low carber from France

[ultrasof]

Hi there!
I'm happy to find this forum, hoping for some nice info and discussions.

I am a newbie at low-carbing...coming from a gluten/dairy/corn free diet for health reasons, I then discovered the paleo way of thinking and am now investigating low carb.
Currently I am not overweight but lately I've gained some pounds I'd love to drop now:

Last year I dropped grain altogether and noticed after a while that I tended to overdo sugar, fruits in particular (nothing processed, but still too much sugar), probably compensating for the grains. Made me gain a few pounds (around 8) and feel hungry all the time. That's when I began researching and became interested in low carb.
Now here I am, low carbing for nearly 2months.
Feeling good, less hungry, sticking to 3 meals/no snacks most days painlessly. I do low carb/high fat, moderate protein (not counting very precisely, mostly checking the numbers once in a while with an online counter - focusing on no more than 20 net carbs a day, high % of fat).

The only thing is: I am not losing weight or dropping inches - any. Really I am not moving at all, except for the occasional pound or inch coming - and then going. I sometimes wonder if I feel a little more muscles than before, but it may as well be an illusion: as I said, nothing clearly noticeable.

I've read a lot and try to understand this, I can't figure it out: is this not working because I am not overweight? is it too much protein? or do I need to up the carb content? lower the total calories? (although I am suspicious on that last one, don't wanna go down that road again...)
Any idea/advice is welcome, as I am pretty clueless. Seems like EVERYONE on this diet has lost at least in the first few weeks!

In the meantime, I am going on with this for a few more months anyway, hoping I'll see results later...

Thanks!
Sophie

[NorCalStan]

Welcome Sophie! I am no expert, but it may be that you are so close to your ideal weight that you will have to actually measure and limit your total calories to see those last few pounds melt away. I recently purchased an electronic food scale that is accurate to 1 gram. Now I can measure everything I eat very precisely, right down to a leaf of spinach or the teaspoon of olive oil I add to my salads.

Only by accurately measuring and recording everything that goes into your mouth can you know exactly what your caloric intake is. It can take a week or two to establish an accurate base of your current intake. Then you can consciously reduce that by 10% (or whatever you are comfortable with) by reducing your total fats slightly. Hold that for a few weeks to see if your weight comes down a little.

It sounds to me that after two months of <20 carbs a day you are probably fully fat adapted, so at this point slowly reducing your fat intake should bring your weight down.

All the best! :)

[lizzyLC]

Welcome to the board Sophie!

[slmrickman]

Welcome............

[ultrasof]

Thanks for welcoming me...and for the advice!

I feel really uncomfortable/unable to measure everything very precisely, but I can for sure reduce my total calories/fat intake if needed...I need to give this a little more thinking.
(I am not very enthusiastic because of the conventional wisdom encouraging lowering calories, which never really worked for me long term - long time ago, when I was overweight - and made me feel miserable)

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help.
I'll go on doing some reading around here, lots of things to learn!

Cheers,
Sophie