Please bear with me. I've been trying to think of all of the variables and I'm just going to lay them out here. What I'm looking for is an idea of where to start adjusting, given my set of circumstances.

About 14-15 years ago, I had fantastic success with Atkins and lost about 60 lbs in 6 months. Then I fell off the wagon, but always remembered how great I felt (even if I was a bit bored eventually).

A couple of years ago, I had to have my gall bladder removed. Not long after that, on the advice of my doctor, I tried an extreme calorie-restricted diet (HMR ), which worked, but I HATED it. I ate about 1200 calories a day for about 6 months until I couldn't take it any more. Of course, I jumped off that wagon as fast as I could and gained all but 15 lbs back.

I also had a baby 2 1/2 years ago (c-section), so my body has changed a lot since the first time I did Atkins. And, low-carbing seems to have helped my body ovulate and I'm now 5 weeks pregnant. I lead a sedentary life, as I have a hip and leg problem, plus fatty liver makes it hard to bend, and I recently injured my knee.

So... yeah. I have a lot of bodily stuff going on:

• No gall bladder
• Previous extreme low-calorie diet
• previous pregnancy
• lots of injuries and a desk job, so pretty sedentary
• newly-pregnant

And although I'm aware that pregnant women shouldn't try to lose weight, I'm 300lbs. I started at 315 during the last pregnancy and didn't gain anything but 60 lbs of water and baby. I remember how hard it was last time, so I would like to lose a bit soon, if I can, cravings and doctor permitting.

Alright, about my diet, and where to start troubleshooting -

I basically adopted the induction diet I used 15 years ago, thinking that if it worked before, it should work the same now, right? Apparently not.

I'm keeping under 20g of carbs, mostly in the form of dairy, cucumbers and salad, and low-carb tortillas. The first week, I got a very mild version of the keto flu - headaches and grouchy. But I never got keto breath or much color on the test strips. I've been drinking a lot more water than I usually do, but it's usually flavored with sucralose. A standard day might consist of:

breakfast: coffee with 2 Tbsp heavy cream, double serving of mock danish
lunch: 6 strips of bacon, rolled up into two 4g NC tortillas with 2 tbsp mayo. Atkins shake
dinner: grilled chicken breast, string cheese, roast brussels sprouts
some days, a treat of SF chocolate

I didn't start logging my eating because I was pretty much doing what I did before. I know I need to start that.

At the beginning, I was making homemade whole-milk skyr. I thought it was 3g carbs/cup, but realized I had misread the nutrition info and it's actually 6g. I dropped the skyr two weeks ago and thought my weight loss would start. Nope.

On the plus side, I haven't gained anything either. Yay?

So here are the pieces I'm aware might be a problem. Which of these sound reasonable, and which should I start with?

• poor start. should start over on clean slate
• too many calories given sedentary lifestyle, age (41), and previous crash diets
• too much dairy
• too much sucralose
• not enough exercise
• lack of gall bladder interfering(?)
• need more fat

The last one's a given, of course. We all need more exercise. but that shouldn't be the thing that holds me back from losing anything at all.

Given all these pieces, could someone give me advice on where to start?