Okay, I'm usually quite strict about staying around 20-30 carbs a day. I've been eating like this since June, though I did take the winter off last year due to major stress.
Anyway, I had a bit of a celebration day for my graduation the other day (Wednesday). I decided not to eat TOO much, but if I'm having a carb day, I'm going to enjoy it.
I had some cake, pizza, and a fair bit of wine. Bad girl, but nothing majorly excessive. Okay, so Thursday morning I was back on induction. I bought a new bottle of Keto Sticks and I have been checking it every day. Nothing. I thought maybe I am drinking so much water that it wasn't showing ketones. So I tested first thing in the morning. Still no change. This is my fifth day on induction, and I hadn't strayed too far to begin with. What's going on? Do you think I messed up my metabloism? Or maybe the Keto Sticks are faulty? I'm getting a little stressed about this one. I've been strictly sticking to less than 20 grams since Thursday morning. Please tell me what you think is up.
Thanks!

Are you losing any weight? I got some keto sticks the other day and according to them (have tested three times, twice at night and once in the morning) I am not in ketosis. However, I've been losing very steadily.

I've read here where people have had a bad batch of sticks, or for whatever reason they were useless. It seems they're very sensitive to moisture in the air and/or on your hands.

I wonder if the Safeway pharmacy will exchange them for a new pack. I didn't keep my reciept. I think I'll wait another couple days and see what happens. I am not losing any weight, but not gaining. I go through periods where I'll lose nothing for a long time. I have been on this woe for a long time and so my weight loss is not as dramatic as before. I was stalled for 3 months or so, and then I did a herbal cleanse and lost 10 pounds and a dress size in less than 2 weeks. Now, I'm back to not losing, even though I am strict and work out with cardio and weights 3-6 days a week.
I have noticed before that if I have a MAJOR binge (which I admit has happened a couple times in the past, but I am not doing that any more) it will take me about 4 days to get back into ketosis. But this time I didn't consume so many carbs. I estimated that it would probably take me about 24 hours of induction to get back into ketosis, or 48 max.
Blah blah blah. I've even cut out cheese and vinegar and all those things that can cause you to stall. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Are you staying right at the 20 carbs? And if so, maybe you can review the things you've been eating just to make sure there aren't any hidden carbs that you aren't counting. Just a thought...

I suggest you do the following:

Increase your calorie intake
Increase your fat intake to be at 70% of total calories
Eat between 15 and 20 gms of carbs
and 25% of proteins.
Drink lots and lots of water

I suggest you review your fitday and check what you have been eating as well as your percentages.

Good luck

Thanks for the response. As for the carb level, I am staying at or below 20 carbs most days. I'm afraid to increase my calorie intake, some days I feel like I eat too much. I think I will check out fit day. Also, I will try increasing the fat and decreasing the protien. I do eat a lot of protien.
I also drink a lot of water, much more than 8 glasses. I will try increasing my fat intake. I know my carb intake is low enough.

I know different people can be different, but keeping your fat intake up is an absolute essential in losing this weight, along with keeping calorie intake up. At my weight and activity level I usually eat from 1500-1700 calories a day with 65-70% fat, 4-5% carbs and the remainder protein. So far this has worked very well for me.

When you set up your FitDay account, click on 'Activities'. You'll find in there what your basal metabolism point is in addition to calories burned for your lifestyle. You can also add all of your activities and see how they affect your overall caloric burn. I was really surprised to see just how many calories I can burn even with a sort of inactive lifestyle (as in I don't work out).

Wow, thanks so much for all of your responses. I think you might be right about the fat. I mean, I eat a lot of fat but I think I probably eat too much protien. I know too much protien isn't good for you, but it's difficult to consume that much fat, don't you find? I eat a lot of eggs and when I eat meat I put lots of butter on it. I'm signed up at fitday.com but I forget my username and password so I am signing up again.
I'll let you know how it goes. Maybe the fat increase will be the answer. I work out a lot and I have a lot of energy so I am sure I burn lots of calories. I'm excited to see what happens now

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/Public...?Owner=TunaMary

Okay, there is my fit day profile but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. I'm still learning how to use the site

Good job, Marie! I think it may be easier for someone like me to get enough fats into my diet because I love cream and I've used butter for years to get away from the trans fat in margarine.

From the looks of your FitDay you most likely need to change the quantities. When you choose your foods the defaults are set often to one cup, so you need to click on that and change it int he drop-down menu. I generally try to add individual ingredients than finding a dish listed that might or might not match what I've been eating that day. I hope you've eaten more today than just a can of salmon!

Also, you have to change the amount of time for your exercising. Default sets it to one minute for each activity, and you need to re-set it.

The whole thing does take a little getting used to, but before long you'll be able to enter everything fairly quickly. Remember, though, that when your list shows carbs it doesn't show net carbs. You need to deduct the amount of fiber (which also shows in the upper area of the food section).

The easiest way for me to add fat is sauces and toppings - add mayo, add butter, make hollandaise from scratch, saute mushrooms in butter and a little cream to put on steak, etc.

What was this herbal cleanse? I have been asking about them and am now looking for a good one. Please share your opinion on these.

You may be suprised how much fat you are actually eating when you start keeping track. Eggs have a great balance between fat and carbs. If you are having beef and pork, both are higher fat. With chicken, have the dark meat and skin as well as the breast.

Use olive oil or butter on your veggies, and experiment with different oils as salad dressings. You might also look into supplimenting with flax seed oil or coconut oil.

You are already close to goal. You probably should be moving through OWL. Sticking to 20g of carbs a day won't teach you the eating habits you'll need to maintain at your goal weight.

The herbal cleanse I did is the Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox. It was great
I also use Renu Life Super Colon Cleanse...I take a few doses of that every weekend as low carbing kind of backs me up.
As for the fact that I'm close to my goal, I understand I need to move through the phases of Atkins, but I am not ready to just yet. My first goal was to get into my old jeans or hit 180 pounds. I fit into them at 200. When I hit 180, I decided I still wanted to lose more weight, and from the looks of my thighs and stomach, I will still want to lose another 10-20 pounds when I reach my goal of 160. So I'm kind of taking it a day at a time. When I start to feel like I'm getting close, then I will move into the other phases. At this point, I really don't know what my goal is. You see, I've ALWAYS been a big girl. I'm thinner now than I was at 12 years old. I really have no idea what my ideal body weight should be.
I've adjusted the exercise on fitday.com.
It's amazing. I don't think I've been eating enough calories! I mean, some days I'm sure I do, but when I plugged everything in today, I saw how little I was really eating. I am going to try to eat more.
Do you really think I'm buring 3000 calories a day? And if so, how much should I be eating. I mean, if I've been eating less calories, you would think I would lose weight more quickly...but then again, my metabolism might be slowing down in an effort to hang on to the calories since I guess I'm not eating enough. I hope I haven't done any permanent damage. I make sure I eat at least something every 4 hours.
Thanks again for all your input, and please, check out my fitday thing and give all the advice you want. I really appreciate it! Hugs
http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/Public...?Owner=TunaMary

So how much is too much? Yesterday I ate 1869 calories and burned 3261 calories. Should I be consuming more calories than that or is that about good?