Hey guys ... this isnt a big deal in my mind because Im losing regardless but I was curious.... I was at around 20g carbs for a week with nothing on the ketosis sticks (again, bought because i was curious haha) ... they always showed up negative. The last two days Ive been around 35g or so... and this morning the stick was dark! Whats up with that? I may have been a LITTLE less hydrated but nothing drastic....

*sigh* Ketostix are one of those things that I think make low carbing a pain in the A$$! Mostly because, they don't seem very accurate to me. Anyways, the amount of protein you have, the type of protein, and even time of day and amount of liquid can affect the results. So, like you said, I'd just ignore them and go on. The best I can really tell you is that every person's body is different and will work best on it's own levels. This may be the case. For you, your body may work the best at 35g. of carbs. I have to say mine does, too. I know I can lose at higher, but it is SLOW. But my body works best under 40.

Ketosticks are indeed accurate unless the pad is touched or they are past their expiration date.

It takes about 2-3 days of very low carb to use up your reserves of stored "carbs". It is not the exact number of carbs that produces keytones, but how many you produce when using fat for energy needs. Try testing at different times of the day, expelling keytone bodies can register differently throughout the day.

Once in, unless you up your carbs, you are "in" and don't need to test until you ingest more carbs and you want to see if it bumps you out. I test on my weigh in day so that I have that extra piece of information to work with in all my tally's.

Ketosis has no effect on fat loss. It may have some benefits on mood and energy but not on fat loss.

As mentioned, ketosis sticks are extremely unreliable and in my opinion a complete waste of time and money.