I have not been paying attention on how many carbs I have been eating in a day. I know I have not been eating alot.
My question is how can I tell If I am still losing fat?\
If i get the Keto strips will those tell me if i am losing fat still?
I have been drinking beer here and there so that is where I have gotten confused. I dont want any punishments! LOL

thanks in advanced.

Oh, I don't think anyone here is interested in punishing you, only helping you!!

Have you visited fitday.com? That's a wonderful place to help you keep track of your food and carb counts. Why dont you try it for a few days to get a better idea of what you're consuming? Those carbs can add up quickly even when you think you're being really good!

Ketostix might be a good tool for you. They will tell you if you're still in ketosis or not. A lot of people use them when they're increasing their carbs little by little (according to a plan) to keep them on track. Remember though that you need not be concerned with whether they are light pink or dark purple...only whether or not they show ANY trace of ketones. That means you're in ketosis and still burning fat for energy. If they show "negative" for a day or two in a row you may have to go back to super=low carbing until you get back into ketosis.

You can track your fat loss with a body fat calculator (look under Low Carb Tools or here at http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/fatcent.htm). If you are exercising regularly, the scale could fail as a good indicator of your progress. Taking measurements and tracking your fat loss this way would be better probably.

There are others on this board who LOVE their beer and have a hard time doing without, but it is rather high in carbs....especially regular vs. light beer. You really are better off keeping away from them altogether untiil you are very familiar with your eating patterns and carb counts, then possibly treating yourself once or twice a week to a light beer when you get to the place when you can start increasing your carbs.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Greetings,

Definitely heed TD's advice - it's pretty good.

If you've already established that the ketostix have meaning for you (for some people they just don't) then use them periodically. But tracking your measurements weekly or monthly is probably the best methods. Scales lie. Period. Of course, they aren't really lying (well, they can certainly be inaccurate - especially the digital ones) but they are giving you a number that can be interepretted a lot of different ways and so they are not a very reliable indicator of fat loss. But the measurements, while they CAN be misleading, are far more likely to be meaningful.

And a big second to the recommendation to put beer as a very occasional treat. In addition to the carbs, the alcohol will stop fat metabolism until the alcohol is all metabolized.

Scales don't lie, but they aren't telling the whole truth.
Scales will tell you your TOTAL weight.
This includes the weight of your blood, bones, muscles, water and organ - all of which is NOT fat.
Now during the course of a day many substances including food in the body, excretion (fecal, urine) and even water amounts AND muscle mass can be lost or gained.
Fat can also be lost or gained, but as you can tell now, your regular scale will not measure JUST fatloss.

You CAN get a body lean/fat mass % ratio scale. Here's one of many brands.

http://tanitascale.com/home_scales/tbf531.html

It does tell you if your BODY FAT % alone has changed during the day or from the last time you wieghed. They cost a bit more, but if you REALLY want to know if that WEIGHT your regular scale told you you lost or gained was FAT or if it was urine or sweat or muscle or fecal matter or food intake.

The regular scale DOES tell you your TOTAL weight HONESTLY.
It just doesn't tell you WHICH of you weighs less and WHY.

N

I don't recommend wasting your money on a Tanita or other BIA (Bioelectric Impedance Analyzer) instrument - they REALLY lie. Body fat measurement by BIA is a valid method - IF LOTS of things are done properly and if LOTS of other factors are taken into account including the room temperature and humity and your height and your heritage.

Cheap (relative to the many thousands of dollars a proper set up would cost) BIA scales are notoriously inaccurate and, worse, imprecise. You are primarily measuring your skin resistance which varies all over the place. Far better tracking of changes in body fat percentage can be done by taking your key measurements with a cloth tape. The body fat percentage that results from using those measurements and any of the various formulas around is of questionable accuracy, but if you use the same method over time you will get a pretty good indicator of changes in body fat percentage.