Not in ketosis
 

I've been doing atkins for a few months, and I switched to the 6 week cure 1 week ago. I just did a ketone test, and showed neutral.

I had 2 zero carb shakes so far today and a few glasses of water. I also did some weight training for 30 minutes about 1.5 hours ago. Last night had a mayo, bacon and egg salad. Thoughts??

I cannot imagine a zero carb shake unless it was a meat shake! What was in it?

Here is what I'm drinking:

http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/...&ci_sku=IO-1032

Supplement Facts
Serving Size 1 LEVEL SCOOP (26G)
Servings Per Container 36


Amount Per
Serving
% Daily
Value

Calories
90
N/A*

Cholesterol
5 Mg
1%

Sodium
60 Mg
3%

Potassium
120 Mg
3%

Protein
23 Gm
46%

Calcium
0
15%

Phosphorus
0
8%

Magnesium
0
6%

* Daily value not established
Other Ingredients:
Whey protein isolate, natural and artificial flavors, soy lecithin, vanilla bean powder, acesulfame-K, sucralose. A milk-derived protein; Promina brand; ultrafiltered and undenatured; includes beta lactoglobulin, alpha lactoalbumin, glycomacropeptides, immunoglobulin, b.s. albumin, prostease peptone, lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase.

I add a little bit of coconut milk or cream (tablespoon), water, ice and BCAA powder (half teaspoon)

Well, that's basically just a protein shake.
There has to be another reason for you not being in ketosis...
Either your stix are bad (which is a possibility) or you are getting carbs somewhere...

Could you post more menus of what kind of foods you've been eating for the last week? or at least the past few days?

I had the bacon, egg, mayo and lettuce salad the last 2 nights. Tonight I had a chicken leg, with natural (no sugar/additives)
sausage cooked with a little celery and chicken stock.

During the day I have the 3 shakes described above.

The only other additions are caffeine/sugar free tea with a splash of cream/coconut milk. I've been in ketosis a long time... not sure what is happening.

Only other thing I can think of is antibiotics - I had strep so I had to take antibiotics for 5 days.

Soy, artificial flavors, chemicals. I would drop that and eat real food.

Another thing..
That just does not look like enough food to me. Why only shakes during the day?
You may want to start using MyPlan or Fitday and log your foods. Get a good idea of how many calories and percentages of protein/fat/carbs you are getting.

As far as not being in ketosis.... I would check the carbs in your sausage, bacon (because they are processed meats) and coconut milk.
Also, if your sticks are turning ANY shade of pink...you are in ketosis. It doesn't have to be dark.

I never spill ketones myself. Not even on zero carb. I guess I just use 'em up!

I'm on the six week cure - weeks 1 & 2. Which is 3 shakes and 1 meal. The color is completely neutral. I'm taking a slew of new vitamins and minerals, maybe that is affecting the chemical reaction on the strips. I guess I'll wait it out.

I've heard the same from others Nancy, but even as late as last week I was turning my strips pink. :(

klow - i'm all about real food, too.

But, I like the stuff I've been reading by the Eades. Even though I am in my 20s, I still wanted to give this a shot to 'clean out my liver.'

That's not a helpful comment when the OP said she was following the Eades' 6 Week Cure plan.

I'm seeing this a lot around the forum lately and I'm tired of it. We should be respecting each others' decisions on what plan we choose, and not sell our own. Even if what s/he is doing sounds wacky or all wrong for him or her, s/he should give a plan or strategy a fair shot before plan-hopping.

Well the good news is I'm down 1 lb this morning :)

bottoms up! I'll check the sticks again when I'm done with the shake phase.

Ah... sorry, I did not realize your plan was 3 shakes and 1 meal. I'm not familiar with Eades.

Hmmm. Like NancyLC, I was going to suggest that maybe your body had simply become more efficient at using the ketones, since you were low carb for quite some time before starting the 6 week cure. But if you were turning the strips pink only a week ago, that is a bit unusual.

I think you may have a good point about suspecting your recent need for antibiotics may have something to do with your lack of spilling ketones. Recently, I had food poisoning and I ate almost nothing except broth for a week. There is NO WAY I wasn't metabolizing fat, because I was basically starving but was also quite dehydrated. Yet, I didn't spill any ketones in the urine. Food poisoning and antibiotics share a common bad side-effect: they disrupt the natural healthy bacteria in the gut, and this can dramatically alter your digestion as well as your gut permeability to nutrients I wound up taking a course of probiotics and things returned to normal, including the ketones. I wonder if it might just take a little time for things to return to normal for you. Don't know enough about the 6 week cure to say whether or not a course of probiotics would be helpful or whether it would be permissible on the plan.

Maybe you should post something on the Eadses site or send an email inquiry to them.