Life Time Phase

This third and last phase is to maintain the desired weight, and you can add most foods in moderation, including small amounts of rice, white bread, pasta and cake for breakfast and lunch. They replenish the depleted glycogen storage and have whole day to be burned. The amount should be small enough to avoid blood sugar and insulin spike, and overflowing into fat storage. You will develop a sensible eating plan for the rest of your life, and you are no longer on diet. Instead, you have your own good eating choices with right timimg and good food mixture. I try to stay away from starchy and sugary foods as much as possible. Actually these kinds of food are not in our grocery list, and I dislike them subconsciously. A lot of people develop the same feeling like me after proper dieting for a while.

Occasionally, I do overeat especially during holiday, vocation or binging on all-you-can-eat buffet, and gained some weight. But once I returned to normal meal, all the weight gain was gone very soon. First, elevated plasma leptin will increase metabolism and burn more calories. Second, most of the sudden weight gain is due to glycogen and water storage because of increased carbohydrate intake. A little more exercise and phase 1 diet will take care of it in a short time.

As you lose weight your basic daily calorie requirement will decrease. The same diet, which used to help you lose weight, might make you gain weight. So slight diet adjustment is necessary. This is the time when exercise will really help. As you establish the exercise routine and getting stronger adding few more minutes of exercise will be much easier. Increase calorie usage from more exercise will offset the decreased calorie requirement in a thinner person.