For the once who don't know what I'm talking about, here is the thread:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=175651

So, last week I did a little bigger test then originally planned.
Started Monday with eating chocolate, one row of 4 pieces every day.
I drunk 2-4 diet coke (aspartame made me stall before).
I had my good old cup of regular coffee every morning.
I ate a couple of times a hamburger with half the bun and two to three mouth full of french fries.
then came saturday.
I went to outback and ordered an outback special (steak) with fries.
I ate a cesar salad up front and for desert I had my sinful sundae.
All week my weight was the same and as of this morning I'm at 194.6 pounds.
So far so good, I did not gain the 5-10 pounds as I thought I would, not even water retention from all the salt.
I think I must have gone from 20 carbs a day to 50-75 a day and to 200 on saturday.
I'm happy with the results, now I'm back to 20 - 30 carbs a day until I reach my goal weight, with the occasional test weeks in between.
please don't lecture me about not treating myself with food, this is not a treat, this is a matter of choice.

now my question to you.
Since I read so many threads and people telling me how much weight I could gain by going to such a high carb intake, does this mean I really found that 50-75 carbs a day plus a one day 200 carb intake doesn't affect my weight, is this possible, or will there be a hidden weight affect at some later time?
Once I go bellow 190 pounds, I will do an even higher carb week, to find the sweet spot in carb amount that I can take in before gaining weight.

I think you are no longer on a ketogenic diet and are not burning fat just the calories ingested. I think your nutritional values for the week were bordering zero. I think you will continue in this because the tste is more important to you then results and you will slowly gain back and exceed the losses you had accomplished.I think you can do what you want-its your life .

Atkins talks very specifically about the proper way to find your CCLL (critical carb level for losing), and what you describe is definitely not it. Don't assume that you can safely eat 50-75 carb per day without gaining weight. It may affect you differently next time — who knows? There is only one way to find out how many carbs you can eat to maintain, and that's by following OWL and Pre-Maintenance as described by Atkins in his book.

Like bevbme said, it's your life and your diet, so do it however you want. Don't be surprised if this doesn't work long-term, however, as you don't seem to have developed the healthy habits that this WOE is all about. I'm not trying to flame you here, but I do think you have perhaps missed the point of Atkins.

Hi

My weight gain over the years was very slow (3-6 lbs per year), and I think that might be the way carbs work on us. You might not gain on a 200g carbs if you watch your calories for a while, even a few months if you're lucky. If it works, go for it.

I get verrrrrry triggered by carb intake, and now I find it almost impossible to get back down to 20 g and not feel deprived. The battle of the bulge is back!

Good luck
M

What got you those extra pounds in the first place? Just guessing, but I'd bet it was things like french fries, bread, cereal, etc. They'll probably be the undoing of us all again if we don't learn something from how we lost the weight.

You have Atkins OWL listed as your woe, but I'm not seeing that.

I personally wouldn't chance wild blood glucose fluctuations for every mini-goal. There is a reason Dr. Atkins said that the "just one taste won't hurt" attitude is the kiss of death on his plan. I guess since you're not on it, it doesn't apply, but i think he meant to a low carb diet in general.

Having said that, I agree that it's your body, your health, and your "diet". I wish you the best of luck.

50-75 carbs a day is probably still ketogenic. It will depend on exactly what kind of carbs, your individual tolerance, etc. 200 carbs per day may not be traditional low carb, but it's still way lower than the standard pyramid diet. (I'm still in ketosis at 150 g, but I exercise a LOT.)

Finding your individual tolerance is a good thing, but there are always pitfalls. Hopefully you will be able to avoid them and continue on toward goal.

Cheers,

Friday

Hi Data,
Glad your experiment worked out for you. In Chapter 16 on premaintenance, Atkins addressed doing something similar if you have low metabolic resistance. He talks of averaging out your carb intake for the week instead of by the day - going lower for a few days and then higher for a meal. Since your meal did seem to have enough fat, protein, and fiber that may be why it worked so well. He says if the deviations don't create cravings you are doing well. Understand, you already have a very unfair advantage over many of us since you are a guy My dh is in maintenance now and because of his exercise amounts and gender he can have a fairly high number of carbs compared to me. Good luck and hope everything works out well for you.

Marie

Marieshops makes a valid point, but remember that all carbs are not created equal. Eating 50 carbs worth of a hot fudge sundae is NOT EVEN CLOSE TO the same as eating 50 carbs worth of healthy whole grains, dairy, vegetables and fruits that most of us will enjoy in maintenance.

Totally your choice what you put in your body - but "testing" it to see ifyou gain weight eating junk food is not healthy. It sounds more like an excuse to eat what you like, and you might want to be really careful it doesn't backfire on you - what worked once, won't necessarily work again - or every time.

thanks for all the replies.
trying to explain a little more about myself here.
I'm an individual who takes in every information possible, processes it and then tries to mix it to come to my one way of doing things.
I know, there are many things that are being done a certain way for a long time and why change it if it works.
at the same time I know that there are most of the time more then one solution to the same problem.

I'm doing atkins (or call it my adjusted atkins, if you like to) to lose weight and get to my goal of 180 pounds.
I would never live the atkins way of life and will always eat chocolate and all the other "bad foods" (I could go into discussions about this or write a book about it, but let's just keep it with that.
I went through something very similar some 5 years ago.
I was a heavy smoker 1-2 packs a day, for some 20 years, with the occasional failed period trying to stop.
yes, I heard it all, read it all and the doctors kept on telling the same ways how to quit.
one thing the improved my smoking habits a lot was the patch, I got to the point where I smoked "only" 2-3 packs a week.
I did this for about two years and kept on looking for other solutions how to quit.
when I finally found my own way (it made sense to me), everybody told me it is wrong, will not work, it's replacing one bad habit with another, it's even worse, etc. etc.
but guess what, I did it anyways and I haven't touched a cigarette in 5 years and just the thought about it makes me throw up.
when ever I got the urge to smoke, I lighted a cigar (a big one) I smoked the whole thing at once and inhaled (have you ever tried to inhale that stuff?)
it started with 1-2 a day and got to 2 a week within like 3 weeks.
even these made me sick and I stooped.
as said before, this was 5 years ago and all the nay sayers where just amazed in how well it worked for me.
and thats the magic sentence (it worked for me)
I just try to tell you that I never give up when I have my mind set on something, it took me close to ten years to stop smoking, but at the end I succeeded.
I could tell you many more stories like this, but I hope this tells you a little more about myself.
my mind is now set to get to a weight of 180 pounds. I will get there, no matter what it takes.
believing in the atkins woe or wol, is one thing, to use atkins to get to a certain weight is another.
many things in life are not just black or white, there are many shades of gray in between.
that we got fat is 99% of the time the result of the same thing - we ate to much of the wrong things
atkins made me very aware of this and there is a big difference in my book, if I eat a big mac meal every day or one a week, if I eat a whole large chocolate bar 3 times a day, or one bar twice a week etc.
for the once that where offended by me using the "Atkins OWL" in my profile, I just changed that.
I hope I can continue to post in the Atkins forum, since I personally still consider myself doing atkins to lose weight.
thank you for your understanding.

Well if it works for you, who are we to judge? It is your body. All we can do is offer support encouragement and hope that someday your eatng habits will be more like the Atkins way and less Transfats and bad carbs.

Hope to see you at goal soon!

Your body, your choice. One word of caution: you will want to monitor your cholesterol and other things closely, as low-carb/high-fat (Atkins) combined with frequent high-carb treats is a great way to clog your arteries and wreak havoc with your blood sugar. It's like the worst diet in the world.

Its hard to see someone else make all the same mistakes I made and not comment on it.

You might be the worlds most atypical person and able to defy the incredible odds of keeping your weight loss inspite of eating refined carbs and fat. I'll acknowledge that. Or you might be trying to rationalize to yourself, and everyone else, in order to satisfy cravings.

Being brutally honest with yourself is efficient. The rest of us don't matter.