Ketostix question -- are they necessary?

OK, here is how I understand what the book (original Diet Revolution)
says about the role of Ketostix. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The first week, you eat NO carbs. Fine, doing that right now. After the
first week, you gradually add carbs about 5g per day and continue to
test with the stix to make sure they are still purple. Once you get to a
point, say 30g per day, where the stix are no longer purple, you have
found your personal carb limit -- in this case around 25g. So you now
know that you can't eat any more than 25g per day and still lose weight.
Did I get that right?

Now, having said that -- is all that really necessary? Or it is just
better to set a limit of say 20g per day and stick to that? If so, what
should that limit be?

Thanks (from the newbie ;-)
Todd

--
_________________
Todd Walker
235/235/200
since 10/20/03

In later versions of the book, Atkins talks about the 20g limit for
induction. That seems to be what most people who "do atkins" do. Many
people stay on 20g or close to it, for more than just the two weeks of
induction, but that is not necessary.


--
Jim
231/194?/197
Atkins since 22 May '03
Gym since 1 sept '03


Todd Walker wrote:

OK, here is how I understand what the book (original Diet Revolution)
says about the role of Ketostix. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The first week, you eat NO carbs. Fine, doing that right now. After the
first week, you gradually add carbs about 5g per day and continue to
test with the stix to make sure they are still purple. Once you get to a
point, say 30g per day, where the stix are no longer purple, you have
found your personal carb limit -- in this case around 25g. So you now
know that you can't eat any more than 25g per day and still lose weight.
Did I get that right?

Now, having said that -- is all that really necessary? Or it is just
better to set a limit of say 20g per day and stick to that? If so, what
should that limit be?

Thanks (from the newbie ;-)
Todd

I've never read the original version, only the latest and the Atkins for
Life....do you really start out at NO carbs? Wow.
On the topic, I like ketostix but no, they are not necessary at all.
Best of luck,
~*~Pie~*~
254/197/150

"Todd Walker" wrote in message
...
OK, here is how I understand what the book (original Diet Revolution)
says about the role of Ketostix. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The first week, you eat NO carbs. Fine, doing that right now. After the
first week, you gradually add carbs about 5g per day and continue to
test with the stix to make sure they are still purple. Once you get to a
point, say 30g per day, where the stix are no longer purple, you have
found your personal carb limit -- in this case around 25g. So you now
know that you can't eat any more than 25g per day and still lose weight.
Did I get that right?

Now, having said that -- is all that really necessary? Or it is just
better to set a limit of say 20g per day and stick to that? If so, what
should that limit be?

Thanks (from the newbie ;-)
Todd

--
_________________
Todd Walker
235/235/200
since 10/20/03

Todd Walker writes:

The first week, you eat NO carbs. Fine, doing that right now. After the
first week, you gradually add carbs about 5g per day and continue to
test with the stix to make sure they are still purple. Once you get to a
point, say 30g per day, where the stix are no longer purple, you have
found your personal carb limit -- in this case around 25g. So you now
know that you can't eat any more than 25g per day and still lose weight.
Did I get that right?

No.

For two weeks you do Induction, which is simply eating from a food list and not
counting carbs at all. Many people consider 20 gms to be about what's right. NO
carbs is nearly impossible, unless you are eating nothing but meat and fat.

After Induction, you move to Ongoing Weight Loss. You have the part about
adding carbs gradually correct, but not the part about the stix. And no, stix
aren't necessary. There are several ways of knowing you are in ketosis without
ketostix.

Go to www.atkins.com and click on "How to do Atkins" and reread.

Connie
************************************************** ***
My mind is like a steel...um, whatchamacallit.

In article , pietosser99
@hotmail.com says...
I've never read the original version, only the latest and the Atkins for
Life....do you really start out at NO carbs? Wow.
On the topic, I like ketostix but no, they are not necessary at all.
Best of luck,
~*~Pie~*~


Yeah, I'm beginning to think I should have bought a newer book instead.
But I figured hey, the original must be the best. Of course if I had
realized before I bought it that it was written in 1972, I would have
looked at a newer version. I think I'll go get one of the new ones
tomorrow. Do you have a recommendation for someone who is just getting
started?

--
_________________
Todd Walker
235/235/200
since 10/20/03

Susan wrote:


Ketostix aren't necessary, purple isn't necessary and tells you nothing
about
how efficiently you're burning fat. It may just be a measure of dietary
fat.

That seemed to be the case for me. Without changing my carb intake, I could
walk the color scale by eating more fat. Since I prefer high protein and
moderate fats from fish and good plant oils, I seldom saw more than a trace
of color even with very low carbs.

Completely unnecessary, **** on them.

PJ

--

"The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think
what we like and say what we think."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"To be loved is to be fortunate, but to be hated is to achieve distinction."
- Minna Antrim

"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken
seriously."
- Hubert H. Humphrey

"The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast
cereal--that you can gather votes like box tops--is, I think, the ultimate
indignity to the democratic process."
- Adlai Stevenson





"Todd Walker" wrote in message
...
OK, here is how I understand what the book (original Diet Revolution)
says about the role of Ketostix. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The first week, you eat NO carbs. Fine, doing that right now. After the
first week, you gradually add carbs about 5g per day and continue to
test with the stix to make sure they are still purple. Once you get to a
point, say 30g per day, where the stix are no longer purple, you have
found your personal carb limit -- in this case around 25g. So you now
know that you can't eat any more than 25g per day and still lose weight.
Did I get that right?

Now, having said that -- is all that really necessary? Or it is just
better to set a limit of say 20g per day and stick to that? If so, what
should that limit be?

Thanks (from the newbie ;-)
Todd

--
_________________
Todd Walker
235/235/200
since 10/20/03

"PJ DiSanti" wrote in message
.com...
Completely unnecessary, **** on them.


Haha.

revek

I read Atkins first book too. I didn't realize until I visited some news
groups that you are allowed 20 carbs during induction.

PieNtheSky32 wrote:
I've never read the original version, only the latest and the Atkins for
Life....do you really start out at NO carbs? Wow.

No, induction was just mis-written as no carbs in the original 70s book.
It still called for the salads.

--
jamie )

"There's a seeker born every minute."