I'm returning back to the fold. I used to hang out here in the late 90's.
(I was lowcarbing before lowcarbing was cool.) I used to go by the handle
"Tony the LC Guy".
I started out around 350# (never knew for sure since my scale maxed out at
330#), and in a little less than a year had my weight down to around 170#.
Just by faithfully low carbing and working out.
Unfortunately after moving twice, getting married, buying a home, changing
job responsibilities, etc., I "fell off the wagon." Although I still
exercised sporadically, I started back to eating carbs. Sometimes to
excess, but mostly in quantities that would be "normal" for most people.
Over time I've discovered that carbs and my body just don't agree. If I
stay at induction level carb consumption I can drop weight fairly quickly.
If I go above that (slightly) my weight loss slows to almost nothing. Above
that, and I start gaining. I let myself put back on weight until I was up
to 300#.
About 6 weeks ago I "had it", and went back to low carbing. I've lost 22#
since then, and feel that I've gotten back the focus that I had when I first
lost the weight.
Here's my big lesson, FWIW for others. I actually had a pretty "easy" time
losing weight by low carbing. It was motivational to see the fat go, and
compared with other diet plans it worked great. In light of that I tended
not to work hard to keep my weight off. I always figured that if I "went
off the wagon" for a month that it was no big deal--I'd just go back to
LCing after that. Unfortunately, I kept putting off the return to LC.
Now my biggest challenge is being incredibly faithful to the LC lifestyle.
In time, I plan to be back where I was a few years ago.
Tony, the LC guy.