Quote:
Originally Posted by ctoft619
Let me preface with....I'm 30, and back in 2006, I lost 90lbs on my own, just watching what I ate and exercising A LOT. I got down to 140 - I maintained that for 6 years! I know how to do it.) But since getting married 5 year ago, I've crept up 25lbs.
Currently....I'm only 13lbs away from my goal and thinking life after IP. In my mind, when I started this 3 weeks ago......this was a tool for me to get off 25lbs of weight I gained over the last 5 years quickly - and get back into the maintaining I know how to do.
However, I was thinking - once I'm back at my "normal/goal" weight - I will go back to eating a balanced diet - keeping it healthy, but enjoying life along the way....and going back to Crossfit - which is a killer workout (and helped me lose 10lbs this summer, but I quit once school/coaching started).
Here's my dilemma.....what I am reading is that this eating style is now a way of life (minus the IP packets after phase 3)....and if you deviate it from it, you will gain everything back and more. So now I'm almost regretting doing this if that's the case......I know HOW to eat sensible, exercise and keep my weight within 5lbs of where I want to be. I'm just becoming terrified that is not how it will be now, which is making me want to quit completely and go back to the calories in and calories out method that does work too.
Help! Please tell me I don't have to give up everything I love for the rest of my life....that I can have pizza nights...and birthday cake, and delicious adult beverages on vacation....or is it just the people that go back to eating TOTALLY unhealthy and never exercise that gain everything back and more?
Please advise!!!
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I think you hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph. I believe people do this (go back to old eat habits) and then blame the diet. The whole point of P3 is to gradually reintroduce carbs to stabilize. The point of P1 is to fix your pancreas as most if not all of us have flooded our systems with processed, sugar-laden foods, which has wreaked havoc on our pancreas and it in turn floods our system with high insulin levels when we consume a meal, much more than it needs to causing cravings and storing excess insulin as fat (along with excess calories consumed).
As long as you follow the protocol of P3 and then be aware that you should not mix heavy fat meal and a heavy carb meal in one meal (except for cheat day), you should not be susceptible to weight gain any more than any other program you may have used to lose the weight. Be aware of your AMR (Active Metabolic Rate) and use that as your daily calorie allowance with the 3:1 guidance (at lunch 3x fat as compared to carbs and at dinner do the opposite or reverse that for lunch and dinner depending upon your choice). If you find you are over-consuming based upon your AMR, then you know you have the tools to get the weight off again but the only way you'll gain the weight back is if you consume more calories than you burn, which is the formula you cited. Note this is not to be confused with the fact that you will gain a few pounds back that is water weight and glycogen stores. This can be 5-8 pounds from what I have heard so be prepared for that and set your goal accordingly.
Like you, I have lost a ton of weight simply by eating whole foods on a 1200 calories diet with a 6 day a week exercise regimen. I thought that I could lose better and faster with this type of approach which proved true with my being 2 smaller sizes than I ever was in my adult life but being 5 pounds heavier than my lowest weight. That taught me that the diet did what it said it was going to do, which is retain my lean muscle mass (which weighs more but takes up less surface area). This is different than my calorie in/calorie out approach as some of the weight I lost there was muscle.
You can enjoy all those things you cited within moderation with moderation being defined as not exceeding your AMR; otherwise, to use your formula, calories in > calories out, which causes weight gain.