I’m in my 11th week of LC eating, it’s been a bit of a wild ride. I ended up doing this WOE because I’ve steadily gained 30kgs of excess weight since my early 20’s, and constantly gained and lost that amount trying to eat HCLF, CICO, exercising like a demon, doing 12 week body challenges etc etc. Seems I’ve really done a number on my metabolic rate, as a recent dexa scan said my MBR was a tiny 1300kcals per day. I’m 176 cm tall so that knocked me a bit flat! Anyhoo I found myself in a place where I had had ENOUGH of the weight loss/deprivation merry go round and decided to consult a dietician. For 7 days I tracked everything I ate and turns out I was eating a very high carb diet (70%!!!) and she suspected I was insulin resistant (I have not had bloods done to confirm this either way) so she put me on a strict plan as follows:
- Breakfast: 1/3 cup oats cooked in water with 1/4 mixed berries, 50g full fat greek yoghurt and 10 walnuts/pecans or almonds.
- Lunch & dinner: half my plate = non starchy veg, remaining half divided into 2/3 lean protein and 1/3 ‘good’ fat.
- Snacks: 150cals of protein/fat/carb i.e. 2 vitaweat with a slice of cheese and some cucumber.
- Allowable- 1 glass of red wine and 2 sq high quality 80%+ dark cacao choc per day.
It worked out to around 30 - 50 g carbs per day, and I lost a fair bit of weight quite quickly, then stalled for weeks. Felt fabulous though, brimming with energy and glowing, clothes fitting heaps better etc. I was hooked and became really interested in the science of LCHF eating and keto, and found the 2 Keto Dudes and have been active on the forums since then. Have learned so much here! But as is my tendency, I get a bit excited about ‘all the things’ and 5 weeks ago decided I was going to IF daily (16:8), go full keto, aim to long term fast, embrace a lot of animal fat and cream, make bone broth every weekend and start bullet proof coffees (even though I’m not a coffee drinker). Like I said- all the things! 
Can you guess how this worked out? Big fat fail (pun intended). Oh boy. I made things so stressful and complicated, my body rebelled at all the animal fat and cream and I’ve done nothing but gain and lose the same kilo, the keto flu hit me like a tonne of bricks for a fortnight too. So then I felt like a Keto failure and a fraud on top of everything else.
But I learned a lot. I learned to listen to my body when it’s hungry and feed it, not try and stick to forced meal times. I learned I don’t tolerate large amounts of saturated animal fat in the form of flesh or cream very well but coconut oil, olives, avocado, eggs, salmon, full fat yoghurt and cheese are my best buddies. I realised I need veggies with every meal or I feel like my digestive system is a big lump of lead.
Over the last week I took these learnings and applied them, and am still steadily hitting 20g carbs a day and feeling a whole heap better. What works for everyone else may not work for me (or you!) and sometimes you’ve just got to dig in and figure it out by trial and error. I’m persisting with my goal of fat adaptation and weight loss, but trying not to be so obsessive about doing everything at once.
I’ve gone from 97kgs and 41% body fat to 89kgs and 36% body fat in those 11 weeks, and now my eating looks like this:
- 9 am: bulletproof coffee with cinnamon/cayenne and coconut oil
- Breakfast (around 11am): 2 egg omelette with 1 cup spinach cooked in butter OR full fat greek yoghurt with small amount of mixed berries and a handful of nuts
- Lunch (around 2pm): leftovers from previous nights meal
- Dinner (around 7pm): very low carb high fat moderate protein meal with lots of non starchy veg i.e. low carb pizza, chicken curry, tofu satay, asian meatballs and veg, fathead nachos etc.
I still enjoy a cheeky glass of red wine occasionally, along with a few squares of high quality cacao chocolate. We’ve got to live yeah?! 
Hope my story helps anyone lurking in the newbie section who might have (or still be) going through a similar induction period.
KCKO!
).
