Life time commitment

[Terminal]

Perhaps I should have read the fine print before starting this low card plan.

From what I have been reading on these boards it appears that you cannot get off this low carb diet without gaining all your weight back (and likely more)?

Is there no way to get off it gradually?

[Lisa N]

Hi Terminal!

If you go back to eating the way that got you overweight in the first place, yes, you will most certainly gain the weight back. Low carbing (or any diet) is not a quick fix to loose weight and then you go back to what you were doing before. Any diet (for lack of a better term) will be that way once you go "off" it. Having said that, if you are following Atkins you will always be on some sort of carb restriction. Does that mean you will be eating 20 grams of carb for the rest of your life? No! Read the book again. You will have to keep your carbs low while you are trying to loose weight, but as you progress to pre-maintainance and then maintainance, you will gradually increase your carb intake and lower your fat intake until you reach a point where you are neither gaining or loosing. That point will be different for each person. Some find that they can eat 90-100 grams of carb per day without gaining, some find that their maintainance level is around 60 or less. The point here is that if you want to keep the weight off for life, you have to change the way that you eat for life. It's that simple.

[doreen T]

hi Terminal,

It depends on what you mean by "can't get off" the diet. If you mean that you can't go back to eating the way you did previously, you're right! The way you ate previously is what made you fat in the first place, and if you go back to eating that way it will make you fat again. This is true no matter what diet you follow to lose the weight .. low carb, low fat, low calorie.

If you mean that you must always eat at Induction level of low carbs ... that is false. Once past the 2 weeks of Induction, Atkins makes it clear that you may start adding carbs back gradually as long as you continue to lose weight and be in ketosis. This is outlined thoroughly in the chapter on OWL (Ongoing Weight Loss). When you've reached your goal, then you move on to Maintenance, where you continue to add carbs as long as you don't gain weight back. For some people, especially men .. this could be 100 or more grams per day.

Here is what Dr Atkins has to say in the chapter on Maintenance:My experience treating overweight patients involves managing several thousand pateints who have lost their goal weight four or more times, only to gain it back every time. So I can assure you, you should not rush blindly back toward the way you used to eat, with the intention of getting as close to your former eating patterns as you can without absolutely violating the rules of the diet. That would show you really hadn't learned anything from this diet. (Which is to be expected, because diets are not teachers.) But this diet is an experience, and experience is supposed to be the best teacher. What I hope you've learned is how to make a lifetime commitment to a different way of eating.Re-read the pre-Maintenance and Maintenance chapters in the book. And have a look through our Maintenance forum, where you can read about our members who've reached goal and continue to low carb happily and successfully.

:)

Doreen

[doreen T]

LOL Lisa ... we must have been typing our replies at the same time :thup:

Doreen

[Lisa N]

Doreen...

and as usual, your reply is much more thorough than mine. I really need to start adding more quotes into my replies. :D