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.

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Stomach fat burning diets are everywhere. The first thing you need to ask yourself is, are they safe? Some diet plans can do a lot more harm than good. Fad diets such as the grapefruit diet for example, may work only up to a point.

When you have lost the weight and the diet is over, you just go back to the same way you ate before and what happens? The weight comes back and if you are not careful you may just add on a few extra pounds.

If you only have a few pounds to lose then by all means try one of the many fast stomach fat burning diets available so you can get into that dress for the wedding. But, if you have a lot of weight to lose you will need to make some lifestyle changes to reach your goal weight.

Take a minute to write down where you want to end up. What are your goals. Keep track of what you eat in a journal so you can see what you are putting in your body so if it needs to be changed you can change it. Writing in a journal everyday is a very effective tool to use to help you lose the weight you need to lose.

Learn every aspect about food. Become and expert. Figure out how many calories, fats, carbs and sodium are in the food you eat so you will be able to put meals together that are nutritionally balanced and satisfying. Knowing what the right numbers are helps a lot.

You can figure out how many calories you need in a day by calculating your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, or you can simply make up a meal plan that has enough food to equal 1500 calories or so. Keep it all on paper so you can see it daily. Just having a plan is not enough if it is written down you can hold yourself accountable for every single meal.

Learning to eat differently may take some practice and careful planning. When I tell you that you need to eat small meals throughout your day you are going to say you do not have the time to do that because you are at work. well then, I will say that yes you can with some precise planning.

Start packing your lunch and snacks to work with you. Stop wasting money and gaining weight by eating out when you are at work. Save your wallet and your waistline by buying an insulated lunch box and healthy food to put in it.

Now you need to figure what your lunch and snacks will consist of. Well, how about a cup of yogurt and some celery sticks? With a full glass of water that is a great snack for the middle of the morning. For your lunch, why not have a sandwich made of lean turkey breast with some light mayo and lettuce and a cup of grapes? There are a lot of things you can do to make sure you eat small meals throughout your day.

Do your best to drink enough water during the day, too. Stay away from pop and caffeinated beverages like coffee. Caffeine has a drying effect on the body and can contribute to dehydration. Drink lots of water.

If you do start one of the fast stomach fat burning diets and there are a lot of restrictions to the diet you may need to take a supplement to get all the vitamins and minerals you need.

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If you are interested in losing weight the Atkins Diet plan may be just what you are looking for. The theory behind this plan is to significantly lower your carb intake. When you lower your carb intake the body does not have that immediate energy to burn or store. What happens then is the body will naturally go to it’s next available source to get that energy, which is your stored fat.

The first step in the Atkins diet plan is called the induction phase. For the first two weeks your daily carb intake should be less than 20 grams per day. And no bad carbs at all. In addition, you get to eat all the protein you can handle. Lean meat, fish, shrimp, milk, cheese, and yogurt, just to name a few.

The only carbs you can eat will come from vegetables like sprouts, celery, cabbage, cucumbers and mushrooms. You get the idea, fresh vegetables taste the best. You can cook them, steam them, or eat them raw, it is all the same. This is the phase of the diet that you will see the most significant weight loss.

The second step in the diet plan is called the OWL, or the ongoing weight loss, phase. Your weight loss will slow down somewhat with this step because you will be slowly starting to increase your carb intake. Continue to stick with the good carbs, though, you do not want to mess things up now.

Adding 5 grams of carbs back in per week while you monitor your weight closely. When you reach the point when you are no longer losing 1-2 pounds per week back off the carbs a bit. This step should bring you within 10-15 pounds of your goal weight, so naturally it will take the longest.

The nest step is the pre-maintenance phase. This is the time you begin to increase your carb intake by 10 grams each week. When you hit the plateau, continue eating the exact same number of carbs for one month. Hopefully, you have decided to add some daily exercise in with this diet, too.

When the month is up add 10 more grams of carbs, if you begin to gain weight then decrease the carbs again by 10 grams per week until you begin to lose weight again. You should still be losing 1 pound per week during this phase. Make sure you are staying hydrated throughout this plan, as well. Stay away from pop, drink water or green tea.

When your reach you goal weight and enter into the maintenance phase you should be pretty well schooled on how many grams of carbs you can safely take in in one day. This is the amount you should stick with and not go over if you want to maintain your current weight. By the time you get to this point you should be at your goal weight and you can call yourself a success at using the Atkins diet plan.

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You are working out and doing everything right. The goal weight is in sight and your motivation is in high gear. You can see it and you want it bad. Just one thing though, your belly. Your belly is the only thing that isn’t cooperating and you are thinking that when you are at your goal weight you might consider abdominal liposuction.

Abdominal liposuction will give you the flat belly you have always wanted by taking out the rest of the fat that is left behind that just won’t go away no matter what you do and stretching the skin. Seriously, if you have worked so hard to get where you are now then why not take this last step to give you the look you really want. Think about it, you could get rid of the most stubborn fat and have the doctor help you show off the hard body you have worked so hard to get back.

So now that you have made the decision to get this procedure done the only thing left to do is find the right doctor to do the job. Where do you find the best doctor? Ask around. You no doubt know someone who has had some work done and they can get you started in the right direction. Once you have a short list of two or three then you need to do some homework and check their references, ask to see before and after pictures of procedures they have done and most of all meet them and talk with them to see if you like and can trust them with your body.

If you find one that you can like and trust at the same time then you are off to a good start. Make sure you have them take you through the procedure so you understand what you are in for. Make sure you understand everything they are saying and if you do not then ask questions. Do not leave anything to chance.

Your skin can stay elastic for only so long and then it remains a little stretched out of shape. There is obviously more skin than you need so the excess is cut off and your belly button will have to be moved then the surgeon sutures the incision closed. You will not be able to even stand up straight when you get home so be prepared. You should be given a prescription for pain control so be sure to take it when you need it. He or she may even prescribe an antibiotic to help prevent infection.

If your skin is not so saggy then you may only need the liposuction. Done with a laser, the laser also tightens the skin as they go so you will not need a tummy tuck at all. The option is there, though, if you need it. If you do not need a tummy tuck with your abdominal liposuction then you may not need a stronger pain reliever than acetaminophen but it is best to ask for something a little stronger just in case.

Tags: Abdominal Liposuction, Belly Button, Best Doctor, Doctor Job, Find Doctor, Flat Belly, Goal Weight, Homework, Incision, Left Behind, Liposuction, Losing Weight, Motivation, No Doubt, Right Direction, Shape, Stretching The Skin, Sutures —