The Pre-Maintenance Thread

[loonatika]

I know there's a few of us doing pre-maint now - higgies, nursie, jimmie, me, and that's all I can think of but I'm sure there's more of you out there

So this is a thread for us to figure out pre-maint, play with the food groups, and note on any cravings that occur.

One thing I've noticed so far is how low my fat % has dropped lately. That a good or bad thing?

[KimberBoh]

Loonatika wrote:

One thing I've noticed so far is how low my fat % has dropped lately. That a good or bad thing?

I thought your fat % was supposed to drop. Mine is always around 50 to 55% these days. Some a little higher but never lower and it seems to be working. Right now I'm trying to keep my carbs between 70 and 80 a day. Averaging around 70 per day kept me losing fine. Now I'm on to trying for 80 every day to see if that's my CCLL. I'll try that for a week or 2 but sometimes it's hard to get that many carbs in a day. Anyway, I'm almost at goal unless I drop it a little lower. Right now I'm trying to firm up the rest of the jiggles. LOL!

[Elleth Faewen]

I am close to premaintenance, but not quite there yet. This is what I got from a recent 2 month analysis of my diet while on rung 9.

Two month total percentages

15.9% Energy from Protein - g
71.7% Energy from Total fat - g
21.5% Energy from Saturated fat
19.5% Energy from Monounsaturat
20.7% Energy from Polyunsaturat
12.8% Energy from Carbohydrate
0.6% Energy from Alcohol - g

Two month daily averages
Calories: 1391
Protein - g: 55.5
Total fat - g: 110
Saturated fat - g: 33.3
Monounsaturated fat - g: 30.2
Polyunsaturated fat - g: 32.1
Cholesterol - mg: 215
Carbohydrate - g: 44.8
Dietary fiber - g (CSFII): 10.4
Alcohol - g: 1.3

carbs and calories look fine, but I really need more fiber.

[2big4mysize]

yep as the carbs come up the fat drops down soi that by goal you should be around 45-50% fats as we will alsways be primary fat burners on Atkins. If you were metabolically resistant then you may need your fats a bit higher.

Protein should be around the 25-30% as you get to goal and should always repeat always be higher then your carbs according to DANDR.

One thing y'all will notice is as the carbs come up you will nolonger register on the stix but you will for the rest of your Atkins eating days be in ketosis. According to Dr Atkins by now we have learned and practiced portion control and craving controls and we know what foods are trigger foods for us if we climbed the ladder and if we didn't finsih it we know what the symptoms of a triggered event are so we can use those tools we already have learned and practiced to control them and not let them derail us so close to goal.
See there was a method to his telling us to move to OWL and not lose it all in Indeuction eating mode.

The rules still apply
eat a new to you food only 3 times the first time you encounter it and if it doesn't give you trouble them you can eat it daily if you want from then on.
Always have a fat with your carby foods.
read labels
measure serving size

Have fun and be ready as that first time appetite reapears it is very scary.

Oh and Loonatika Nurselady is a goalie as of Sat AM so she will not be playing pre but doing maintenance. the topic is up in Chit chat is you want to join the happy dancers.

Happy low carbing

[loonatika]

Ooh congrats Nursie - I'll go do a happy dance in chat

I haven't fitdayed for a while as I'm too scared to see how high my carbs are. I'm still losing measurement wise and it's TOM. I'm really going to get some flaming pm's soon

Kimber - welcome to the pre-maint thread
Know one told us how hard it was to get the carb count high right? Have you been trying whole grain breads? I've found I handle them better than the starchys, as in I can eat more bread and still lose - I think the GI ratings may come to play here too.

2big - interesting to know we're still fat burners. I really thought with the higher carb counts it would mean I was burning glucose mainly. But since my energy levels are so high throughout the day, and I'm not going up and down with blood sugar levels, it does make sense its still ketosis.

Anyway I feel like a kid in a new playground here. Loving all the choices and playing around.

[KimberBoh]

You're absolutely right about how hard it is to get that carb count high! After being used to 40-60 a day, it seemed so hard to go higher. I found a Brownberry bread that is low in carbs and I've been eating that a few times a week. Every multi-grain bread I find, I read the ingredients and there it is, "SUGAR", in some form or another. My thoughts on that are not fit to print. LOL!

I remember I couldn't wait to have potatoes! Well, I think I've had them once a month since November. Guess I didn't miss them as much as I thought I did. I've tried just about every kind of food I plan to eat on this WOL and I even experiment with a few new things. Luckily, I haven't had a bad reaction to anything I've tried. Nor have I found a trigger food. Thank goodness for that. But I still watch and do like 2Big said, just 3 times a week when it's a new food.

[loonatika]

Yeah your attitude is spot on - I thought potatoes were the bees knees but now I barely have them, once a month if that. Glad you at least found a bread you are happy with

I really think the key to pre-maint is vigilance. It would be so easy for me to think 'hey I'm eating all these carbs and still not gaining, why not hit the candy bar aisle'. But I know that's the food that got me into this situation in the first place so regardless, I stay away from sugar.

I don't feel deprived either, it's actually quite empowering knowing you can make or have alternatives for most sugary items.

[cmcole]

May I join? I'm not sure I'm worthy to be included in your esteemed company, though.

I thought I was actually heading for Maintenance, as the scale hasn't moved since June (barring a pound or so one side or the other), and I haven't measured since early January, when I thought that was depressing (note: don't bother measuring when TOM is imminent).

Anyway, now I've been set on the straight and narrow about my eating habits not being appropriate (right foods; wrong amounts), I am going to have to do some fine tuning of my menu to try to get more calories (and probably even more carbs) just to try and get on some sort of even keel.

I figure if I don't get this thing in order, Basic Training is likely going to kill me - because I won't be able to handle the change in menu, or have the energy to endure all the PT involved.

According to the site posted by the responder in my other thread, I wasn't even reaching the minimum number of calories for my BMR, let alone getting close to my AMR (or whatever it's called). So, I'm supposed to be eating between 1353 and 2431 (at least) calories per day. I'm not close some days, and others, I'm managing to go over the 1353 (with an effort). Guess I fell into some strange mind-set wherein I though that the lower calories would equal additional weight or measurement loss, especially if I added more exercise. Strange how I could read all the posts about "starvation mode" and not see that it applied to my situation.

Guess one is never to old to learn.

[loonatika]

Welcome aboard cmcole!

I've found nuts are a good way to get my cals up. It's strange though after all the low-cal diets that actually want you to eat below 1200cals a day, we all realize how important it is to eat enough for your body to work.

[2big4mysize]

the trick is to selcect more calorie and carb dense foods so you can have a 1/2 cup of a very dence carb food for your veggie choices.

like I now use parsnips in my faux taters instead of cauliflower or radishes.

leeks as a soup base instead of cauilfower too.

Add a few morew beans to your soup and higher carb veggies and soon your 10 net carb soup is a 25 net carb soup.

you can add some of the lower carb whole wheat pastas instead of the soy protein flour pastas and add back carbs too. it really is easy oif you switch out 2 or 3 veggies.