Low carb maintenance q!

Kimia

Hi all

I've been eating low carb now for several months and I have lost about 1 stone. I don't really need to lose much more now, so I want to start raising my carb levels slightly (or at least be able to enjoy a carby treat once in a while).

I usually stay at around 50-60g of carbs a day. Would raising this to 100g be detrimental to my health and actually cause me to gain weight? Or is it still a low(ish) figure?

ALso on a side note, maybe there should be a dedicated thread to low carb questions - there seems to be loads of low carbing peeps around trying to extract knowledge from the wise ones!!

metamorphosis

Id say introduce 1 new food on a weekly basis. low carb maintenance is done over a few weeks or longer usually. for some people 70gms is maintenance, for some 120gms, for some less than 60gms - all dependent on what you can tolerate.

An example might be oats. This week have oats on two occasions and then on your next weigh in if not gained introduce maybe sweet potatoe and the trend continues. If a certain food causes adverse rections - ditch it. If you start gaining you may have reached your maintenance phase. Slow introductio n is key though. Sticking to 1 new carb food on a weekly basis is probably a safe way to go about it

El_Dangeroso

No problem with eating 100g a day (or more) at all health-wise as long as you maintain your weight, even while still enjoying butter and cream

EileenG

The classic way is to increase carbs gradually until you are the level you can live with comfortably. Another approach is to stick to fairly low carb during the week, and have an occasional high carb meal at the weekend or out with friends.

Kimia

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

No problem with eating 100g a day (or more) at all health-wise as long as you maintain your weight, even while still enjoying butter and cream

God I love low carb! I remember someone saying on this forum recently, and it really made sense to me, they said that carbs are just there for mouth feel, as in they don't have much flavour to them, but they are a filler food, and can absorb flavour. Therefore not necessary to a really delicious diet.

EileenG wrote: »

The classic way is to increase carbs gradually until you are the level you can live with comfortably. Another approach is to stick to fairly low carb during the week, and have an occasional high carb meal at the weekend or out with friends.

This is the answer to my q - I think (hope) this will work for me. Does that not kick you out of ketosis though?

EileenG

For a while, but ketosis is not an end in itself, a healthy person should move in and out of ketosis depending food and activity. The big advantage of ketosis to a dieter is less hunger, but if you are at maintenance, that should be less of an issue.