Those of you who have lost weight TF-style...

[godusjourney]

Apparently the majority of you took grains out of your diet in order to lose weight, right? A couple questions. Did you also take out all starches - potatoes, squash, etc.? Were any of you dairy-free? Did you cut out sweeteners (honey, etc.) as well, or did they seem to not affect your weight loss? How about fruit? After you achieved your weightloss goal, did you reintroduce grains? How did you body react? Did you seem to gain a couple pounds easily, or was your weight loss pretty stable? What was your rate of weight loss (for example, lbs. per week)? Did anyone with the last 5-10 lbs. do this and finally get rid of that fat permanently? What do you do to maintain? Is there anything else you did/took in addition to taking out grains that you credit with your success? Did you clear up any physical issues while doing this?

TIA!!!!

[Magelet]

Honestly, I lost a lot of weight just by sort of the beginning of a TF foods diet. I cut out processed foods, particularly anything with corn syrup, or corn of any sort unless it looked like corn (ie corn meal was ok). I don't know how many pounds I lost, since I don't know the slightly scary number I was up to, but I've lost 4 pants sizes, and am at a healthier weight now.

I've in the past month started eating more TF, focusing on fats, and trying to incorporate stocks, eliminating sugar and starting to soak grains. (I already mostly ate sourdough). I've put on a few pounds in the past month, but not much, and mostly (I beleive), because I also started living again with someone who keeps a LOT of sugar and sweets around the house(and high quality tasty stuff too *sighs*, so its harder to not eat sugar. I'm doing better today. It really is a strong addiction, hard to buck.

Maybe we should create a 12 step recovery program like Alcoholics Anonymous, but for Sugar. After all, it is a chemical addiction as well as mental addiction. mostly joking. anyways, that's how I did it.

[crunchy_mama]

I cannot lose weight period unless I take out grains and then it is fairly simple although I have to watch my sugar addiction. Right now I am grainfree(because that is how I feel the best) and no sugar( for a candida diet) . I am eating as much of whatever else I want including potatoes. I am trying to stick to lower carb veggies most of the time though more as a blood sugar thing. However, I never ever let myself be hungry. I am not trying to lose weight right now, but I am.

[Ruthla]

I lost weight on a traditional low-carb diet- keeping my carbs under 40g per day (not counting fiber- just sugar/starch grams). I lost 20 lbs quite easily, but I still have 30 more to go and it's not easy. Partly because it's slow going and I get frustrated and end up eating more carbs than I should, and partly because my body seems to have stablized here, even when I do watch my diet carefully. But, the good thing is that the 20 lbs I lost are staying off.

So right now, I eat a lot of protein and fat, and I don't worry about grain or bean preparation because I don't eat beans at all and I eat fewer than 3 servings of grain (mostly rice and rice flour based bread) per week. I eat a lot of eggs, poultry, fish, nuts, and vegetables.

[Dolphin]

I wasn't trying to lose weight when I started switched to raw milk and butter, and starting drinking kombucha. I generally already stayed away from processed foods and simple carbs, but I'm a cereal/oatmeal addict and haven't let up on that at all. Within weeks of starting on the raw milk and dairy, I noticed I had lost maybe 3-5 pounds without changing anything else. I am pretty thin naturally, so this has just, I don't know, made my body leaner in a way. I'm working on trying to lower my grain intake just for general health.

[MamaMamaMama!]

I lost weight going gluten free, which was the first step I made; really, though, I think what made it happen was avoiding white flour and, with it, sugar and all processed foods. Now that I make TF sourdough rye bread I eat it and don't gain weight at all so it couldn't have been the gluten alone. I lost about 15 pounds and it's been about a year now. I can pretty much eat anything I want as far as whole foods go now, and not gain weight. I don't avoid carbs at all. A miracle! I was 15-20 pounds overweight for the past maybe 10 years.

[HerbanGirl]

I lost weight once I removed gluten and dairy from my diet in Nov 2007, with the help of natural supplements from my nutritionist. But honestly, I also left a long-term, slightly toxic relationship at that time so I believe I was shedding a lot both physically and emotionally. I lost 30-35 lbs in 3 months.

I wasn't being terribly careful during that time - I did occasionally have restaurant mashed potatoes which I'm sure had dairy in them, and things like that, but I didn't have gluten at all. During that time, I became more aware of other sensitivities I had - for instance, if I ate eggs, I'd have cellulite on the backs of my thighs within 24 hours. Any simple carbs (rice, corn, sugar - strangely, not potatoes so much) would put extra padding on my hips and butt. (This got better once I did allergy clearing with my nutritionist.) But since I hit 140 this spring, I haven't really wavered from that setpoint.

Well, this last month I've gone up about 3-5 lbs because I've been less careful about dairy and sugar again (lots of meals at other people's houses with the holidays and election and all). I'm trying to get back to my setpoint by cutting out dairy, sugar, grains, and eating more fats especially coconut oil and milk, nuts and nut butters, and meat.

I don't exercise as much as I'd like to - I walk 2-3 times a week and right now that's it. This spring and summer I was much more active with yoga and rock climbing, and my body was leaner.

HTH!