Ketostix not showing ketosis

[gaijinrussell57]

I am 6'3, 265 lb., about 32% body fat, 55 years old.
I have been eating a pretty clean ketogenic diet for the past week. Here's my average daily macronutrients breakdown as calculated on MyPlate:
Calories - 2,000
Protein - 180g (50g from whey isolate, 28g from eggs, 21g from cheese, and the rest from beef, chicken, fish)
Fat - 110g (15g from avocado, 20g from eggs, 27g from cheese, 16g from almonds, and the rest from coconut oil, olive oil, beef, chicken, fish)
Carb - 15g net (mostly from fiber supplement, green foods supplement, almonds, avocado)
I do one hour weightlifting four days a week, and 60-90 minutes of cardio walking the remaining three days.
After a week I tested my urine with a ketostix, and it measured zero ketones.
I am thinking that I should have registered ketones by now.
I drink a 42oz diet coke every day, and another 32oz of crystal light each day. I wonder if the artificial sweeteners may be screwing up my insulin response and keeping me from getting into ketosis.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on what I should be doing differently to get ketosis kicked off.

[Minolwen]

If you are actually counting calories and macros accurately then your diet is clean and there isn't much reason for you not to enter into ketosis.

What time of day are you testing yourself? It is possible that if you're testing post-workout and you workout pretty intensive that the ketostix will not show a trace. Next time you test do so right before bed or in the morning when you wake up and see if that makes a difference.

It initially took me for 4-5 days to enter ketosis which sucked on CKD, which lead me to reading deeper into how the keto diet works. From this I learned I was on the wrong version of keto to begin with and now I'm much happier going the SKD route (fat burning). I'll probably switch back to CKD for bulking starting in August.

[calutaxi]

If this is your first time doing keto it can take you longer to adapt. Are you getting any of the symptoms of the keto flu?
You CAN be in ketosis without showing on the ketostix. They can be a little finicky sometimes depending on hydration. If you're gonna use the sticks, use them first thing in the morning.

[Minolwen]

I am 6'3, 265 lb., about 32% body fat, 55 years old.
I have been eating a pretty clean ketogenic diet for the past week. Here's my average daily macronutrients breakdown as calculated on MyPlate:
Calories - 2,000
Protein - 180g (50g from whey isolate, 28g from eggs, 21g from cheese, and the rest from beef, chicken, fish)
Fat - 110g (15g from avocado, 20g from eggs, 27g from cheese, 16g from almonds, and the rest from coconut oil, olive oil, beef, chicken, fish)
Carb - 15g net (mostly from fiber supplement, green foods supplement, almonds, avocado)
I do one hour weightlifting four days a week, and 60-90 minutes of cardio walking the remaining three days.
After a week I tested my urine with a ketostix, and it measured zero ketones.
I am thinking that I should have registered ketones by now.
I drink a 42oz diet coke every day, and another 32oz of crystal light each day. I wonder if the artificial sweeteners may be screwing up my insulin response and keeping me from getting into ketosis.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on what I should be doing differently to get ketosis kicked off.

I should also mention that 2,000 daily calories seems pretty low for your height/weight. I haven't done the math because I do not have the necessary variables but the macros you posted for your average intake isn't even 1800.

Protein: 180g * 4 = 720
Fat: 110g * 9 = 990
Carb: 15g * 4 = 60
Average Daily Calories: 1770

There is a such thing as to little... Additionally, I wouldn't worry about your artificial sweeteners to much. I easily take in 35g of carbs per day not including fiber and I stay in ketosis (using ketostix as a judge) easily. This includes real sugar and creamer in my morning coffee.

[Ransom17]

I just wouldn't sweat it all that much. If you find you're still ravenously hungry and feeling like crap then I'd throw cream in your coffee a couple of times a day and see if that extra fat speeds things up. I just entered ketosis 2 days ago for the first time in like 2 years and it only took me 2 days of utter hellishness before I suddenly felt fine. As soon as that happened I knew I was in ketosis and sure enough I tested positive for ketones.

As a side note, I'm not sure how legit this is but it seems coconut oil just propells me into ketosis when I take it.