Maintenance For Real People

[mcarr36]

Re: Maintenance For Real People

I would never dream of eating something that was bad for me because of peer pressure. I have had the occational fast food burger WITHOUT the bun. I get questioned all the time about how I eat. People ask me "how do you stay so thin" and "why don't you eat bread" or "why can't you have just a bite of this cake?" Maybe some people think I am weird or crazy but most of the time I feel like people admire me and wish they could also be a size 2. I have been thin and fit for many years, all thanks to low carbing. I share my way of eating with anyone that wants to know. I love helping people and encouraging them. I have cheered for many friends as they lost weight following the Atkins diet. If I ate 40-50 refined carbs a day, I would gain weight. Not worth it! I maintain my weight at 25 net carbs a day and those are 25 complex carbs. I would never waste my percious carbs on junk. I am never ashamed at how I eat. I am very proud of the way I eat. Who cares what other people think. I am the one wearing my little jeans!

[RitaCeleste]

Re: Maintenance For Real People

If you can maintain on that, fine and good. A lot of people can't. I think we have choices because people have pressured the fast food places into selling a hamburger without a bun. Or offering us a salad so we don't have to bring a brownbag in with us. I have no social life really. I eat out only with my family occasionally. We go to the all you can eat buffets. I can find all the steak and salad I want on one. Other things on others. My weakness is TV dinners. I miss the 2 mins in the mirowave. But if I use my carbs up on this, I feel hungery and I end up eating extra. Also my over all diet is missing veggies by ALOT. And not its far from healthy. Being more hungery increases the chances I'll overeat and regain the weight. That being said, why must you do lunch with your peers everyday? Do you all not decide to take seperate lunches once in awhile? When I cheat on the diet by going out, I eat ALONE mostly. I don't have a job or peers to worry about. People will always tease you about choosing to be thin and healthy if that is not a choice they willing to make for themselves.

[ziggy]

Re: Maintenance For Real People

im a body builder so my glucose stores can save me from higher carbs and such but even i have my limmits

i have been on atkins for 5 years but the past few months i tried some carb up tests and this is what i found

first carb up i ate lots of sugar/candy and potatos and it made me feel sick and dizzy and then all my muscles over my whole body got very sore i literally could barely move

im guessing the reason to that was cause all my insulin receptors on my muscles were very senseitive cause i eat low carb atkins and haveing all that sugar from these candy things overflooded my muscle glucose stores

well i did not want to do anymore tests after that so for a month i ate normal atkins


then i gave it another shot i ate differnt food this time less sugar ice cream and potatos and afterwards i felt sick but my muscles seemd to be ok this time but later the next day i caught a cold lol


so again i did not want to do anymore tests but i wanted to try and find something so a month or so later i tried another test


this time i ate 2 bananas and i think that was it and i felt fine my muscles caught all the glucose so i didnt gain any fat but 2 bananas could maybe be matainence on atkins so i was only like half off the diet that day


then my most recent test i ate 75% a bag of these tortilla chips with lime flavor that were made mostly out of whole wheat & white corn well that did it i felt sick and must have gained 6-7 pounds of water and 3-4 pounds of fat the most fat gain out of all the carb ups


so right now my next test is to try atkins matainence 80 carbs a day but for now im gonna 20-30 carbs a day and or get into ketosis to lose this fat xD

iv been on atkins for 5 years now but i still dont eat more than 40 net carbs a day mostly but now that im a body builder i believe i could matain my weight at 70-80 carbs a day unlike years ago before i was a body builder where i could only eat 30-40 carbs a day to matain weight


everytime i ate high carb besides the 2 banana day i felt very crappy and got gas and never wanted to feel like that again so im very thankful for the atkins diet which makes me feel great and healthy

[mizski]

Re: Maintenance For Real People

I started thinking about what makes maintenance such a hard thing to do. I don't accept the notion that "our bodies are all different." 95% of Americans before 1970 were not overweight. So 95% of us are the same. 95% of us can eat 70-100grams of carbs while maintaining a decent body fat...

This is probably true once one is in maintenance. Probably more true when one has been in maintenance for a while and their bodies are used to being at a healthy weight and eating properly. At least, I hope this is true!

I think the social aspects of low carbing is what's difficult. Real people work. We go OUT TO LUNCH and we eat with friends/co-workers. And lunch in the modern world = sandwich or fast food. You don't want to be the only idiot with a lettuce bun burger.

Now, the good thing about today's eating styles is that so many people have different needs/wants. Some people are vegetarian, diabetic, have food allergies, etc. And don't forget about all the super picky eaters. It's not uncommon for people to have meals that are not "typical." I think the key here is to not go down the "I can't have a bun because I'm on a diet" route. You don't have a bun because you don't want or like a bun. Case closed and who cares because it's more fun and important to gossip about how the boss tripped over the carpet and spilled his coffee.

I've started eating fried chicken and nuggets and other things and I'm still losing weight. Eliminating these foods seems so over the top and unnecessary. Depriving yourself makes you lose weight fast NOW, but makes you fail down the road and binge on cakes. So eat a normal carby "main food" but take out the super carby sides like french fries, baked potatoes and chips. Sodas are obviously on the "no" list.

Shame, shame on the fried chicken and nuggets, sugarkang. Don't you realize that this is Atkins and you will get scolded for not reading your DANDR??? Seriously, those foods are crap and you know it. Eating these foods will lead you straight to diet purgatory. For your diet penance, eat a stalk of broccoli.

While I agree that we should be able to eat more "normally" at Maintenance, the fact is that fast food blossomed in the 70s and 80s and the 95% who were thinner before did not have the fast food and oversize portions that are now part of our daily diets. There have been a lot of articles over the years about how serving sizes have become huge compared to the 50s and how fast food has gone from a once a month treat to a daily staple, so I don't feel that eating a daily fast food lunch would ever allow me to maintain my weight loss.

Eating out and portion size are key factors on why we are so fat. People seldom ate out during the 50s and what is available nowadays on a kiddie menu were adult portions years ago.

It does raise a curious question about what the average healthy diet was in say the 1950s as opposed to now. I am betting there was a lot less sugar and processed starch and a lot more real food including more veggies, leaner meats, water consumption, and fruits overall.

Well, actually there were a lot of sugars and starches. Meals always had some kind of starch and it was usually of the white variety: white potatoes, white rice, white pasta, white bread. The white breads did not have all the chemicals and soy like today though. Starches were an economical way to stretch one's budget and the way most mom's were able to feed their (often large) families with a small amount of meat was to add more starches. Meats were fattier cuts too because the animals weren't factory raised. Vegetables and fruits were plentiful during the growing season (spring through autumn) and in winter there were canned, what you canned yourself from your garden, or the typical cold crop veggies (lots of root veggies). In the winter, fruits were usually citrus or again, whatever you canned during the warmer weather. These were preserved in a sugar syrup. Note I said sugar, not HFCS. Beverages were usually milk for the kids. Soda was a rare thing, usually saved for someone's birthday party or such. In the warm weather there was homemade lemonade...with sugar.

So, by today's standards, the 1950s diet does not seem that healthy. However, the food itself was much healthier than the foods of today. People ate smaller portions of home-cooked foods. Most dinners included some sort of dessert such as a homemade cake or pudding. You had a small amount. Overall the portions of each meal were much smaller and very important, people were more physically active.

This is a great discussion and as a newbie, I don't see how it will change how I diet. It is good to discuss these things and hash them out. And I think most people will realize that eating the way that made them fat/unhealthy will only continue to make them so.

[Slidesdownmountains]

Re: Maintenance For Real People

Haaaang on, am I missing something? Since when were sandwiches, KFC and MacD's the only options for lunch? Not only is that a way to rid yourself of lots of excess cash, that food is total crap - saturated fats, little or no fibre and full of sugars! Yeck!! They should be eaten as an occasional fast food option, if at all, NOT everyday!! If your work colleagues eat that sort of thing every day they must be famished by mid-afternoon?

(Last time I had a Maccy D meal (before started this WOE) I found that my mood changed to aggravated for no apparent reason about an hour later - anyone else find that certain foods can tip mood?)

[Emre Yigit]

Re: Maintenance For Real People

A propos the discussion of "real-life" food, here is an interesting site. Not Atkins-friendly, but might be useful.

Home | Eat This, Not That

And be sure to check out:

The 30 Worst Foods in America | Eat This, Not That

Ciao.

[Momma2threegirls]

Re: Maintenance For Real People

I will admit that I have not read everything between page 1 and 3, but I sort of get the OP and then the more I think about it - the logic doesn't make sense to me.

For me Atkins has been a huge success, but living low carb has changed who I am in my sense of awareness. I don't "need" to eat a burger bun and fries at lunch with friends, or co-workers, or family to feel "good" about my normalcy in the world. Sugar makes me feel like crap. Crap food makes me feel like crap. I have really become aware of "what goes in comes out" When I have a "splurge" and from time time time I have, I feel like junk. But what I have to clarify is I no longer binge. I know my limits. I can have that piece of birthday cake (a modest piece) and a taste of the ice cream for my daughter's birthday and get right back on track.....after a night of crazy nightmares, insatiable thirst, and two days of cravings....I always walk away with another lesson learned.

I can CHOOSE that and sometimes I do.....but WOW is that my body talking to me or what? My body doesn't "need" that piece of cake...or special birthday dinner to "feel good" and certainly not a bun a lunch every day.

Now that I am in maintance and I don't need to loose anymore weight, I don't have to deny myself at a special event...but would I justify torturing my body daily with low quality food?...it doesn't make any sense. If you feel left out b/c of a bun, bring a whole grain or low carb bun along and substitute....if it's a "fitting in" issue then i think it goes way beyond the bun.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Maintenance For Real People

>> Eating two slices of bread a day will allow us to have lunch like everyone else in America. One burger bun will not kill you.>>

I doubt very much that "everyone else in America" has two slices of bread everyday for lunch.

I didn't much care what people thought of what I ate before Atkins, and doing Atkins hasn't made me care any more.

I can go out with anyone ... anytime, and eat the way I want to eat. Just as the people I'm with eat the way they want to eat.

The OP is doing a good job of justifying his own wants by making it about "fitting in", as best I can see.

I don't see how "fried chicken" and "nuggets" are healthy eating ... which is certainly one of the tenets of "doing Atkins" ... on any phase.

As to the argument that people don't maintain their weight loss ... sadly, that's true ... of anyone who "diets". Atkins is no exception. Dr. Atkins discusses this in the book.

I imagine that eating "fried chicken" and "nuggets" will eventually catch up with the original poster.

People make excuses or rationalize lots of things ... to justify what it is they're doing.

I wonder how the original poster's Atkins journey is going? A few posts in March 2009 ... one can only imagine what he's eating now.