Maintenance diet menu question (for men)

[Emre Yigit]

Hello all. I have a problem in maintenance, in that I am actually losing weight unless I binge! (See http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...oblem-men.html (Maintenance diet problem (for men)) ).

First off, let me state my exercise routine. I walk about 45 minutes about 5 days a week. Brisk pace, but not really fast. Downhill, uphill, level, it varies. (Essentially, I'm walking to work / or the shops). I also do light-to-moderate weight lifting about 4 days a week, mixed with some calisthenics (crunches, lunges, etc).

Second, to illustrate my problem, my weight yesterday morning was 79.9 kilos (176.2 pounds) after a three-day binge in Vienna when I ate absolutely everything I liked, including lots of meat, lots of ice cream, lots of apfelstrudel and lots of wine, which gained me 0.3 kg (0.7 lb). This morning, I weighed in at 79.1 kgs (174.4 lbs), despite a relatively rigourous weight training yesterday.

I'm worried.

My menu yesterday was:

63g Sensato Cranberry
225g whole milk

245g ("whole veal") sausages
225g mixed salad
400g strawberries + stevia
2 tbps olive oil
low carb ketchup, regular mustard

277g cooked chicken breast
220g cooked bulgur (including butter)
200g asparagus

I also snacked on about 55g of pistachios. I drank about 500ml of diet lemonade and Pepsi Max. I also drank a lot of water, as usual.

The net result: I took in c.2,400 calories, including 149 grams of carbs (c110 net carbs), 163 grams of protein and 134 grams of fat. 49% of my calories were from fat, 27% from protein and 24% from carbs.

If I regularly continue to eat 160-200 grams of protein, I'll develop gout!

Should I continue to adjust my carbs up and see where I stop? I am afraid that in order to do that, I will need to start eating pizza . Any other men have the same problem? Any advice?

[Elizellen]

Have you introduced any of the starchy veggies or higher rung fruits or legumes into your menus?

One cup of cooked parsnips would add another 24 net carbs according to fitday, a cup of mashed sweet potato would add 42 net carbs (and with a hefty dollop of butter would add more calories too), a cup of cooked lima beans has 24 net carbs, one medium apple has 17 net carbs, one medium banana has 25 net carbs and so on.

Adding more carbs does not mean having to add a pizza

[liv]

And a pizza - if it had whole wheat crust would not be that bad. I plan to try that on sometimes.
I am not on maintenance and I cannot eat that much carbs but I eat fruits, starchy veggies and grains fairly often (although in small amounts)

[not2late]

When you went through Pre-Maintenance Phase, what was your CCML?

[Emre Yigit]

I started pre-maintenance with 6lbs to go and went through it in two weeks. There wasn't all that much time to calculate what my CCML was! All I did was bump up my carb intake from the roughly 70 that I was at by the end of OWL, to about 90 when I entered maintenance, when I began to eat 100. The problem with that was that I felt I was betraying Atkins...

I also guess my metabolism has gone up since I started to eat more. During the diet I found that I had a daily deficit of 400-800 calories, and I've made up for that since. Which is why my protein intake has gone through the roof, and why I'm a little bit worried.

For the record, I added 40g gross (30 net) of carbs yesterday, and ate c2,500 calories. I actually gained a little weight. So I'm guessing my maintenance net carb intake is about 130-150, with varying fat & protein amounts. I may actually bump it up to 200 to see what happens, and reduce proteins a bit, if I can figure out a healthy way of doing it. (I guess semi-vegetarianism beckons!)

It's all kinda fun, and I'm really grateful to Atkins for getting me to focus on what I eat. I think I'll continue to muck around with it a bit, and see what happens. Thanks, all, again.