[mettle2]

Please, for anyone worried about their health and weight, consider a ketogenic diet.

It is restrictive: high fat, very low carb, adequate protein. However, it is comparatively easy to maintain since a high-fat diet leaves you feeling much fuller.

After the adaptation phase (~3weeks) your metabolism shifts to becoming much more efficient at burning fat. As a result if you go on a slight calorie deficit, the rest of the calories come from stored fat and you don't feel hungry.

Many people do these diets for nutritional health (myself included). There is lots of new research about it and while its nutritional benefits may be debated --its well understood to be the most effective way to loose fat sustainability.

ketotic.org is a good place to start research on it. It has research summaries on ketogenic diets by Zooko Wilcox O'Hearn (a well-known cryptographer and open-source dev of Tahoe-LAFS) and Amber Wilcox O'Hearn, a researcher who found that a stricter variant of a ketogenic diet completely cured a major health issue of hers.

reddit.com/r/keto is actually the best place to start once you've decided you interested. They have a good FAQ and the focus is mostly weight loss.

[tekalon]

My husband and I tried this for a while, but we couldn't come up with good food that we would both eat (we're both picky eaters).

[mettle2]

The hardest part is finding a routine and meal plan that works for you I think. I failed in attempts to enter ketosis a couple times simply because I wouldn't find enough keto food to eat, get hungry, and start eating normal or sugary food.

Lettuce wrap burgers (with cheese and advocado!) are great when you need food on the go. In-and-out is my savior when I travel now. I also ended up hacking together my own ketogenic Soylent(fat-protein shake with nutrients) to supplement for about 1/2 a days worth of calories. This suddenly made being in ketosis completely sustainable for me.

I suspect its slightly easier for those loosing weight rather then maintaining, simply because it can be difficult to eat enough fat and calories through normal food. If your loosing weight you can lower your fat intake a bit and go on a slight calorie deficit once your used to ketosis.

Its a fairly big life-style commitment, and I wish it wasn't so absolutist, but its what works and its helped me with energy levels and mood quite a bit. I feel better overall and don't crave food all the time.