The final phase of the Atkins diet plan is lifetime maintenance. This is the time to continue your new eating plan at a maintenance level and keep yourself at your goal weight. The habits you have created will now become a permanent way of life. During the third phase, pre-maintenance, you learned exactly how many carbohydrate grams your body can tolerate and still maintain your ideal weight. In this phase, youll put this approach into practice and learn to live with your ideal carb count on a daily basis.

During lifetime maintenance you will continue to expand your food selections and eat more carbohydrate grams than you did previously. Depending on your specific metabolic needs, you can eat some of the foods that you enjoyed prior to starting your weight loss program. If you do choose to eat these foods, they must be moderated and used sparingly.

Keeping your daily carb count right around your ideal carb count is the easiest way to maintain your weight loss. You weight may fluctuate by two or three pounds from time to time, but this is perfectly normal. This weight fluctuation is due to hormonal changes in your body.

During maintenance youll also learn how to overcome your previous bad habits. Losing weight and keeping it off means dealing with real-world situations. Youll develop coping strategies for stress eating, emotional eating and holiday eating. Youll also develop plans for dealing with eating out in restaurants. The challenges during the maintenance phase are many, but they can be overcome.

Its all about preparation. When youve followed the Atkins diet plan for a long time, youve learned exactly how many carbohydrate grams you can handle. Youve also learned what foods trigger carbohydrate cravings and which foods lead to binges. Youve developed coping strategies over the course of your OWL and pre-maintenance phases that you will have to use in lifetime maintenance.

To prepare yourself for lifetime maintenance, make a promise to yourself never to go back to your previous weight. Make the commitment by donating all of your fat clothes. This way, if you do start to gain more than five pounds, youll know that you have to buckle down and eat better. Also, write down in a journal or in a list format all of the benefits of being at your new, thinner size. Write about how much better you feel and how healthy you are. This will cement your new way of life into your mind and your heart.

Choose your lifetime maintenance weight goal range. This is a range of weight that is acceptable to you. For example, if your initial weight loss goal was to be 165 lbs, your lifetime maintenance goal will be 160 to 170 pounds. If your weight starts to creep up toward 170 pounds, then you know that you are being too lenient with your carbohydrate grams. Never let your weight vary more than 3 to 5 pounds in either direction.

Make a commitment to weigh yourself at least once a week. This once-a-week weigh in will give you a good idea of how you are doing on your maintenance program. Use that weekly weight as a guideline for your approach in eating for the following week.
In addition to these guidelines, make sure to continue an exercise program. Your metabolism depends entirely upon the amount of exercise that you are getting. Making the commitment to exercise goes hand in hand with the commitment to keep eating correctly.

By following these guidelines, you can make lifetime maintenance simple and easy.

Tags: Atkins, Atkins Diet, Atkins Diet Plan, Bad Habits, Binges, Carb Count, Carbohydrate Cravings, Carbohydrate Grams, Coping Strategies For Stress, Daily Basis, Eating Habits, Emotional Eating, Final Phase, food selections;, Goal Weight, Healthy Diet, Ideal Weight, Losing Weight, Maintenance Level, Maintenance Phase, Owl, Way Of Life, Weight Fluctuation, World Situations —

If motivation for how to lose stomach fat was easy, no one would be overweight in our country. We would all be the ideal weight and pictures of fitness. In order for you to get and keep your motivation there are some tips you can follow.

Ultimately though, it’s up to you to figure out what things will not only help you get motivated, but to keep that motivation intact. Of course, everyone knows of the dire consequences associated with having too much body fat and living a sedentary lifestyle. It is one of those things though that until (or unless) it happens to you or someone you love, you just stay complacent and think that it will never happen to you.

Of course, it can and will if you don’t take control now. There are a few aspects to losing weight, such as eating better foods, less junk, and getting a lot of exercise. Believe it or not, for many people the motivation to lose weight will often start with working out.

I know that may sound ridiculous, but if you get past the idea that exercising is just jumping in the car and going to the gym, you may begin to understand what I mean about how to lose stomach fat.

For instance, if you enjoy dancing think how much fun you’d have going to a dancing class. What you might not realize is that that is a great way to lose weight, too.

If you enjoy getting outside, it is so easy to get some exercise by riding your bike, or just taking your dog for a walk. When you realize that exercise doesn’t have to be a chore, but rather some form of physical activity that you can actually enjoy you will see that the motivation may not be so hard to come by.

Another great way to get and keep your motivation is to find a friend to exercise with. It can be as simple as the two of you taking a class together, joining a gym, or just going for walks, having a buddy can make all the difference. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone.

There are a few reasons for this. One of them is that you will feel a certain amount of peer pressure when you start working out with a friend. You don’t want to let your friend down, you know they’re counting on you. By including your friend in your workout plans you’ll also be making it more of a social event rather than an ‘exercise’ session. No one wants to miss out on a chance to socialize!

One thing you don’t want to do is put yourself under a lot of pressure by setting up an unrealistic time frame. Don’t wait until a few weeks before a wedding, or vacation. If you do, you will just be setting yourself up for failure. It will be virtually impossible for you to meet your goal and once the event comes and goes you will probably be done working out. Instead just make a commitment to yourself to get healthy, that is the best way on how to lose stomach fat.

Tags: Amoun, Body Fat, Consequences, Dancing Class, Easy Exercise, Eating Habits, Exercise Bike, Find A Friend, Find Friend, Fitness, Fun, How To Lose Stomach, How To Lose Stomach Fat, Ideal Weight, Joining A Gym, Losing Weight, Many People, Motivation To Lose Weight, Physical Activity, Sedentary Lifestyle, Walks —

Doesn’t it seem like every day brings us another fad diet or other so-called “weight loss miracle”? Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of these plans really do work, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that there are just so many that it makes it hard for the average person to figure out which ones work and which ones they should pass on. But there is one method that is ideal…walking for weight loss. Let’s take a look at why it is such a good option for shedding those extra pounds.

Before we get to why it’s so good, it’s important to understand a bit about how losing weight works. It all comes down to a simple equation: 3,500 calories is equal to one pound of body weight. So, if you take in an extra 3,500 calories compared to what you burn off, then you will gain a pound. If you get rid of 3,500 calories, you will lose a pound. There are a few exceptions to this because some calories are more easily stored, and not all exercise is the same. Regardless, physical activity is an important part of any weight loss plan.

Almost everybody can go for a walk. Even those who may be missing a leg are usually able to walk. What’s the best way of walking for weight loss? The answer is as simple as can be. All you need to do is put one foot in front of the other, then repeat the process for as many times as you wish.

Another benefit of walking for weight loss is that you need any special equipment, except for a comfortable pair of shoes. There’s no need to buy any special clothes, and you don’t have to join a gym or pay a personal trainer, either.

Walking is a low-impact way to burn calories. In theory, you could walk for hours at a time, though that wouldn’t be practical. Still, if you have been inactive until now, it’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor about your plans. They will be aware of any underlying medical concerns, and can let you know if there are any precautions you need to take.

Exercise burns calories, but it has another benefit for weight loss and that is boosting your metabolism. You will get a little extra help burning calories for a few hours after you have stopped walking. Of course, the more brisk you walk, the more calories you will burn. But any walking is better than none at all.

Finally, people are built to walk. We’re bipedal; it’s in our DNA. It only makes sense that one of the best things you can do for your health is to use the body in a way it was designed for. But…none of this matter if you don’t take action. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start walking for weight loss.

Tags: Average Person, Benefit, Burns, Calories, Clothes, Exceptions, Exercise, Extra 3, Fad Diet, Healthy Diet, Ideal Weight, Losing Weight, Low Impact, Medical Concerns, Pair Of Shoes, Personal Trainer, Physical Activity, Weight Loss Miracle, Weight Loss Plan —

Maybe you are already at an ideal weight and feel really good on a regular basis. If so, you may think there is no need to concern yourself with a healthy eating plan. Who knows, maybe you’re one of those fortunate souls who naturally eats the best foods, and you don’t have to spend any time worrying about what you eat. Perhaps you seem to be able to eat anything you want and have nothing but perfect health to show for it.

Or…

You may be like the vast majority of us and have to actually give some consideration to the foods you eat. While most of us don’t really give all that much thought to a healthy eating plan, we really should. To be fair, you probably do think about the food you eat from time to time. For instance, it’s quite common to eat a lot of junk food and then try to compensate by eating healthier for the rest of the day. It’s good that you’re trying, but this type of behavior doesn’t quite qualify as an eating plan. What you need is a diet that looks at the bigger picture.

The majority of us don’t really know how much sugar we’re taking in, for example. We also tend to eat a lot more fat than we’re aware of. Furthermore, we tend to not think of being on a healthy eating plan at all, unless there is a good reason. Needing to lose weight for an upcoming event (wedding, beach season, class reunion, etc.), or health concerns (diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure) are common reasons.

We only start to think about eating healthier when stuff like this happens. The problem is that it can be too little, too late. It may be possible to repair ill health through proper diet, but once the damage is done, there is no guarantee that it can be fixed. It will also take more effort to make it work. But had we been eating well from the start, there is a very good chance that these ill effects would never have happened. Therefore, it makes a lot more sense to start a healthy eating plan as soon as possible.

If you are in good health now, you could still be at risk if you don’t get your diet in check. There could be environmental factors that contribute to bad health over the long term. A family history of certain diseases could also increase your risk. The funny thing is that some people use these risk factors as an excuse to eat nothing but garbage. They figure they’re going to get these diseases anyway, so that gives them a free ticket to eat whatever they want. That’s sad. The truth is that there are no guarantees that a healthy eating plan will be enough to overcome these risk factors, but it will decrease your risk substantially. So, it only makes sense to eat well. Plus, it is never too late to start.

Tags: Class Reunion, diabetes;, Eating Habits, Fortunate Souls, Good Chance, Good Health, Good Reason, Health Concerns, Healthy Diet, Healthy Eating Plan, heart disease;, high blood pressure;, Ideal Weight, Ill Effects, Ill Health, Junk food;, Losing Weight, Lot, Perfect Health, Proper Diet, Rest Of The Day, Stuff —