Hi Anne-Marie
What kind of cardio were you doing? The first few days of induction are fairly tough. I had NO ENERGY at all for about the first week. Its all about the amount of carbs that we are taking in versus what we need to do a work-out.

20g of carbs is NOT enough to sustain a intense weight lifting like you are doing (pyramid). Take it from me-I know. I was using Atkins menus for the past 5 months and lost 50 lbs. I decided to switch to Body for Life. I NEEDED to increase my carbs. There was no way I could do that training and onlly have 20g carbs. Just remember that when you increase your carbs, to do so by more veggies, fruit or whole wheat bread if needed. You may want to read WHAT PLAN IS RIGHT FOR ME in the right hand corner of the forum. If you are quite active, you may want to give BFL a shot! Nat has posted a wonderful thread on doing Body for life with a low carb twist--but we eat 100g carbs a day-not 20!

By the way, Ketosis and ketoacidosis are different things. Being on day 3 of Atkins, you are in ketosis. You will excrete these either by urination or your breath-that is why sometimes we get such horrible smelling breath
Carbs we eat usually are converted to glucose, and eventually energy. Because you are limiting the carbs, 3 days now, your body is pulling from fat stores. It will break it down and ketone bodies CAN be used by the brain and other tissues for energy.

Ketoacidosis is usually associated with Type 1 diabetics. It gets confused a lot (especially by those who hate Atkins way of eating) but its not the same. All people need energy. Insulin is usually a "monitor" for the body as to how much blood glucose is around and available. In the Type 1 diabetic, insulin is not present at all due to probs with the pancreas and receptors for the insulin. Therefore, because it is not available to regulate the levels of glucose, it thinks there is none around so it starts to break-down fat cells. It breaks it down at a very fast rate since the brain needs energy and what happens is ketone formation is VERY rapid. Dehydration also occurs and then sodium and potassium are lost because the body pees a lot to try and get rid of excess glucose. From this, high blood acid levels occur and the acid/base balance becomes disrupted because the body cant read that it doesnt need to break down these stores. ***If these same people are given insulin or those of us who are "normal" and can make insulin on our own, this would never happen because the insulin/glucagon ratios would regulate each other.***


Hope this helps a bit. There is also other info about calcium, etc in the supplement section of the forum. I dont like to mess with any type of calcium supplements because it controls so many processes in the body-that is just me. Please check out that forum

Welcome!
Vicki