Conclusion of this study [0]: "Consistent with the carbohydrate-insulin model, lowering dietary carbohydrate increased energy expenditure during weight loss maintenance. "

Some numbers: "[...] linear trend of 52 kcal/d [...] for every 10% decrease in the contribution of carbohydrate to total energy intake"

----------------------- Now on a personal note, as someone who always lived with nutrition plan (and macro tracking for the last years) since 17, I think it's highly unlikely that you take < 25g carbs/day (During bulking phase I dont manage to get under 300g per day).

[0]: https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4583

I’m down nearly 30lbs in 3 months through intermittent fasting.

Here’s my M-F routine :

7am: weigh myself, text results to my father

Breakfast: Nothing, but I drink a flat white just because I want to.

Midday: large bowl of plain unsweetened Greek yoghurt (no additions, which is key - the addition of fruit or other things is what sets off my sugar-loving monkey brain to go seek more). This is low carb yet filling and satiating. I tried out every single one available in my area until I found the one I could settle with. Sometimes I eat a low carb chocolate, ive found a bunch in my local area which I like.

Afternoon: sometimes go for coffee again and add a snack to that

Dinner: whatever I want, which is nice, but generally it doesn’t involve anything deep-fried and is mostly home made. Sometimes it’s a rice dish, sometimes pasta, sometimes meat with veg.

After this meal I’m free to eat whatever I want. If I want to eat dessert, I can, but just need to remember ... I’m texting my weight to my dad tomorrow.

Weekends I can eat anything at any time but also need to remember that Monday is coming and I will be weighing myself. So, I indulge a bit but not TOO much.

There’s no real exercise component here, just the occasional run every week or two.

I’ve also learned not to self-shame. If you fall off the horse, don’t whip yourself into a lather. Just say ‘ok, it happened, tomorrow is another day. Let’s keep going.’

At first, I really struggled at around 3-4pm and was constantly snacking bad things. The thing that’s has helped has been to focus on redirecting my behaviour instead of stopping it. Which is why I now know every single place within a 5 mile radius that sells low carb snacks, the price of each one, and which is my favourite. I also started drinking kombucha for when I have that urge to drink something. One small snack (always less than 10g carbs) is generally enough.

The BEST thing about this above routine is how little mental energy it takes. I don’t track carbs besides paying attention to labels in the act of purchasing, I don’t have to think about lunch, don’t have to whip myself into exercising.

Each week has gradually become easier in terms of maintaining habits. I now know I’ll keep the no-breakfast plus plain yoghurt for lunch routine, but at some point I’ll need to stop losing weight .. so..

I am fascinated (honestly, not sarcastically) by the line "7am: weigh myself, text results to my father".

I've never seen that strategy, but... wow. I'd imagine the accountability that creates is pretty serious.

I had a good run with IF but have backslid. I had a routine similar to yours but maybe stricter (I was making weight for a weight-class sport so had to move quicker).

Another anecdotal experience: IF really makes you aware of how your appetite gets going after the first meal. I usually start eating around noon and its like flipping a switch, before hand you just feel kinda numb but afterwards your brain cannot stop thinking about eating.

How carb-heavy is your diet? That could be the transition from your body using fat/ketones for fuel to using glucose for energy.

And how sluggish you feel, too. Digesting really takes a lot of energy!

Depending on how heavy you were lifting, you should be able to get back to your old strength by dropping the weight significantly and working back up to it over a few months (maybe do something like Starting Strength).

Not very heavy, but I was and am still doing Phrak's GreySkull LP.

I have been working back up to it that way, but consistently plateauing at about 20% below my previous peaks.

I do plan on changing my diet once I'm at a place I'm happy with to be a bit more friendly towards weightlifting goals.

That looks like a good program. Another thing I personally started when I cut most carbs was taking creatine, IDK if it's placebo or not but I believe it helped me get those last few important reps

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. It isn't perfect, but it fits my goals and limitations due to injury fairly well. Due to other sports, my lower body has always been stronger than upper, and this program focuses a little bit more on upper vs other comparable programs like starting strength. Helps me play catchup

How do you get under 25g of carbs without counting calories? Almost anything edible has some carbs in it. Even with all being low carb 25g is very easy to attain unless you are very strictly tracking macros.

25g net carbs, which is a concept specific to the diet. You subtract the carbs that have no body impact, like undigestable fiber. So for example, 1 cup of broccoli has 6g carbs, and 3g fiber. Net carbs would be 3g.

> Even with all being low carb 25g is very easy to attain unless you are very strictly tracking macros.

It really isn't that hard. Not sure what to tell ya. I read the labels on things and keep a mental count every day. It's much easier when you're only eating one or two meals a day and not snacking.

Sometimes I'm over 25g, sometimes I'm under. Being perfectly 25g every day isn't required; there isn't anything specifically magical about the 25g line, since the actual goal is inducing mild ketosis in the body and everyone's body is different. 25g is my guideline, but I don't feel bad about it if I'm a bit over.

Eat meat, veggies (no carrots), eggs, and coconut oil. Simple.

Mind sharing the types of foods and meats you eat?

I don't have a ton of consistency here. Things that are most consistent for me right now:

- I'm a pretty big fan of riced cauliflower blends, which you can get in basically any frozen foods section. Great replacement for rice. A quick easy meal is ground beef + a half bag of riced cauliflower stir fry mix.

- Another quick meal - Trader Joe's green vegetable foursome plus chicken. Add tons of butter, salt and garlic.

- Another quick meal - 3 or 4 egg omelette with shredded cheese topping. Put it on top of a bed of greens, and add some guac or an avocado.

- I make shoyu eggs pretty regularly to snack on.

- I snack on nuts and beef jerky a lot.

- If I'm not feeling very hungry, I'll eat an Adkins meal bar instead of anything bigger. Adkins stuff cuz its convenient, available in a lot of places, and low carb.

- After a workout, I'll drink a muscle milk pro series shake (the premade type, specifically because its low net carbs). Currently looking for better options that aren't just straight whey mixes.

- Adkins also makes some nice low-carb candy type things that I also grab when the notion strikes.

Lastly and probably most importantly, I drink a ton of water and have an increased salt intake, because cutting carbs leads to retaining less water and dehydrating easier. You just feel thirsty a lot more often. Drinking more water just so happens to also help you feel more full

> Down 35lbs in ~2.5 months.

Good for you! Is this just from dieting? Or is there an exercise routine in here?

I lift weights 3x/wk as well as a few other activities, and have been since long before I started the diet. I just didn't care at all about what I was eating all that much.