Quote:
Originally Posted by PinguChick
Thanks very much! I never thought I could eat that many carbs and maintain my weight, because to lose I have to eat 25 or under. But on maintenance, it seems I can tolerate a lot more. In fact yesterday I ate 150 carbs, and am still holding steady at my lowest weight. I think it helps that my body REALLY likes this weight!
It is such a relief to have gone through the first 10 days of maintenance and have my weight holding steady. I'm learning a lot about what I can and can't have, just by how I feel. I learned I really need a lower carb breakfast or I feel very tired all morning and sometimes need a nap. But I can have more carbs at dinner, that seems to work well.
I've been getting headaches after eating wheat, so I'm thinking I really need to keep away from that. But corn seems to be okay for me. I haven't been getting any cravings or hunger, so that is good. Its not hard to stop when I'm full.
So far, so good!
|
Hi there PinguChick,
Just happened to see your post - the title grabbed me and I just popped in out of curiosity - and wanted to chime in with my experiences on the Critical Carbohydrate Limit.
At the beginning of the year, I decided to once again be more strict about my plan, which at that point was Schwarzbein. For about six weeks, I had no wheat, no alcohol, and kept my carbs at a daily average of 110-120g per day. My weight was totally stable at this carb intake.
However, I then had my Dad visiting, some general stress and, you know,
life... and beer crept back on the menu, wheat appeared a few times also. And, as soon as I allow those items back in my diet, I immediately gain 2-3lbs. Fortunately, as soon as I chuck them out again, the weight goes down again.
From doing my own carb counting (which isn't that accurate, but it's good enough for me), I know that I can maintain at around 110-130g of carbs per day.
I am lucky in that my first LC plan was Barry Groves, not Atkins, and he recommends 40-60g of carbs per day for weight loss. I found I couldn't even get that low, but discovered that 70g per day worked fine for me and allowed me to lose about 1kg/2.2lbs per week (if I left beer out of the equation, of course).
At the moment (summer looms and all my summer shorts and capri trousers are still rather snug), I am trying to lose again and have found that if I stick to a carb range between 80-100g per day, I can still lose. Maybe not as fast as some people would like, but it's fine for me as that means I can have carbs with most meals, if needs be. I was doing Schwarzbein because I realized I had adrenal fatigue (halfway recovered now, though, thanks to her advice) and I couldn't cope with having too few carbs as my blood sugar would just get too low.
If you look at this from the Primal Blueprint blog:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-...rate-continuum/
... you'll see that he says that most people can lose between 50-100g of carbs per day. From around 100g - 150g is maintenance for most people, depending on your activity level.
From visiting this forum for three years now, I also have observed that sometimes people notice that they can lose on a lot more carbs per day than they originally thought and that it is not actually necessary to lower your carbs as low as Atkins Induction levels at all.
Most importantly, though, is the fact that we are all different!!! I think you are doing absolutely the right thing to monitor how you feel with different foods at different times of day. Like you, I have discovered I don't feel comfortable eating wheat (with me, it seems to affect my gums, which start to feel sore after eating bread) and, I also find I need to have different distributions of macros at different times of the day.
In the morning, first thing, I need a carb fix. A few hours later, if my routine allows, I have a cooked breakfast, with a minimal amount of carbs, which is either an early lunch or a late second breakfast. For lunch (which is sometimes a very early supper), I have a few carbs, but not many. In the evening, for some reason, I can do without carbs altogether, which is good because that tends to keep the daily carb count lower!!!
However, when the symptoms of adrenal fatigue were worse, I needed more carbs. I think we have to accept that there may be times when we need to adjust our diets according to whatever phase we have hit and that, so long as we eat healthily, and don't start to gain weight in an uncontrolled fashion, then we can tweak to our heart's delight!!!
I think you may have now entered the most interesting part of your journey and may start to make new discoveries about your preferences and your body's needs.
But keep to whole natural unprocessed foods as much as your lifestyle and budget will allow: that will help you stay healthy, regardless of the number of carbs you eat per day!!!
All the best, and enjoy maintenance!!!
amanda