Hey Everyone! This is my first post to the Atkins/low carb portions of this forum and was hoping you could answer a few questions for me. I am pretty new, but am so excited I found the low carb threads - what I have read has been supportive and inspiring.

1. Does anyone know the science behind burning carbs versus burning fat during your workout? If you have a high intensity workout, but do not have a store of carbs to utilize for energy does that mean you will burn more fat (compared to a low intesity workout that burns fewer calories per minute)? I am not sure how the science works. Basically, I am induction and want to make sure I burn as much fat as possible and am not sure what I should target (number of calories burned during my workout or minutes in weight loss/cardio range as measured by my heart rate monitor).

2. I use the ketostix to measure my level of ketosis. I can get to the second to end purple range (80), but not past that. What is a sufficient level to maintain during induction and in later phases? Is it an issue that I cannot get to the last level?

I have been doing pretty good (I think), but want to make sure I am being as efficient with my time on the diet as possible. THANKS EVERYONE - ANY ADVICE OR ANSWERS WILL BE VERY APPRECIATIVE

I'm no expert, but I've read a lot on the web and several books on low carb over the past months, and here's how I am understanding these 2 issues :

Exercise : your body will prefer to use glucose for fuel during exercise. It is MUCH harder to get it to use fat. You can get it to use more fat with time, but it's not so much a question of your desire to do so, as much as the fact that as you are low carbing longer your body has no choice but to turn to fat (because carbs arent available). You might find you have less stamina or 'bonk' earlier than you did during exercise when you were eating carbs. I have found that exercising in the morning before eating also has a higher chance of getting the ketosis sticks brighter - because there is nothing in your system to burn off so going into fat is necessary.

Ketostix : I'll sum up what I've read with this - 1) any color pink or darker means you're in ketosis, it doesn't matter how dark it is 2) darker just means less diluted pee (you may not be drinking enough). I drink a LOT of water and I've found I test at trace or even not in ketosis when my pee is totally clear colored. If I test first think in the morning (more concentrated) it's pretty much always positive.

Good luck