[Qeiafib]

Hi, say I wanted to return to a normal eating lifestyle after the Atkins diet, what would be the best way to do this? For example, im guessing it should be a slow change back to normal, so would adding 10 carbs a week be ok?
My main concern is that as I'm still young there will be times that in the lifetime stage I will be going way over the CCLM.

Basically there will be times when im having alot of alcohol or just want to enjoy a nice takeaway or fast food meal, but I don't want to be tied down because of the lifetime maintenance. Will I gain weight if I go out of the lifetime maintenance? Bear in mind that I will be aiming to exercising a lot and have a balanced diet. So, is there a way to go back to a normal diet successfully?



Thanks, Luke.

[Qeiafib]

No, I have been doing the diet as it says in the book. Wl it doesn't seem so 'normal' to me, and I read somewhere that about 90 carbs is what usually people get to on the CCLM, which is way lower than I would like.

[ATTILAGLIC]

Bluehex has some fantastic advice. Take it from me; I lost quite a bit of weight, and thought I had enough "control" to eat "normally" again. It started with progressively increasing my carbs (like the book says), and continuing to work out. But I didn't follow a lot of the advice in the maintenance stage. I became a cowboy about it, thinking I had all under control. Before long, I was craving the same types of foods that made me "fat" the first time. And before I knew it, the cravings were as rabid as ever before, and surely but slowly started to control my diet again.

Maybe you're stronger than me, but if I could do it a second time (which I'm trying now), I'd stick to the maintenance plan (which isn't hard to do once you get used to eating this way).

Anyway good luck.

[Qeiafib]

Well the only reason I put on the pounds was because of bad eating habits and little exercise a few years back. After this I ate a more healthy balanced diet and I stopped putting on weight, but I didn't lose it either, hence why im on atkins. So, theoretically, and if im exercising aswell, I wouldn't put weight back on if I returned to a normal diet?

[Qeiafib]

Anyone?

[Boveosteors]

What do you consider "normal"? It's hard to give advice until we know what you're thinking. Most of us consider the way we eat right now to be our "normal" way of eating.

Have you read the book? Have you at least read the food lists for Pre-Maintenance and Maintenance? If you were to follow the diet... as written... by the time you're in Maintenance on Atkins you'll be eating foods you're not eating in the beginning. Things like fruit, whole grains, beans and starchy vegetables. That IS part of Atkins. If your "normal" is something different then most of us would say, "Go back to how you ate and you'll go back to what you weighed".

Tril