Hi
After a few weeks of very light colors on the ketosis sticks, the stick finally turned dark pink/purple again last night...the first day after my first exercise session in a long time.

Has this happened to anyone else? I still drank half my weight in water yesterday and ate my regular menu....the only thing different was the 30minute exercise I did the night before.

I exercised again yesterday afternoon and expect to see the stick dark purple again tonight. We'll see.

Kristin

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Atkins 1/12/04
214/167/150

Yes! Finally someone who is seeing the same thing as me. I have definitely noticed a correlation between the color of the stick and exercise. I have also noticed that the darker the stick, the more I lose. People on this forum say that the color of the stick doesn't matter but the Atkins book says it does. I'm not sure what to think but as long as I notice that that relationship exists I will continue to strive for the darkest possible stick without skimping on water of course.

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Cindy
161.5/153.5/120

interesting.
my sticks have been light purple since i started atkins. and honestly, the only time i saw dark purple was when i first started LCing ... when i wasn't drinking hardly enough water (i wasn't very informed at the time! )

and i exercise a WHOLE LOT. every day, at least 30 mins cardio ...
and i haven't seen any change in the color of my sticks.
so i dunno what to think ....

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Carrie
SBD since 9/12/2005
Re-started 5/8/2006
My new journal: Just Breathe

I too have read here that people say the color of the stick makes no difference and that the stick should be light pink to show you are drinking enough water.

But I have not had the dark color in weeks..the same amount of time I have been stalled and not lost anything.

I will be weighing tomorrow(Friday AM) and will see if the darker pink/purple stick color/exercise reflects a weight loss.

I have a pretty good idea that it will.

I will also strive for the darker stick color.

Kristin

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Atkins 1/12/04
214/167/150

I have found that the more I exercise the darker the sticks are. and I get all my water in. on the days I don't exercise its med. I don't know how to take them because I haven't lost anything since induction was over so I guess I am still on a stall

Z28 I like you am in the AF and doing to lc thing. How are you like the running? I only like it cause I know it will help me to look better in my clothes this sumer Do you have a journal yet?

kameron, I just saw this after I did a journal, how funny. I did have to do a first run at the end of jan. not good...I need to knock three minutes off my time to get passing

The same thing happens with me - serious exercise definitely darkens the color on the ketostix. It makes total sense, though. The stick measures the presence of ketone bodies in your urine, but it shows up based on the concentration of them. The higher the concentration, the darker the color. SO usually, when you are drinking the amount of water (Lots!) that you should be drinking, your urine is more water and less urea, etc, so the concentration of ketone bodies that you are measuring is lower "per pee", shall we say! But here is the cool part. When we exercise, we increase our body's energy expenditure - ie. we burn more fat for energy, and we all know that is what produces the ketone bodies (they are a by product of the fat burning process).

It is pure science - your ketostick will be darker with exercise than without unless you increase your water intake proportionally to your exercise to dilute the higher concentration of ketone bodies in your urine.
(& as long as you don't increase your overall energy INTAKE - ie calories - because to burn stored fat we must be operating at a deficit.)

Did I lose you all? Bottom line is, as Martha would say, "Its a good thing!!"

Patty
Atkins 2/23/04 - 3/23/04
171/168/130
"Patty Diet" 3/24/04
168/167/130