[samuelbrin]

I don't doubt for many that reduction in carbs amounts to reduction in calories. For others though, eating a lot, and not worrying about consequences, is a coping mechanism for how shitty the diet is. I'm super biased from my own past experience, but I was having 3000+ calorie days with minimal exercise and losing weight on keto. Open to the idea that I'm somehow wrong though :-)

[ghshephard]

They've tried all sorts of diets in metabolic chambers - and it's really quite amazing how closely the observed results track the predicted results. Determine a person's BMR, and then feed them a variety of diets higher, or lower, than that BMR, and watch their body mass (exc. water) increase, or decrease as expected.

Possibly the case that when you were eating carbs, you were putting away 3500 calories a day, and that dropped to 3000 calories a day when it was just meat? I know that just a casual stroll through the mall on a refeed day for me, I have zero difficulty putting away 6000+ calories - refined carbs are shockingly calorically dense.

Also - for some time on a Keto Diet, you are going to be dropping a ton of water - so the scale will be dropping like a rock, regardless of what your actual body weight is doing. Getting a DexaScan, or whatever lean/fat body mass assessment you prefer to see what's really going on.

[barney54]

The water loss is one thing I like about a low carb diet--you get positive feedback right away. It isn't real weight loss, but that doesn't matter. The point is to get started and feel like you have made progress in the right direction. Then the real, much slower, weight loss can begin.

[ghshephard]

Completely agree with you. And, even though I realize exactly what's happening, I also like it. You can even make the up/down swings work for you. The 4-hour body slow-carb approach has you "refeed/binge" once a week, where you usually put on 8-10 pounds in a single day. But because you know it's going to happen, it's not particularly worrisome, and then you get the bonus the next week of dropping 2-3 pounds on the scale every day.

But, I think it's also a good idea, in addition to enjoying that little bit of gamification on your scale numbers, to also have a good sense of what's actually happening in the body mechanics.

That way, you get the best of both worlds.