Here it is simplified:

Take a plate and cover half of it with nonstarchy vegetables and a quarter of it with protein. Cook or dress however you like using healthy fats (olive oil, avocado oil, butter, lard, nut butters, cheese). Make that the basis of your meals now and forever regardless of whatever ends up on the other quarter of your plate.

That is 75% of your diet, both when losing weight, and for life, covered.

During weight loss, on the other quarter of your plate:

3 - 6 times a week, cover the other quarter of the plate with some low-sugar fruit (berries, melon, kiwi, etc.)

2 - 4 times a week, cover the other quarter of the plate with some kind of low-carb junk food (sugarfree jello, sugarfree ice cream, sugarfree ice cream, low-carb tortillas, etc.)

Other than those few meals, the rest of the time, make it more nonstarchy vegetables on the final quarter of your plate.

When you get to maintenance, you can add some other stuff:

2 - 4 times a week, cover the last quarter of your plate with barley or buckwheat (much more micronutrients for the carbs than other grains).

2 - 4 times a week, cover the last quarter of your plate with starchier vegetables (corn, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, turnip, carrots) or whole grains (brown rice, millet, quinoa, wheat berries, oat groats).

1 - 2 times a week, cover the last quarter of your plate with pasta, bread or potatoes or other starchy goodies you've been missing.

Frankly, if you stick to the *rule* of half your food by volume being nonstarchy veggies and a quarter of it being protein, even if you eat complete crap on that other quarter of your plate now and then, you're greatly limiting the damage both to your weight and to health overall.

Hmm!!!
Thanks! I've never had it broken down quite like that before.
Is that from a book or from your own experience?

Experience, as I've been at this over a decade as I'm diabetic.

You can low-carb lots of different ways, but for the best health results, emphasizing the veggies heavily beats the heck out of sugar-free ice cream and low-carb tortillas.

Frankly, I give the same advice to those who don't low-carb. If half your food is vegetables and a quarter is protein, that's a pretty balanced diet, better than most folks eat. It crowds the junk out, so even if the other quarter is french fries, it's pretty good.

And it's a *simpler* system than 4 food groups or pyramids or such. You don't have to study nutrition to do it.

I also incorporate stuff I've learned other than in the low-carb world, things like knowing that barley and buckwheat each have micronutrients very helpful for diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which makes their carb hit much more "worth it" than for any other grain.