Atkins Diet Maintenance

The final phase of the Atkins diet plan is life-long maintenance. This is the time to continue your new diet plan at a maintenance level and keep yourself at your target weight. The habits you've created will now become a permanent way of life. In the third phase, pre-maintenance, you've learned exactly how many grams of carbohydrate your body can tolerate while maintaining your ideal weight. In this phase you will put this approach into practice and learn to live with your ideal carbohydrates on a daily basis.

During the lifetime maintenance you will continue to expand your food selections and eat more carbohydrate grams than you did before. Depending on your specific metabolic needs, you will be able to eat some of the food you have enjoyed before starting your weight loss program. If you choose to eat these foods, they should be moderated and used sparingly. 

Keeping your daily carb count right around your ideal carb count is the easiest way to maintain your weight loss. Your weight may fluctuate by two or three pounds from time to time, but this is perfectly normal. This weight fluctuation is due to hormonal changes in your body. 

During maintenance, you'll also learn how to overcome your former bad habits. Losing weight and keeping it away means dealing with situations from the real world. You will develop coping strategies for stress, emotional and vacation eating. You also develop plans to deal with eating out in restaurants. The challenges during the maintenance phase are numerous, but they can be overcome.

It's all about preparation. When you've followed the Atkins diet plan for a long time, you've learned exactly how many grams of carbohydrate you can handle. You've also learned which foods generate the carbohydrate requirement and which foods lead to showers. You've developed strategies over the course of your OWL and pre-maintenance phases that you need to use for life-long maintenance.

To prepare yourself for lifelong maintenance, you promise never to go back to your previous weight. Make the commitment by donating all of your oily clothing. This will help you know that if you gain more than five pounds, fasten your seat belt and eat better. Also write down all the benefits of your new, thinner size in a diary or list format. Write down how much better you feel and how healthy you are. This will strengthen your new way of living in your mind and heart.

Choose your life course goal for maintaining your body weight. This is a weight range that is acceptable to you. For example, if your first weight loss goal was to be 165 pounds, your livelihood goal will be 160 to 170 pounds. If your weight starts to creep up to 170 pounds, then you know you are too indulgent with your carbohydrate grams. Never let your weight vary more than 3 to 5 pounds in either direction.

Make an appointment to weigh yourself at least once a week. This weighing once a week will give you a good idea of how you are doing with your maintenance program. Use that weekly weight as a guideline for your approach to eating for the next week.

In addition to these guidelines, make sure you continue with a training program. Your metabolism is entirely dependent on the amount of exercise you get. The obligation to exercise goes hand in hand with the obligation to continue eating properly.

By following these guidelines, you can make the maintenance of your life simple and easy.