16 days ago I started a light, daily workout (see below) and eating healthy food. I started following a pretty strict LCHF diet since I already eat partially that way. I never enyoyed light products and always have chicken, fish or meat in lunch/dinner. I simply excluded sugary junk and carbohydrate food like bread, pasta, potatoes, rice etc. I stopped eating fruit. I eat more meat, vegetables, fatty sauces, egg etc. A typical breakfast is one scrambled egg and 60 grams (0,13 pounds) of bacon and some vegetable.

I am not a sucker for candy or salty stuff like chips so excluding this is not really an issue. What I thought would be hard is skipping the ice cream - my health weakness. I have found that the "sugar craving" is beeing limited after only 4-5 days on the LCHF diet, and as of today the "sugar craving" is limited. Another weakness is beer (liquid bread). I really enyoy 4-8 cold 33 cl (11,1 oz) Carlsberg lager a typical weekend, and also when visiting the pub or having dinner out. I have promised myself to not drink beer for 29 weeks, until june 30 2013. I will have "limited" red wine, sparkling wine and spirits (the later is easy since I seldom drink it).

So, to sum it up I would say I eat tastier food than before, I am never hungry, I have a couple of glasses of wine on the weekend but no beer, no ice cream, no fruit and no pasta/potatoes/rice etc. Yesterday we made "cheese chips" with a tasty, fatty cheese. It was OK but not beeing a sucker for chips in the first place it will not be a regular thing. Nice to have a snack for the red wine by the TV though.

Results

• Most fascinating might be the lack of sugar craving - it´s amazing!
• I have lost 4,2 kg (9,2 pounds) in 16 days. I have never droped weight that fast, that easy. What I have read, there is a fast initial weight drop and then more like two pounds per week in the long run.
• With this diet, I am satisfied (not hungry) with less food as far as mass go. I never feel "full", or bulging stomach the way I do after eating pasta, potaotes and so on.

Workout
Jogging 20-30 min every second day and fast pace walk 30-40 min other days. I alternate pushups, situps, back/shoulders etc (10-15 min/day). I hate gyms so I like to keep it easy. In time I will challenge myself more, running 6-10 km 2-3 times a week. Since I have no need for a ripped, muscular body I will not increase the muscular workout.

The goal
Pretty much to get to where I were when I was 19-20 years old and made the enrollment test for the armed forces (excellent score, offered to join elite force). I was 187 cm (6 feet, two inches), weighed 88 kg (194 pounds), had a 33-34 waist and ran 8-9 km (5-6 miles) two, three times a week. I could run one kilometer in 3:20 min and 10 km (6,2 miles) in 44 minutes. I was a linebacker in the highschool football team.

The actual goal is reaching 87 kg (192 pounds), which would put me at BMI 24,9 ("normal"). Since I weighed 116,2 kg (256 pounds) 16 days ago, that mean loosing 29 kg (64 pounds). I have made a 29 week plan to do this, 30th of june that is. I have lost 4,2 kg of the 29 (14,5%) in the first 16 days (7,9% of 29 weeks) which feels amazing. I have started easy 20-30 min (3½ kilometers or 2,2 miles) jogging every other day and already starting to feel a difference. At first I jogged 300-400 meters and then walked for 30 seconds. Now I can "run" (slowly) 80-90% of the time. I will keep this at a very slow, easy level for 4-10 weeks in order to get my body ready, and loose some more weight before I start a more challenging workout. In the long term my goal is to run 6-10 km (3,75-6,25 miles) 2-3 times a week.

At start I had 116 cm (45 2/3 inch) around the belly (at the height of the navel), today 113,5 cm (44-45 inches). Seems to correlate, centimeters in width and kilo in weight.

This sounds great, and there are lots of studies that back up the hypothesis that a low-carb diet is the most effective way to lose weight quickly. But you still have to think ahead to 30 weeks from now and decide how you're going to maintain that weight loss. Are you going to give up beer, pasta, and ice cream forever? I think that's the hardest part of any diet, because you want your weight loss to be sustainable, which means you need to have a balanced diet that doesn't omit any major food groups, and that's safe to live on for the rest of your life.

The loss of taste for sugar isn't surprising: I get that too whenever I cut down on sweets. I was in a relationship for a few years with a low-fat cookbook author, and after a few months I had no desire to eat ice cream, brownies, or any other fatty, sweet treats. They actually tasted disgusting to me when I tried to eat them.

Hi Brad, thanks for responding!

My plan after the 29 weeks (if I reach my goal) is to keep low carbon diet (I feel excellent now), but will have a beer every now and then. Ice cream - I don´t know. I really love it, but now it feels like I managed to get off a drug. I will not risk starting with the drug again if I feel I can´t handle it. Chips, sodas and so on is out for good - and no big loss.

I will visit my doctor in 2-3 months and test my blood values. I want to be positive the LCHF diet do not alter these values.

It will be hard running 6-10 km 2-3 times a week and gain massive weight if I don´t knock my socks off with sugar and carbs?

Sounds good, and I meant to say a big congratulations for your progress so far!

Wait a minute...linebacker?...football? In Sweden?

Yep, tradition in the municipal I lived. Two highschools in one municipal met in an honorable (...) match every year. Attending english elementary school I played rugby aswell. Pretty neat when you are 180-185 cm/80-85 kg at age 15-16!

Never was a fan of soccer, even though I smile when I see Ibrahimovic play.

Managed christmas celebration (24:th rather than 25:th in Sweden) pretty well. Had ham, meat balls, sausage, beetroot salad, eggs, caviar and herring. Dark choklad (70% cocoa), cheese and red wine for dessert. I compromised my diet by drinking a special drink that we make for christmas. Porter, christmas beer, gin and a special christmas soda mixed together. Both sugar and carbohydrates (6-7% alcohol). Had two glasses; half a liter or so. Also had 6-7 cl of schnapps (one of 2-3 times per year I drink the stuff). I am overall pleased.

Strict diet today with sausage, egg and sweetpeas for brakfast. Massive snowfall outside but will go for a 5-6 km (3-4 mile) walk.

No fruit? Not going to work for me.......Keep losing!

Fruit is sugar, and part of sugar addiction. I was really surprised how fast I could get rid of it when not eating sugar and very low on carbonhydrates. Try it for just 2-3 days (more than enough to get the effect) and see what happens!

Yup, will keep loosing. As of the next 26 weeks I am a looser (...)

As I understand it, eating carbs requires lots of water to digest/process. So when you stop eating carbs and sugar you drop water weight immediately. But doesn't that stop happening after just a week or so?

In the long run you need to consume fewer calories than you expend or you will gain mass.

The initial weight loss (first couple of weeks) is indeed mostly water when you switch to a low-carb diet. And in fact the initial weight loss in most diets comes from water because when you reduce calories you're also of course reducing carbs.

However, there seems to be a subset of the population that is highly sensitive to carbohydrates and processes them differently than the rest of us. In particular people who are diabetic, prediabetic, or in general prone to diabetes tend to gain weight much more quickly when they consume carbs than other people do. Some people can continue to lose weight successfully for months on a low-carb diet and then keep it off it they stick to that kind of diet; if they reintroduce carbs they regain weight very quickly.

There's a raging debate about all this, of course. To see arguments by a person who believes that carbs count more than calories in terms of weight gain and weight loss, look up Peter Attia's "eating academy" site. To see arguments by a person who rejects that hypothesis, see http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.ca/20 ... lorie.html.

Good for you! Also moneywise, drinking beers every weekend can add up

But try setting some in between goals for yourself. It'll help you keep it up. For example set a goal to run 1 mile, or 3 miles. Lose 5 pounds or 10. Good luck!

Update! I managed to get by christmas and newyears. I would say I was 90% on track with diet and had 1/3 as much alcohol as I would usually have consumed this time of year. Now back home. Have missed out on running (3-4 days ago), will go for a run tomorrow (looking forward to it). My jeans are getting bigger (...). Had to wash them 60 degrees the other day. Still a bit big though! Made two new holes in a leather belt. Need to get a new one.

As far as water weight goes - I have no clew. What I have noticed is a distinction between "need" for "something" (snack) and thirst. Before I would get a Coke (zero, but anyway) because I was craving for "something" long before I developed some sort of thirst. Now I find myself genuinely thirsty multiple times a day, and the natural reaction (what I want) is water.

Yes, the no beer rule will cap costs even though I do drink wine. My favourite beer is $4,50 a bottle in the store (St Peters Cream stout), a Carlsberg is more like $1,90. Half a bottle of wine ($15) in the weekend is more frugal. Dinner with friends at the pub used to be 3-4 beers ($5,25 a piece). Now 1-2 glasses of wine ($6 a glass). I expect results in the savings account! Or not. Bought filet of beef for $36 today. A third of that is tomorrows dinner (with vegetables, béarnaise and a zip of the red). The day after - crayfish. I love cooking theese days!

29 kilos (64 pounds) - 29 weeks. So i expect one kilo (2,2 pounds) per week. I keep a weekly "health diary".