Kjunlad,

Welcome aboard!

I have to echo what others have said:

1) A pound a day is an unrealistic - and unhealthy - weight loss rate for a woman your size. More like a pound a week. The initial weight loss when you start a low carb diet is mostly water as (IMNSHO) your body adjusts your water retention levels to match the electrolyte balance associated with burning ketones instead of burning glucose.

2) You are eating a LOT of things you shouldn't, especially on Atkins Induction. A medium banana has over 20g of sugar. That's more than your entire allowed daily carb intake! And it's SUGAR! Down the road you will be able to have fruits in moderation, but not now. The same for Special K and the like.

I strongly recommend that you don't eat anything that you can't get the nutritional data for and that you track everything you eat for the next week and see what your totals come to. You will find that 20g of carbs lets you eat a lot of green, leafy vegetables - and little else that is not protein/fat.

3) Don't worry too much about the color of the test strips - or even using them. If the color is very dark, you are likely dehydrated. Although I think the ketone levels are generally elevated during the transition from a glucose to a ketone metabolism (I have nothing to support that other than observations of what people have reported here).

The "lesser ketones is better" comes from diets that keep you on a glucose metabolism. When you are on a ketone metabolism, there WILL be ketones in your urine.

4) Have you actually READ the Atkins Book? It sounds like you might be one of the many people that have decided to do Atkins based on what you think Atkins is based on what you have heard. There is so much misundertanding and misinformation about Atkins and Low Carbing, that I strongly recommend you that you get the book and read it, pretty much cover to cover, for yourself.