If you want to be thin and stay thin (and avoid Metabolic Syndrome), then you have to eat high fat

a spoon of organic coconut oil in a cup of coffee is quite decadent

variation- add some raw cocoa, xylitol, and/or organic cream

a year and a half or something ago I posted how doc wanted me on meds for high blood pressure, which is a family something. Since then I've quit drinking beer and eat high fat/low carb most of the time (I sometimes cheat and eat crap but go on fat fast after that) and I work out a lot. Few weeks ago I took my blood pressure somewhere, and it was a staggering low 115/65! As I said; sometimes I eat loads of chocolate or crisps, or like this festival weekend I drink some beers and eat plain crap but I always switch back to the high fat/low carb + loads of sports because it makes me feel soooooooo good! Let alone the muscle tone... ;)

HI R,

Good to hear your update and the fact that you are doing so well. Blood pressure is one of the great things on this diet. I too have a family history of high blood pressure and yet my blood pressure first thing in the morning is 90/55 and rarely climbs above 110/65. My wife is exactly the same.

The other great plus with keeping relatively active is the pulse rate. I hit a new resting low of 52! I don't do cardio, that is my big no no. I think cardio is a disaster for the heart as shown by the relatively young average life expectancy of athletes. I would use the analogy with a car - say a car has a life expectancy of 100,000 miles, if you do 20,000 a year then it will die in 5 years, if you do 10,000 a year then it will last 10 years. Our heart is the same!

I like rowing and cycling, both good exercises for your muscles, but both low impact and don't overly raise your heart rate. I also enjoy weights for keeping those muscles active.

I just can't do without cardio. Running is not only a kind of meditation for me and a way to get to know some new music, but also do the (addictive) endorfines counteract my inborn depressive tendencies. And I totally don't care if it'll make me die some years earlier: it's not my goal to live a long life, it's my goal to live a healthy and joyful life. If it would be 10 years shorter because of my 3-times-a-week running, would I know...? ;)

I lift weights 3 times a week as well and my muscles...damn...just gotta keep this steadily going to get rid of the handles and "old man's" bellyfat; that stuff's stubborn!

Hello, this question is to anyone. I have tried to start this diet several times, but each time about 3pm my brain goes into neutral, and I cannot think very good. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong. Thank you.

This is what I will eat before I have to stop and eat some candy or chips. After I eat the candy or chips I am fine

Breakfast Bacon and eggs.
Lunch steak or chicken wings, cheese and pork rinds.
and than about 3pm I get all spacey.

Thank you for your input. I have always been a heavy carb eater. I eat mostly junk food with very little protein. I would like to change this so I will start feeling good again. Thank you

So if I understand correctly this happened every time you've tried going into this kind of diet, and made you quit? In that case I think the problem lies with getting your body used to it. It might take a few weeks even before the carb craving subsides to the point it doesn't bother you anymore, all depending on the eating style you had before that.

So it's highly probable it's a problem of your body switching from carb to fat metabolism. Maybe you could try the first week or two, how it feels, to spread out your intake over some smaller meals. Keep your breakfast good and sturdy, remember it's supposed to be the biggest meal of the day, take some less for lunch and the rest of that at 3 o'clock when that nasty feeling normally appears. Might just work, good luck! :)

and don't forget to avoid carbs at diner too! A bit in high fibre, low glycemic green veggies is ok though :) but no potatoes, pasta and stuff like that.

Thank you so much for your timely response. I will try your suggestions. For some reason on this diet my blood sugar wants to drop. The last time it was 66 until I brought it back up. I was really sweating, shakey felt like I was gonna pass out. Anyway I will give it a try. Maybe I am not adding enough fat to my diet. I don't know if that will keep my blood sugar from dropping or not. Anyway thanks once again.

Pleasure to help. Remember that your body has to adjust and that can give quite heavy responses, according to the sugar loads you've normally given it. Might well be that your blood sugar level dropping is a normal indicator of your body trying to switch to the different, new energy source i.e. fat. Let your body gently know what the now preferred energy source is, fat, by giving it 4-5 servings a day and guiding it through the introductory phase which can last up to a few weeks!

Do you have any health conditions that may cause this or are you on any medication that may cause this effect? Diabetics on medication could get hypoglycaemic (low blood sugars) if they don't reduce their medication when they cut the carbs out.

Other than that our bodies are really good at regulating blood sugars and will not allow hypoglycaemia even when starvation is happening. Imagine, how could someone survive for several weeks without food if their blood sugars dropped to dangerous levels. BTW 66 is not yet a dangerous level. I used to frequently go even below that after exercise.

The most likely problem if you are feel faint, especially if you rise suddenly is low blood pressure, I don't know if you have checked that. You may not be getting enough salt. High fat diets are diuretic and will reduce your body water since the extra water is required for carb digestion. I have to have loads of salt or my blood pressure drops significantly. My normal is about 90/60 and this seems to be a common reading across most people on this diet. The good news is that lower blood pressure correlates with lower risk of heart disease. At 120/80 you have an average chance of a heart attack. At 140/90 your risk about doubles. At 100/70 your risk halves!

If there is a pattern to when your blood sugars drop then have a higher protein meal, like a nice 8-10 oz steak 3-4 hours before your drop. Excess protein is converted quite effectively to glucose by the body. This is why too much protein can still cause weight gain.

Other than that as R says it takes some people 3-4 weeks to switch over to this way of eating and some people go through some drastic changes - even flu like symptoms as the body switches fuel source. Eating more protein in the early stages is a good way to minimise these effects. That's why often starting Atkins style and then slowly reducing the protein and increasing the fat can ease the process.

Hope that helps.

Wow You are a genius. This morning I cooked two slices of bacon and scrambled the one whole egg with three egg yolks in the bacon fat, I also added three tablespoons of butter. This stayed with me till noon, and than I wasn't hungry Most of the time with my one egg and one slice of bacon I am starving.

Lunch I had cooked two slices of bacon and crumbled it up in 1/4 cup of cream cheese. YUM YUM

3pm I ate me a handful of macadameia nuts.

6pm. Wasn't really hungry but I ate 1/2 cup whipped heavy cream with 1 teaspoon of coco powder added and 2 packets of stevia. I am very well satisfied, and I did not feel spaced out today. Did not get the shakes. Wonderful. Thank you so much.

I ate a really big breakfast and today went great. No problems whatsoever. I think I was not eating enough fat. To be honest with you I am really afraid of fat. Heard my whole life that fat will make you fatter faster. Today I bit the bullett and ate lots of fat. It was so good. Haven't had this kind of food ever. I feel I am now on my way. Thanks so much for your advice. Thanks for posting this wonderful way of eating.

A little personal update:

I have now been eating hf/lc for 1yr. & 5 mos.. When I started I was wearing 38 waist pants. I am now fitting comfortably in 32 waist. Weight is stable. Waist and belly fat gradually disappearing. Feeling awesome. Have had two different people ask me for diet info. in the past week.

This works. I never have cravings. When I feel hungry, it is because I am hungry. I always have energy. Typically go 7-8 hours between meals, frequently only eating two meals and a light snack. Talk about saving money on food! Many benefits. Thanks.

I have been doing this diet for twenty months. I feel like I am beginning to get too thin now. My weight is still dropping a couple pounds a month and the 110 pounds my scale is reading lately is making me a bit nervous as it reminds me of my lowest adult weight of 104lbs when I was super ill with mono decades ago.

Seems it should be easy to adjust the plan and stabilize my weight, but when I add carbs into my diet like wheat, sugar or corn, I feel so rotten that I just can't stand a normal diet anymore. Sugar hurts my joints, wheat hurts my gut, and corn immediately gives me severe indigestion.

My job is outdoors in the heat and quite physical. I am eating probably between 1800 and 2400 calories daily. I find potatoes do not make me feel bad at all and so I have added them back in. I probably eat a diet now something like this...150g fat, 70g protein, 35g-45g carbs. For the last few months I have been feeling much weaker and sometimes my legs feel like lead by afternoon.

My mother has been ill, and I have not had the time to be creative with cooking like I was initially. I eat lots of burgers, no bun, some potatoes and loads of creamed veggies, eggs, bacon, salads smothered in creamy fat dressings. If I don't have time to cook my own breakfast and add nu salt (for potassium) to my eggs, I do get some leg cramps. I think this is also why I have added chips or fries to my lunch hoping to boost potassium a bit.

Lastly, I sat out at a pool on my day off a few weeks ago and got a bad sunburn. I drank iced coffees all day and ate 3 good sized meals with a lot of protein but not many carbs or fat. Long story short, that night I attended an outdoor event with a heat warning still in effect and 84 degrees temperature at ten pm. Suddenly after one wine, I got weak as a kitten and the place started spinning. Husband kept me from falling but I did pass out and end up on the floor. The wine had been sickly sweet and I wondered if that one glass had screwed up my blood sugar or if it was just too much sun. After they put a fan on me and some ice on my neck, I quickly recovered and have been fine since.

Not looking for medical advice, but just wondering if any others on this diet find they do not tolerate going off the diet ratios very well. Also curious if the weakness might indicate a deficiency in my diet or something I can add that might boost my strength and stablize my weight. For the record, I had a complete physical in January and blood pressure, and blood work were all great, except for a bit too low resting heart rate which I read here is pretty common on this diet.

While in the sun you lose water whether working or at the pool. Eliminate caffeine. diuretic
Alcohol dries you out. Increase sodium to help retain water. Increase water intake.
Someone posted high fat diets cause water loss.
Bacon and other meats contain sodium nitrite. Causes joints to ache. I know my aches went away when I reduced how often I ate stuff with sodium nitrite.
People have posted their blood pressures have lowered. Mine lowered enough I stopped taking my hypertensive medication. No light-hotheadedness in 2-3 months. Blood pressure is stable.
Its been posted that on this diet we can get all the vits and minerals we need. I still take a multivitamin every night before going to bed. Along with 2-3 glasses of water in the evening I've eliminated my night time leg cramps. I've been dealing with leg cramps for the last 4 years and I finally can go to sleep and know I will not wake up in the middle of the night with cramps.
I feel the day you passed out was a combination of being out in the sun, perspiring, iced coffee(caffeine?)alcohol dried you out and the low blood pressure from this diet.
I feel you are burning too much protein(muscle mass).
I would go back to fat of 3x protein grams, carbs back to 20 grams or less, eliminate any caffeine, increase sodium and drink lots and lots of water. And the multi vit before going to bed.
I hope this helps. I'm retired with a part time job ,work 3 days in a row with 6 days off and walking 5 miles daily wile at work, in the blazing sun. So I've had to deal with some of the things you have. Lost 24 lbs since middle of January.

Well, for your information,
I GAINED 25 pounds on low carb eating.

I am now on an Orish type diet,
80-100 grams carbs, 15% fat,
50-70 grams protein,
good physical work out every day,
and I am loosing weight hand over fist.
So far, in 5 weeks, 15 pounds off.

Fuck low carb.

What happens when you reach your ideal weight? If you can lose weight on 2200-2500 cals a day, do you have to increase or does weight maintain itself naturally?

My weight seems to have stabilized. However, my flab continues to go away.

Cheap lunch: 1/2 pint of half and half and one bag of pork cracklin's. 800-900 calories, mostly from fat. Under $5.

The diet is predicated on your ideal weight/height ratio. You establish ideal weight, then eat 1 gram of protein per kilogram of ideal weight. This is the correct amount of protein to restore muscle tissue and maintain ideal body weight. The fat and carbs are also figured from the ideal body weight. The reason you lose weight is because you are eating for a lighter body, but you never feel hungry because the fat gives you sustained, slow-release energy.

It appears, in my own case, that I have reached my ideal body weight. I am 6'1. Ideal weight is 178lbs. +- 6%. I was 188lbs. when I started 18 months ago. I lost 14lbs. but have since stabilized around 180. Still eating same amount of food, but it is matched up with my ideal weight, so now experiencing neither weight gain nor loss.

WOW just stumbled across this thread a few days ago, day three of this eating plan today, not weighing myself till a week is gone.

I am a 5'9" male and currently 202 lbs, I want to get to 175 lbs.

Got some ketone test strips today, seems I am already in ketosis. been 20g carbs, 75g protien and making it up to 2000 calories with fat and maybe the odd whisky. Been easy so far....

fry 120g chicken meat and 200g sliced mushrooms in 25g butter till chicken cooked and mushrooms soft, sprinkle with 5g curry powder, cook a minute or two while stirring then stir in 50g double cream, this is an amazing dish and can be improvized in so many ways

very filling 400g of chicken and mushroom curry

Carbs 3.6g
Protein 31.5g
Fat 48g
Calories 570

Last Edited by The Swordsman on 06/13/2012 02:35 PM

Nice recipe, TS.

And congrats on finding this thread. It has slowed down a lot compared to when it first started, but a lot of us are still checking in from time to time. Best of luck to you. Not that hard of a diet to follow, and I am sure you will be impressed by the benefits.

Is that you S'gan? You are an effin' head case. OK?

Its a megathread, only read about a quarter of it so far, but got sidetracked looking at info in links etc.

I won't know how i'm doing till monday because im going to be strict about weighing once a week - but I think its going well.

I made a spreadsheet to do all the calculations - seems to work ok, hoping to get a collection of a selection of 'days' that I like, then use them in rotation so i dont have to keep figuring the numbers out.

oh and those ketostix things that I keep peeing on are going lovely and purple too, so I must be doing something right.

Currently being monitored for high (ish) blood pressure, next check up is a week on wednesday, hope this has made a positive improvement because i realy dont want to be medicated for it.

first week, down 7.6lbs, BP down from 160/110 to 145/100, BMI down by 2 points and body fat down by 2%.

A week ago I was obese, now im merely overweight LOL

loving it.....

Congratulations :)

I'm back on this diet too. Just after one day, I feel my pants are a tiny bit looser. Love it!

I'm starting to think to return to a vegetarian diet again, because of spiritual reasons. Probably won't (yet) skip on fish, and might just eat some chicken sometimes...

Are there any guidelines/ideas to do a low carb diet without meat and not falling into the trap of potatoes, grains, meat, dairy, fruit... I'm mainly thinking of eggs, cheese, nuts, vegetables... Main problem in my mind is diner; can imagine eating some kind of salad with fatty cheese, fish, oil/mayonaise on top or veggies with sauce/oil...

Struggling to form an idea in my head how to make a diverse diet that's still low carb/high fat ánd gives me enough calories to stay healthy and avoid hibernation mode... Ideas?

spiritual reasons?

Most people that are Fat and that have sugar related illness drink POP. DON"T DRINK FUCKING POP.DON"T DRINK FUCKING POP. The shit will kill you. Its killing everybody. Quit drinking the stuff and loss weight instantly. Start WALKING. WALKING WALKING. People are fucking LAZY fat slobs who don't even care about themselves. Why should we care about you either. Fat Lazy Slobs.