doing Atkins, because we can cheat on the weekends, then go back to Induction on Monday morning " While this behavior pattern may work for the short term, it will probably backfire in more ways than one. It ' s likely that your metabolism will adapt at a certain point-in a sense, developing a tolerance. People who repeatedly regain weight and go back to Induction sometimes find that they do not experience the dramatic and easy weight loss they initially enjoyed. Add in the fact that none of us is getting any younger and our metabolism ' s natural tendency is to slow down with passing years. Finally, your body pays a price healthwise if you dramatically switch back and forth repeatedly from a fat-burning to a glucose-burning metabolism.
If you keep retreating to Induction from Lifetime Maintenance, it becomes a form of yo-yo dieting. I ' m not saying you shouldn ' t go back to Induction when you need it, I ' m simply saying don ' t do it regularly, in the belief that it will always work the same way for you. You may be in for a nasty surprise. =====================================================================
The Bountiful World of Maintenance
Lifetime Maintenance may not be much different from OWL for people with high metabolic resistance. If you are one of the lucky folks with low metabolic resistance, you may be able to eat most vegetables-including starchy vegetables, fruit, legumes and whole grains such as oats, barley, millet, wild rice, couscous or buckwheat. You may even be able to handle an occasional potato. But, and this is a significant distinction, that does not mean you can eat all these things in one day. You still have to count carbs to stay at your CCLM. You can begin to use recipes, such as breaded veal chops, that contain some carbohydrate ingredients.
But the last choice, the truly hazardous indulgence, is sweets. Frankly, my suggestion to you is that you restrict your consumption of sweets made with real sugars to the occasional slice of birthday or wedding cake for really special celebrations. Those of you who have had a sizable chunk of your life made miserable by sugar may even decide, after graciously accepting them, to quietly deposit those pieces on somebody else ' s plate.
While you probably cannot convince your best friend to have her baker make a controlled carb wedding cake just to satisfy your needs, you can create your own personal world of sweets in your kitchen. In recent years, there have been more artificial sweeteners approved for use by the Federal Drug Administration.( See " Artificial Sweeteners " on pages 128-129 for more on sugar substitutes.) The recipe section at the end of this book will also introduce you to sugarless versions of many classic sweet treats.
Your Metabolic Tendencies Are Never Cured
They never are, you know. The fat you just sent to kingdom come was one symptom of a chronic metabolic condition. You do have and always will have a metabolic tendency to be overweight. The blood-sugar imbalance that I identified for you in Chapter 5 will not go away permanently because you have taken a nutritional path that circumvents it. All you have to do is go back to eating the way you once did, or even partially so, and you will arouse the sleeping demon. In very short order, your pancreas will once again secrete large quantities of insulin, and you ' ll suffer the symptoms of unstable blood sugar jitters, brain fog, afternoon fatigue and the like. Then your insulin resistance will lead inevitably to the production of more insulin and that, in turn, to weight gain if your carb intake exceeds your tolerance.
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