Some Variations on the Rule
Another approach to Pre-Maintenance is to continue eating as you were at the end of OWL and to allow yourself a 20-gram carb treat two or three times a week. Add a piece of fruit or a starchy vegetable-a serving of brown rice or sweet potatoes, for example. You can also have a glass of white wine, a light beer or the white spirits. You could get more adventurous with some of the excellent controlled carbohydrate convenience foods that are increasingly available. Or, if your metabolic resistance is at the low end, you may be able to enjoy such treats more frequently.
Still another way to do Pre-Maintenance is to average out your carb intake for the week. This is how it works: If, for example, your CCLL is 80 grams, you might drop back to 60 grams on Tuesday, then deviate with a beef, potato and carrot stew the following night, pushing your daily total to 100 grams.( Up until now, when weight loss was essential, I have told you to spread your carbs out through the day. If you do have a heavy dose at one meal, make sure there is enough fat, protein and fiber in the rest of the meal to slow the glucose load on your system.) However, if you find such deviations create cravings, it is probably best for you to stick to a steady number of carbs spread evenly throughout the day. But be careful! There are a couple of reasons why people sometimes get into trouble:
1. They don ' t recognize that this phase is still relatively restrictive of carbohydrates, compared to the way they were eating before they were doing Atkins.
2. They ' re startled to discover that without the wonderful advantage of deep lipolysis, appetite suppression has diminished.
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Rules of Pre-Maintenance
• Increase your daily carb intake by no more than 10 grams each week.
• Add new foods one at a time.
• Eliminate a new food if it provokes weight gain, return of physical symptoms lost during Induction, increased appetite, cravings or water retention.
• If you gain weight, drop back to the next lowest level of carb intake.
• Be sure to continue eating adequate amounts of fat and protein.
• Continue to take your vitamin and mineral supplements regularly. =====================================================================
These reasons point out exactly why Pre-Maintenance is so important. This is the phase of Atkins during which you acclimate to the carbohydrate moderation you will need to practice for the rest of your life. Not only are you losing less weight and doing so at a slower rate, you are burning less of your body fat. Thus, the natural appetite suppression provided by lipolysis is reduced considerably. But as long as you are not skipping meals and continue to lose weight, you are controlling your blood sugar and burning fat, so your appetite should not be out of control. If it is, you have gone too far and you need to go back a few notches.
As you may have inferred, while you are on PreMaintenance, in all likelihood you are no longer in ketosis. However, you are probably still burning fat rather than storing it-at least some of the time. As you increase your consumption of carbs, your body switches back and forth
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