Hi!

There is a very informative (and very long) post here: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=199958 that will give you a lot of the basic information as well as what most of us are doing. There is no hard and fast rule, unless you follow for example the Curves diet (you might also want to check out their board--don't have the link here right now, but I can get back to you if you can't find it). Basically, folks are alternating carb down (CD) days with around 20 net carbs and 1200-1500 calories with carb up (CU) days with 30-50 net carbs and 500 extra calories. How long someone stays on CD or CU is fairly personal and will have a lot to do with your rate of loss. Some go CD 10 days, with 2 CU, others 5 CD and 2 CU, and still others believe it is best to have much shorter CD's. I try to play it by "ear"--if I have 2 days without a loss on CD, I go to CU. You will gain on CU, especially in the beginning, and the general rule of thumb is to go back to CD when you have gained 2 lbs. It usually takes 2-3 days to lose those and then you should (hopefully) see an additional loss.

Once you've read the basics, come and join us here in the "semi loss plans" under the weekly CC thread!

Hope this helps!!!