ketones
 

In my previous post I said I was in large ketones and not losing. Was told by a friend I shouldnt be over small K to lose. What is right? What should I be looking for?

in my experience, the darker you the more likely it is your not drinking enough water. I drink alot of water and it hardly turns darker than the first pink, except first thing in the morning.

Linda... ketones in your urine is like being pg. You're either burning ketones for energy or you're not. There are no degrees of ketones/ketosis. Extra ketones are excreted through exhaling and urinating. If you produce more than your body needs, you'll excrete them... they can't be stored for later use. Using the strips is one way to confirm that your body is making ketones, which means it's metabolizing fat for energy, not glucose. There's no way to know if you're metabolizing body fat or dietary fat... but that's another topic. If you have ANY reading on the strip it simply means you're in ketosis. If you get a very dark reading that means you have LOTS of extra ketones... it could be that you ate a very high fat meal or snack and that fat was metabolized. It could be that you're not drinking enough so the ketones are more concentrated in your urine. Darker results do not equal faster weight loss... and vice versa. You should also know that exercise increases your body's need for energy... ketones in our case. So exercise uses up more ketones, resulting in a light read on the strips because there will be fewer extra ones that need to be excreted. That's why a "negative" reading on the strips doesn't automatically mean you're no longer in ketosis... it could mean that you've found that balance between what you're producing and what your body actually needs. By now you should be realizing that those strips don't really tell you much... there are just too many variables that you can't control. The strips are very helpful for diabetic patients who have to worry about ketoacidosis... for us, they can be a helpful tool... or not, as you're experiencing.

Tril

Thank you origami-guru

Thank you for the info. I get a lot of exerccise and am doing better with the water. Your answer was very informative. I feel better.