I started my ‘Diet Gently’ experimental weight loss protocol on November 28, 2022, and the scale tells me that as of today I have lost 60lbs. since I started, going from 291.1 to 230.5. In short, I designed my own diet and started with the notion that there must be a way to lose weight that does not make me a psychological wreck.

It seems to have worked so far. I have lost 60lbs. in a little under 5 months. That works out to a little under 2lbs. per week, and curiously, I’ve had no real plateaus. As I designed the stress out of the diet as much as I could, I see no reason why I can’t continue until I lose 100 lbs. total.

What am I doing? I’m struggling to explain it. I’ve written hundreds of pages in an attempt to explain, but a clear description still eludes me. I’ll tell you one key that has worked wonders for me:

Cheat on purpose.

I have told myself to have no forbidden foods and that I am required to ‘cheat’ (let’s call them ‘treats’) often enough that I don’t become obsessed with healthy food, known as orthorexia. I still watch my calories and I don’t space these treats too close together, but I’ve had bagels, deli sandwiches, tiramisu, focaccia bread, bowls of real pasta, real potato salad, a huge piece of lasagna, and other stuff.

Wait…is this a keto diet?

Yeah. I am so keto-adapted that my ketones can go from zero to 1.5 in 12 hours.

So is this carb cycling?

Um…sort of? Carb cycling tends to want to stick to a schedule. I do it when I feel like it.

This has reduced the stress of dieting *enormously* – and my scale doesn’t lie.

It’s really chill. Sometimes I don’t eat keto – and I require that when I want to, do it without any sense of guilt or shame, and then just go back to the stricter keto plan.

I have ruined many a diet by crowing about it, but I don’t think it will happen this time.

There’s a lot more to it though.

When I figure out how to explain the *whole* thing I plan to share more at Diet Gently.