newbie girl soo confused

[tanglewood]

Hi all - I'm Ange & I'm new here and to low carbing also I'm in desperate need of some advice. (I have also posted this in the excercise forum.)

This is a great site and so many helpfull & freindly people :) :)

Ok so for 16 days I'v been on 20g carbs a day or less - I was a carb junkie before, musesli, oats, rice & more musesli as I thought I needed the carbs to fuel my exercise - but despite eating so called good carbs & sticking to a healthy diet I was always hungry & quite often had big blood sugar drops & loosing the last weight around my belly, hips justwas not happening!

I got some keto stix after a week & have been using them twice a day, they allways read somewhere between light pink & dark pink/purple depending on how much water I'v had. This was good I thought as it means i'm burning fat? I exercise most days including intense weight workouts every other day but have not been doing intense cardio as I'v been worried about burning muscle & my energy levels have been a bit low.

I have been having coffee for the caffine content and the kick it gives me for my workouts but like i said my keto stix have been pink/purple so thought I was still in keto so must be ok. Thing is I fell off the waggon last night I went on a bit of a binge & ate loads of macadamia nuts, then loads of fish, butter, protein shakes (anything I had in the house really) this then ended up with me driving into town & buying 2 chocolate bars & a giant cookie!! then a large hot chocolate! not good at all but what I don't understand is I'v just checked my ketostix (7 hours later) & they are still reading pink/purple I just don't understand at all - doesn't this mean I'm still in keto? I thought if you ate even a smallish amount of carbs your body went straight back to using carbs for energy not fat.

I didnt loose any weight in the 16 days I was eating low carbs but wasn't hugely worried as I'm not too overweight - I have a reasonable amount of muscle but probally 10 pounds of excess fat I really want to drop. I'v been eating lots of protein & lots of fat, untill last night mostly good fats. (is there a ratio for fat/protien I should stick too? keep reading so much different advice)

I'm sorry for the rambling post but am so confused and I'm sitting here trying to fight the urge to go eat more chocolate as I feel like i've blown it now & as I didn't lose any weight anyhow so I'v got nothing to lose by eating more chocolate. :help:

thank you so much for any help or advice.

Angie :)

P.S The reason I thought I had been in keto was becasue of the pink/purple reading on my ketostix - I havn't really noticed a funny smell on my breath but then I'm single so maybe no-one to tell me eh lol. :lol: I hav'nt had the complete lack of hunger or the clearer head that everyone else seems to get? Really am so confused now??? :q:

[mommycakes]

Hi Angie
Actually your post was quite humorous :). I also don't have too much to lose (20 to 30 lbs). I just started this woe seriously on Dec 27th. Before that I was doing the l/c but also drinking wine every day. That stopped Christmas Day but then of course I had to have dressing and mashed potatoes. Sooo, I'm hoping the weight will start to come off but I'll be patient. How old are you if you don't mind me asking? I'm 51, so there's part of the reason right there. Keep at it! One thing I've noticed is that the weight lifting has more impact now that I'm l/cing. I first noticed it in my upper arms. They're solid...haha. Now if only my stomach would follow suit. Leah

[Kisal]

Hi, Ange, and welcome to the forums! I highly recommend that you buy one of Dr. Atkins' books and read it from cover to cover! When you're done, read it again! You can find used copies of his books very inexpensively at used-book stores and many thrift or second-hand type stores. I haven't checked lately, but Amazon.com used to sell them for 1 cent (plus shipping, of course.) You can often find them on eBay, too!

There is a huge amount of information in Dr. Atkins' books that is not online! You would be doing yourself a big favor by getting one of his books and following the plan as he wrote it.

Best wishes to you! :wave:

[tanglewood]

Hi Leah - I'm 32

I can see my post is actually quite funny when I read it back :lol: seriously though I'v never been so confused in my life, there is so much conflicting advice out there especially were L/C & serious exercise occur and also the fat/prot ratio needed to preserve muscle but get & stay in ketosis.

my stix are neutral now though and I have starting LC again today so am going to see how quickly I can get into keto - going for a run in a min while A, i'v still got energy from all that chocolate & B, to use up my glucose stores as quickly as poss therefore switching to fat for fuel faster - well thats the theory anyway :)

I am going to try and get a copy of the most recent atkins book
tommorow when the shops re-open & I will be reading it from cover to cover at least 5 times!! :lol:

happy new year to everyone

[Kimfort]

Hi Tanglewood,
You do sound confused and the book will help - you can also try and get a copy at a local library.
As to your original question, I would say you were in ketosis, then after the cookie/chocolate you would be out of ketosis - it just hadn't shown up yet. You probably just had ketones in your urine from when you were onplan. Now that your last post says your stix was negative that makes sense.
I'm surprised you didn't lose any weight in the first 16 days. I know you said you are under 20g carbs a day, but you may be getting in some carbs you don't know about that is screwing you up. If you want to post a couple days worth of food you've been eating people will point out hidden carbs you might not know about.
Anyway, Happy New Year and good luck!
Kim

[WH1968]

Howdy and welcome..

I totally agree.. get the book and read it... you'll get the understanding of how this program works so you can create your success..

Glad you are here..

T-man

[tanglewood]

Hey Kim thanks for that.

OK so I was pretty much eating tinned fish like sardines, tuna, pilchards - eggs - oils like olive, canola, sesame & hemp, a few nuts but I was pretty carefull not to have too many and a bit of salad - no oinions just the green stuff.

I was having a couple of coffees a day though - no milk 1 sweetener - I have read that coffee can contain carbs but this is really hard as they are not listed on the jar etc - I can't belive that plain coffee can have that many carbs in. I'v tried searching for the carb content of coffee but everywhere seems to have a different opinion, am going to try without the coffee this time though :agree: have got some caffine tabs though as i really need the kick to get me to the gym whilst on this lc diet.

Thing is as my keto stix were always reading mid pink/purple so doesn't that mean I must have been in ketosis therefore I must not have been going over my carb limit so I don't know why I didn't loose any weight. I'm going to watch my calories more this time and make sure I defo don't go over 1800 a day and see if this makes any difference.

thanks so much for your feedback on this, I really apreciate the information. :thup: