I never bothered using them. Once your body gets more efficient at burning the ketones, they don't show up on the sticks anyway, even though you are still in ketosis. Just stick to the protocol and you won't have any problems.
Save your money!! They are not meant to monitor ketones for this eating plan. The longer you low carb, the less they show up as your body gets used to them and absorbs the ketones. The volume of water we drink further dilutes them. Readings are skewed and if not reluable, there is no benefit! If you follow the plan 100% and do not cheat, you ARE in ketosis after 3-5 days.
Does anyone know if the test strip results are any indication of how much weight you can/will lose? My strips read trace to small. Is that all I need or do I need to work harder to get to moderate and above to produce bigger numbers on the scale? My guess is it does not matter as long as you are in ketosis.
From everything I've gathered keto-strips are worthless. If you are staying OP, the further you get in, the less ketones you drop in your urine. As long as you are OP, imho, I wouldn't worry
Doxie - Overall the results are unreliable in measuring what we are looking for as far as ketosis for weight loss. The volume of water we drink dilutes the ketones and readings are very inaccurate. I recommend you not use them and stop worrying. If you are following protocol you ARE in ketosis and will lose the weight. You can't do anything to "work harder" to make it drop faster!
That said... Once you see it rwgister in the color range, you ARE in ketosis. You can't be "more" in. The darker the color the more dehydrated you are. You do not want to see darker.
IF you continue to use them, be prepared for the day you use them and show no trace of ketosis... THAT is not true if on protocol, that is the sticks NOT workong for THIS protocol!!
Even when I am 100% sure I am in ketosis and I am losing 2-3 pounds per week, I never get more than "trace". My coach said not to use them, so I threw them away and have still lost 30 pounds. :-)
