Originally Posted by uberfat

I don't crave for sugar or cheesecake, but after 19.00 i crave for meat and fat because i still get very little calories for rapid weight loss .probably 400-500.

Originally Posted by Seejay

The problem is, muscle loss that you aren't saying you're measuring.

You say your body should eat the fat on your belly. But your body will also eat the muscle. It will eat both if you have such a huge calorie deficit.

Maybe a month of starvation level calories won't be that bad.

But, what if you end up with "metabolic damage". It will be harder to get a healthy metabolism again so you can burn fat on sustainable healthy calories.

You might want to google "metabolic damage" for another take on consequences.

Originally Posted by deirdra

That's why most of us are here. Due to brainwashing, even on Atkins, I tried to minimize fat and calorie intake. After 35 years of failing on diets, even low-cal low-carb low-fat with various amounts of protein, I decided to do the only diet that I had never dared to try - very HF, very LC, moderate protein and higher calories than any diet I had ever followed. I chose the maintenance level of calories for a "normal" person at my goal weight. That amounted to ~1750 cals/day compared to my previous diets, most in the 800-1200 calorie range; the highest at 1450. I lost all my excess weight and maintain it on that same "normal" level of calories, something my past history of dieting made me think was impossible. After a few days I found that eating more fat and calories made willpower completely unnecessary, I wasn't hungry and my food seemed decadent - chicken thighs with skin, salad with full-fat dressing, deviled eggs with lots of mayo, heavy whipped cream in coffee, butter, etc.

Basically I followed and still follow ketogenic Atkins Induction, but with no grains, legumes or dairy proteins and virtually no processed foods, 70-75% fat, 20-25% protein, 5% carbs. I have protein at every meal (20-25g), none or a few carbs from vegetables, then add fat. I also use coconut oil or heavy whipped cream or butter in my coffee and tea.

I started by just adding fat to what you are eating. This actually boosted my weight loss and metabolism; severe calorie restriction was slowing my metabolism to conserve energy. It was scary to start adding fat, but, after 35 years of diet failures I decided to commit to it for a month and see what happened. I was shocked to find I had hit upon the only way of eating that I could adopt for life and lose weight with no hunger, no cravings, and no constantly thinking about food.

You mention your intense attraction to cheesecake. I had that too and it was just as bad with LC cheesecake, whey protein shakes, greek yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, meaning that dairy proteins are the culprit, not just sugar. I could not get below 150 lbs until I eliminated all dairy except for ~2T butter and ~2T HWC per day, since they have only minute amounts of carbs and proteins - casein, whey and other "milk solids". My chronic sinus congestion also disappeared.

I've found that all the foods I had intense cravings for in the past contain something I am sensitive to. They are insulinogenic and dairy contains opioid peptides that many find addictive. When I avoid these things and eat yummy fatty ketogenic foods instead, the cravings completely disappear. It only takes ~3 days of "clean" eating.

Originally Posted by CMCM

Except for the 35 years of dieting (for me it's only about 15 at this point), I really could mostly have written what you wrote because it has all been my experience as well. I had a hard time giving up dairy, and I'm a cheesecake fiend like no one else I know, but I do believe now that dairy was slowing or stalling my losses. And I didn't really eat all that much of it! But I gave up even my Atkins cheesecake, I gave up cheese, and my only dairy is now maybe a couple of tablespoons of butter (used in cooking) each day, and 2 TB of whipped half and half in my daily cappuccino (my final indulgence…and when I did give this up for awhile, it didn't seem to make any difference). So I had to conclude that perhaps dairy played some sort of role in my inability to lose faster and to repeatedly get "stuck" at a weight level.

I'll add that I have definitely seen a correlation between good weight drops and carb levels that are 10 or under, and I seem to lose better when I'm under 1,000 calories a day…around 600 to 700. But in terms of calories, I don't keep them low every day, they vary from 600 to 1000 or sometimes 1100.

Uber….for fun get some keto stix from your pharmacy. They are interesting in that if you are really in ketosis and burning fat well, they will turn darker in most cases. I never used to use them because I couldn't get above a trace reading EVER, but this time around with my low carb levels, I've been consistently at the same dark level for the last 10 days or so. I thought I was a person who just couldn't get a reading and the ketostix were useless, but I'm rethinking that now as I eat lower carbs. Who knows how relevant this information is, but Dr. Atkins wrote that burning fat produces ketones which spill into the urine, hence the darker reading. Apparently the darkness of the reading is less relevant, but as I said, when I had higher carb levels (20 to 25g) I got trace readings or none, and now at sub 10g levels I get very dark readings consistently. I like it as a way to monitor how various things I eat may (or may not) affect the ketone levels. My scales are moving down, that's what counts in the end!