If you stay on plan, there may come a time when you don't particularly want to go back to carbs. Cream cheese, pork rinds, bacon, liverwurst etc. are perfectly good celebratory foods. A lot of people won't touch nuts because their moreish--if I ate them every day in maintenance, I'd probably gain weight. So I just buy them occasionally. Low carb ice cream is not a problem for me. If I could eat the same calories but not gain weight--at this point I'd not really want a bagel with cream cheese when I could have just had more cream cheese. When we habituate to a food like bread all our lives, it can take a while to form new habits--but they do form.

Atkins has a built in carb ladder scheme to test the waters and see where you stand both during ongoing weight loss and maintenance. A lot of people find climbing the ladder is a problem, but we've had people here over the years whose experience with that was positive enough that they tended to think just staying at induction levels was a bad idea.



There are all sorts of options, carb cycling schemes, intermittent fasting etc. that might help you tolerate a bit more carbs later on if that's something you want to pursue.

For me personally the big strength of a more ketogenic diet has been in maintenance, not weight loss. I got quite lean a zillion times on a low fat diet, and I think I could probably do that again, if I wasn't already there. Weight I lost on a ketogenic diet tends to stay off, as long as I stay ketogenic.

When it comes to being able to enjoy carbohydrates--I don't enjoy a couple of potato chips, or a slice of pizza, or a cookie. I enjoy the whole bag, the whole pie, the whole jar, smaller portions I just find sort of frustrating.