Hi! I have been thinking hard about my maintenance plan, as it is the way I shall eat for the rest of my life. I was formerly on Atkins for Life, but vacation carbs got me rolling down a slippery slope, and now I am bouncing between 5-10 pounds above my goal weight. I decided last night was my last carb binge and today I started Atkins induction to detox and get rid of cravings and bloat. I plan to do this for the allotted 2 weeks, but after that I am not sure if I want to return to Atkins maintenance. I read the CAD and CALP books and I was thinking maybe CAD would be a more liveable maintenance program for me. There seems to be a pretty lively and successful CAD community here, so I was wondering if any of you could answer some questions I have:

1. Has anyone switched to CAD from Atkins and not gained?
2. Can condiments salad dressings with splenda (Atkins brand or CarbOptions brand) be used at CMs or will that cause weight gain? I love Carb Options french dressing and low carb ketchup but they have a sweet taste due to splenda.
3. If I am doing CAd to maintain my weight, how will I stop from losing anymore but not gain either? The books do not address maintenance in much depth.
4. Does anyone count calories? As someone who suffered from Binge Eating Disorder for years (and currently having a relapse I'm afraid), I can put away thousands and thousands of calories in one sitting. I'm afraid that this will happen on CAD and I will gain furiously. Have any of you suffered from binge eating and has CAD "cured" you? Atkins had me binge free for a while but then I couldn't stand the temptation anymroe and caved, and it's been really hard getting on track.

I know that's a lot of questions LOL but any help or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks and have a great day!

1. It depends on how balanced you are.

2. Yes, depending on your own sensitivity to sweet tasting foods.

3. CAD is self regulating. You will lose until your body is where it wants to be and then it will stop. Or you can increase the size of your meals.

4. CAD is designed to cure binge eating unless it is caused by a food sensitivity, i.e. wheat, sugar.