Hi, I am a newbie to the Atkins WOE (love it so far!) and I have to admit I am terribly confused by what I have read about ketosis on the internet. Some people say the stick turns purple whether you are burning dietary fat or body fat, others say you only have ketosis if your body is burning its own fat.

Please, could someone let me know which is right?

I've been thinking about this because, I lost 10 lbs. in six days on induction, then the last 4 days, zip - no change in the scale at all.

I am starting to worry perhaps I am eating too many calories?

I've been eating, 3 large hamburger patties per day (probably about 1 1/2 lbs. of meat maybe?) and two celery sticks with cream cheese, and an ounce or two of cheddar cheese. Also some cream with my tea, and two cups of salad greens with a liberal dose of regular dressing (but low carbs, of course).

That sounds like a lot of food, right? Maybe I am eating too much? But I am only eating when I am hungry, and just enough to not be hungry any more....?

Thank you, I am sorry if these are dumb questions!

Love, Leora

You can only be in ketosis when your body is burning fat. However...those little pee sticks can turn purple from either your body burning your own fat or dietary fat. They can even change color when your body is burning alcohol for fuel. Because they don't exclusively test for burned body fat, I personally don't consider them a reliable tool for low carbing. Others, however, need that visual comfirmation that they are in ketosis. A much better gauge is: are you losing weight and/or inches? Are your clothes getting bigger? If the answer is yes and you are keeping your carbs around 20 grams of carb per day, you are certainly in ketosis whether those sticks turn color or not.




This is very, very normal. 10 pounds in 6 days is quite a shock to your system and many people report an initial quick loss and then nothing more for a week or two until their bodies adjust to that first loss of pounds. Average weight loss on induction is about 10% of what you need to lose and then about 5% of what you still need to lose each month after that, so it seems that you are already well ahead of the game.




That doesn't seem like too much to me, except that you could easily stand to have a few more servings of veggies. Since your weight loss is going well at that level, I wouldn't suggest cutting back. Stick with it for a few more weeks and see what happens.

Hi, Lisa N, hugs! Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to reply to me and having the patience to answer what probably seemed like a dumb question to an old hand at this low carb stuff!

I have to admit, I was checking this forum like every five minutes hoping for an answer - sheesh, obsessive, aren't I? Anyhow, I was so glad to see that you answered, and even more happy when I read through your whole answer!

I was soooo worried that I had somehow started doing something wrong or something - like maybe i was eating too much meat/fat? But to be honest, I am actually leaving myself a little hungry most of the day. I am consciously trying to eat a bit less than I really want to eat, just to try to kind of make sure I am not overeating, even on the allowable foods.

Thank you for the reassurance that I seem to be still on track, and that this is a common thing, to come to a plateau after an initial large weight loss. I guess my body just has to kind of readjust now?

Okay, I will keep doing what I am doing, and hopefully in a week or two the scale will move a bit again!

Thank you again so much!

I love this WOE anyway just for how it makes me feel, but I have to admit I am kind of sick and tired of being fat and I look forward to being a healthier weight again - I guess I was kind of hoping that I would continue to lose 2 lbs. a day...I know, Iknow, that's really silly. But I was hoping, to be honest....

Hope you have a super weekend!

Love, Leora

I hate to burst your bubble, Leora, but this is not a quick weight loss plan for most people. Patience and persistance are the name of the game and not tinkering too much with something that is working hoping to speed things up.
With only 27 more pounds to lose, the rest may come off very slowly but in a way, that's a good thing. You need to give your body a chance to keep up with the loss of pounds; your skin needs to be able to stretch back slowly and the supporting muscle and ligament tissue as well. Weight that is lost more slowly is far more likely to stay off than weight that is lost very quickly. Losing at a slower pace also gives you the time to learn the rules of your new WOE (way of eating) and get comfortable with them as well as learning what does and doesn't work for your body.
With such a good loss on induction, don't be tempted to stay there for too long before slowly increasing your carbs; you want to move into ongong weight loss and learn where your critical carb level for losing (CCL) and critical carb level for maintainance (CCM) are before you get to your goal so you'll know where you need to be to maintain.
Happy low carbing!

Thank you so very much, Lisa N! You are so cool! Thanks for being so good to me! I'm so happy when I see your reply to my posts!

Okay, so I have to be patient with myself?

It's just that I get nervous because I'm not used to eating this much "bad" food - what I mean is, food I used to think of as bad? There's still a part of me that thinks if I eat meat and cheese and that sort of thing even in reasonable quantities that I will gain tons of weight.

And it's sort of hard - I mean, I don't really know if I'm eating too much or not? I'm staying a little hungry - but not terribly so.

Because I guess we still have to kind of watch overall calories to a certain extent, even on low-carb, right?

So I'm thinking - okay, if I eat a pound of hamburger a day, and 4 ounces of cheese along with the allowable salad greens and some low-cal lemonade, does that mean I am eating too much? It doesn't seem like a lot, when I eat it. I mean, I am never stuffed and actually often am still a little bit hungry here and there.

But is it too much? Or just right? Or...? I know I will want to add more carbs in a few days when I move into the OWL - I will add more salad greens and maybe some nice treats like steamed asparagus (yum!) and an avocado.....

I think I've been eating in such a "weird" way for so long I don't know what the right way is. I always used to just sort of starve myself (fast) when I wanted to lose weight, and then pig out when I wasn't losing weight. When I was younger, I would only allow myself one meal per day, but at that meal I ate a lot of calories (mostly sugar, sigh).

So you can see why I'm not certain if I'm eating the right amount or not!

Love, Leora

Leora...

On induction, I wouldn't worry too much about calories except to make sure that you are eating enough and not starving yourself. Eat when you are hungry and eat until you are satisfied, but not stufffed. Get your 20 grams of carb per day (cutting them lower isn't going to help you loose any faster) and get them mostly from veggies on the allowed list for induction.
If you're not sure how you are doing with calories, etc...there is a free website called www.fitday.com that can help you track what you eat throughout the day and give you all the breakdowns on fat, protein, carbs, calories and fiber. All you have to do is register and put in what you ate that day.
It's hard to get out of the mindset that fat is bad, especially after 20+ years of being told that, but on this plan, fat is your friend. Just stay away from transfats and hydrogenated fats...they are definitely NOT your friend. It doesn't appear that you are eating too much. If anything, you could have a bit more veggie and fat. Fat is what keeps you from feeling hungry in between meals or snacks. Also make sure that you are drinking plenty of water (only water counts here, not anything else); it's important for overall health and also is needed for fat metabolism. It's also important to eat regularly; go no more than 5-6 waking hours without eating at least a little something and no skipping meals.

Leora-

Lisa is an excellent source of information, isn't she?

I just wanted to address this quote above. I went through the SAME thing. We have been so brainwashed by the whole low fat, low calorie idea that it is so hard to break out of it. I was terrified but excited when I started Atkins. I was sure the scale would go even higher. Then I got scared to go off induction and move onto OWL. I just kept thinking the other shoe would drop. It hasn't so far!

This mentality didn't go away for me until I had lost nearly 20 pounds. Now I trust that it will work, but not at the speed I would sometimes like it to. Once I started really going through all the information, reading the Atkins book, and reading posts by people like Lisa I realized how much sense this whole thing makes. I obviously was not getting enough protein before this-as I would shrink in inches, but not lose weight as I gained needed muscle tissue.

As long as I keep doing what I am supposed to do-I know I will succeed. There hasn't been a week where I haven't lost something. Sometimes it is weight-more often it is inches lost somewhere. I measure several areas of my body-and I can usually find someplace that is a little smaller-even if it is only my wrist.

Leora99:
read your stuff and felt it was me that wrote it... Just want to say
that it's possible...Be strong and patient...and stick to this woe...
no matter what !!!!!
We're all here for you!!!!
ciao,
mamasita

Wow, thanks so much for the encouragement and reassurance, guys! I weighed 156 today - down a pound - so I am happy again, LOL! I am going in the right direction!

Love, Leora