I put on quite a bit of weight while caring for my dying husband. Up to 165 from my preferred 25 to 30lbs. After a year of trying to loose weight I had only dropped to 155. Then I encountered a book by Dr. Atkins which pretty much prescribes a very low carb, at least in the initial phases. I followed it scrupulously and in 4 months was down to 130 lbs. Then I got careless and now have crept back up to 155. On the other hand medical opinion now has it that a little overweight for older people doesn’t hurt, if you eat nourishing foods and get enough exercise. I mostly eat really carefully but could use more exercise, but 2 days ago I took my blood pressure at a grocery store and PB was 101 over 64, with a pulse of 66 and I was feeling fine, so in those immortal words: “What, me worry?”
The idea that leftists are into carbs and hate paleo is absurd. Health food stores are full of leftists, and I see plenty of morbidly obese Republicans around. Now poor people often love cheap carbs because they are poor, but most of them wouldn’t know a paleo if it bit them.
When I say leftists are into carbs, I mean they’re into a diet based on grains and vegetables rather than meat. They see meat as cruel and hard on the environment and an expression of human arrogance. Meanwhile they associate high carb/low meat diets with the enlightened East versus the more traditionally meat loving West. That’s why lefties are more likely to advocate a diet that looks like the food pyramid that the government has been pushing for the last forty years: because it’s in tune with their ideological sensibilities. And of course the Atkins and paleo diets are very much out of tune with them and viewed with disdain. They palpably loathe Atkins, who they see as sort of the Ronald Reagan of dietary philosophy. The bottom line is that food is political with an identifiable left and right, and the main divde is over the proportion of veggie carbs versus meat protein.
I am so sorry for your loss. I agree that if you feel good and are healthy, weight doesn’t matter - clearly you are not obese. There are some people who are happier and healthier with more meat on their bones and that is good.
Atkins diet might have you missing a lot of important carbs like resistant starches. I think you should look into adding some resistant starches into your diet, at least research it. Focusing on good fats (does Atkins focus on good fats?) is most important, good protein should come along with that. Eating healthy animals raised in great natural environments takes care of that, plus healthy dairy and coconut and maybe peanuts.