Atkins Diet Low Carb Weight Loss Plan. ATKINS Pre Maintenance: Prepare for Permanent Slimness. You are almost there! All your good work and healthy eating habits have paid off, and you now have only 5-10 pounds to go to reach your target weight .  .  .

Prepare for Permanent Slimness

You are almost there! All your good work and healthy eating habits have paid off, and you now have only 5-10 pounds to go to reach your target weight. Give yourself a good pat on the back: you deserve it.

Having said that, a note of caution: you may not like what follows, but it is vitally important that you hear it. If you have been racing along the road to your destination, now is the time to put on the brakes. Much as it is tempting to say, "I can banish these last pounds in a few weeks now that I know how to do the Atkins”. It's strongly advised to you to do something that seems quite the opposite on pre maintenance, the all important third phase of Atkins (or Atkins Phase 3). As you advance toward lifetime maintenance, my advice is to proceed so slowly that your weight loss is almost imperceptible. It's known that this snail’s pace can be excruciating when the end is in sight. But remember, getting to your goal weight is not your ultimate goal; you’re real goal is to maintain that magic number indefinitely.

Our focus is now different, there is little doubt you can and will reach your goal weight. The only doubt is whether you will stay at that weight for life. The purpose now is to create the optimal lifetime eating program, one that fits you so perfectly you will want to stay on it for life.

When you moved to OWL (ongoing weight loss), you deliberately slowed down your weight loss by adding more carbs and more variety to your menus. Now, you are asked to slow things down even further. The more you learn about eating as you lose those last few pounds, the better. Your next assignment is to increase your carb consumption until you are losing weight less than a pound a week. The additional foods will provide increased nutrition. Ideally, you should spend at least a month or two in this phase.

There is a method in what may sound like madness. If you search for the level that achieves a small amount of weight loss, by the time you reach your goal weight you will in effect be on lifetime maintenance, at which time your weight loss will naturally slow to a halt. During pre maintenance you will both accustom yourself to your lifetime eating plan and get a good indication of what it will be like. Think of this phase as a learner’s permit, like the one you had when you were just beginning to drive. You were allowed out on the roads, but only with a licensed driver by your side. Atkins pre maintenance is like that you’re out there doing it, but you still need some more hours behind the wheel before it’s safe to allow you on the highway all by yourself.

That’s why it is crucial that you not make the assumptions that Atkins pre-maintenance and Atkins lifetime maintenance must be pretty much the same thing because their names sounds alike, not true: one is a training program; the other is the rest of your life. If you have any misguided ideas about skipping this Atkins third phase and going right to lifetime maintenance, you are implored not to do so. In fact, it would go so far as to say that pre maintenance is mandatory if permanent weight loss is to be achieved. Let it be repeated that: if you omit pre maintenance you may well be doomed to failure when it comes to maintaining your weight loss for the long term.

How to Do Atkins Pre Maintenance

Atkins diet pre maintenance is crucial to getting your weight under control for good, but it is also about far more important things, the first of course being your health to reduce your long term risk for conditions such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes.

There is nothing more effective than maintaining a healthy weight. But I’m also thinking about such things as your ability to make choices that are right for you. When you realize you can be in charge of what you eat how you look and how healthy you are, it empowers you in all the other aspects of your life. instead of worrying about looking good to please other people you are likely coming to realize that what matters is how you feel about how you look and feel. You are learning the skills that allow you to change your life. When you were doing OWL (ongoing weight loss), you learned to increase your carb intake in increments of 5 grams. In this phase you can shift into a higher gear increase your daily carb intake by 10 grams each week so long as you continue to lose. See The Atkins Power of Ten in the following page. If you introduce new foods slowly and increase your grams of carbs gradually, your CCLL should increase gradually. This new and higher CCLL will reflect the fact that you are now losing weight more slowly.

As you continue to make 10 grams incremental additions, you will rather quickly reach a point at which you will find that you are no longer losing weight. If you are at your goal weight, stay at that level for a month or so before you increase your daily carb consumption by another 10 grams to see if you can consume that level without gaining. Once you do begin to gain, drop back 10 grams and you should have established your critical carbohydrate level for maintenance (CCLM).

On the other hand, if after an incremental increase you find that you are gaining or are not losing and you are not yet at your goal weight, you need to back down to the previous level. The line between gaining, maintaining weight and losing weight is a thin one and you may have to play with your CCLL and CCLM for a while to understand what your body can handle. While it may take as long as 3 months to drop the last few pounds and clearly establish you’re CCLM, let it be reiterated: this leisurely pace is critical to your ultimate success. Continue to add new foods slowly and carefully so you’ll be learning good eating habits at the same time.

Some Variations on the Rule

Another approach to pre-maintenance is to continue eating as you were at the end of Atkins Ongoing Weight Loss and to allow yourself a 20 gram carb treat 2 or 3 times a week. Add a piece of fruit or starchy veggie, a serving of brown rice or sweet potatoes, for example. You can also have a glass of white wine, a light beer or the white spirits.

Still another way to do pre maintenance is to average out your carb intake for the week. This is how it works: if for example, your CCLL is 80 grams, you might drop back to 60 grams on Tuesday, and then deviate with a beef, potato and carrot stew the following night, pushing your daily total to 100 grams. (Up till now, when weight loss was essential, you have been told to spread your carbs out through the day, if you do have a heavy dose at one meal, make sure there is enough fat, protein and fiber in the rest of the meal to slow the glucose load on your system) however, if you find such deviations create cravings, it is probably best for you to stick to a steady number of carbs spread evenly throughout the day. Be careful! There are a couple of reasons why people sometimes get into trouble:

1. They don’t recognize that this Atkins third phase is still relatively restrictive of carbs, compared to the way they were eating before they were doing Atkins.
   
2. They’re startled to discover that without the wonderful advantage of deep lipolysis, appetite suppression has diminished.