How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

[Shrew2u]

I'm at decision time right now, with how to transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance. DANDR provides three options (pgs 197-19:

• Adding 10g net to each day's food intake each week until the CCLM is determined;
• Maintaining the most recent CCLL and adding an extra 20g portion to a day's food intake 2-3 times per week (but how is the CCLM determined?); or
• Increasing the weekly net by day-to-day averaging until the CCLM is determined (Example: during an 80g week, some days are 60g and others are 100g).

Two questions for those in P-M or M:

Which method did you use?

Why did you choose that method?

I'm interested in your personal experience from a philosophical standpoint only. I know all too well that what works for another may not work for me, so I will not adopt any particular method based upon the experience of another poster. For full disclosure: I will probably adopt Method 1, because it lends itself to my eating habits (little variation in breakfast/lunch; can handle increased carbs in the evening easily).

[EverLosing]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

Great question, Shrew!! I am also interested in some answers from the experienced members here! I'm with you on method #1. I think that's the easiest route for me.

[2big4mysize]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

I did the 10 grams and basically just did the OWL carb ladder again.

One thing somebody going to pre needs to be aware of that ketosis appetite suppression is going to disappear and you may get scared and want to run back to OWL.
For that reason going slow was best for me.
Did you climb the carb ladder and find your CCLL during OWL or did you keep it artifically low?
if you climbed the carb ladder and found your CCLL then your CCLM should be one to 2 carbs more unless you have increased your Active lifestyle from when you found it. The more exercise we do the more carbs we can eat and still lose body fat.

remeber to take careful nots when you add more carbs so you know if it was the food or the carbs that did you in should you have a food craving issue.

Since you practiced food portion size doing your OWL you should do fine doing Pre even with the return of appetite.

[ziggy]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

im in pre-matainence and still in ketosis

but i guess maybe im in OWL then if im in ketosis?

iv never been good at selecting if i was in OWL or matainence the foods i want to test out i am still unable to get so i just set it to pre-matainence for now

also i like staying in ketosis thats why im in pre-matainence and still in ketosis

i plan on going back to OWL when i can obtain them new foods i want to test out

but ya in short i don't know what OWL or maintence or what mode i should say im on

[Kntrylady]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

Good thread Shrew.... I'm not anywhere near needing it, but have been reading getting confused. Looking forward to more answers

[liv]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

My CCLL is low so I found it early so therefore the experimenting I have done is to try larger quanties of OWL foods out to see what happens if I have 10 carbs of straberries rather than 5 a day.
For me at least the number that I maintain on is far less relevant than the actual items I eat. So I can eat more carbs if they are low glycemic than if they are high glycemic.
I am still trying to work this out though.

[Shrew2u]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

For me at least the number that I maintain on is far less relevant than the actual items I eat. So I can eat more carbs if they are low glycemic than if they are high glycemic.

That puts an interesting spin on P-M, liv! I know I've experienced a sugar rush with regular and sweet potatoes, to the point where I prefer to use 80/20 celery root/potato for my mash (so I get the taste without the rush) and will be eating very little sweet potato going forward. On the flip side, I find carrots easier to deal with (no cravings or anything) than OWL 7 fruit, despite the fact that carrots are higher on the GI.

[2big4mysize]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

That puts an interesting spin on P-M, liv! I know I've experienced a sugar rush with regular and sweet potatoes, to the point where I prefer to use 80/20 celery root/potato for my mash (so I get the taste without the rush) and will be eating very little sweet potato going forward. On the flip side, I find carrots easier to deal with (no cravings or anything) than OWL 7 fruit, despite the fact that carrots are higher on the GI.

Good for you . that is what OWL the great food experiment is all about finding what foods we can and can't tolerate, discovering how many carbs we can tolerate and lose weight and discoving how to eat our carbs so we don't get low blood sugar from an insulin spike caused by the carbs we eat.

Since you know your foods you know what you can handle and what you can't so pre should be easy. you can as you did in OWL try any of the upper rungs you didn't get to and see what foods you can and can't handle. Many folk can't do oats but I can. I can't do the furits on the other rung as a furit but can handle them in a veggie or protein dish like apples with pork roast is okay but apples as apples and a cheese chaser is huge issue for me. same with pears plums and all the citrus fruits. And even though I know from practicing my atkins portion control that a thin 1 inch forth of a mellon slice is the right portion my brain says leave that piece for somebody else and I'll have the rest of the watermellon!!! so I don't do watermellon neither. cantelopes and honeydew are not a problem though.

it is all going to be trial and error and as long as you put the brakes on as soon as you see you have an error food issue going on you will be fine. Remember too that Dr Atkins sasy take 6 months to shed those final 5-10 pounds in pre so you got lots of time to make food discoverings as you roof your house of Atkins during pre.

[Whatsername]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

Wow, thank you all!

This is exactly where I am at. I am currently still on OWL because while I did all the rungs initially and learned some important things, I never took the time to pin down my CCLL. That is what I am going to try to do now. I had a general idea of what I could and couldn't eat but I never really pushed it too much.

Jane

[not2late]

Re: How Did You Transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance?

I'm at decision time right now, with how to transition from OWL to Pre-Maintenance. DANDR provides three options (pgs 197-19:

• Adding 10g net to each day's food intake each week until the CCLM is determined;
• Maintaining the most recent CCLL and adding an extra 20g portion to a day's food intake 2-3 times per week (but how is the CCLM determined?); or
• Increasing the weekly net by day-to-day averaging until the CCLM is determined (Example: during an 80g week, some days are 60g and others are 100g).

Two questions for those in P-M or M:

Which method did you use?

I used the 10 net carb method to find my CCML.

Why did you choose that method?

I thought it was safer that way because it was more methodical, than the other ways of doing it.

HOWEVER.....

When I found my CCML, I experimented with the remaining 2 methods because I wanted to find a realistic way of eating for me forever.

I've found that eating in the second method is more realistic/natural way for me because, quite frankly, sometimes, I'm just not hungry enough to eat the amount of foods method 1 requires every. single. day. And the 20 net carb is controlled enough that I mind my portions, but not too controlling that I'm constantly worried that I didn't eat exactly ___ carbs that day.

Method 3 was a big pain in the you-know-what because I had to count and average and get the right count every single day in order for it to work. There were times when I found that I had to "eat up" at the end of the week because I wouldn't get those extra carbs in during the week. What it accomplished for me was a re-awakening of my over-eating habits that got me fat in the first place, because I found myself eating 10 extra carbs because I had to eat them to make the carb amount for the week and I was eating them when I didn't want to eat them.

but this experimentation is why my Pre-Maintenance has lasted longer than the "several" months Dr. Atkins recommended it to last. I look at PM as a training period for Maintenance and I figure the better I get at practicing Maintenance, the better chances I have at maintaining Maintenance.

So my advice to you is experiment with your Pre-Maintenance. Find which way works for you. Methods 1 and 3 might work for you better than it did for me.