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Old Fri, Dec-08-17, 13:46
khrussva's Avatar
khrussva khrussva is offline
Say NO to Diabetes!
Posts: 8,671
 
Plan: My own - < 30 net carbs
Stats: 440/228/210 Male 5' 11"
BF:Energy Unleashed
Progress: 92%
Location: Central Virginia - USA
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I am in maintenance (if that is what you want to call it). According to my phone fitness app I've done over 90 minutes of moderate activity for 10 out of the last 12 months. I do lots of walking, both structured and just normal daily activity. My best month was July where I averaged a 156 minutes of moderate activity each day. My worst months were August & September where I averaged 84 minutes and 80 minutes respectively. Over July and August I decided I would try taking a break from tracking my meals for the first time in a long time. I'd just eat my normal low carb/high fat foods and let satiety rule the day. It didn't work out too well. I gained a few pounds each month. In August and early September my eating was up and my walking routine got a little inconsistent. I didn't like the trend with the weight, so in September I started tracking my food again. I lost some weight in September, even though it was my lowest month for exercise volume.

I think that my exercise allows me to eat how much I eat and maintain reasonable weight stability. When I cut down on the exercise I tend to want to continue to eat about the same. If I do that I will gain. But what seems to rule the day for me is tracking and limiting my food. That was stated as a key for a couple of 'successful maintainers' in the article above, but the headline and conclusions of this study appear to overlook that.

Eating low carb makes it possible for me to eat less. It keeps my blood sugar under control and turns me into a fat burner. If I went back to eating carbs, I'm pretty sure that my insulin would rise sufficiently to shut down my fat burning machine. I'd probably stop walking shortly thereafter. That is how it has always worked out in the past. Every time I went on a low carb diet for any length of time I would start to exercise. I even enjoyed the exercise. Every time I went back to eating a junky diet, the exercise would stop. Why would I stop something that I enjoyed doing?

So my 2 cents on this is that they are getting it backwards. When I continue to eat right I want to exercise and therefore I do a better job at maintenance. I've been in maintenance for 16 months now. On most other diet attempts where I fell off the wagon and returned to eating SAD I'd have regained all of the weight loss and more by now. I'd be eating poorly, over-eating, and not exercising. For me DIET is the key to maintenance - specifically a low carb diet. Enjoying exercise and an active lifestyle is a welcome perk that appears to go hand in hand with how well I am eating.
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