Once you have undergone Atkins diets Induction and OWL phase, you move on to the following step and take entry into the Pre-maintenance phase which provides a healthy, balanced eating and living all along your life. This phase should be begun when you are only 5 to 10 pounds away from your target weight goal and the loss of weight will be slowed more purposely. You have to acquire the practices and habits which will lead to a long term goal.
In addition, 5 grams of carbohydrates is added to the every day count in the OWL phase. This is raised to 10 grams a week during the pre-maintenance week. So long as you keep on reducing weight (not a matter of how slow the process is) you will keep on adding grams, and finally you will be losing less than a pound each week by the end of the pre-maintenance phase.
The Atkins books says that this phase should be continued till your reach your specified weight and maintain it for a month and this may also take about 1 to 3 months and you have to reach a condition know as carbohydrate equilibrium. This is the perfect carbohydrate consumption and helps to maintain the weight of your body correctly.
A variety of foods are available during the pre-maintenance phase so be sure to add on these new foods gradually and raise your carbohydrate consumption only at the specified and measure rate and avoid having 20 or 30 carbs grams in a week. To have a better idea of an individuals carbohydrate count, calculate the increases in count of 10 which helps you to manage your weight and set up yourself in the long run accordingly.
A carbohydrate counter resource book or a reputed website can be accessed to check before you include a new food to your diet. Some of the best carbohydrate gram foods are one third cup of legumes, half an apple, quarter cup of potatoes and half cup of plain oatmeal. These are the foods that can be consumed daily and increased the following week.
The pre-maintenance cannot be termed as an ideal process as it breaks the balance counting and exercise to delay the loss of weight but still keeps advancing and so you have to take care more than you used to do earlier to be sure that the carb gram increase does not lead to gain in weight in you, as there is a good difference between weight gain, maintaining weight and losing weight during the process of pre-maintenance and you are searching for that line.
When you are not able to consume carbohydrates without delaying the weight loss process, you tend to have extreme metabolic resistance. The purpose will be served by increasing the exercise plan to have a high metabolic rate and then the pre-maintenance phase will be similar to the OWL more or less for you.
There are some who do a change on pre-maintenance by having 20-30 carbohydrate gram a few times in a week rather than having 10 grams per day. This may include having a piece of fruit, sweet potato, a glass of white wine or beer as a fun reward to yourself while you are still on the diet plan.
Another way of pre-maintenance is to take an average of the carbohydrate consumed in a week and create a flexibility in the eating program, as any thing unexpected may occur in life. Like, if the existing carbohydrate level is 70 grams, it can be curtailed to 50 grams a day and the following day you can consume a meal of 90 grams. But this can be followed only if does not create the carbohydrate desire as excess carb grams a day can make you desire more the following day also.
The pre-maintenance phase supplies to the life long benefits and by gradually adjusting to increase your carbohydrate grams, you can have proper control over the quantity of carbohydrates that is required for you.