Teaser, I wonder if the PH was hard for you because you didn't have much weight to lose?

I did the potato hack in late May 2013, eating about 600-800 cals a day of mostly cold potatoes, and had remarkable lack of hunger on it despite doing heavy gardening/farm work nearly every day. I ate potatoes Mon-Fri, and lower cal LC (1200-1500 cals) on weekends, and didn't get sick of them even after three weeks, probably because of the weekend LC meals. After three weeks, I did a three-way rotation of PH, FF and LC, dropping even more weight.

I lost 17 lbs those three weeks, and my blood sugar dropped the longer I was on it, my mood improved, my basal body temperature rose, and I slept much better. In fact, overall, I felt better physically and mentally on potatoes than I do on high-fat ketosis, which I can't do much of anymore. High-fat ketosis tends to make me very depressed and physically cold, even in summer. The PH is definitely more sustainable for me over the long haul than high-fat ketosis.

When I started the PH, I tracked my blood sugar obsessively, frightened that the PH was going to turn me from pre-diabetic to full-blown diabetic. Instead, I was very surprised to see it come down, AND rise after eating high-fat, low-carb on weekends! Very confusing, after being told all these years that only LC lowers BS. It was my first indication that HF/LC was not all that great for me.

Unfortunately, I did regain those lost pounds the following fall... not because of the PH but because of autumn SAD that always started in August every year. In Michigan, I always regained weight lost the previous spring-summer thanks to SAD, no matter what I tried. Dwindling light and increasing cold always ramped up my appetite, packing on pounds, which often made winter depression worse. Now that I'm in Florida, the annual SAD is not happening and I'm still losing weight.

Anyway, the PH was a great experiment... I learned a lot about how my body works, and learned not to fear whole-food carbs anymore, though I still keep relatively LC, mostly IF.

I tracked and discussed everything on my journal during those three weeks: weight, what and how much I ate, blood sugar meters, theories and research in why the PH works, changes in mental attitude, sleep and other benefits... it's pretty interesting reading, actually: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...1&page=74&pp=15.

Check out the PH highlights under "Potato Hack Info" if you don't want to read the whole three weeks: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...41&page=1&pp=15

I started the PH May 22nd, but didn't mention it until May 26th, after losing 7 lbs in 4 days and everyone wanted to know how I did it.

Here's the 3-week recap, 17lbs in 13 potato days: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showpost...&postcount=1270