I tried adding in more carbs, which led to carb creep, calorie creep, and some weight regain. For me, increasing carbs was a mistake that led to more hunger and munchies.

Now my carbs are back low, almost to zero, because I need less appetite so I can relose that partial regain without calorie counting.... I really don't enjoy calorie counting so I tend to forget about it or put it off, and when relying on counting calories for weight control, skipping it doesn't work well.

YMMV of course. Atkins is based on the idea of starting carbs low and then increasing and people have success with that. It can be done.

I'm more of a fan of keeping carbs about the same or perhaps keeping the macro percentage the same, which would mean a slight carb increase with increased maintenance calories.

Instead of always having 20g of carbs, maybe go up to 30g. That's a 50% increase, I imagine you could be increasing calories by that much to maintain? And then leave yourself more open to an occasional high carb meal, like if you eat at someone's home or there is a birthday cake. Within reason.
YMMV

Congrats on hitting maintenance, BTW!

Running_and_Coffee wrote: »

30 sounds more doable. I've occasionally hit 30 just by not doing the math of Greek yogurt + almond flour in the same day taking me higher than usual and it didn't impact cravings.

One day I'd love to be able to go back to my morning bowl of oatmeal and fruit, but that would be 30 right there!! :-(

You might be able to do some on that, just in smaller portions, I imagine. if you are a morning runner, you could experiment with timing it around your run. Then you would burn it off quickly and be more likely to keep blood glucose steady.

I added carbs back in slowly, been maintaining for just over a year now. I have found if I eat no more than 50 g I can do fine, even the occasional higher carb day does through me off, as long as I get back to it the following day. If I do see a bounce, I drop it back to about 30-35ish. Carbs I added were more nuts, more tomatoes, onions, the occasional fruit treat, like half an apple or a fresh fig, or slice of a melon. I found I can not add any grains back or I get hungry and bloat up. We are all different. Just add one thing at a time, see how you react to it, if nothing happens add that food back to your list of things you can eat. If you get a bad reaction, then avoid it.

The other thing I do is at least once a month a 36+ hr. fast along with 3-4 IFing days during the week.

In some ways maintenance is harder than losing. I have yoyoed for over 30 yrs. and I love how the WOE has resulted in a more stable weight.

Well fwiw, I maintained for 3 years at just over 100g after losing weight on keto then slowly upping bit by bit - not really counting calories, just carb grams. Since I am now fully menopausal (yep, I'm DONE ), I've gained a bit this past year and have had to bring it back down to about 50 or so to lose the few pounds up.
So if you don't have craving issues with upped carbs just raise them bit by bit til you see a trend upward in weight, then back it off. You may find that you will have room for a bowl of oatmeal once in a while. YMMV

When I first reached goal, I increased both calories and carbs resulting in cravings that wouldn't quit. It was a constant fight to limit the upward creep to around a pound/mth. After gaining 40 pounds, I found you folks and re-established a low carb WOE. Next time I hit maintenance (s/b soon :bigsmile: losing about a pound/wk) I will NOT be adding carbs.

But my current carbs aren't terribly low (~50/day/net). And they're in soy, beans, nuts, vegetables, etc. that are full of protein and vitamins. I limit grain-type carbs to a few rice cakes or crackers a month - sometimes my body feels like it needs that (but it requires careful monitoring).

I now know that the cutback on carbs reduces my cravings and protects me from those dangerous, highly processed starches; and that resulting never-ending escalating demoralizing vicious circle of: I plan/hope/pray to stay this way for life.