This diet is great. I'm really happy with it. I've got barely any time to do aerobic and yet I can still lose weight, eat delicious food and always leave the table satisfied.

Well today is a bit of a mini milestone for me for several reasons. First of all, I've gotten down to 160. This is special for 2 reasons:

a) It's half my target weightloss
b) It's what it says on my drivers license

My question is this: I've been going for about 5 or 6 weeks (can't really remember when I started) and I've lost 16 pounds. I have another 15 to go until I can officially call myself THIN THIN. Will the speed of weight loss continue? If anything, my weightloss as just become quicker and quicker thus far!

Congratulations on all your accomplishments. Great job. You will probably find your weightloss will slow down as you get closer to your goal weight. Don't let this get you down as this is a new way of eating and not a diet. Think of how much healthier you are eating now. You may also experience some periods where you stop losing altogether. I feel this is the time-out where your body is getting use to the "new you".

Congratulations....
cin

Congratulations on a wonderful job! How exciting to match what your driver's license says.............that gave me a great chuckle this morning. I needed that. Jeez, I have a ways to go until I reach that point! Keep it up! While you will probably slow down some, you have a real chance of reaching that goal. Cindi

Well lets just hope that the losses stay similar all the way down to my goal.


Does anyone else find that they will suddenly lose quite a bit of weight one day and little the next?

The only efficient thing about my DMV is that it doesn't have a scale in the application line! My license says 160 too...and I don't think I've been anywhere near 160 since high school!

20lbs lost today.. about 10lbs to go (not sure what my exact target weight is.. it's around 8 to 12 pounds from now)

That's my mini-milestone in american terms

In a week or 2 I should be breaking 70kg, which will be my european mini-milestone

Congrats! You're doing great!




Are you still at induction levels for carbs? Or have you moved on to ongoing weight loss? Your profile says you haven't read any LC books? I'd highly recomend you read at least one!

Good luck and keep going!

What's the difference between induction and ongoing weight loss?

Do you have a fairly recent copy of the book? An induction level of carbs is 20 g per day, but after that first 14 days, you can add 5 g daily to that. If you're still losing after a week of that, you can add another 5 g daily the next week. A list is provided of the foods you should add, and in what order. You would add 5 g per week until you stop losing. At least in a perfect world, where there are no stalls.

You don't have to do that - many people choose to remain on induction for quite a while. But you have more options with OWL, plus it offers you a smooth transition into maintenance.

HTH...

And remember, if you get to your goal, you CANNOT just go back to how you used to eat. If you do, you will regain. This is true of any diet including low fat and low cal. And the rate of regain is unbelievably fast. It also feels as though every regained pound brings along another one.

This is why it is essential to read one of the books for the plan you are following. Losing fast is not necessarily a good thing because you tend to view this as a 'diet' instead of a new way of eating for the rest of your life. I add my voice to those which are encouraging you to read one of the books and follow what it says about tapering off as you reach goal, and learning how to eat from here on in.

You've done amazingly well so far.

I'm certainly going to eat full carb meals again, but not as frequently as I did before.

Also, winter is coming around and I do a huge amount of excercise in winter. Last winter I lost about 7 pounds just from working out, so I'm expecting to be able to eat more and maintain this winter.

As for my carb intake - I'm not as strict as everyone here. It's not that I have cheat meals, it's just that I don't count by carbs down to the last gram - I would find it impossible. I TRY in my mind to stay below 25g of carbs - some days I'll go below some days I'll go above a bit.

When I lose about 5 more pounds I'm going to see if my target is realistic, and then slowly begin to eat carbs again.


What I should mention is that if I went back to the way I was eating in the US I have no illusions that I'll put on weight. But the way I was eating in Europe caused me no problems - I always maintained at all my weights. It is in the states that I put on weight and fast. I think that if I go back to the way I ate 1 year ago when I was closer to my target weight I should be able to maintain.

Of course I'll have to find what works for me. If I begin to put on weight again I'll just lower my carb intake and vice versa.

I do have a question though:

I assume that when you begin to eat carbs again, you will increase your water retention, since when you lose weight you lose a lot of water. For that reason, is it worth losing weight BEYOND your goal, to counter the effect of the extra water retention?