Hey, I am not perfect. I haven't been exercising as much as i should. Other than that, I have been pretty perfect.
The first week I lost nothing and couldnt get near ketosis.
Clearly resistant, I did the fat fast and on the second day I was in Ketosis and life was grand, I lost 3 pounds and I was happy as a clam. Started adding in PROTEIN not even carbs, and stayed in ketosis. I was confident.
Now I am starting third week and I weighed myself and I have gained back the 3 pounds and I am NOT in ketosis. Not even a little. "Negative" on the strips.
How could I fall out of ketosis when I haven't eaten a single carb?
I drink tons of water, ate a hard boiled egg for breakfast, had shwarma (roasted turkey from a spit) for lunch, at some chicken and beef kababs for dinner and a atkins candy bar for dessert.

My friends are all doing this diet and losing scads of pounds, only I am going no where.

help!?

TIA

There is a possibility that the strips have expired (they do stop working properly 6 months after the bottle is opened), or maybe moisture go into the bottle, etc.

Don't be so frustrated. Are you having any other signs of ketosis -- "acetone" breath, loss of appetite?

Also, it is not good to have ZERO carbs. You still need vegetables at least. Getting fewer than 20 gms of carbs is not going to increase your weight loss.

How much is "tons" of water?

Write back and let us know more!

K...

-the strips bottle is the same new bottle I was using the days before, expiration april 2005, ordered from Atkins. I am careful to close it fast.

No carbs is from the fat fast.

There was some tomato with my salmon last week and I stayed in ketosis. There was some onion in the meat patties last week and I stayed in ketosis.

There are about 2 netcarbs in each of the candy bars, and I ate a bunch of those.

I am not doing anything differently than i did last week.

Tons of water is at least the 8 glasses and I guess often 4 or so glasses more.

I do feel fine and I do look better, although I didn't use a tape measure.
No acetone breath, no loss of appetite.

I understand the scale may not reflect the changes, and I understand I might lose a bunch later, what I dont understand is how I could also be in Negative ketosis!

I would consider that Atkins bar the culprit. It may say only 1-2 net effective carbs, but it's probably got up to 18 carbs in the form of sugar alcohols, which everybody seems to react to in a different way.

I brought the bars back onto the menu and stayed in ketosis- although yesterday I could have had too many.

if that is the case, then would that blow me out of ketosis- and what do I have to do to get back in it?

Fat fast again?

thanks!

how many bars are you having per week and are you still on induction. the bars can knock you right out of ketosis. i really dont suggest you having a bar every day. i think the bars really should be used to get you over a hump every once in awhile.

I think I might know what is going on...

I think I fell out of ketosis because I waited way too long to eat, then ate too much one day.

I went back on fat fast and was getting purpler on the strips Monday... (heading into ketosis again)

Then I got a whopper of bad news last night and it made me blue, so I ate a couple of the bars and I overate big time today.

Apparently overeating will stop ketosis too.

I feel better knowing what it is that blew me out of ketosis.

I also got some much needed good news today.

I will do better tomorrow, do fat fast if i have to to get into ketosis again.

Does this sound right?

Thanks all!

coming in late to this but just wanted to say that the guy who owns the kebab shop by my house told me that shwarma and doner kebabs usually have breading to help bind them and sugars for added taste and to help "brown" the meat.

Just for the record, your liver can and will make three different types of ketones from fatty acids. However the urine testing sticks are only capable of detecting one type, not the other two. The sticks are a guide only ... if you're doing everything right and getting a negative reading, this is the likely "problem". Have a read through this post .. it will explain a lot about the ketone sticks.

Meal skipping, and then eating the bulk of your daily food late in the day will cause stalled weight loss and even gain. Especially skipping breakfast and lunch, or just eating a teensy breakfast. Your body will detect that it's not getting enough energy and protein from food when it needs it most during the day, so it will slow down your metabolism to compensate. Slowed metabolism means less fat-burning and no weight loss. Then food that you eat later in the day will be stored, since you're generally not as active in the evenings. And you can bet it will be stored as FAT.

Try to have a good breakfast, with at least 20g protein every day. And limit snacking and grazing at night.


hth,

Doreen

From looking at your menu, I don't think your getting enough fat. I think you should just try upping your fat before trying the fat fast again. If you were losing weight on the fat fast, Atkins says to go from that. To not stay on the fat fast, but to start raising your fat intake.

Smurf- THANKS for the shwarma info- I will check with my place. It is a kosher restaurant but still, they might be doing the same thing.

Doreen- everything you say is totally right. I have to make 3 meals a day a priority- and I have been letting that get away from me. I dont understand how the body can store the food as fat if it is protein and fat with no insulin around to convert it. (Of course if the shwarma has sugar or breading that would explain that.) I can't seem to stay away from eating at night. Would that alone blow it?

Shadow tail- I tried, I really tried to stay on the fat fast but it is true- eating fat all the time gets really gross.
Plus I was not getting that loss of appetite thing, so I was just eating all the time.

All- I had a crisis over the weekend. On Friday I called the Atkins Center in the morning, since I live only downtown from the center uptown. All I got was voicemail and the ONE person in charge of new patients was not available live. I left a voicemail around 11am. By 330, no one had returned my call so I called again and guess what- they close at 330pm and only had an answering service for "emergencies". As you can imagine I was really upset.

Food had become my enemy, nothing was "safe" to eat, everything I was doing was wrong... I think a bunch of you know what I mean. I actually stood in the grocery store not knowing what to buy. It stunk!

Then, I got sick. I woke up in the middle of the night with one of the "bugs" that is going around. Just a cold/flu thing but in my case it was the end of the line. I have not caught a cold in 3 years because I eat fresh grapefruit or fresh oranges every day. (I know it was three years because my cold medicines had expired.) Natch I had stopped and replaced my vitamins with Basic 1 and 3 from Atkins, but for at least some of us, (and likely most if not all) vitamins from a bottle cant do the job that vitamins from fresh food can do. I was taking the psyillum capsules to get past the constipation, taking pills all day.

I had to decide that my health comes first, I can't afford the down time from colds and flus, and I dont want to tell you what was going on with the constipation.

BUT

While I was sick, I reread my Montignac books. I see now the subtle but significant differences in these methods. I had lost weight on Montignac before years ago (the <A HREF="http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/goldenshot.html">one golden shot</A>) and became frustrated after two months on it this year with no weight loss. I switched to Weight Watchers for a month, where i had had success last year (20 pounds) but I couldn't keep to all the measuring and I was snapping people's heads off and I wasn't losing weight there either this year. That brought me to Atkins. I have two friends presently who are dropping the pounds successfully on Atkins, I remember reading Stevie Nicks saying God Bless Dr. Atkins, in fact everyone around me seems to have a sister or a husband or a friend, even in the shops the guys at the counter had done Atkins successfully- so I do NOT mean to put Atkins down, it's just that Montignac is the lifestyle that I can live with- happily. Even if I am not losing weight, I believe in it, and agree with all it's principles. I like it.

So I am not leaving this great site, I am just going to move over to the Montignac forums I hope the folks over there are as great as you folks are.

I also watched a great episode of "What Not To Wear" where they blame the clothes, NOT the body. Yeah! I can wear attractive clothes.
I am going to buy some clothes for the size I am (this is basic good diet principle anyway, love yourself and your body as you are NOW).

I gave away all my Atkins stuff (sorry, I would have given it here but I found someone right away who would take it all and I needed the fridge space) and bought some great food I can eat on Montignac. (I kept the Atkins BBQ sauce... I hope I can use that in a pinch this summer)

I am flying, really happy. I will lose the weight, and I will be able to live with this method because I believe in it for life. Montignac says all the same things here that you guys mentioned, eating three meals a day, not eating at night, I know I still have to conquer those issues and I will. And I will ask the kosher shop if they use those things in their shwarma, I bet they do.

So THANK YOU again, especially doreen for this great forum, and please look for me on the Montignac boards (what is "Thin For Good"?) and I will try to pop back in here with a progress report.

I'll see you guys in the grocery store- reading all the labels!!!!

PS- Smurf- I have been to those kebab places in Berlin- the one I went to was a stand in what was East Berlin in 1990- you bring back good and delicious memories!