. Atkins in the past, and did a lot of work with him on the Fat Fask/Kekwick diet. He uses it himself, even though he's not metabolically resistant, and puts many people on it at his clinic. He does it for 20 days, though, not 3-5. He doesn't see where it is dangerous. So, I'm giving it a try (the 3-5 day route, that is). I weighed this morning and have lost 3 lbs., and the ketostik actually turned purple this morning!!! I can't say that I'm not thinking about food a lot, but I'm not really hungry either. So far, it's not that bad.

I plan on posting another question today about protein to fat ratio...I look forward to everyone's helpful insights.

[msanjelpie]

Re: Lengthy, but I need help! Pretty Please

What exactly did you eat yesterday? Curious minds want to know...