I fell for the CICO, and it never worked! Also gained the most while eating low fat!

"Low carb" since 2010, with the same cheat weeks that tru2one described, often bleeding into each other and becoming cheat months.

Compulsive snacker. Only gained about 1-2lb each year since high school, so ended up 30-40lbs overweight. Fat enough to be threatened with statins by my doc, so trying LC instead.

I've always cooked from scratch, and generally "healthy" foods- whole grains, lots of veggies & fruits, good protein, lower fat (like the sub greek yogurt for mayo type tricks). I've played with paleo, was gluten- and dairy-free for 18 months, but for the most part in the past 2-3 years have tried to focus on "clean" eating. Thankfully, because I have always done a fairly good job making real food, my kids (8, 6, and 3) actually eat pretty well, aren't afraid of vegetables, and ask for fruit as a snack. I am the only one in the family who has struggled with weight; my husband actually has the opposite problem and struggles to gain any weight (he is 6'4" and weighs between 165-170... less than I weigh at 5'4"!), and my kids are all around the 25th percentile for weight.
Then a couple of months ago I had an upper endoscopy, and they said I had villous damage and inflammation consistent with either celiac, an eating disorder, or overuse of NSAID's. Since I've never had an eating disorder, and have to be dying before I actually think to take a pain killer (seriously, I have babies without drugs, I'm not the type to pop a pill for a headache!), I figured I probably should go gluten-free again... and since I also needed to lose weight I figured I'd try keto. Originally I found it via I Breathe I'm Hungry (via Pinterest), and her meal plans made it seem super easy and do-able, and I even was able to convince my friend and her husband to do it with me.
The hardest part for me has actually been to not have my husband and kids on the diet with me... I do make a lot of LCHF dinners and they eat them too, but usually I will give them something else on the side...

I was a seafood vegetarian for 26 years, and lactose intolerant for about 10-12 years, and gluten free for the past few years as well.
For the most part, I think I ate "healthy foods", but wasn't really losing any weight because I was eating too much. Once I started weighing and measuring everything, it became painfully clear how MUCH overeating I was doing. For a sedentary computer worker, that's just not good.

I am "paleo-curious" and like the ideas and recipes I saw for the paleo diet. Occasionally I picked up paleo meals and snacks from a local prepared food chain called Snap Kitchen. I loved that the food was categorized and labeled very clearly with regards to what it had in it and dietary styles it might be good for, and almost everything there is gluten-free (and LOTS of dairy free).

When both my fiance and some of my co-workers got into the keto dietary lifestyle, I started studying it and trying to figure out if I could make it work with my dietary restrictions at the time. I even played with a few recipes that still fit into "seafood vegetarian with no dairy or gluten" and thought, "Hey, I might be able to do this."
I played with recipes and numbers, and decided it probably wouldn't work out for me. Finally took the plunge and started eating dairy again to see how well the daily probiotics I've been having were working. They did. YAY! Hurdle one.
I made some chocolate-covered bacon (keto friendly unsweetened) as a test and gave it to co-workers, then made it again for my fiance. The bacon smelled so good...and I had some left over...
Somehow it made its way into the skillet and into my mouth. Well, there I went. Full on back to eating piggies and birdies...but I still won't touch "red" meat.

26 years of seafood vegetarian gone in the bite of a bacon. I think food's started to turn around again and get back to having cleaner and healthier versions available. Besides, it's nice to be able to sit down and eat a meal with my fiance vs. "his and hers" plates. haha

-T.

I have never been in denial about loving sweets and junk food. I could care less about eating a meal or real food as long as I had some snacks to eat. Muffins, donuts, chips, crackers and cheese, whatever falls into the junk food category. Some people think about going low carb and say they wouldn't be able to handle it b/c they would miss the bread and pasta. My answer would be what about the cake and ice cream forget the bread. lol. If you would have asked me before did I get fat from overeating, my answer would have easily been no. I felt like I grazed/snacked all day and maybe had 1 meal. How could one get fat from that? It wasn't until I tried CICO and logged my food did I realize how little serving you get for the calories. It's very easy to overeat on junk food, b/c unless you eat A LOT you never really feel full or stuffed like you would from eating a meal. Hints the reason low carb is best for me. To avoid the sweets all together.

By the way, with the exception of one box of Atkins chocolate bars and a couple tablespoons of peanut butter, I haven't had sweets since then (since the Valentine's chocolates, I mean). And I haven't regretted it for a second.

JPW1990 wrote: »

Living the American Nightmare Diet. I grew up in a house where we had something frozen, delivered or from a drive thru every night. Every once in a while (a few times per year) my mom would get the urge to cook for a few weeks. Hot dogs and mac n cheese, casseroles with cream soup in them, pasta with garlic bread but no salad. Once in a while things like pork chops or a roast, and any veggies on the side would be drowning in butter and cheese. I drank HiC or KoolAid until I was 10 or so, and then was allowed to drink Coke all day like my parents. Never wanted water, they never suggested it. The only fish I'd had either had Charlie on the label or said "filet o" on the box.

I had no idea what plain, normal food was supposed to taste like until years after I'd moved out on my own. To my mind, if it didn't taste like sugar and salt, it tasted wrong.

Lmao. I feel bad for laughing but how you wrote it is Hilarious!

I ate what was a considered a pretty good diet.

I like to cook so I cooked a lot of meals with loads of veggies and sauces. 2 Eggs with whatever left over veg on a piece of toast every morning for breakfast. There was always plentiful fruits (we live in the sub tropics so always cheap and plentiful fruit and veg). Natural pot set yogurts. So lots of fruit, vegetables with some meat thrown in.

1-2 coffees with 2 very heaped tsp of sugar. Plenty of water.

Pizza/kfc/fish and chips once a week.
Potato chips and softdrink on the weekends only.

Ended up at 340lb - 155kg.

My husband (6'3" and lanky) could never understand why I would continue to gain weight considering I ate what was considered far better than he did.

Now we know.

Quatroux wrote: »

Sugar
Starches all week and candy all weekend.

Actually, I can do better. I used to drink SIX 20oz. Dr Peppers PER DAY! I lost 50 pounds just by eliminating soft drinks. That's my old WOE.