True that @Gnulie & @ newmeadow! I enjoy conversing with these educated folks! Makes things so much easier to read!

@AngInCanada, this woe has changed my life too and it's wonderful! The control is something I've never experienced before. I wouldn't be here without MFP and all of the great people in this group!

Hi!! Im sarah i am 24yrs old im 5'7 im here to LOSE 120lbs
I am doing a low carb high fat life style due to PCOS(Polycystic ovarian syndrome) & insulin registant. I have a 7month old daughter. She is my drive to be fit. I have to be healthy for her so i.can be around for my grand children. Im trying to stay nder 50grams of carbs per day. I discovered the website www.butterisnotacarb.com i love the recipes on there.
I also work out doing HIIT (walk 2mins sprint 1min for a total of 30mins) I have been doing this for 10days and have lost 8lbs. I AM going to change!!! I AM going to conquer this weight. I dont care if it takes me 5yrs i will finish my journey! And i will be happy with myself and be confident for my family!!! And a good example for my daughter!!!

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'm not low carb per se, but over the past two months I have reduced simple carbs and increased protein and fat, and feel a lot better. I have more energy, exercise more, sleep better, am losing my goal of 1 # per week, and premenstrual food cravings were much, much less this month.

LOL, unfortunately for me, my PMS cravings have always been for huge hunks of cheese (easily 700g in 2 days) - which is still too much for a weight loss keto woe. Never was interested in the ice cream, cookies, cake, etc. Always salt & fat. You might find yourself craving something different nowdays, hahaha.

Hi everyone, I am Cheryl, 58, living in Tokyo. 172cm tall. I started LCHF in spring of 2013 at 80kg (after a lifetime of carb addiction), and now have just hit 69kg, yay. That is just 1 kg off the official "goal weight" but who really cares at this point? I feel great! I lost 11kg very slowly in about a year, eating moderate veggie carbs of less than 50-80gr per day, high fat, moderate protein. My blood work has all improved as a result. I would love to go Meativore (my dad was a butcher by trade and as a kid in Canada, we ate meat at nearly every meal), but my dear Japanese hubby, who cooks dinner every night as I have a long commute home, loves veggies and tofu, so we still eat lots of greens, onions, eggplant, tomatoes and whatever else is in season (goya champuru, anyone?). I knew he had acquiesced, though, when he finally stopped adding brown rice to my plate, so I can't complain.

I have been on MFP since early 2013, started out in the CICO main forums and didn't have much success with the 1200 cals/day thing. I was lucky to find this group and have not gone back. A friend of mine lost 18 kg on Atkins, and that inspired me. I started with Gary Taubes's books and the Jimmy Moore podcasts, which led me to more and more books, better thinking about food and how nutrition affects my body. I still listen on my daily 45 min walks from Tokyo station to Tsukiji, where I work.

Living in Tokyo, I am surrounded by unbelievably tiny people! There are more obese Japanese around now that Coca Cola and McDonalds have settled in here, but they are still the rarities. Most Japanese people consume fairly good carbs, like rice and veg, but beer and bakery goods are also popular and fattening. OTOH they also are extremely "body conscious" which makes them obsess about looks and weight. Hence, many young women (and men) are struggling with anorexia and bulemia. LCHF is not a mainstream thing here, but there is a version of it they call "tei (low) insulin diet" that some people follow. It is not easy finding "low carb" labels on foods in the convenience stores, but with all the dieting focus, there are lots of fresh salads, meats, hard-boiled eggs, etc, available so I can keep low carb for the morning and afternoon meals, then eat most of my allotment with the dinner DH makes. It can be done! iherb.com delivers to Japan and so I can get most of my LC goodies that way. And my SIL just brought me a bag of pork rinds from the Philippines, which taste divine. Need to find a supplier here!

Hello. My name is Tammy.

I'm 41 years old.

Mother of 2 - 21 year old daughter and 20 year old son (2 weeks closer together and they would be Irish twins).

I raised them as a single mother since 1995 (they were barely 2 and 1 when I divorced, their father chose to not be in their lives at all).

I had no problem maintaining a healthy weight until my kids got to an age where they didn't really need me anymore, I gained a few pounds and took a couple of years to take them off. I'm 5'8" and my happy place of easy weight maintenance is 150 lbs +/- 5 lbs.

I got married again (for the last time) last year in March.

Hi there, I was just approved for this group tonight. My RL name is Judi but around MFP, Divediva2. I am 57yo/F/5"1.5"/194.7lbs. I have been on a diet for most of my adult life. Sad really because when I look back my true gain of weight was not until my mid 30s after having my kids. I stayed home and wasn't really happy so I ate. I have worked part time until recently and am now retired. My first retirement project was to get my health back, my weight reasonable and to be fitter. Has not happened. I have been going to a personal trainer and really love what the gym has done for me. I am fitter now than I ever have been. But no weight loss???? What up with that.
About two weeks ago I came across the Whole30 program. I have been researching because I have hypo thyroidism and pre diabetes. From my reading I am most likely insulin resistant but have not been diagnosed. Many of the articles on thyroid mention diet and auto immune. Enter Whole30. If you aren't familiar, it is not a diet for weight loss. It is a nutritional reset program that has you eliminate soy, sugar, legumes, grains, dairy and alcohol. There are some food additives in processed foods that are not allowed, soy letchicin, MSG, carageenan and sulfites. You follow the program for 30 days, in that time you must not weigh yourself or measure. You are not to calorie count either! After your 30 days you can choose to add foods back in but in an orderly manner so that if you react you know which food is the cause.
Lots of prep and planning later and I started on Monday. I have noticed that there is a great deal of Paleo crossover and low carb. As of today, Day 3, I have noticed some change. No bloating or flatulence. I'm eating 3 meals a day and feeling satisfied. It is a ton of work prepping your food from scratch as most processed foods will contain one of the above ingredients. I have learned to read labels very well!
I've tracked my food on MFP for over 1145 days! I am really hoping to continue on and find out if there are any foods I am sensitive too. I'd be lying if I said I did not care about weight loss, I do. I think eating this way may be my answer. Counting calories on their own has not done the job. I have plateaued for 10 months! Seriously I have lost and regained the same 3-5lbs over this time frame.
Looking forward to meeting and joining conversations. Ones that are not riddled with bitter comments!

Hello, My name is Heather. I am 36, 5'5" and 260lbs. I have been doing a Nutritional Ketogenic diet for 75 days now. I decided to do it as Nothing else has worked or has just exasperated my PCOS symptoms. My husband has been a great support and even joined me. He is at a 51lb loss, I am at a 19.6lb loss. I cannot wait until after next week and I am done with classes so I can become less seditary.

Hi,
I am 55 years old and currently 229 lb. Have been a yoyo dieter for most of my life until I said enough about 5 years ago. Started eating a healthier diet and sort of fell into lower carb naturally. The weight fell off me and I began to research why. Got down to 205 lb without even trying and maintained for about 2years. (I am 5' 10" so was quite happy at that weight) Unfortunately let things slip and once I started back on the carbage the cravings started again and the weight piled back on.
Have been back lower carbing for about a month and so far lost 6lb. I am eating between 50 and 100 carbs a day. Not tracking calories as that is the way of madness FOR ME! My gerd has disappeared and my asthma much improved. At last I feel like I have some energy. Hoping to maintain this woe for life.

Hi All. I am a 53, 5'3" year old female who has struggled with my weight for most of my adult life. I reached a high of 275+ lbs in 1998 and a low of 121 lbs in 2010 (after Atkins). I currently weigh 155 lbs and my goal is 120 lbs. I keep gaining and losing 10 lbs since December. I lost 98 lbs in 10 months from 2009-2010 eating low carb and exercising almost daily. I had skin removal surgery in 2010 and have had pain, swelling, and weight gain since then.

Medically, I had uncontrolled type 2 diabetes even with 2 insulins and metformin prior to my weight loss. That's still over although I periodically have my AIC checked. Diagnosed with a pituitary tumor and PCOS in 2000. Diagnosed with lymphedema in 2011. Diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis last year. Almost killed in a car accident last year and had to have much of my small intestine removed. I have less than 5 feet remaining. I was in a coma and on a feeding tube for almost month and lost 20 lbs. I lost 10 more after being discharged but I keep gaining it and more back. I take thyroid and blood pressure medication and several supplements: zinc, potassium, probiotic, selenium, magnesium, Bs (every other day). and D3. I substitute copper for zinc once a week.

I have been tested for food allergies and sensitivities by an allergist, 2 kinesiologists, and with Leap MRT (blood test). There has been some variation but most agree that I cannot eat grains, soy, nightshades, dairy, fructose, Italian spices, or salmon. I may have left something out and the jury is out regarding eggs. I also loaded my DNA (genes) into Nutrahacker and the results were very similar and it recommended a ketogenic diet. I am following the first phase of Leap MRT omitting the grains and fruit for three weeks. There are 5 phases in which I will add different foods. I am eating LCHFMP. I am usually below 1000 calories and am working on that.

I do not exercise at all now but I hope to soon. In the past, I was only ever to consistently lose weight when I exercised.

Good to see you out here Ash ! No I didn't say "carnage" but it still was surprising to me, since I can be an idealist who seeks harmony.

This is the best group ever, so you are bound for success !

Hi, I'm Emma -- 59, 5'2", 185 lbs today down from 210 on March 11th -- I'm kind of following Paul Jaminet's The Perfect Health Diet, which is basically moderate carb and allows what he calls "safe starches" -- 1/2 cup of white rice, sweet potato, some fruit.... I find I gravitate to low-carb foods but don't feel well with a VLC diet. Over the past 15 weeks I'm averaging about 22% carbs, 56% fat and 22% protein. I feel great on this, and have had a lot of energy for exercise (mainly hiking and walking.)

I've been fat since I was an infant, with a few periods of thinness here and there with great effort and struggle. The thinnest I've been as an adult was 132 back in the early 80's. Done everything except surgery. Did Optifast back in the 90's. A multiple failure at WWatchers. Atkins I loved but ate too many calories to lose weight. Lost 60 lbs back in 2002-03 by a year of calorie counting -- got to a low of 154 -- then moved in with my boyfriend, ate his large meals, was generally happy, and shot up to 220 over the next 3 years. Up and down 10-15 lbs multiple times, between 200 and 215, for the past 8 years.

My mother once told me that I took after my great-grandmother, who, she said, was "5 by 5" -- we laughed until one day I found one of her beautiful French silk nightgowns from the 1920's in a box, and it was literally 5 feet high and 5 feet wide!

In March I decided I wasn't going to turn 60 in November still futzing around in the 210's. I have flirted with giving up grains for a bit in the past, but this time I made 3 major changes to my diet: 1) gave up all grains except white rice 2) stopped eating anything canned, jarred or boxed (what I call "processed" foods) and 3) started taking probiotics. I also have weighed, measured, counted everything. I chart obsessively, track macros, exercise, weigh myself daily -- on another MFP thread discovered "Trendweight" this week and wrote a blog post about it -- what a neat tool to smooth out the daily ups and downs of weight!

Suddenly, all my struggles over eating have gone away. I've shown a steely consistency which has surprised me. The food decisions -- no grains, no processed foods -- I've made cut out a lot of the "should I eat this or not?" back and forth I used to go through. And it's balanced enough that I can go out occasionally and enjoy a meal and not worry about putting on 5-8 lbs overnight, which is always what happens when I go too low-carb and then eat out.

I've lost 26 lbs in almost 15 weeks -- which is an amazing rate of loss for me. I can see going on like this for the rest of my life. My initial goal was 169 (which used to be, when I was 5'3") the border from obese to overweight. Now that I've shrunk it's 164. Don't know if I can get there by my birthday in November, but I am going to try! If not, by Christmas!

I am so much happier in my clothes -- today I gave away all my "fat pants" and took a pile of stuff to have it taken in -- and in my body; I smile insanely when I'm out walking, and everyone seems to smile back at me.

My final goal right now is 155-159 by sometime next spring. I just am longing, after so many years of being "on a diet" and "trying to lose weight" to get to a weight that I can maintain. I never want to have to lose 50-60 lbs again. The way I'm doing it -- and the data I'm gathering -- makes me hopeful that when I reach my goal I will know exactly what I need to eat and how much I need to exercise to stay within my goal range.

Happy to have found y'all through the kindness of a member who said this group is "thoughtful about nutrition." That's great!

Hi I'm Sue and I live in the UK. I'm 47, very happily married to a wonderful husband with 2 sons who are 20 and 18. I'm 5'3" and have lost 15.6 lbs since May 6th. My goal is to lose another 45 lbs and fit back into my size 10 (UK) clothes - actually I'm more concerned about my size rather than my weight - my goal weight is based on what I weighed last time I fit those clothes but nowadays I do much more exercise and so if I fit into them but end up heavier than my goal then that's fine - it's how I look not how much I weigh that is important to me.

I am following a metabolic balance way of eating - also some people know it as SureSlim - it's what I would call medium low carb - I tend to average around 50-70g of carbs per day - with calories falling around the 1200 to 1500 per day mark. So the macros work out to around 25% carbs, 50% fat, 25% protein. I do have preplanned off plan meals occasionally as I want this way of eating to fit in with real life which involves socialising and holidays etc - but so far I've always managed to get right back on plan at the next meal and so far it's not had too much of an effect on the losses - I keep reminding myself that it's a marathon and not a sprint and so far I'm very pleased with the weight and inches lost in the last 5 weeks.

It's been really nice to read about everyone on this thread - happy to meet you and if anyone wants to friend me you'll be welcome - just mention the low carb forum. I log on everyday and my diary is open to friends.

Calboy2015 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I am perhaps one of the very few vegetarians (if any) attempting low(er) carb here. I am 47yrs, 132lbs and 5'7".
I have been on LC starting Jan this year and came across this woe while searching for a way to manage my T2 diabetes. While my weight wan't a problem, it took me 10-12 years in relating carbs to blood sugar. Lol. (I always focused on sugar value on labels and didn't have much luck). I mostly eat veggies and dairy nowadays and find that it is difficult to over eat on these. My carbs are around 60-80g/day, way high compared to many here, but seem to work for my goals.

So far I have been counting calories meticulously in mfp. with my weight 3-4 lbs lower than where I want to be, I am planning to just focus on what I eat for a few weeks and not how much. Of course, I intend to weigh daily. Let's see where it takes me.

How are you doing now with the Diabetes? Are your blood glucose levels lower? Are you taking meds to control your Diabetes?

Dan the Man from Michigan
How I got Off of Diabetic Prescriptions Drugs Since I Started Keto
Blog #13 DittoDan's Milestone's, First's And Good Changes Since Starting the Ketogenic Diet

Hello! I just joined this group! I am 37 and hope to lose weight and improve health on a ketogenic diet. I have done low carb years before- in college, successfully, but I got bored with my food choices (I lived on bunless burgers) and gradually the carbs crept back in. Many years have passed and I am much older and much wiser. I feel as though I have done my research and I have found a new love of trying new recipes- so I am pretty sure the boredom won't be an issue this time around.

I plan on staying at 60% fat, 30% protein, and %10 carbs. 20 grams of carbs or less for quite a while. The thing I love about this WOE is that I am not in a constant battle against my will power anymore. When I eat a high- or even a moderate- carb diet- I feel like I am constantly ravenous and go to bed starving. On a high fat diet, I am never starving, which means I am not tempted to snatch a fry from my son or eat off plan at all. I can easily stay within my calorie range! That is a refreshing change.

I started this new lifestyle on Monday. As of this morning my current loss is at 6.4 pounds. I have struggled a bit in adapting to ketosis (insomnia, low energy) but I feel like that is getting better, especially since adding in some minerals back into my diet.

Glad to have found this group!