Has anyone met someone who went on a lc diet, lost a lot of weight and then stopped for one reason or another? My Grandpa went on a lc diet a few years ago and lost a huge amount of weight. Sadly he stopped and gained all of it back and when I visit him he tells me the old thing to cut down on the meat or else I'll gain weight and get a heart attack. It makes me realize how even people who try a low carb diet and have success still might just regard it as a fad diet. They also might have concerns about how healthy it is thanks to the media and the doctors demonizing fat. It breaks my heart that my Grandpa's doctor tells him to eat a very low fat diet and it's not making his health any better. But whenever I suggest that fat isn't the problem my grandparents think I'm crazy. And last of all, I think people are just plain addicted to carbs. Unless you make a very dedicated effort to stay away from all the sugars and starches the little devils will sneak right back into your diet.

It's a mentality that people cling to. They somehow think the magical effects of a diet cling to them even when they stop using the principles of the diet, then they're disappointed when they don't.

A large percentage of us here have done that. Some have done it more than once. I lost 86 pounds the first time and then the stress of moving to a new state and starting a new job was too much and I stopped. I gained most of it back and it's only gotten much harder to lose since then.

If you go back to eating the stuff that made you fat to begin with, you will get fat again.

Sad but true...I've been at it for two years now and definitely have trouble sticking to it--even knowing it is healthy and helps me lose weight and feel great. Have recently been binging on carbs again lately and am feeling crummy and gaining weight. Sigh...

I think for me and perhaps others it boils down to how committed you are/become to this WOL. Even though I am 100% committed, it is still hard to stay the course every day. I recently told my GI doctor (who recommended Citracal) that fat was my fiber and I wouldn't be taking Citracal. He looked at me as if I had 7 heads. ha! But I keep at it.

Not only do I stick with this...I stick with it with glee. How many diets make you feel like you're cheating horribly when you eat butter on your vegetables. Finally I can enjoy food that I have craved all my life and now I know why. Meat is my best friend and by developing this eating "disorder" I can eat as I wish, lose weight and improve my health. I wish more people "got it"

Yep, had a friend who lost a lot of weight but then started fretting about the evils of sat fat and stopped.

i agree!! there are times i am eating/drinking something and i have to stop and analyze what I am eating to make sure it is on plan...cause it's just that f-ing good i must be making a mistake!

I LOVE THIS WOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have lost weight on low carb & then ate sugar & found I could not stop.
Now I am very near goal weight and have been having cravings again. I'm scared.

Yeah, I lose 20 pounds each time I do this, and then celebrate by having a little carb treat here or there. And then it's out of control, and the weight is regained. Crazy.

My husband believes this diet is not sustainable, too restrictive. My mother did it for more than a year, and looked/felt fabulous. It does work, and most people feel much better on Atkins compared to their prior carb lifestyle at least 2 weeks into the program.

I lost 70 pounds on low carb a few years ago and gained it back. I have learned that I cannot eat wheat, not even a little. Sugar and starch I can eat in small quantities, which is nice. WHen I added wheat back in last time, even as I slowly gained weight, I went into serious denial. It stuns me that I let myself gain all that weight back, but I just didn't want to face the fact that wheat is out of my diet forever and ever.

And thus goes the cycle of yo yo dieting.

Many of us on the boards have been through this (waves hand in the air madly).

I can't keep eating the way I've always eaten, because I'll keep getting fat the way I've always gotten.

It's a forever thing. Sure, it gets better and I can add in things slowly. But as I've gone along, I've discovered food allergies. Since eliminating them, the cravings die too.

It's been 7 years for me.

I started June 2001--Father's Day. I started to support my sister who was doing it and lose a few. I will def admit I've cycled on and off--but over th past 8 years, more on than off.

I have lost weight many different ways but never kept it off, every diet seemed to exclude a certain thing, WW it was excess calories, Low fat it was fat (the calories count was not as important to my weight loss when I ate under 20 grams of fat a day) then there is LC which is neither low fat or low calorie for me ( I have finally settled into it and eat 10-30 carbs a day and have never counted calories).

There was however one thing in common with all these methods that I used, it was veg's, now some will disagree with me here, ZC enjoy life with little to no veg's, but for me LC has some wonderful vegetable options which I enjoy. The other that is the same is when I got rid of the "boxed food" and ate real food I did better.

It is a shame that LC is not as mainstream a choice as other methods used to lose weight and maintain that loss. I think I ate too many processed foods in the past, and that was one reason I did not stick with any of these methods as a "way of life", I do believe that LCing is becoming a way of life, there will be times in the future that I will eat things that are not LC but I am so much more informed about what I put in my mouth now then I was before. I truely desire to be healthy and I believe eating few processed foods with protein and veg's is the way to get there.

I am sorry your Grandpa has reverted back to his old eating style, low fat is not the answer for me as a permanent way to stay healthy, it did get me to this point in my life though. Maybe he will return to LCing when he realizes what he is doing is not working. Carbohydrates and fat are not a good combination and when they come in the "processed form" they are terrible. IMO. Take good care.