Hi. I've been LCHF with 60 carbs per day for nearly 3 weeks. I lost 3 lbs in week 1 (probably water, from 181 to 178 ~ 5'6" female) but haven't lost any more and am getting a bit frustrated.

I'm historicallly not much of a meat eater and so breakfast lunch and dinner with meat makes me feel ill to my stomach, so I'm just not sure I can get down to below 20. I don't eat the meat I bring for lunch (varies but usually last night's grilled chicken, steak, sausage). I've started having more nuts and cheese in my salads, but this doesn't taste that good either. I seem to be over the head aches and crankiness but don't have a lot of energy. Not sure what to do.

The upside is that I am not feeling cravy which I do when trying to cut back on a regular diet but I am also struggling with getting no joy from food. I love to cook but food just taste so bland and kind of gross. I guess I also wonder if this is sustainable if this is how I feel. Any thoughts?

Food aversion can be caused by deep ketosis.

IMHO your crankiness might be due to sodium depletion, which low carb is pretty famous for. Try reading "The Salt Thread".

You may be too high in carbs yet, or you might be like me and have food intolerances that keep you from losing.

As far as meat aversion, I think it takes a while to get your body to start churning out the enzymes you need to digest it. I read that in Dr. Eades blog years ago. So you might just need to keep eating it, to get those enzymes going again. Probiotics may help too.

How're you with bacon? Seems almost universally beloved. Makes vegans wish they weren't.

Some tips for vegetarians, meat is not required.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=468164

Welcome Huruta! First, it's not uncommon to lose well in the first week (maybe two) and then have a period of adjustment where the scale doesn't move but your body gets used to where you are. Are you measuring as well as weighing? Try it; you might be shrinking even though the scale is static.

Also, three pounds is over ten percent of what you want to lose. Well done! This close to your goal the pounds aren't going to fly off the way they might for someone with 100 lbs to lose. Try not to compare your gross pound losses with others who are not at the same starting point as you.

Food aversion: Nancy LC is right. Many people experience this and for most of them it goes away.

It does not go away for me. I can't do LCHF - the high fat part makes me want to vomit. Constantly. Instead I focus entirely on the LC part. I eat leaner meats, raw nuts and seeds, don't drown my veggies in butter or salad dressing, etc. If I eat bacon it's super crispy and not dripping with fat. If I eat something like sausage it's because I'm super jonesing for it and I don't eat much of it. It's true that I don't eat much overall but I'm satisfied with my intake and no longer feel like death warmed up all the time.
Yesterday:
B: Two cold hard boiled eggs*
L: 4.5 oz corned beef** w/mustard, 3oz raw cauliflower with a tbsp of ranch dressing for dipping (some days I eat it all, some days I don't)
D: Turkey burger with a small amount of mayo, lettuce, onion and tomato; with a large dill pickle
S: 1oz raw walnuts

*Normally for breakfast I blend ice cold coffee, a little half and half, a bit of splenda and a raw egg. Drink very cold. Not too rich and tides me over til lunch.
**I find that for me, higher fat meats get worse when reheated. When I do it, I reheat it only just enough to knock the cold off - 30 seconds to a minute. Cut it into small bites before nuking so you don't have to heat it so long.

Hopefully you won't have to deal with this for too long but if you do, you can find things that work for you.

Great advice, All!! ^^^

Thanks to you all for replying! I appreciate it. I'm not shy of salt and feel like the bacon and sausage I eat is pretty salty but I do like broth and will give that a try. I do have bacon for breakfast and like it so that's a good sign. It's from 11am onward I seem to run into trouble spirally down as I eat less food and less protein and have less energy. I think some of it is preparation. I'm also used to eating what tastes good (granola! fresh baguette!) and so eating to just get full has its psychological challenges even if I'm not craving sweets.

Julia, My measurements haven't changed. Makes me think I'm just eating too much food. BTW, thanks for the encouragement. I do like the macadamia nuts! and agree that fatty meat reheated is yucky to me and so are cruciferous vegetables reheated the next day. I may go look at cookbooks to get ideas since I do like to cook. I think prior planning will help too. There are VERY few options at the university cafeteria where I work so it's tough. If I can't stomach the the meat/food I brought I'm out of luck and seem to be onto an intermittent fast which is when my energy wanes.

Since you're only in week three I say stick it out, don't worry about too much/too little of the foods you know you should be eating. Chances are good the scale will move again very soon!

I used to HATE eating leftovers, but really I hated SOME leftovers; identifying what those were helped a lot. I'm a ridiculously picky eater but I've just embraced that. LOL

It took me some time to get over the afternoon "wilt" where all my energy seemed to disappear at once. But eventually I adapted to what I was eating and that's mostly gone now. I say keep looking for proteins that you like to eat and that sound good to you. Don't worry if a food doesn't sound good today - just don't eat it today. Don't eat it again until it sounds good again.

You might think about cold cuts, too; a cold meat and cheese roll-up is a great lunch or even snack, gives you protein and a bit of fat without being overwhelming.