Hello...

I have been on the Atkins diet for about a month now and I am doing pretty well. I lost 11 pounds during induction and am in the OWL phase. I had a cheat meal of chinese food last week and after that went right back to the diet. The problem now is ever since I cheated my Ketostix are doing weird things. This whole week I have been following the diet to the "T" but for the last 2 days I have been testing negative and have no clue why????? I have not been using splenda and have been eating the way I was before "the cheat" But I am still negative. I am eating some peanuts during the day, but just a couple handfuls. Could this be the reason I am tesing negitive? ( By the way...before I cheated I was eating nuts and testing fine) I am getting so frustrated...now I don't even want to do it anymore because despite my strictness...I am still testing NEGATIVE!!!!!!!
HELLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi! I'm Lynda and I totally understand your frustration! The last time I did Atkins (a couple of years ago) I quit because of my frustration with those Keto sticks...I mean they're great when they turn dark purple, but when you know you've been SO good and you get NOTHING it's very discouraging! For that reason, I paid special attention to the section the the New DR that says that even though the sticks may not turn, you could still be burning fat. He talks about things that can affect the color. SOOOOO, this time around I'm not even using the sticks. I'm not having a problem with the diet when I just focus on the great food and trust that it will work, and FORGET ABOUT THE STICKS

I also vote for skipping the sticks. After all, there are plenty of people who are on other programs, such as Schwarzbein, Protein Power, etc who aren't (necessarily) in ketosis but are still losing weight.

Also note that you're fairly close to your goal, so you're not going to burn off pounds at the same rate you would if you had 100 lbs to lose.

Take it easy... enjoy!