No, I don't buy into the cholesterol hypothesis, I've been firmly on board with the Gary Taubes/Atkins/whoever else pro-fat side. But eating fat in and of itself does not cause weight loss, weight loss is connected to insulin regulation. Dietary fat doesn't have any effect on that. So if you can eat fat and still lose, more power to you.

It's obvious I had plenty of fat on my body to use as energy and there was no point in adding any more. I'm still low-carb and not ingesting bad fats like high-carb people who use lots of PUFAs.

My protein levels aren't that high. I'm low calorie in addition to low fat and low carb. Amazing how well it works.

I also am getting more interested in calorie restriction so I'm not really interested in "eating as much fat as I can." I find the research on calorie restriction and longevity quite compelling, so I'm going that route and want to make it permanent.

Yeah, I see no problem with calorie restriction when there's weight that still needs to be lost. I know that for many, getting into nutritional ketosis along with low-calorie can help with the release of ketones and retain muscle at the same time. I'm just pointing out that it can be harder for some than others to get into this state. I might be able to eat 70% of calories as fat, but Jimmy Moore and others might have to amp up the fat intake so that they can get to that level. I think Jimmy Moore is probably doing low-calorie as he can spontaneously fast for 24 hours without the intense hunger pains and shakes.

I cook my eggs in a tablespoon of coconut oil (73% fat for this meal) at 7am and I don't eat until 1 o'clock. I think my diet is still high fat but low enough in calories to create a deficit. I'm not "eating as much fat as I can" for no reason. I'm eating plenty of fat as a way to help my body run on ketones and retain muscle mass. I'm working toward a goal of something I can do for the long term at this point.

I'm not trying to say, "your woe is wrong" because that would be wrong of me, as there are many different flavors of low-carb. Who am I to say what's right and what's wrong? That would be completely ignorant of me. It's just that when I along with many others did low-fat, it was a disaster. Cravings were through the roof, I was constantly having to snack, I was moody, no energy, etc. But then there are people on this forum who thrive on plans like SBD and Stillman. If it's working for the longterm, then keep it up. It can be hard to find a woe that works.

I have recently started induction again.. I fell off the wagon a bit. It's my second week, and I find the more fat the better for me. My first week, I lost only 3 lbs, and felt a little stalled just because the first time I did Atkins, i lost 9 lbs on my first week of Induction.. This time around I'm not eating as much fat. I need to up that for my second week. It seems like as soon as I eat a nice fatty meal, I'm in Ketosis very fast. I can taste it in my breath. (It's gross) but at least i know it's working.

try tuna with mayo
or ham with spinach and cheese as snacks to get that fat content up.
And Bacon is great too!

Oh yes, tucking into 6 slices of bacon a couple of eggs and some cottage cheese is a wonderful way of eating. It feels quite indulgent and like it should be bad. But it's all gravy baby (only without any of the cornflower to thicken it up of course!) lol

Ideal % IMO is 80/20 -- think bacon & eggs or the cheaper ground beef. Lately I have been enjoying pork jowl bacon & eggs, even better fat to protein ratio.

I think you have a nerve. Your first post here stated that you lost 30lb on low-carb, then went off the diet and regained it all over the course of a year.

Jimmy lost an enormous amount of weight on low-carb, and has stuck with low-carbing through almost a decade. Like many of us, he is more motivated with regard to health than weightloss, but in spite of that, he has kept off about 100lbs for about a decade. His health markers are seemingly great. He is extremely knowledgeable about low-carbing and the health issues around it, and his various podcasts, etc. which are very informative and interesting are totally free of charge, and the small amount of advertising revenue he makes will help towards the cost of hosting, etc. Incidentally, the occasional short adverts which are featured on his sites are not from multi-nationals, but from small businesses who are trying to create products suitable for people on a low-carb diet or those who are interested in health. Advertising is not his only source of income - his most recent book attracted high praise on Amazon, with several of the chief gurus/ movers and shakers of the low-carb world posting 5* reviews of it. He also gets donations from his many listeners - and most of the real experts he features on his show seem to consider his blog to be a first-stop news desk for the latest developments and buzz in the low-carb world.

He has not been "on another plan" every other week, incidentally. Like many of us, he "tweaks" his diet, in accordance with changes in his physiology, age, information received, etc. It would be abnormal if he had not done so, in the course of a decade, particularly when he was regaining some of the weight. There are a lot people on this website who have experienced some regain in weight after losing a huge amount, in spite of all their efforts to the contrary. Very little is known about the science of weightloss, so everyone here grasps at straws to some extent while trying to find a solution which works for us.

Lots of people on this website and others use low-carb products and many can lose weight while using them. There is nothing wrong with trying out new things to try to make the diet more enjoyable and sustainable. Loads of people give it up out of boredom with a few months.

Yep, I don't see this as a static process at all. It's ever-changing, ever-evolving. There is a lot of stuff we know, and yet WAY MORE that we don't know. My low-carb diet at the age of 24 looks so much different than the low-carb diet I first was on between the age of 13 to 17. My dad got DANDR and the original Protein Power, and I soaked everything up like a little sponge about insulin and disease. I didn't have weight to lose, but I didn't want to put weight on because of the crap they were feeding us at school.

Short+fat, whatever your thoughts are on the products Jimmy Moore sells, he's done a lot of excellent interviews with the top low-carb experts. I do understand your frustration of commercials, but that's the tradeoff for "low-carb" being his full-time job. Also, I haven't been keeping up the past ten years on what he's been doing with his own woe. Whatever that way may be, it doesn't really concern me. All I'm concerned with is hearing from the latest science in the LC world and most well-respected experts. If I hear about glycosolve or safe starches or whatever, I just ignore it because my plan is "Real food, all the time" along with a magnesium supplement and some cod liver oil.

I still hope you listen to that talk with Tim Noakes, it was really interesting.

Moore had a great podcast a while back by a researcher in fasting, and that is one of the sources I used to jump start my knowledge on CRON and fasting in general.

To brinery, eating fat doesn't get people into ketosis, cutting carbs does. I agree with you that low-fat high-carb doesn't work, at least it wouldn't probably work with my body anymore, but I'm not doing low-fat high carb. I'm doing low-fat, low carb, which still puts me into ketosis.

Ketosis doesn't have anything to do with eating fat. People who eat nothing, as in fasting, are in ketosis.

Not entirely correct.

Cutting insulin allows ketosis to occur.

That means controlling carbs and protein sufficiently for your individual body to reduce insulin enough for ketosis to happen.

If you reduce carbs and protein, what's left?
Fat.

A low carb, low protein, low cal diet can still be high fat, and necessarily must if the first 2 conditions are met.

I love Jimmy's podcasts. They have given me so much confidence and knowledge about this way of eating. Jimmy also signposts the good blogs, and his various sites are a huge resource now. He is a fantastic host on the podcasts - he always gets people chatting along interesting and topical issues. I listened to Tim Noakes again - he's a good speaker.

This is very interesting to me because I have been wondering about ketosis. My sticks NEVER changed colors. Not at the beginning. And not now. I bought a new vial in a different brand to see if that would make a difference. But I still didn't show any evidence of ketosis. I tried measuring first thing in the AM. Last thing before bed. During the day before meals. During the day after meals. No change, ever.

I believe I am in ketosis, though, because I am an obsessive nerd who weighs, measures and records everything I ingest. So I know that I am sticking to induction rules and that I eat 65-75% of my calories as fat per day and I don't eat more than 20g of protein in a single meal -- I really weigh, measure and record my food intake to keep from fooling myself into believing that foods magically have the number of carbs that I *want* them to have, as opposed to the number of carbs that they actually have... Also, I am not diabetic, but I test my fasting blood glucose every morning and check my blood glucose 30 minutes after every meal. Upon rising and after every meal, my blood glucose reading is typically between 75-90.

I have not used any processed low carb foods, just what I cook myself or basic restaurant grilled meats with dressing-free salad. I stick to induction-level foods (lamb, beef, fish, eggs, olive oil, sesame oil, butter), less than 20g carbs per day, less than 4 oz cheese per day, 1 cup of veggies + 2 cups of salad veggies per day. I only allow myself heavy cream and nuts on Sundays, as a *relaxed* day.

I have lost weight steadily. I've spent 3+ months on the plan thus far. I weigh and measure my body once per month (on the 11th of the month) and I lost exactly 10 pounds the first month. Another 10 pounds the second month. Then 8.5 pounds last month. I've also lost a number of inches on my calves, thighs, hips, waist and upper arms. To me, this is evidence that I am burning some amount of fat.

I don't count calories but since I weigh, measure and log everything in an app on my phone, I know how many calories I eat per day. My calories vary between 1,200-1,600 per day. Except on my Sunday *relaxed* days, where calories sometimes get as high as 2,400-2,500. Last month I got worried that I was NOT in ketosis (despite my obsessive adherence). Because my rate of loss seemed so closely correlated to my caloric deficit (about 2 pounds per week), I was concerned that I wasn't getting the benefit of ketosis, just weight loss that reflects the lower calorie count. So I did three days of the Fat Fast (1,000 calories per day, divided into 5 daily meals, 90% fat) to see if I could *force* myself into ketosis. I still did not show any change on those stupid sticks.

I'm not exactly *worried* about this. I've read somewhere (on this forum, perhaps) that some bodies adjust to ketosis and use ketones in a way that simply doesn't excrete many of them in urine. But I have read the posts of some people who have been on Atkins for a LOT longer than I have yet they still produce purple sticks, whereas I have never produced purple sticks. So, although I'm not *worried*, this issue has been bugging the back of my brain.

I am neutral on the Jimmy Moore issue. Before starting Atkins in May, I'd never heard of him so I don't know much about his history or standing in the low carb world. But reading Jimmy Moore's "n=1" experiment with nutritional ketosis has kept me from becoming truly worried about this ketosis situation. His tests using the blood ketone meter versus the urine sticks showed very little correlation between the two methods. I'm not ready to invest in a blood ketone meter, but I'm also a LOT less concerned about the state of my ketone strips now that I've seen a real world experiment in which the ketone strips absolutely did not reflect the amount of ketones that were present in the blood.

I'm probably (almost certainly) foolish to let somebody else's testing reassure me more than all of my weighing, measuring and logging. But I really found that experiment to be helpful and reassuring, given my situation. I'd never even heard of a blood ketone meter before reading those blog entries. As a result, my ketone strips are still a background potential concern but I do believe I am in ketosis.

I'm 58/6ft and fat constitutes ~58% of my total cals for the last ~6months. I eat less than 20g total carbs per day. ~90g protein and only about a 1000kcals per day now. I avoid sugar, starch, grains and artificial sweetners. I restrict cheese, nuts and fruits to a few oz a wk.

~Trillex, the blood ketone strips are a MUCH more accurate way of getting your ketone readings.

When most people start out on low-carb and go into ketosis, their body wastes ketones in the urine. Over time, the body keto-adapts, using ketones much more efficiently. So one can be in ketosis but see no results on the urinalysis strips.

If you're limiting your carb intake to less than 20 or 30 grams a day and are thriving, my best guess would be that you're keto-adapted. But then again, the blood ketone strips will give you a true picture of what's going on inside.

Did you actually start in February and have lost over 100#? That is an amazing success story, but if you have been as low calorie as you say and low carbs, then yeah it can probably be done. I've hit my goal weight and am starting my final 10# drop for my "cushion" in case I have bounce-back with more veggies or whatever.

Yeah, point taken about how if you are cutting one or two macros, the other one(s) go up.

I would say that 1,000 calories is definitely my upper limit on any given day. I do 2 days a week of 300 calories without problems.

Congrats on your amazing success!

Yes I did lose about 30lb originally then gained it back when my other half was seriously injured in a fall and our combined income was reduced to just one - leaving me in some hideous financial predicaments trying to make all the ends meet whilst working, keeping on top of all our household responsibilities and caring for a housebound partner.

I came off of the low-carb w.o.e. intentionally, purely because I was having to try and spend as much of what little money we had coming in on giving my partner the best possible nutritional meals I could come up with. I myself had to try and get by on about £1.50/£2.00 a day, buying whatever was cheap, available and able to fill me up enough to get through the day. It's been a hard slog, but a lot of penny pinching here and there meant that I was able to clear down all the debts, get us financially back on track and keep his inevitable weightloss to a minimum by ensuring HE ate well, throughout his convalescence.

I didn't switch up my approach to low-carb because I got antsy with a stall and at no time did I think that the original Atkins plan was in any way at fault. It was an intentional dietary adjustment based on the decisions I had to make at that moment in time. Naturally I gained back the weight I originally lost because, well that's what the human body will do when presented with a high carb diet again after a period of low-carbing. In all honestly, I was probably only consuming 1500-1800 calories a day when I went back to non-low-carb, but all those calories came from sugars and processed carbohydrates (because they were the cheapest food source I could get my hands on and required little or no preparation - a total bonus when you barely have half an hour to yourself every day). I didn't gain a ton of weight because I thought I could 'do Atkins' by eating nothing but Dreamfields pasta, ice-cream, bars, brownies, dinner rolls and shakes all day long. My regained weight was the expected trade-off I was willing to make at a time when I had other, more pressing issues on my mind.

Now that my other half has started to improve, he requires less round-the-clock attention. I can devote a little more time and care to my own health and well-being. I can get more than three hours sleep a night and am no longer the walking zombie I was back when he first had his accident and needed help with everything from turning over to going to the bathroom.

Now that I have the money to invest in good quality food for me as well as him, and now that I can choose to return to the same Atkins plan I followed initially, the weight is coming off as expected. Yes I know it's still early days and I'm fully prepared for the stalls and the plateau and the times when I get so frustrated I could pull my hair out. But I can safely say that no matter how crappy things get down the line, I will never do something as daft as jump on the Kimkins bandwagon or try to exist on Eades shakes.

As for people wanting to try new low-carb products, well yes trying the odd thing here and there is fine. I have an Atkins bar every day as I've tried it to see if it has any negative effects, found that it doesn't and left it at that. But I know that in following the Atkins plan, I need to keep to what Dr Atkins wrote about in his books in order for this w.o.e. to truly work. You say that you haven't followed Jimmy for years, but I can remember numerous occasions when he would suddenly wax lyrical about this product or that product, start consuming it in wild abandon, then whine when he wasn't losing weight. If at any time anyone DARED to try and speak out to him about his overconsumption of processed low-carb products, he would fly off on one of his infamous rants, tell them not to try and tell him how to eat and shoot them down in flames 'besting them' with what he thought were his superior arguing techniques.

I read the occasions when he would publish incorrect information on his blog (way back when it was that weird taupe and white, hard to read, narrow column layout with left justification and a cartoon image at the top) and then rant at anyone who tried to politely let him know his error, by demanding that they stop trying to tell him how to run his blog. He was beyond rude and would come across as incredibly childish and petulant.

I know that his ongoing presence has made him one of the few low-carb stalwarts on the internet/blogosphere, and many will be glad and grateful to him for keeping up such a permanent presence in a predominantly low-fat/low-cal world. And I would agree with you if he wasn't just so monumentally annoying. Maybe he goes down better with an American audience, I don't know; but having originally discovered him way back in about 2004 (when I first started to learn about low-carb....way before I decided to actually lose any weight) and having gone from thinking ", ooh, here's someone with lots to say - I might actually learn from this guy" to "Wtf? Is this dude for real?" and then to "pfft, right, whatever - DONE!"...I've totally lost interest in what he has to say.

I will never be able to look to him as a shining model of how to live the low-carb lifestyle. Not when after losing that 180, he regained 50+ back and then decided to switch to Kimkins (which is just scary stupid). Yes his interviews can be interesting and informative and yes he does post some studies and articles of interest, but it's all wrapped up in a very weird, oddly disconcerting infomercial-esque theatre of the absurd, that perpetually veers off of the simple, clean low-carb w.o.e. whenever there seems to be another new way of venerating his habits or finding the next big 'answer.'

If you get some positive stuff from his site, great. But I think that this site is a million times more realistic, informative, unbiased, truthful, good-natured and honest. Not words many would associate with the trials and tribulations of Jimmy over the past 8 years.