I am on day 6 of IP, how will I know when my body gets into ketosis? I am still tired most of the day and today is the only day that I haven't had cravings or been really super hungry... I couldn't even eat my 2nd serving of veggies or last IP packet tonight... I really want this to work so I can get down to a healthy weight...

Any thoughts??

TIA
Carol

Don't worry about it. Ketosis has no effect on weight loss. It can enhance mood and energy levels but fat loss is not affected by ketosis one way or the other. Follow the protocol and you'll lose a lot of weight.

To answer your question. A good way to tell if you're in ketosis is if your urine and breath have an awful metallic smell. You can buy sticks to urinate on if you like but they are unreliable.

Most on IP will disagree with JohnP, I would argue that ketosis is key to this eating plan. He is right about the smelly breath and urine though.

The following is not an unsupportive post. Quite the opposite. It's intent is to educate anyone following the IP diet so they can stop worrying about something that doesn't matter.

This study details where ketosis was induced but calories were set at maintinence levels thus no weight was lost.

To take this to an illogical extreme you can test this at home. Every time you drink an IP shake drink a half cup of olive oil (955 calories.) You'll stay in ketosis but your weight loss will grind to an immediate halt.

One can lose weight being in ketosis.
One can maintain while being in ketosis.

In my opinion you're better off not worrying about it because what really matters is following the diet protocol. Stressing about ketosis is counter productive in my opinon especially because there is no reliable way to tell whether one is or is not in ketosis.

Hi Carol, if your cravings have stopped, then most likely you are in ketosis. Around day 5, i was really struggling to force my evening snack down because I just wasn't hungry enough to eat it. (A big deal for me, because I constantly ate whether I was hungry or not before I started IP!!). I didn't realize that my breath was smelly until my son pointed it out on day 7 or 8! Just trust that the program works...stick to protocol and your body will react at it's own pace.

I also have a ketosis question - I bought the ketostix and now I'm wondering where on the scale I should be. There is light, moderate, and heavy on the scale. I'm firmly on moderate, and just wondering if I should be aiming for heavy? Will it speed up the wl if I'm more into ketosis? I need to be careful not to go into ketoadicosis as I'm diabetic, but I want to get the most out of this!
Any input from people actually on IP is welcome!

Light!

There is no data to support (or refute) the claim that a deeper level of ketosis means a greater burning of fat. If anything, high levels of ketones in the bloodstream would be undesireable as this would raise insulin slightly and hinder the release of free fatty acids from fat cells. Insulin release is one of the feedback loops to prevent ketoacidosis from occurring.

Thus, if ketosis did make any difference to weight loss, one would want to be in light ketosis.

(Not on IP diet just trying to be helpful)