Keto Stick Issue
 

Ok..I cheated. I took my son to the circus and had a piece of fried dough with powdered sugar. Bad, I know.
Tested myself...keto stick still purple.
This was last night.
Ate normally today. I am still doing 20 carbs a day.
For dinner I had some chicken fingers and french fries. Bad I know..anyways.

Keto stick still purple 6 hours later.

So I am still in Ketosis, but how if I ate all these carbs. I don't understand.

Could my carb tolerance be high or something?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi there Secret,

Ketones can be excreted if you have eaten a fatty meal, are dehydrated, are not eating enough (starving yourself) or if you have drunk alcohol. They can also give a negative result, despite your being in ketosis, if you are drinking lots and lots of water.

Can you tell I think ketostix are a waste of time and money? ;)

I worry more about weight loss than changing the colour of a piece of plastic. They can be a useful tool for some, but it's worth being aware of their inconsistencies.

All the best.

:rose:Rosebud:rose:

Thanks for the info.

I'm going to use the for a while though considering they came 100 in a box, lol.

I think I am just looking for something to justify my cheating.

Rosebud is right, she beat me to it. If you're using them as a way to justify cheating by saying they're still purple, then don't be surprised if the scale retaliates & says you're gaining. Sorry, but now you know. Good luck getting back on track.
God Bless,
Amy-Lynne

Secret,

I use the stix and find them to be a great motivational tool...when they're pink or purple it makes me stick to the WOE even more. I'm not too concerned about whether they can be inconsistent or not 'cause they work for me but I guess this can be said for a lot of aspects of this WOE...to each his own.

Also, a little tip. I know the stix are expensive so I read somewhere that you can cut them in half lengthways...now you've got twice as many and it's not difficult to do.

Suzan

The strips I have bought are 100 for $9.99 and you can't cut them because they have a tip on one end that the urine goes on.

I wish I could cut them.

Actually, according to the Atkins Center, Rosebud is not correct. They say that the sticks are not affected by drinking too much water or dehydration at least. I don't know about the alcohol or fatty foods as I don't believe that was addressed.

I don't know who is right, but I haven't seen any source for backing up the effects of too much water or dehydration (would like to though...this has been passed along all over the web by word of mouth without an apparent solid source)...I've only seen what the Atkins Center said that the sticks are not affected in any way by this.


Anyway...If anyone wants to see these Q & A's I can try to get the link and post it.

That being said...I don't know why you weren't kicked out of ketosis. I wouldn't want to keep pushing the envelope myself...lol.


After almost two weeks of induction, my hubby finally peed on a stick today. It didn't change :( Now he is going to HAVE to read at least the induction chapter because I believe he is getting too many carbs. I think he's eating way to many veggies. At any rate....I guess its back to square one for hubby. I know others say not to worry about the results...but I believe if the stick isn't changing there is a reason.


L

It's from personal experimentation. We also have a few nurses on board who have had plenty of experience with dipping Ketostix in the urine of dehydrated patients, Rosebud being among them.

Karen

i use them as general motivation but am aware that what the scale and the fit of my clothing tells me is a better gauge!

Karen, I understand that, but I would just like some type of scientific backup to this...yanno? I am most certainly not saying I know the answer, because I haven't a clue...just know what the Atkins Center said about it and I only saw that because someone posted questions and answers on another board and that was one of the questions.

That being said...IS there anything to back this up other than personal experience? I would love to see something solid. Whenever the environment isn't controlled, there are too many things that could come into play...too many variables as to what caused what to happen.

I guess it really doesn't matter and isn't that important as to whom is right.


Laura

Interesting thread.

I have a question along these lines. Can you ever be in Ketosis according to the strips, (dark pink/light purple) and NOT be burning fat??

I can promise you the sticks will not work if you dring too much water.

The sticks work much like the budget drug tests work. Drug tests also change color depending on what is in the urine.

If you drink plenty of water, anyone can pass on of those types of drug tests. There is just not enough actual urine in the pee to get a result. They test for this 'washing' of urine by measuring the level of creatine in the urine. If its too low, the test may not count.

The keosticks are very similar.

PS: This may or may not be from personal experience! :p

Thank you...and the PS made me laugh :-)

OK, so, you mean that I can be sort of dehydrated, and NOT burning fat, and register purple? (flip side of that)

I do know you can be DARK purple and not be in Ketosis. Drink some alcohol and check your sticks. WOW, darkest purple you will see.

I too wanted to use the sticks as I love positive reinforcement, but they are just too unreliable.

I'm ditching the stix
 

Despite the fact that my pee is stinky :eek: and I'm losing inches, the sticks are not turning darker than light pink anymore. Never got much past moderate. I do drink lots of water, over 100 oz. daily.

I count my carbs religiously, not going over 20, so I have to be in ketosis, right?

Okay...that being the case, what does it mean when you are drinking tons and tons and tons of water and you still get dark purple on the stick...lol?


L (bowing to the experience of others...lol)

Maybe you are burning more fat that those of us with lighter pink results.

I kinda doubt that.... I'm just curious though. Do the ketosticks help those people who are diabetic if they are so unreliable? These were made for diabetics, right?


L

See my new post - they are not unreliable according to a pharmacist.

So now we can be jealous of the people with dark purple stix!!! :p

keto stix
 

hi everyone, im new to all this and would like to add something about the water issue, i am at the end of the second day of my induction and after drinking 3 pints of water, used one of the keto stix, the result was negative and i was just wondering if im too early to do a test yet or could it have been the water?

shazzy

After only 2 days of Induction you may not have entered ketosis yet; it can take a good 3-4 days for many people to cleanse their body of carbs & start burning fat- some take even longer. You're best bet is to test in the AM before eating or drinking, as far as accuracy goes. As said time & time again don't rely too much on these to measure progress. You're much better off using the scale & a measuring tape to judge progress. Good luck.
God Bless,
Amy-Lynne

That would be fine if pharmacists ever went near patients' urine.

They don't.

Your pharmacist could well have been quoting something he wrote from the ketostix bottles.

As I have indicated elsewhere, as a nurse, I have tested many, many patients' urines over the years, very few if any of whom were low carbing. And I can tell you quite categorically that dehydration can and does create a postive result for ketones.

That does not mean for a second that a dark stick means dehydration. Just be aware that it can mean that.

Ketostix can show that a diabetic patient is in a state of ketoacidosis, but I don't know how much they are used these days. The glucostix (used to measure glucose in urine) have been superceded by testing blood sugars as they(glucostix) were indeed utterly unreliable. (Yet I'm sure the manufacturers would have insisted they were reliable... :rolleyes: )

Finally, let me just reiterate what I meant at the beginning of this thread: Ketostix can be a useful tool for some, but don't place too much credence in them. Worry more about fat loss. And it doesn't matter what colour the stix are - if they change colour at all you are in ketosis.

Hope that helps clear things up.

:rose:Rosebud:rose:

Well I switched to CAD over the weekend which means I am getting carbs during one meal a day.

My keto stick is purple and I am still losing weight.

I really don't get this ketosis thing.

Yes, they were but that was before the advent of home glucose test meeters where you can safely and accurately check your blood glucose in a matter of seconds. Originally the strips were intended to measure both glucose and ketones in the urine and some still do, but even the ADA considers them unreliable and a poor substitute for blood glucose testing.
Besides being affected by what you eat, the strips can also be affected by certain drugs and, as Rosebud pointed out above, dehydration.

Secret, if the stix you are using are like any of the other ones I have seen you can cut them. The ones I have are approximately 1/4 inch wide and 3 to 4 inches long, flat, and made out of a flimsy plastic with a small square of stuff on one end that you pee on......just cut right through the middle of the square thing and up to the other end - you end up with two stix, same length as the original but half the width....having said that you get a deal on the stix. $10.00 for a 100! I pay $9.00 for 50...that's why I cut them in half.

Thank you all for your input on this topic. It certainly backs up a lot of things...especially what was posted from a maker of ketostix. It seems that not all medical professionals are aware of the things that affect the sticks and that is why they are saying otherwise. That makes sense....they can't know everything...lol.

Anyway..it really cleared a few things up for me. Thanks for letting me play devils advocate.

On a side note...Secret...I hope you aren't using these ketostix, and being in ketosis after carbing up as an excuse to eat more carbs. Eventually I believe it will catch up to you if you are.



L

Can I ask you to elaborate on your statement regarding my use of keto sticks?

Of course I use them, for the plain fact to see if I am in ketosis or not. I use no excuses to "carb up".

My diet plan technically calls for as many carbs as I want during my RM meal so long as I balance the protein and the vegetables.

There will be no catching up for me as I am allowed carbs.

You were commenting on eating certain foods that are clearly outside a low carb diet and asking why you remained in ketosis. You later posted about something else that was not low carb that you had eaten and were wondering why the sticks were still showing purple. My comment was that I hoped you weren't excusing cheating because the sticks stayed purple.

My comment wasn't intended to be offensive...just supportive in that sometimes its easy to justify a cheat here and there and I've seen a lot of second and third timers saying that is why they stopped doing Atkins and put back on the weight they had lost.

I understand now that you have switched to another diet. It was my understanding when you originally posted that you were on Atkins.

Don't worry about my comments...lol...you know what you are doing and what's best for you.


L


P.S. Your second post mentioned something about justifying cheating...I think that's where I got the whole train of thought...lol

I have used *many* sticks- sometimes with *every* pee. (LOL)

I am a little confused too... If you eat a fatty meal, or if you drink alcohol, you can get a dark + also can if you take a thermogenic suppliment.

Then the same day you can get a -

How do you know if it's actual ketosis OR remnants from the fat/alcohol??

I don't let the ketostix freak me out. I have been LC for eight weeks and have only turned it purple on one occasion. I don't even know what I had done right..(..probably didn't drink enough water that day) - and I've managed to lose 14 lbs so far.

i wish it was more, but I am commited to this thing for the long haul.