I had my first experience with some low-carb haters today. After posting a positive comment on Facebook about how much weight I am losing on low-carb, somebody replied with "Why should I do this if there is a risk of Kidney failure, High cholesterol, osteoporosis/ kidney stone or even cancer?" and posted this link: http://www.webmd.com/diet/high-protein-low-carbohydrate-diets

 Not only is this article just plain dumb and cites no sources or any evidence, it's actually not even about LCHF diets in the first place. It specifically references high-protein diets like Atkins, and all of the "risks" seem to be related to eating an excess of protein and not much else. A LCHF diet doesn't actually suggest replacing carb energy with protein, but with fats instead. Also a low carb diet is supposed to be close to 50% green vegetables. Linking it in response to a positive post about a low-carb diet basically shows the general ignorance and tendency to regurgitate rhetoric in response to anything that doesn't fit with the common popular opinion.

 It was kind of strange at first because I haven't actually heard anyone say anything but positive things about the LCHF diet. A couple other people joined the comment chain as well who were pro-low-fat. The discussion rambled on for a while and basically nobody ended up feeling any differently about their positions. Some people really firmly believe in calories-in, calories-out.

 Based on the success I have had (almost 30 pounds lost already) and the fact that I haven't exercised at all and eat as much as I want, I would say that I am pretty well convinced that the general ideas behind LCHF are true. It's just hard to convince people of that when everybody else in pop culture is telling them otherwise.

My pants don't fit! It has been happening gradually, but it's especially noticeable lately. I wear - well, I have worn - size 42 pants. Last summer I bought some size 40 shorts, and was never able to wear them because they were too small. Over the weekend, I was finally able to put them on, and it felt like kind of a big deal.

I know I have been losing weight because that's what the scale says, but it's hard to notice such gradual changes. However, the fact that I can fit into size 40 pants now is a pretty discrete milestone and I always enjoy hitting those. My "work pants" are starting to get too loose to keep wearing for much longer which is bittersweet. On the one hand, I'm excited to start wearing smaller sizes, but on the other, I can't really afford to be buying new outfits every other month.

I have been doing pretty bad in terms of carbs the last couple days - my brother and his girlfriend were in town and we spent a lot of time going out and eating badly. Still, I seem to be at least maintaining my weight or still going down slowly. It has been up and down a lot, but still more down and as long as it keeps going that way I should be on track.

Grace and I made "Oopsie Bread" tonight, which is a no-carb "bread" made out of eggs and cream cheese. It turned out well, although Grace was a little too freaked out to eat much. I could definitely see it becoming a good base for a burger or BLT.

It was pretty labor-intensive to make, but fairly straightforward. Whip the whites until they have clean "peaks" and fold it into the yolk/cream cheese mixture. Honestly separating the eggs was probably the hardest part. The end-result is a pretty tasty, nearly bread-like muffin that is similar in shape to a flat hamburger bun. It definitely gives me an option to snack on that isn't just meat or cheese.

I'm back at 244 now, so the race to lose 7 pounds before June 15 is on. I'm not too worried about my chances because I have been still losing 2 or more pounds per week. In 5 weeks I should have no trouble losing somewhere between 7-10 as long as I don't cheat.

I did cheat and have a donut yesterday. I said in the beginning that my one "hall pass" was going to be donuts. If somebody brought in donuts to the office in the morning, I would allow myself to indulge. I want to lose weight, but I don't want to be miserable after all. Still, even at almost 50 carbs for just one donut, I was able to keep the rest of my meals low enough to end up with a total of around 80 carbs for the day. Not bad for a "cheat" day.

I did resist a cookie cake somebody brought to the office today. No easy feat, but I find that I don't really have much trouble resisting bad food anymore.

245 today. I know it's annoying to constantly post my weight but I'm just excited because I'm reaching an important milestone here. Almost EXACTLY 3 years ago I weighed in at the start of our office Biggest Loser contest at 244. I have the spreadsheet open and this was recorded on 5/7/2010. How could would it be if on 5/7 this year, I could be down to the same weight I was 3 years ago? For somebody who has pretty much only ever gained weight his whole life, I think that would be pretty cool.

Another interesting fact I learned from looking up the old spreadsheet: I did actually lose "some" weight over the course of the competition (I was wrong in my original post saying I actually gained), down to 237 on 6/15/2010. This gives me a pretty clear-cut new goal: lose MORE than 7 pounds in the same amount of time. At my current rate, I really have no doubts that I could blow my old weight loss record out of the water, but who knows. My weight loss is slowing a bit and I could definitely plateau hard enough to not hit that goal.

In other exciting news, my wife Grace has started doing low carb with me too. Her work schedule makes it a little difficult at times, but yesterday she did hit the goal of less than 100 carbs for the day. I think she is encouraged by my progress and seeing how it's not actually that difficult overall, and I am definitely happy to have the love of my life and best friend collaborating on this with me.

Is it old fashioned to fill out post titles?

Down to 246 today. My weight loss seems to have gotten kind of "rocky." I will hover around the same number for a couple days, just to have a drop of a pound or two suddenly on another. Maybe it's just my crappy bathroom scale. Either way, things are still going down and I'm really not having trouble maintaining so all is good.

I spoke with my friend Rob, who has been doing low carb over a year, about plateaus and he said that getting stuck for a couple days or even weeks is not super uncommon, especially as you start to get closer to your target weight. I definitely didn't expect to keep up my "water weight" loss pace, but going from 200-400 carbs a day to 50-100, I figured I would be losing pretty consistently. Better temper my expectations I suppose.

Still, I'm at 20 pounds lost already and it's only been 2 months. Hitting 30 in 30 shouldn't be a problem at all.