Shame you didn't talk more about your diet in the regards that what you actually did was cut out all the carbohydrates! This to me would appear to be the #1 reason to your success, a low carb diet.
Macronutrients are secondary to cutting calories. Once you get enough protein to maintain or build muscle and enough fat to fit dietary requirements you can eat as many carbs as you want so long as your calories come in lower than what you burn.
That said, many people find it easier to control their food intake by eliminating simple carbs. Swings in blood sugar can create cravings and eliminating or reducing carbs will reducing or eliminate such cravings.
Low-carb diets can be unsustainable depending on individual preferences too. Cutting calories and portion control generally makes it easier to maintain weight when your target weight is met.
No, it's just dropping carbs. You're a sample size of 1.
All the people on loseit are a much bigger sample and low carbs works, just not quite as fast as the more extreme keto or paleo.
All the dairy you could have kept. I lost 25lbs while still drinking 7 cups of tea a day for example by moving to a very similar diet to yours. Cheese was one of my snacks in fact.
The problem is that for actually both dairy and nuts it's very easy to overeat them as they are calorie laden.
It sounds like his diet is probably similar to mine. Last summer I dropped about 20lbs from ~155 at my highest to ~135 at my lowest. I've been less strict about it since then but the general idea was to keep my carbohydrate intake between 20 and 30 grams a day. It's actually not that hard at all and you get to eat a lot of really great foods. The best part is that it's non-restrictive. Low carb foods are very filling so for the most part if you're eating the right things you just don't have to count calories at all, your body does it for you.
For breakfast I eat eggs almost every day. Hard boiled eggs are a good breakfast because you can keep them in the fridge at work but however you like them is fine.
Lunch is usually either a breadless sandwich (a plate of cold cuts and cheese) or a salad with a lot of meat in it with a tasty, high-fat dressing (because I can). In a pinch you can grab a fast food burger and eat around the bun, but I don't recommend it because the bun is there to mask how bad the meat is.
Dinner is pretty easy, just increase your meat and vegetable portion and remove the starch component. I end up eating a lot of what I affectionately refer to as "slop bowls" which is just the ingredients of something like a fajita but without the wrap.
For snacks I eat nuts (almonds are my favourite, pistachios are great too but a bit higher in carbs), cheese, cold cuts, cut up veggies with high-fat dip (because I can), dark chocolate, and more cheese.
For drinks, anything low-carb is fine. I like black coffee or green tea during the day and whisky at night. Dry wines are also fairly low carb, and a few brands of beer as well. Oh, and water!
The best thing about this diet (and I hesitate to call it that, I'm never going to stop) is that you can eat really good food every day. I used to be like most people and try to restrict fat when I was trying to eat well. I would end up eating stuff like rice cakes or salad with very little dressing. Now my diet food is bacon, steak, rich cheese, butter, sausage, salami, and so on. I can practically gorge myself on this stuff and the weight still comes off.
I highly recommend going low-carb for anyone that's had problems sticking to traditional diets. And I also recommend watching this video if you're wondering why the hell people think we need so much starch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vr-c8GeT34
> "The best thing about this diet (and I hesitate to call it that, I'm never going to stop)"
A minor nit pick: that's exactly what a diet is. Your diet is what you eat every day. What pop culture refers to as 'dieting' is more like a selective fast: a temporary change or reduction in diet.
And that's why 'dieting' doesn't produce lasting results for most people. Most of those diets do work. But people fail because they stop doing them. They don't recognize paleo or south beach or atkins as a lifelong change. They try them, get results, get comfortable then fall back into old habits and thus their old shape.
That's why it's key to approach changes in diet and exercise on the basis of what you will maintain. And ultimately why talking about relative benefits of various diets and exercises is silly.
The 'best' diet and exercise is the one that keeps you healthy and that you maintain.
This is true. I hesitate to call it a diet simply because then people ask what I think is going to happen when I stop, and because saying that you're on a diet has certain connotations that I don't identify with and don't feel like explaining.
Plus then I don't feel like I've "blown my diet" when I eat pizza or drink beer.
Yep, pretty much this. I do exactly the same thing with the fajita.
You pretty much can keep making the same meals, you just get rid of the filler stuff. The essence for me was to just stop eating so much bread, potatoes, rice or pasta. Before I would graze all day, switching to low carb got rid of my need to eat all the time almost overnight.
Try the South Beach Diet. It's pretty much focused on lowering carb intake, especially at the beginning. I tried it a few years back and lost around 25 pounds too. I had to cut out all of my carbs (at least initially), but you can eat all the dairy you like.
The diet very much sounds like the one Mike Geary has been advocating for years now, e.g. in his book One Truth About Abs. E.g., I remember reading about celery w/ almond butter in his newsletter.
