Just like my MFP name, I am Carol. I am old(er) lol. I have been on and off of every diet that ever was. Now..it is all I can do to count calories and or Weight Watcher's Points. I have found out, I am not as hungry on my 1200 calorie diet, when I eat less carbs. So I am interested in learning something new here.

I'm K; just joined this group 2 days ago. I'm 28/F/5'6/161lb and a vegetarian keto-er. I used to live in South Africa (hence the name k-in-rsa) but now I'm in rural Ghana. It's very, very hard to do low carb in rural Ghana, but I'm looking forward to moving back to the US in a few months.

About 2.5 years ago I was very healthy, using mfp, and still living in South Africa. Then I found out I was being transferred here suddenly instead of spending another 4 years in SA like I'd expected. I was really upset about it and in my interim 6 months in the US I pigged out and gained about 40lb, which I just couldn't seem to get rid of. It's hard to exercise in rural Ghana too, because there aren't any gyms and my go-to standard, running, can only be done very early in the morning or right at dusk (jungle humidity, yo) when I'm more likely to get malaria.

I started keto almost 3 weeks ago and I've lost 14lb since then, and 27lb overall. I'd like to lose another 26lb before I go back to the US in mid-September, but I have a vacation to South Africa coming up in August so I'll have to see how far I get. The overall goal is to get to 130lb by next April when I'll be hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.

I'm also a lurker, but I've enjoyed reading the posts here so far.

Ok I'm not that great with the quote function, apparently!

Hi, I'm Ethan, aka aspiedude. 29 year old man. 5'5.5 " 170 lbs. High weight 281. Low weight 138. Goal around 160 with about 10% body fat. I've studied psychology and like to continue to learn as well as craft and play with my cat. Aspiedude refers to my having Aspergers Syndrome aka Autism Spectrum Disorder. Proud to be weird! Wouldn't mind being taller but I think it's too late for that.

Hi, I'm Twibbly, been hanging out here for a while, have dietary restrictions out the wazoo (seriously...chicken. Who reacts to chicken? Other than me), finally behaving and eating what I'm supposed to for...16 days? 17? All sorts of weird little things are fixing themselves.

Hello to all you new, new beautiful people!
I'm Karlotta (or Karla, thank you mother for two names, lol!), I'm 47 and have been married almost 23 years. We have an 18 year old son who just graduated from high school on May 21st and began his college career on May 27th. I am an RN, but haven't worked in ten years due to physical inability (if you can't do CPR without hurting yourself it's time to stop putting patients at risk) from Fibromyalgia and neck issues from a car wreck 18 years ago. So, I don't work a job, but am thinking about signing up to be a substitute teacher at our high school. I'm gauging that decision on how I continue to feel.

I've been heavy since puberty at age 12. I'm 5'8 &1/2". Five years ago I had a gastric sleeve after ballooning to 318 pounds. I lost to 208 (for a day and a half) and proceeded to regain to 267. My excuse? I ate the same food after surgery that I had always eaten and justified it by the fact that I couldn't eat much of it, but I was sick too. At four months post op I began to throw up bile. It would happen anytime, wake me at night mostly, and was always nauseated. One good thing is that I learned to love myself, even though I felt awful. They removed my gallbladder and did every medical test that could be done, but could never fix the bile issue. Through testing with another surgeon I finally found out that surgeon number one had not done the surgery correctly (IKR?!!!!). So, in January, 2015, I was converted to a gastric bypass (weight was 231 on day of surgery) and have felt better since then. Decided to use MFP after for logging my food and found this amazing group. Through reading I found this woe and transitioned to LCHF as my diet progressed post op and haven't looked back! Have been at ZC since May 1. I've found that fibromyalgia pain is greatly improved! Not gone completely, but so much better (pain a constant 5+ is now 0-5 as long as I don't overdo). Still have headaches from the wreck, but feel my body is working on those too. The healing my body is undertaking has the scale bouncing but on a good day I'm 194.4! So, I'm sticking with that for now!

Without MFP, and this amazing group of people, I wouldn't be here changing my life! In the beginning I just jumped in and never told my full story, so there it is! I love all of you for helping me! The path that was laid for me, by the committed, longer-term folks, has made this an amazing ride so far! I look forward to seeing where this new life takes me!

I am Goat. Every group needs at least one fundamentalist extremist. I fill that role here.

It's hard to describe who I am. I am a strict carnivore (no plants except my cup of coffee and occasionally some seasoning for my meat). I am way out in left field when it comes to a lot of things. I'm anti-restriction, anti-sweeteners, anti-faux foods, anti-veggies, anti-fruit, anti-supplements. Don't worry too much about that, though. I know we're all on different paths. If your carb goal and tolerance is higher than mine, I'm more than happy to support you in making it work for your goals. If I can pry that Diet Coke out of your cold, dead hands. . . you know, it doesn't hurt me if you love Diet Coke. I just say it because I come from a different perspective than most here. I've found success not through calorie restriction, but from removing the foods that caused me problems. Once they were gone, my body took care of things on its own terms.

I'm a short guy. I'm only 163 cm (5'4") tall. At my heaviest, I weighed between 102-105 kg (225-230 lbs). I'll save you from the BMI math. That puts me at just a hair under 40. I did lose weight from calorie restriction, but it was miserable and I had to eat really small amounts thanks to my height. I dropped to around 75 kg (165 lbs) at my lowest and could not get lower. On top of that, I eventually reached a point where it started reversing because I couldn't keep it up any more.

I officially started keto at a weight of 92.5 kg (202.5 lbs) although I had already been losing some weight with a primal moderate carb approach up to that point. I probably hit 98 kg (215 lbs) before I decided to try the low(er) carb approaches. I had been very anti-low-carb for years. It had to be bad for you. Anyway, the weight came off steadily. Not super-fast, but it did come off. My version of keto was 99% plant-free. I was eating them because I thought I had to or I might get sick. Eventually, some reading convinced me that wasn't the case. I stopped all my supplements and eating plants. I've been that way pretty much ever since.

I am currently under my original goal weight of 74 kg (163 lbs). Why 74 kg? Two reasons. First, it put me under the lowest I could reach by cutting calories, and, believe me, I don't restrict calories these days. Second, it put me under a BMI of 28. That's the old cutoff for a healthy male BMI before they lowered it to 25 back in 1998. I might never get below 25, it would be nice but I am not trying to lose any more weight. If some more weight comes off, it's because my body decided to take it off. It won't be because I tried to lose more. I'm currently around 71 kg (156 lbs) and a BMI of 26-27. I would need to get down to around 65 kg (143 lbs) to reach what the government thinks is a healthy weight. I don't think that would look that good on me. My profile picture is what I currently look like. Is there some chub that could still come off? Yes. Is there 13 pounds of it? I don't know. I'm more focused on general fitness and letting the body work itself out.

The government says this is over-weight. They also tell you that vegetables are good for you. "Hogwash!" I say, "Absolute hogwash!"

I'm new to the group, but have been doing LC for almost 2 months now. I'm 48, 5'7" & weigh 160, down from 180 when I started. I'm a mom with 2 sons. One is 8 years old and my (step)son. Is almost 21. My first grandchild (also a boy), will be arriving in about 6 weeks. I am a nurse practitioner in a very busy ICU and work long hours.

LC is the only way I can lose weight since I hit 45. I had been pretty steady at 140 - 145, but chronic gastric issues led to several months of highly starchy foods (easier to digest ) & my weight skyrocketed. I was on 3 different meds for the gastric problems and felt terrible all the time. I never had any energy and just watched my 8 year old play. After having a bad case of the flu in late February, I couldn't walk around the unit at work without wheezing. So I decided I had to make some changes for myself and my kids.
I started LC dieting & started walking every day. In 2 months, I've lost almost 20 lbs and have gone from barely being able to walk around the block to walking 3+ miles & occasionally even jogging. Even better, the LC diet has improved my gastric problems & I've dropped 2 of the meds that I've been on. I still have 20 lbs to go, but want to maintain this way of eating for the health improvements. I have so much more energy and feel like a different person. I take karate with my 8 year old and am now an active volunteer with his cub scout group. I love hiking with them and spending active time with my son.

I would love to get meal ideas and recipes from others. I would also love to provide support and encouragement to others that are walking thus road with me. I'm excited to be part of this group!

I'm Wab, and I'm a carboholic.

I've never been obese, and I didn't really consider myself fat (but I was). I'm 6'1" and my top weight was around 220lbs. High school weight was probably around 170lbs, so I slowly added an average of less than 2lbs per year (current age is 53).

My doc noted that my heart disease risk had been increasing even though I was "weight stable." At one point, my triglyceride levels were crazy high -- around 700 mg/dl.

So I developed a theory about my condition -- some people suck at making new fat cells, and I might be one of those people. I ate a LOT. I'd eat an entire large pizza when the family ordered pizza. I snacked all the time. Girl Scouts loved me during their cookie sales. I should have been obese. Instead, my fat cells appeared to be full and overflowing.

High TG is also associated with low HDL. And full and overflowing fat cells appears to be associated with insulin resistance, so my fasting blood sugar was slowly increasing as well. I was officially diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome, which isn't a disease as much as a collection of symptoms associated with insulin resistance.

10 years ago, I tried a low-carb diet with no interest in weight loss -- purely to get the high TG under control. It worked amazingly well, and my TG dropped from 700ish to about 170. Over the years, I let the carbs back in, and my TG went back up to 300ish.

Last year, my doc threatened to start me on statins due to my elevated heart disease risk, so I went back on a low-carb diet, but this time with the dual goals of losing weight and improving my blood tests.

After a few months, I lost 20lbs and had my blood retested. ALL metrics improved -- I had NONE of the markers for Metabolic Syndrome.

I've now dropped about 30lbs -- I'm at the top range of a "normal" BMI. And I feel fantastic. My only goal at this point is to avoid backsliding and to stay low carb for life.