From the Atkins Website
Here are three typical scenarios and three strategies for regaining control.
Falling Off the Wagon
Perhaps you've been following Lifetime Maintenance faithfully and then a holiday, birthday or vacation leads to a bout of unrestrained indulgence. You may find that instead of being five pounds overweight, you've gained 15 pounds. Instead of waiting, act now!
Above all, don't get depressed and give up. Even if you do temporarily get off track, continue to exercise and take your supplements. It's crucial that you don't surrender all control. Start with Induction, then phase into Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) until you've reached your goal weight again, at which time you should ease back into Maintenance. Exercising more vigorously after going overboard will also help get you back on the straight and narrow.
Going rght back to the Induction phase is as simple as beginning Atkins in the first place. Don't simply resume Maintenance without first losing all you have regained. A salad a day, a portion of veggies, plenty of protein and fat and, voilà, you've slashed your weight back in as little as six to eight days, or two or three weeks, depending upon your degree of metabolic resistance.
For consistent success, most people must interpose the strict Induction phase between weight gain and the eventual return to Maintenance. This allows you to restabilize your blood chemistry and moderate cravings so you can be in control again. For more on returning to Induction, see "The Uses and Abuses of Induction."
A Gain of Five Pounds
After reaching your goal weight, you should have developed the confidence to know that small weight gains can be easily controlled. You may need to adjust your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance (CCLM) from time to time, in effect going back to OWL or to pre-maintenance, or even Induction for a week or so. If you are eating just as you always have on Maintenance and you suddenly begin to gain weight, try reducing your carb intake by 5 grams and see if your weight stabilizes. If so, that number is your new CCLM. Of course, you will then also want to trim off those extra pounds by temporarily dropping below that number.
Your strategy here should be very much like the base runner who allows himself to take a lead off first base, but never so far that he cannot scurry back to touch the base should the pitcher suddenly turn to pick him off. Your goal weight is the base you must touch between deviations, and the deviation must never be more than five pounds. Going briefly back to an earlier phase allows you to get back to that number. Staying on Maintenance isn't enough to get back on track.
A Change in Metabolism
As we get older, our metabolism tends to slow down a bit, making it harder to maintain the slim body many of us were blessed with in our youth. This means that the CCLM you had in your 30s may not be the CCLM you will be dealing with in your 40s, and it is almost definitely not the CCLM you'll have in the decades after that. As you age, you may eventually have to control your carb intake a little more or increase your activity level—or perhaps even both—to maintain your goal weight. A change in activity level or certain drugs may also slow your metabolism and require you to trim your carb intake.
Binge Control
It may be unrealistic to think that once you've reached your goal weight, you will never again overindulge, but there are ways to minimize the damage.
Your old friends—the foods that are rich in protein and fat and the very ones that helped you reach your goal weight—are also your allies when it comes to dealing with binges. This is not because you can't gain a pound or two if you put away too many lamb chops, but because protein foods are fundamentally self-limiting. Almost everyone has eaten 30 cookies at one sitting at some time in his life, and many carbohydrate addicts have done it hundreds of times, but how many people have eaten 10 hard-boiled eggs at one sitting?
Protein and fat foods satiate your appetite quite quickly. It really isn't possible to go on munching them endlessly, and hardly anyone desires to. (Nuts and seeds may be the exception, but they are still better than cookies.) That doesn't mean a chicken breast doesn't make a delicious snack, and that, combined with a few other things, it couldn't constitute a delicious minor binge. The crucial fact about protein foods is that they don't unleash a metabolic tidal wave in your body. Very few people get addicted to protein. Your blood-glucose level doesn't rise and fall sharply when you sit down to eat a Cobb salad. But it does just that when you chow down a slice of pie. That leads to the need for another slice and then another.
Does this mean you can't ever eat another piece of Grandma's pumpkin pie? If you were previously an uncontrolled carbohydrate addict with an obesity problem that only the Atkins Nutritional Approach™ has been able to cure, the answer is probably no. But if you were not addicted and have learned how to modify your behaviour, then you might cautiously see if you can indulge occasionally without causing noticeable after effects.
Trigger foods—ones to which you are addicted—are the ones you can't stop eating, and they are the very foods you should not add back to your dietary regimen. It might be peanuts, chocolate, potato chips or something else. If you find you are always planning when you can have your next portion of that food, cut it out altogether, or be sure to have it just once a week, perhaps as a Friday-night treat. Only you know whether the first or the second strategy will work better for you. Remember, it's about what works.
If you aren't a carb addict, then you have room to manoeuvre. The occasional slice of pizza or ice cream cone just might be permissible. Such compromises are not recommended, but do recognize that human nature demands them now and then. But be careful: Remember that five pounds above your goal weight is the maximum, then take yourself firmly in hand and get back on plan. A firm resolution to deal with weight regain immediately will serve you well. An even better idea is to hold out for sugarless, full-fat ice cream. Controlled carb foods can help out when urges become irresistible. If you absolutely must binge on chocolate, for example, reach for a controlled carb bar, rather than the regular sugar-filled kind.
Sometimes the best cure for bingeing is bingeing. Strange as it may seem, after you've been off it for a while ice cream or pizza go down nicely, but once you've eaten them you may notice a temporary return of some familiar and unpleasant old symptoms. The distress you may experience when you eat an old favourite may cure you of these urges once and for all. (For more on bingeing and strategies to minimize its damage, see Protect Your Weight Loss.
Eight Basic Principles for Lifetime Success
Adherence to Lifetime Maintenance can ensure a healthy weight and a reduction in long-term risks for disease.
It is well known that virtually all individuals regain all or most of their hard-lost pounds within five years1. But when an eating program changes the composition of the diet, not the quantity, and when pre- lessons and the five-pound rule are consistently applied, recidivism is a rare phenomenon indeed. Instead of bouncing you back into the land of the fat, the four phases of the Atkins Nutritional Approach™ welcome you permanently into the home of the slim.
Follow these recommendations for permanent success:
Be food aware—remember that fresh meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, nuts, seeds and occasional fruits and starches are the foods nature intended you to eat. That packaged refined carbohydrate stuff in the supermarket puts money in somebody's pocket. And it puts garbage into your stomach. This is the only body you've got. Notice how good it feels now. Notice how much better it looks. Keep it that way!
Be endlessly wary of sugar and corn syrup, and white flour and cornstarch. Look at the labels of any packaged food you are considering and avoid (like the plague) those that contain sugar, corn syrup and honey. And read those labels for the carbohydrate content of the foods you want to eat.
Individualize your personal eating plan. Try new foods. Increase the variety of foods that you like and enjoy. These will help prevent you from going back to eating foods that you have enjoyed in the past, but which simply aren't good for you. Use controlled carb alternatives, as well as the recipes provided in the recipes section of this Web site or in Dr. Atkins' Quick & Easy New Diet Cookbook (Fireside, 1997). Develop a menu that's appealing, tasty and satisfying to you. Once you're happy with eating healthy foods, your nutritional future is almost assuredly going to be a healthy one.
Continue your already established and effective program of vitanutrient supplementation.
Consume caffeine and alcohol only in moderation.
Remember that addictions can be managed only through abstinence.
Take care of weight regain promptly and effectively by returning to the Induction and Ongoing Weight Loss phases for as long as it takes to get back to your goal weight. Swear that you will never allow yourself to be more than five pounds and two weeks' worth of Induction away from your goal weight.
Make exercise a regular part of your life.
Building Lifetime Habits
Now that you're adhering to the Atkins Nutritional Approach™, develop a healthy relationship with food by following these do's and don'ts.
We are all plugged into our habits. If you can discover your bad connections and disconnect them, you can begin the exciting process of change. If you can learn new and improved connections and solder them into place, you'll achieve permanent change. Try these steps and see if they make your nutritional life easier:
· Eat slowly and extend the meal to give your brain time to signal satisfaction before your stomach is distended and you feel stuffed.
· Don't eat as much as you can; eat as much as you need.
· Don't finish something just because it's there.
· Establish food rituals that slow down the process of eating. For example, set the dinner table—even when you are eating alone—and don't eat while standing at the kitchen counter.
· Don't eat meals in front of the television set or computer, especially not snacks that you could eat great quantities of while distracted, without even realizing it.
· Try not to eat while talking on the phone.
· Don't cruise the kitchen during television commercials.
· Eat three meals a day—or four or five smaller ones. Skipping meals leads to unstable blood sugar and cravings, which might allow your bad habits to kick in.
· If you're not adhering to the program as well as you should be, start a food diary and carry it around with you. This is an excellent way to bring your eating behaviour to the forefront of your conscious mind.
The Uses and Abuses of Induction
Phase one of the Atkins Nutritional Approach™ not only jump-starts your weight loss, it is also a convenient refuge to which you can retreat when necessary.
Properly used, Induction can help you get off a weight-loss plateau (see What Is a Plateau?) or to get back on the program after a lapse. So if you've fallen off your Lifetime Maintenance program for whatever reason, you can return to Induction and, like the ignition of an automobile, it will get your engine to turn over and start you down the road again.
If you reached your goal weight before slipping off the wagon for a brief period, you won't have to do Induction for long, just until you get back into lipolysis and the secondary process of ketosis. You'll know that has happened when you once again experience the ability to be in control of your appetite—the feeling that was such a revelation after the first 48 hours on Induction. These are perfectly appropriate uses of Induction.
However, Induction can be abused, and that abuse can ultimately threaten your ability to maintain a healthy weight. First of all, if you retreat to Induction every time you stray, you may begin to reinforce a dangerous pattern of behavior. By knowing Induction is there as a refuge, it may keep you from following the guidelines of the stage you are in. For a minor infraction or even a day of cheating, there is no need to go back to Induction. Simply drop your carb consumption down 5 or 10 grams for a couple of days, or go back to the previous phase. It is important that you learn how to eat properly as a way of life. Zigzagging back and forth between Induction and Maintenance means you have not integrated this new, healthy eating pattern into your life.
Another more serious concern is the impact this going back and forth can have on your metabolism. (See “The Wrong Way to Do Atkins.”) You may have heard people say, “I love doing Atkins because I 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 facts that none of us is getting any younger and that 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.
Go back to Induction when you have to. However, understand that If you retreat regularly, you may be in for a nasty surprise. After repeated weight gain, forays to Induction may not always work as effectively for you.
The Wrong Way to Do Atkins
All too often, people devise ways to abuse the Atkins Nutritional Approach™ by doing it their own way. Here’s what not to do and why:
Misconception: Atkins can be used as a short-term or crash diet.
Reality: If you do Induction for two weeks to drop 10 pounds and then go back to your old way of eating, you will be treating it as a crash diet. But that goes against everything Dr. Atkins recommends, and will lead to problems in the long run.
Misconception: You can lose weight doing Atkins, then return to your old way of eating.
Reality: Do this and, as with your past attempts to slim down, you will neglect to change those eating habits that ensure you always regain lost weight.
Misconception: You can focus solely on losing weight and minimize the maintenance aspects.
Reality: Any weight-loss program that does not segue into weight maintenance is doomed to failure. The eating plan you will follow during Lifetime Maintenance is likely to be somewhere between your menu during the Induction phase and the way you ate before you started Atkins.
Misconception: You can eat any food so long as you do not exceed 20 grams of carbs a day.
Reality: If you eat junk foods or other nutrient-deficient carbohydrate foods instead of vegetables and other nutrient-dense foods, you will miss most of the health benefits of the Atkins approach and you certainly will not be fostering long-term health.
Misconception: You can use Atkins for weight loss, but you don’t have to bother with exercise and supplements if you don’t have any health problems.
Reality: If you don’t supplement with vitanutrients and exercise regularly, you may take off pounds, but you will miss out on important health benefits. And everyone needs exercise: It is not related solely to weight loss.
Misconception: You can just continue to do Induction until you lose all of your weight.
Reality: You will lose weight more quickly if you continue doing Induction, but you won’t learn how to keep that weight off permanently if you don’t move through the four phases. More important, you will miss out on the benefits of the phytochemicals present in health-promoting carbohydrate foods that you incorporate into your diet in the phases after Induction.
Misconception: You can go back to eating your favorite foods after you lose weight.
Reality: Your favorite foods may well be your problem foods. Unless you acknowledge and learn how to deal with your addictions, you are doomed to regain your weight and fall back into the dangerous cycle of high blood sugar and overproduction of insulin.
Misconception: You can do Induction during the week and binge on weekends and still lose or maintain weight.
Reality: When you do Atkins during the week and then cheat on the weekends, for several days after your binge you are no longer burning fat. At most, you could be in the fat-burning state for only three days each week. In addition, you may have overstimulated your insulin response, increasing the metabolic risk factors underlying your weight problem. Remember that when you burn fat, dietary fat is also being burned. However, if you combine high carbs with high fat—the typical American diet—you can be increasing your cardiovascular risks.
Misconception: You can do Atkins while following a low-fat regimen.
Reality: To encourage your body to burn its own stores of fat, you need to reduce the amount of carbohydrates you eat, meaning you need to primarily eat foods rich in protein and fat. Remember that essential fatty acids play a role in normal metabolic function. Fat also plays a role in stabilizing blood sugar and increasing satiety. If fat intake is too low, you will not burn fat aggressively. Moreover, excess protein converts to glucose and can keep fat from becoming the primary fuel.
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