Phil Monte couldn ' t agree more. What does a corrections officer in Maine do when he ' s 30 pounds overweight, eats a high-carb diet and keeps falling asleep after lunch in a roomful of noisy inmates? Well, first he tries a low-fat diet, filling up with plenty of pasta, bread, rice and potatoes. I leave the sad results to your imagination.
Then he listens to his brother who lost a ton of weight doing Atkins, and he picks up a copy of an earlier edition of this book. His menu plan changed-fast. " Now I have meat cooked on the grill with green vegetables," says Phil. " Another dish I make is a stir-fry with chicken, cabbage, garlic, green peppers, onions and soy sauce. Before I might have used cornstarch to thicken this dish and served it on rice, but not anymore."
Phil lost his 30 pounds and when his doctor saw that his HDL( good) cholesterol had gone up to 90, he said, " With numbers like these, Phil, you ' ll never get heart disease!" At 35 years old, Phil has become a diet guru for the people he works with; they call him up weekly to ask how to do Atkins.
Phil ' s self-confidence has gone through the roof, and, exploiting his avocation as a golfer, he ' s starred in two instructional videos and self-published a book. When he went to his sister ' s wedding, people he ' d known all his life didn ' t recognize him. He thinks it ' s the biggest compliment he ' s gotten yet.
How to Do Pre-Maintenance
When you were doing OWL, you learned how to increase your carb intake in increments of 5 grams. In this phase, you can shift into a higher gear: Increase your daily carb count by 10 grams each week so long as you continue to lose.( See " The Power of Ten " on pages 201-203 and refer to the carbohydrate gram counter in this book.) If you introduce new foods slowly and increase your grams of carbs gradually, your CCLL should increase gradually. This new and higher CCLL will reflect the fact that you are now losing weight more slowly.
As you continue to make 10-gram incremental additions, you will rather quickly reach a point at which you will find that you are no longer losing. If you are at your goal weight, stay at that level for a month or so before you increase your daily carb consumption by another 10 grams to see if you can consume that level without gaining. Once you do begin to gain, drop back 10 grams and you should have established your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance( CCLM).
On the other hand, if after an incremental increase you find that you are gaining or are not losing and you are not yet at your goal weight, you need to back down to the previous level. The line between gaining, maintaining and losing is a thin one and you may have to " play " with your CCLL and CCLM for a while to understand what your body can handle.
While it may take as long as three months to drop the last few pounds and clearly establish your CCLM, I reiterate: This leisurely pace is critical to your ultimate success. Continue to add new foods slowly and carefully so you ' ll be learning good eating habits at the same time. For example, you ' ll discover whether your metabolism can handle wholegrain bread, legumes, starchy vegetables and other potential " trouble " foods.( People with extremely low carb tolerance-meaning high metabolic resistance-won ' t be able to add many new foods and will find Pre-Maintenance similar to OWL or even Induction.)
128