Hi, Jeff!
First, follow the directions on the package of ketone test strips you purchased. There are subtle differences between brands.
Your ketone levels will vary day to day, even hour to hour. Sometimes, it may even be a bit low, like within a couple hours of eating. Therefore, measure your ketones the same time each day, like first thing each morning while you take care of morning business. This is also a good time to check weight.
An infamous weight gain "creep" is common. In my experience, well over 90% of the time, it's due to unintended intake of hidden carbs.
For example, take condiments like ketchup. On average, one tablespoon ketchup has about 4 net carb grams. That is equal to one teaspoon of sugar for each tablespoon of ketchup (or about 1/3).
CAREFULLY reading nutrition labels is CRITICAL to success!
Keep your net carb intake STRICTLY to 20 grams or less per day. That is Total Carbs - Fiber - Sugar Alcohols = Net Carbs.
I HIGHLY recommend keeping a journal of everything you eat and how much along with its net carb amount. This will help you learn about how your body responds to changes you make in your diet. With that, you can better control what you eat for best results.
Also pay attention to portion control. Our bodies have a mechanism to convert proteins into carbs. Overeating low or zero carb foods can cause weight gain when too much is eaten.
Not sure what's going with the jpg.
Hope this helps.
Tony
Thanks for your personal help. I think I'm learning some things.
I am just following the Instructions that came with the Keto Strips that I bought but if you look at the box that I cut apart and scanned so I could show you, it only gives me 4 Instructions. There wasn't any printed Instructions in the box or a link to their website. So, I guess it's up to me to figure it all out. That's why I asked again for help.
So, why has it been consistently showing me as MODERATE 4.0 for 3 days now just after I wake up? Is that bad? Why does one side of the box say that I should see my doctor if I'm above 3.0? Is that for diabetic people or something?
When you said that "weight gain "creep" is common. In my experience, well over 90% of the time, it's due to unintended intake of hidden carbs", you got my attention. That's GOT to be what's going on. I'm a really firm believer in how cutting carbs can make you
lose weight. Even though I think that I've been eating carb-free, obviously that's wrong.
When you mentioned ketchup for example, that really lit up my brain. I always add a packet of Ketchup on the In-n-Out Flying Dutchman (bunless) double burgers which I'd thought of as the ultimate Drive-Thru cheapie low-carb burger.
I do try to always look for carbs on the Nutritional Label or menu on everything I eat.
Here's a typical day:
*10am Atkin's shake, 12 oz Diet Coke & 1 special low carb cookie that I bake (a neat recipe I found)
*NOON 12 oz Diet Coke or finish this morning's after adding a little, small handful of Cashews or Mixed Nuts - salted only
*2pm Atkin's shake, 12 oz Diet Coke
*4pm 12 oz Diet Coke or finish after adding a little, small handful of Cashews or Mixed Nuts - salted only
*7pm frozen Atkins meal or homemade broiled chicken or In-n-Out Flying Dutchman (bunless) double burger or Weinerschnitzel Polish Sandwich (toss the bread)
So, in my mind, I've been eating less than 20grams of carbs a day. This had been working awesome for quite awhile and I steadily went from 222 down to 195, then I stalled but I realized that I'd been cheating so I fixed that, dropped all the way down to 175 and then I've rebounded recently back up to 186-188 without having changed a thing in how I was eating or exercising (not much as I'm disabled but I have a treadmill that I use now that the Stay At Home has my LA Fitness closed that I used to hit 2 or 3 times a week to do light lifting and a little aerobics bicycling)
When you say "Our bodies have a mechanism to convert proteins into carbs. Overeating low or zero carb foods can cause weight gain when too much is eaten.", I don't understand how I should use that information. I can say that I rarely feel hungry so is it possible that with as little physical things that I'm able to do, I should just be eating less and that suddenly that's what has happened to cause my
weight loss to reverse itself?
As far as my difficulties adding a JPG image, I think that it is something to do with how this site treats uploaded images. Perhaps it needs to do something with them on a server or link it somehow before it will show it and that's why it just wouldn't show up when I hit PREVIEW but 10 minutes later it was there as an Attachment when I Refreshed my Browser?
I look forward to your answers. Thanks for the help.
