Atkins Maintenance
The final phase of the Atkins diet plan is lifetime maintenance.
This is the time to continue your new eating plan at a maintenance level and keep yourself at your goal weight.
The habits you have created will now become a permanent way of life.
During the third phase, pre-maintenance, you learned exactly how many carbohydrate grams your body can tolerate and still maintain your ideal weight.
In this phase, youll put this approach into practice and learn to live with your ideal carb count on a daily basis.
During lifetime maintenance you will continue to expand your food selections and eat more carbohydrate grams than you did previously.
Depending on your specific metabolic needs, you can eat some of the foods that you enjoyed prior to starting your weight loss program.
If you do choose to eat these foods, they must 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.
You 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 youll also learn how to overcome your previous bad habits.
Losing weight and keeping it off means dealing with real-world situations.
Youll develop coping strategies for stress eating, emotional eating and holiday eating.
Youll also develop plans for dealing with eating out in restaurants.
The challenges during the maintenance phase are many, but they can be overcome.
Its all about preparation.
When youve followed the Atkins diet plan for a long time, youve learned exactly how many carbohydrate grams you can handle.
Youve also learned what foods trigger carbohydrate cravings and which foods lead to binges.
Youve developed coping strategies over the course of your OWL and pre-maintenance phases that you will have to use in lifetime maintenance.
To prepare yourself for lifetime maintenance, make a promise to yourself never to go back to your previous weight.
Make the commitment by donating all of your fat
