My LCHF week in review: May 3 – May 9

Last updated on April 14th, 2017

Starting Weight = 220.6 lbs.

Ending Weight = 220.0 lbs.

It was neither the best of weeks nor the worst of weeks for me. I got 70% of my calories from fat, and kept my average daily net carbohydrates to 26 grams. My body weight dropped by six-tenths of a pound, putting me at an even 220 pounds.

Two months into my low-carb high-fat diet reboot, I have lost 12 pounds. I have also lost an inch or more around the middle (where I tend to store most of my body fat) and can now wear a few pairs of pants that were too snug a couple months ago. I feel fine.

That’s all to the good. But you may wonder if an average six pound weight loss per month is worth all the trouble. To that I would respond, what trouble? I don’t find it difficult or onerous to eat the LCHF way. I’m not struggling, not suffering.

I don’t starve myself on my LCHF diet. Not at all. If I get hungry, I eat something — a serving of macadamias or almonds, a hard-boiled egg, a slice of cheese. Or I drink a cup of coffee with heavy cream. Most days, I need few such snacks between my LCHF meals, and some days none at all. But if I need to eat, I eat.

It’s just that simple.

Keeping my average daily calories under 1,800 would be a struggle on a conventional low-fat, high-carb diet. I know it would be because I’ve tried it a few times in my life, and I’ve suffered. So invariably, I gave up, ate more calories, a lot more calories with most of them coming from carbs, and I put the extra pounds that I carried around for years until I discovered the LCHF approach.

Starving on a low carb diet — or on any diet — is ultimately counter-productive. It means a person won’t be able to stay on the diet for very long. The diet will never become a sustainable way of eating, a part of a healthy lifestyle. Any weight lost will quickly return, usually with even more pounds on top of it.

There are some who make fasting part of their LCHF lifestyle, but fasting is not the same as starving. Fasting is voluntarily giving up food for a limited period. There is no pretense that fasting is a normal way of eating. I haven’t yet tried fasting. I may at some point, or I may not. As I said, it’s voluntary.

But I have no intention of starving, struggling, or suffering, and I’m not.

Besides, six pounds in a month is 72 pounds in a year. That would be an impressive annual total weight loss for anyone, but I don’t need to lose 72 pounds. My goal is to lose another 30 pounds, and then to keep my weight under 200 pounds. All without starving.