Intro

hilliardjoe

Hello all,

I signed up for MFP a couple of days ago and started tracking my food with the iPhone app and through the website.

I am a mid-40s guy who does IT (ie sit on my butt all day). I would like to lose around 90 pounds, most of it in my gut.

I recently finished reading 'Wheat Belly' and am in the middle of reading 'Good Calories, Bad Calories'. I have also been looking into Mark's Daily Apple, a Primal blog. So I guess you could say that I'm moving to a wheat (and most other grains) free, low carb, whole food type 'diet'. I don't know how many other low carb, Primal types are on MFP but I have to imagine there are some (if nothing else because the food tracking app is so good).

I have always been skeptical of the low-cal diets in the past but in my recent reading I think that is because I was going off the caricature of them and not what they really promote. I've done WW, Ornish, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, etc and while I lost weight with them I always gained it back (and then some). And I felt like I was depriving myself. I basically did them until I could take it anymore.

I have been following my pseudo Primal lifestyle since New Year's Day. I woke up that morning tipping the scales at 313 pounds (I'm 6'2") and decided I needed to do something. In the 16 days since then I have gotten down to 300 pounds (so down 13 pounds in 16 days). My weight loss has slowed a bit now (I was losing a pound every day) but still on the right track.

I did suffer from about a week of 'low carb' flu when I started but it has since passed and I feel great now. I have more energy than I did, I am never hungry between meals and I sleep better. What I find really weird is that I don't miss the breads, crackers, pasta or sugary foods I used to eat every day. People at work are always bringing in candy, bagels and donuts to share and in the past I could never last a whole day without giving in but since I started my new eating habits it is not a problem to say no and just walk on by. In fact I've stopped snacking at work altogether. I had to stop myself at the beginning, it was 9:30, time for my morning snack (nuts) and then I realized, I wasn't hungry, I don't need to eat them.

The main thing I have noticed since switching is that my hunger pangs are 'different'. It's hard to explain, but before the switch when I got hungry (about every 2-3 hours) it was a ravenous hunger that made me feel like I was going to pass out if I didn't eat something, anything, RIGHT NOW. After the switch my hunger pangs are more like a gentle reminder that I should start thinking about eating soon.

I feel that what a person eats is their business and that not every method is applicable to everyone. I will try to not tell people how to live their lives but simply offer things from my life that work for me and realizing that it may not work for others.

HardeesGal

Welcome to mfp. If your looking for friends you can add me. I am here to support everyone. I also did low carb at one point years ago.

Jermski

Getting starting is a victory in itself!! Congrats on the first step!!