Well, I’m thinking part of it is because I’m so cooped up here because of Covid. Another thing I came to realize ( being cooped up is great for introspection), is that I’ll be 67 soon, I’ve been on restrictive diets since I was 13, and I just can’t do them anymore. I am experimenting with a liberal form of low carb and some form of fasting. Low carb is a given for me because of blood sugar issues. I attempted 5:2, but even counting calories for two days a week drove me insane! One thing for sure, I will never count another calorie in my life. Oh, and I’m only weighing in once a month. I’m tired of being obsessed with the scale. Thanks for listening to my rant.

How you guys doing? Please tell me I’m not alone feeling this way!

Stay safe.

I'm finding some success with fasting. It's easier for me to eat NOTHING than it is to try to obsessively count carbs or calories. I turned 68 this year and have dieted on and off for many years. I haven't tried a calorie-counting diet though since 1985.

It's mostly been low carb but I did count carbs. I lost 100 pounds on low carb but then stalled for 10 years - didn't regain, but didn't lose any more weight either and I still needed to lose a lot!

But implementing fasting earlier this year has been a big help and I've lost 50 more pounds since February. I do weigh every day and I need to. My weight is sneaky and if I stop weighing the scale always creeps upward. I can usually gain 20-30 pounds before I feel even the slightest difference in how my clothes fit and if I step on the scale and find I'm up 25 pounds it really gets me depressed. So for me weighing every day prevents that from happening.

I definitely had to make peace with the scale. Its not the enemy, its my friend and a tool , on my side and part of success.

I cant count calories. Too many varables.

While I understand how a diet can be felt as restrictive, I choose to not take this angle. Im making choices for better health.

But counting carbs is easy. Actually its as simple as eating one apple or a big salad. Only need to figure it out once.

I dont count herbs and spices. And only buy 2 carb /2T salad dressing. Then use what amount makes my meal yummy.


Meat is free. Sort of. And fats.....use a little or a lot. Less to lose, more to maintain

Even Dr Atkins talks about potatoes as ok. No food is forever off the plate.

Food should be fun and interesting and tastey. No restrictive. Maybe you are ready to make a few cganges to not feel your diet is restrictive. That wiuld have done me in long ago. You have great self will.

Thanks you two. What helpful posts!

Debbie, what form of fasting do you do? At one point I was feeling great doing 16:8, then came up with every legitimate excuse I could think of to go off it! I am finally changing my mindset and attitude. I can honestly say doing 16:8 was the healthiest I felt since retirement.

Ms. Arielle, I don’t mind counting carbs either. I find it incredibly easier than calories or Weight Watchers points ever were. I use The American Diabetes Association Pocket Guide to Diabetic Food Choices. They group together generic food groups, use total carbs which I use, and make counting so easy for me. I honestly don’t know if I could do this without their food lists. Like you, there are certain things I don’t count. I am also looking forward to the Atkins 100 book due out in December. Many days I am damn near keto, but on the days I want variety and to feel less restrictive, I do go higher. I want that book to read about Atkins take on a more liberal low carb diet, and I think very highly of Colette Heimowitz who wrote it, their Atkins nutritionist.

Thanks guys. I am finally getting my act together. I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, which doesn’t help, but it’s finally time.

Fyi.... With tge passing of dr Atkins he doesnt has direct input.

In his old DANDR books, his provides many recipes. Each edition has a different group of recipes.

My selection of vegetables has grown substancially due to Atkins.

I find it so much easier to do 5:2 without eating any calories at all. Just water, plain green or black tea, plain black coffee.

Over ten years I have "followed" a variety of low carb plans, but really since 1863 the concept of LC hasn’t changed...remove carbohydrate energy and replace it with protein and fat.

The New Atkins for a New You in 2010 is my favorite Atkins edition, using net carbs rather than total, but 15 of the 20 allowed must be from "foundation vegetables". The current edition, Eat Right, Not Less, is also good with its emphasis on real Whole Foods (not Atkins bars and shakes). Our library has all of the recent editions, and a version with 100 g is in all of them under options for long term maintenance. From Dr Westman's 20g total carbs to 100+ in Atkins for Life...they are all the same basic plans with a different emphasis and title.

Another example of evolution is I posted about Dr Jason Fung in July 2014, and have followed some form of fasting since, including writing that his office finds the 36-42 fast 3 times a week the "best" for older women who have a harder time losing weight. https://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=472377 I don’t believe that anymore but have found ways to personalize fasts so they meet nutrient needs each day. If you do not want to track carbs anymore, measurement of blood glucose is definitely Not the way to go for you. https://optimisingnutrition.com/how...jr7PaLLrQv40UFQ But Dr Westman's advice to "Eat when you are hungry; stop when you are full". and Not to "power through your hunger" so you get enough nutrients Each day also works. Many members of our support group eat only once a day...is that fasting or following his clinical research?

I could be accused of changing plans or trying hacks over the ten years, but I still view all the low carb and fasting plans on a continuum. Dr Ted Naiman's P:E diet is listed under "semi-LC" and he has criticisms of the LC advice to keep carbs as low as possible and BG flat as possible. However, I have no problem following Dr Westman's clinic plan, NANY, Dr Naiman and Marty Kendall all at the same time. They only problem is the "Stats" plan line in the upper right doesn’t have enough space for all

Just an aside ..

The link between carbohydrate-rich diets and obesity/illness was known decades before Banting's Letter on Corpulence. In 1825, Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin published his book, Physiologie du Gout (Physiology of Taste). Several chapters are devoted to obesity, its causes and prevention.


from article Roots of the Atkins diet, BMJ, 2005

Thank you all for your insight. What great posts! I do think I’m being too hard on myself. Like Janet said, this is a continuum. The important thing for me is that I am keeping those carbs down, even if I do switch it up. Some days my carbs are almost keto, but on the days I want to hit 100 grams, so what. It’s very freeing and gives me great variety. Also, I do total carbs, not net, so I’m really getting even less carbs. I’m looking forward to the Atkins 100 book, because that book will have an emphasis on more moderate low carb, and even though 100 grams is part of the newer Atkins books, I don’t believe Atkins has ever come out with a book just devoted to that. I guess it’s time.

Right now I am reading the new book Life In The Fasting Lane cowritten by Jason Fung. It is so excellent and will be vey helpful on my fasting journey.

As an aside, I just got on the scale and am down another pound. So maybe I should just shut up and keep doing what I’m doing! Ha ha! Low carbing was the best health decision I ever made. This is such a great group, and I appreciate you all.

Atkins for Life was written by Dr Atkins. It has a few carb levels, topping out at 100. It was published Jan 2004 a few months after his death but the book has his own long-term maintenance plans and advice. I see it and the companion cookbook in thrift stores all the time, must have been popular as his "last book"
Sounds like you are doing fine so "Keep calm and Carry on".

Fasting has an even longer history for health...thousands of years around the world. Under my signature is one of Hippocrates quotes about using fasting to improve health. Fasting should be particularly useful to keep blood sugar in check.

Well I'm an older woman who finds losing weight nearly impossible. I'd been stalled for 10 years trying every new tweak that came along and never lost anything (after my initial 100-pound loss). I tried doing 16:8, 18:6, and 20:4 fasting as well and still didn't lose any weight.

But after reading "Life in the Fasting Lane" earlier this year, which stresses the 36-42 hour fast 3 times a week for older slow losers I finally decided to give it a try. I'd resisted for five years because I hated the idea so much.

But since I implemented the 36-42 hour fasts, 2-3 times a week (now it's always 3) I've begun losing again. Still ultra slow - like currently it seems to be about a half pound every 10-12 days or so. But I've lost 50 more pounds this year since I added the fasting! After a 10-year stall that's pretty amazing. I'm currently at a weight I don't think I've seen on the scale since about 1983.

Wow, what a fantastic testimony for using the 36-42 fast! More than 50 pounds in a year is amazing for us women of a certain age, and after 10 years of trying everything.
Do you do anything special to help you sleep the second night?

Just a reminder folks that while it's fine to mention having success with extended fasts (>24 hrs) .. well done, by the way .. we ask that detailed discussion, tips & tricks for coping with hunger etc be restricted to the journals.

Thanks for understanding, and let's stick to the original topic of plan-hopping


Doreen

From what I've read from quite a few members here, it's less about not being able to settle on a plan and hopping between them out of frustration early on...but more about having settled on the idea of doing low-carb, doing research and finding the plan that best suited them and then following that plan for a while, giving it (reasonably) strict adherence, but then after doing more research on other authors/doctors/specialists who are constantly contributing to the field of low-carb knowledge, they find certain newer avenues that allow them to hone their plans a little more. They're not being antsy or failing to follow a single plan for a decent period of time...rather that as they progress along in their journey of the low-carb WOE, they've picked up more tools from a variety of complimentary sources that enable them to narrow their focus in on the one area in which they think that they could improve.

Hopping around from one plan to another without really committing to anything for long enough to know that you've truly given it a decent try, will only prolong any frustration or boredom you have as your weight loss will probably stall as you keep sending your body mixed messages with the food choices you are currently making. Learning new information and incorporating that into your already established plan, is how you get to a point of having personalised your own WOE to not only make it work for you, but work in the long run.

I'm 75, first used Atkins in 1972, and have used LC eating to control my weight since then. Sometimes I've had success, but not always. Yo-Yo was my middle name until I got older and realized the health benefits of LC I'd always taken for granted. I agree with Janet that LC dieting regimes are basically variations on the same theme, and yes, I've jumped from one variety to the other.

There's a part of me that resists being told what to do so I set my own rules about when and what I eat. I've also had success with fasting, but don't do it often anymore except the natural overnight fast. If I stop eating at 3pm, that gives my body a few hours relief from insulin release.

I eat very-high-fat LC to stay in therapeutic ketosis because:

LC eating means anti-inflammation. Chronic inflammation causes a variety of diseases. Women especially begin to feel inflammation in the joints as we age. When I eat too many carbs, my arthritic fingers tell me immediately.

I've been maintaining for a couple of years now, but it's never going to be easy. This is all so that I can enjoy a pain-free life for the next 30 some-odd years.