Some questions about Maintenance

[KH135]

I was wondering if any of you who are on Maintenance, or PreMaintenance can kind of tell me what a typical day might look like for you, as far as your carbs and all that. How many carbs do some of you eat to maintain your weight? Do you count as stringently as you did during Induction? Or do you pretty much have a feel for what your limits are? As I am back on Induction (again) I am feeling kind of intimidated by the thought of having to count every single carb for, like, the rest of my life. Not sure if I can do that and actually have a life, too. Any input is much appreciated. Thanks!

[floydgirl]

Re: Some questions about Maintenance

I'm not on maintenance or premaintenance, I am on OWL. But I'll give you my 2 cents worth. Basically we are all different -- thank goodness for that, huh? What I am getting at, your CCL depends on a lot of things. Your age, activity level, and just being you. We are all very different. I personally can not eat a lot of carbs and still lose weight. Right now I am eating between 25-30 carbs a day. There are people who can eat much more than that.

One thing about this WOL -- it is a way of life. Yes, you have to always be careful about your carb intake. As you go up the OWL rungs, you get to add so many healthy carbs back.

How are you doing on your reinduction?

[Scooterjam]

Re: Some questions about Maintenance

Hello KH135! Welcome to the Club!

I'm kind of not much help on the Maintenance, or PreMaintenance but I am on Rung2 of OWL.

My daily carb intake runs between 25 - 30 with a panic button being 29 or close to it.

I've just recently adjusted my exercising and started running, so I may be able to add some more carbs in, (in the forms of veggies I may add) but I plan on sticking to that.

I know a lady who works at the local health food store (a huge Atkins advocate) and she is in maintenace and has been for many years, shes 40 ish and takes in anywhere from 75 to 100 a day!! Yikes!!!! Just saying that makes me wanna gain a pound....but she is very very active.

I hope this helps you some!!

[sadie147]

Re: Some questions about Maintenance

I am in maintenance.... I keep my carbs from 70-100 g's a day with no problem, some days i've gone as high as 150g's. I usually have 2 or so lower carb days a week if i've had alot of very high days. For a long time i was keeping my carbs far too low (about 30) as i became a bit carb-phobic, but i have now learned i did not need too.

I wouldn't say i'm extremely active. I hit the gym 3-4 days a week, do about 20-25 mins of weight training, and 20 mins of running on the treadmill.

Right now I'm tracking my foods, but will probably stop soon as i tend to get a bit obsessive over it. i did stop for a while, but have gone back to it, i'm trying to lose a few lbs i gained when i stopped exercising regularily a while back.

I find i tend to usually eat the same foods each week, so i know the carb counts of most of the foods i eat, and how much of each i can have each day.

[julirama723]

Re: Some questions about Maintenance

I'm in OWL, Rung 9, and I haven't found my CCLL yet...When I eat naturally (as in, not "aiming" for a certain carb intake) I normally eat around 50-55g carbs. I've eaten as many as 65g in a day, and had no problems whatsoever. I think my CCLL will be quite high, as I'm still losing weight at a regular pace. My next step is to get up to 70g and keep adding carbs from there.

[KH135]

Re: Some questions about Maintenance

Oh, thanks a bunch everyone for all the tips! It really is amazing that people's carb levels for even maintaining can be so vastly different. I am kind of hoping that my levels will end up being around 70-100 as well. I figure if it's that high, maybe I can generally just 'eat low carb' and be able to maintain without doing math all day every day. Ha! And by the time I have worked through the rungs to that point, I should definitely know just by experience how much is enough. I like the point someone made about having a few really low carb days when they feel like they've been getting too lenient. That's the way I want to end up...just controlling those carbs and not letting them control me!

[not2late]

Re: Some questions about Maintenance

When you go through OWL and find your CCLL, you start to get used to how many carbs you are supposed to eat. That is, for the foods you eat frequently, you'll begin to know how many carbs it has and what quantity of it makes 5 net carbs. I'm going through Pre-Maintenance now, and I "know" how much 10 net carbs of pinto beans are because I used to eat 5 net carbs of them on my OWL. So I basically know how much of what I can eat due to going through OWL Phase.

I imagine Maintenance will be the same thing, because you just keep building on what you learned as you went through the Phases.