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Lots of newbies panic over ketostix colors or worship ketostix color and allow it to dictate their eating. You can be purple and not lose and beige and be a big loser. Don't let the stix upset you.
The stix don't tell you all about ketosis and are only a tool you should be using if you have made a change in the foods you are eating and want to see if it has knocked you out of ketosis. There are physical indicators of Ketosis you will experience that are much more reliable. The taste in your mouth, smell of your pee, your breath, the loss of appetite, the craving control, and of course the weight and inches lost eating all the food.
Note: If your ketostix do not turn purple despite the fact that you are doing everything correctly, you may still show a decrease in appetite, an improvement in well-being, a loosening of your clothes and a slow but steady weight loss and reduction in inches. This simply means that you are not producing enough ketones to register on the strips but enough to burn fat. Remember, the strips are tools; making them change color is not the sole object of the game. (Taken from page 138 of the DANDR.)
Moreover, in most cases the LTS (lipylosis testing strips) will no longer turn pink or purple once you are taking in 50 or more grams of carbs a day, so they are of no use as people get above that level of carb intake. [DANDR,Lipolysis Testing Strips: Proof Positive,
Chapter 11}
Hint: Take these things into consideration if you think you are in ketosis but the stix are not showing positive results:
Check the expiration on the bottle to be sure the strips are still good. The seal on a new bottle should not be broken.
Partially used bottles can possibly be defective if they have been stored for any length of time and exposed to moisture or high temperatures.
The color of your ketone testing stix isn't important to your weight loss. All the stix measure is the amount of excess ketones your body created from your fats both dietary and storage left over after you have burned up all the ones you are using for energy at that time.
For both of the following examples all numbers are made up:
You can alter the amount in your urine by drinking more water and eliminating them more frequently in smaller concentration. If you pee 200 ounces of water you will have a lower concentration on your stix then if you pee 50 ounces of water for the same total amount of ketones eliminated from your system. Say 8,000 ketones "peed" out. The 50 ozer would show 160 dark purple and the 200 ozer would show 40 and be moderate. Same ketone total amount but 2 different colors on the stix. For this example stix are measured in ounces of pee not dL
Another is exercise:
Every one in this example eats the same amount of the exact same foods, is in the same metabolic category, and has the same height and weight, and drinks the same amount of water.
Person A is very muscular and produces 10000 Ketones a day from diet and stored fat, burns 10000 in energy expenditure and has 0 excess ketones to pee on those stix hence they never change
Person B works out like crazy and produces 10050 ketones also from diet and stored fats, burns 10000 in energy expenditures and pees out 50 turning the stix light pink.
Person C produces 6000 ketones burns 6000 and has no color change
Person D produces 6000 ketones is an exercise slug and burns 2000 giving her 4000 to pee out making the stix dark purple.
All of them are stix slaves so person A says I'm losing weight but I'm not in ketosis why?
Person B says my stix are only pink and I'm losing weight what am I doing wrong?
Person C says I'm not in ketosis and I'm not losing weight what am I doing wrong?
Person D is doing the whoopee dance and in about 3 weeks will be posting I've been dark purple since day 1 and have stopped losing weight what am I doing wrong?
Follow the plan as given to you by Dr Atkins and you won't need to worry about being in or out of Ketosis until you are an OWLer.
(in part from post by 2big)
The stix don't tell you all about ketosis and are only a tool you should be using if you have made a change in the foods you are eating and want to see if it has knocked you out of ketosis. There are physical indicators of Ketosis you will experience that are much more reliable. The taste in your mouth, smell of your pee, your breath, the loss of appetite, the craving control, and of course the weight and inches lost eating all the food.
Note: If your ketostix do not turn purple despite the fact that you are doing everything correctly, you may still show a decrease in appetite, an improvement in well-being, a loosening of your clothes and a slow but steady weight loss and reduction in inches. This simply means that you are not producing enough ketones to register on the strips but enough to burn fat. Remember, the strips are tools; making them change color is not the sole object of the game. (Taken from page 138 of the DANDR.)
Moreover, in most cases the LTS (lipylosis testing strips) will no longer turn pink or purple once you are taking in 50 or more grams of carbs a day, so they are of no use as people get above that level of carb intake. [DANDR,Lipolysis Testing Strips: Proof Positive,
Chapter 11}
Hint: Take these things into consideration if you think you are in ketosis but the stix are not showing positive results:
Check the expiration on the bottle to be sure the strips are still good. The seal on a new bottle should not be broken.
Partially used bottles can possibly be defective if they have been stored for any length of time and exposed to moisture or high temperatures.
The color of your ketone testing stix isn't important to your weight loss. All the stix measure is the amount of excess ketones your body created from your fats both dietary and storage left over after you have burned up all the ones you are using for energy at that time.
For both of the following examples all numbers are made up:
You can alter the amount in your urine by drinking more water and eliminating them more frequently in smaller concentration. If you pee 200 ounces of water you will have a lower concentration on your stix then if you pee 50 ounces of water for the same total amount of ketones eliminated from your system. Say 8,000 ketones "peed" out. The 50 ozer would show 160 dark purple and the 200 ozer would show 40 and be moderate. Same ketone total amount but 2 different colors on the stix. For this example stix are measured in ounces of pee not dL
Another is exercise:
Every one in this example eats the same amount of the exact same foods, is in the same metabolic category, and has the same height and weight, and drinks the same amount of water.
Person A is very muscular and produces 10000 Ketones a day from diet and stored fat, burns 10000 in energy expenditure and has 0 excess ketones to pee on those stix hence they never change
Person B works out like crazy and produces 10050 ketones also from diet and stored fats, burns 10000 in energy expenditures and pees out 50 turning the stix light pink.
Person C produces 6000 ketones burns 6000 and has no color change
Person D produces 6000 ketones is an exercise slug and burns 2000 giving her 4000 to pee out making the stix dark purple.
All of them are stix slaves so person A says I'm losing weight but I'm not in ketosis why?
Person B says my stix are only pink and I'm losing weight what am I doing wrong?
Person C says I'm not in ketosis and I'm not losing weight what am I doing wrong?
Person D is doing the whoopee dance and in about 3 weeks will be posting I've been dark purple since day 1 and have stopped losing weight what am I doing wrong?
Follow the plan as given to you by Dr Atkins and you won't need to worry about being in or out of Ketosis until you are an OWLer.
(in part from post by 2big)