Yes, and the WORST thing about the low carb is that if you are a regular cheater you might as well try something else. I lost quite a bit of weight once on a low cal diet (at the time I was chasing 3 small boys around and was much younger, so I'm sure my metabolism was a bit faster than now. I don't remember what I used as my bmr but at any rate, I kept good record of what I ate every day (everything that went into my mouth) and whenever I had a deficit of 3600 kcals I would find I had lost a pound. My problem came when I started having trouble with my blood sugar (low, not diabetes). I discovered that if I ate less sugar and more fat (didn't really pay much attention to protein at the time) I felt better and my blood sugar stayed at a good level (ie, I didn't wake up at night sick and pass out on the way to the kitchen to get something into my stomach!)
This is what led me, eventually, to the low carb diet. I had known about Adkins for years, as my parents had been on it when I was in high school, and I did all the cooking. But, since I was in the fitness industry (and then went on to get a degree in Exercise Physiology) I was afraid of a low carb diet, as it was anathema to what I had been taught.
Finally, after gaining alot of weight, losing 50 lbs on another low cal diet (but this time feeling awful the entire time) and gaining all of it back over the next several years, I just decided to try Adkins again. I found my parent's old book and did it. I lost the weight not overnight, but steadily. I have certainly fallen off the wagon and even gained some back, but I have always been able to get back on and lose it again, albiet never as quickly as the first time.
Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that I think different people probably do better with different diets (I don't mean diets as in losing weight but diets as in what they eat that keeps them feeling good and being healthy). I'm sure there is sort of typical human diet, but I suspect that Eskimos and African Bushmen developed to deal with very different diets.
Anyway, sorry so long winded!
susie
I enjoyed your post, so please don't worry about being long winded. Hey, maybe you burned calories posting it and I burned some reading it. Well, we can dream, right? LOL
Seriously though, you're right that different diets work for different people. There are just so many variables that influence how each person's body will react to any particular diet.
I don't think that "cheating" on a diet is a bad thing as long as we don't toss the diet out the window BECAUSE we cheated. Some people feel as if they have failed if they "cheat", but life is too short not to cheat once in awhile. We visited our son and his wife recently and went out to eat a few times. I ordered all the naughty things and I even ordered a chocolate milkshake. Ohhhhhhhh, it was soooooooooooo worth it. teehee I felt as if I gained 10 pounds on that trip but when we returned home I got right back to watching the calories and burning off what I had indulged in.
It does get so much more difficult as we get older. I turned 49 years young this year and still feel as if I'm .....well, 49. LOL
I'm glad the Adkins diet has worked well for you and that's what counts. So nice to chat with you. :) chena