Okay, I'm making the commitment to low-carb. I'm still not 100% certain this is going to work, but I'm really keeping my fingers crossed.

I just finished day 4 of the induction phase of Atkins and am feeling okay about being on this diet so far. I borrowed some Ketostix and have moved out of the "Neutral" zone, but am so far only in the "trace" and "small" amounts of ketosis (I know, baby steps, baby steps!)

Anyway, I've been browsing this forum all evening and want to thank everyone for all the helpful information I've found here. I did read Dr. Atkins' book from cover to cover, but it left quite a few unanswered questions for me, and I was glad to find this forum because I have found the answers to many of those questions.

I just started the atkins myself 2 day's ago, I am so glad to hear your moving right along. the Hidden carb counter is a real life saver Click on low carb tool at the top bar (highlighted in gold) it is a very useful tool, I got suckered into a 6.9 carb per serving snack when the label stated 0 carb 0 Sugar etc. I think I blew my induction . but I learned a tough lesson. be weary of small print
it will get you in the end (literally) Keep in touch and let me know how you do .

That's all you need, MarimbaMom! Ketosis has been compared to pregnancy: you either are or you aren't. So it doesn't matter whether or not you are in trace or heavy; in fact a dark purple on the stix can just mean that you are dehydrated.

Personally, I think the stix are a waste of time and money. Losing weight (and fat) is way more important than changing the colour of a little piece of plastic.

Glad to see you're finding answers to your questions here. Have you looked at Low Carb Tips on the orange bar at the top of the screen? And another good place to see answers to questions you haven't thought of yet is "Hot Links" - a "sticky" near the top of Newbies Questions. It's a collection of previous threads where many common questions are answered.

All the best!

Rosebud