by Don Swayze
If you have followed the Atkins diet from experience or just by studying low carbohydrate plans, then you will know that the Atkins program is based around 'phases'. These phases are designed in order to quickly thrust the first time dieter into a quick fat loss stage whilst building up his or her natural limit of carbohydrate intake to an acceptable weight loss level.
This all happens very fast throughout the first two phases for a period of one month or even longer depending on the person and their body type. In this article we are going to discuss the second half of the Atkins diet program with a brief description of what you can expect.
As already stated above, the first two phases take a person from the initial weight loss phase to determining how many carbohydrates that person can handle whilst still losing weight. Typically, 40 to 60 grams of carbs have proven to be an acceptable amount to take in for most people whom have reached this point in the diet. So let's focus on the third phase of the program.
Phase 3 is called the 'Pre-Maintenance” phase. By this stage of the program, you should be more comfortable and more established with the kind of food that you can and cannot eat. This is the stage where you can add 10 grams of net carbs everyday of every week, or even 20 to 30 grams twice a week, making sure that you still are losing weight.
When the weight loss stops, you then decrease the daily carb intake by up to 10 grams until you start losing weight again.
The final phase (phase 4) is also called the 'Lifetime maintenance phase'. This is the stage when you have finally reached your ideal weight and have a wider selection of food that you can eat. Although at this point you still need to watch your carbohydrate consumption and stick to an active lifestyle, you can have up to 100 grams of net carbs per day without putting on any weight.
By the time you have reached the latter part of the Atkins diet plan, you will finally be in a position to know exactly how many carbohydrates you can have, exactly what kinds of other foods you can have whilst still maintaining your weight and enjoying the benefits of healthy eating.
Don Swayze is contributing weight loss editor at http://www.LowCarb300.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.
