[samanthasteven]

I would rather do something that would help me stay healthy like portion control and exercise thn control certain food products that I love.

[fatmad]

hmm, in the IF groups, most people do lower carb, higher fat most of the time, but will have off plan foods occasionally, usually by plan. One difference I have found is that I have treats much less often. I had gotten to the point where I was treating myself to junk and high carb foods almost daily. When I was trying to lose weight, it was still at least once a week. Now its more like once a month.
Some doing IF just eat normally, but less often, (2 meals a day) and find that works.
I for one am still very carb addicted, but I do have some fruit and occasional oatmeal on my WOE with IF.
I guess the question is, how much do you want to keep the weight off when you lose it? will you be able to enjoy certain foods occasionally? of course, if you can do so and not get into a vicious cycle of carb craving craziness. That's me though, not you necessarily. But many find that once they get into the rhythm of low carb with higher fat, (don't replace the carbs with protein, you need more fat to satisfy you or its hard to stick to) your cravings for carbs go down. I don't have the same desire for baked goods and sweets that I used to have, unless I start eating them. (sometimes smells will trigger cravings though)
Wishing you good luck, in whatever plan makes sense to you.

[Harve]

Yes it is worth it. However attempting to do it forever is a very tough thing to decide, and easy to break. So why not just see how long you can do it, then when you go over a bit, start again?

Giving low carb a real try involves researching the food groups, why low carb/high fat works, finding which foods fit in and which don't then fixing meals of those that you like.

You will learn a lot doing this and will learn how to make meals which you like which are healthy for you.

Here are a few things I do relating to low carb eating.

One of the benefits of high fat, low carb (very low carb) is food cravings stop real soon, and feeling hungry gets to be seldom and easy to handle. I do not go for feeling hungry all the time.

What I eat is what I like which conforms. I love bacon and eggs. So breakfast for me is easy, three large fried eggs and three strips of very crispy bacon with the fat drained. I find that breakfast keeps me going about 6 to 8 hours with no hunger.

Carbs such as bread, chips, etc bring on a craving for more. There are no cravings when eating low carb. No hunger. That makes it easy to deal with.

Remember with low carb high fat you are replacing the energy needs which were dependant on carbs to those from fats. This gets the body to burning fat for energy. There for fat loss.. weight loss.

I add fiber to my meal by drinking a mixture of one table spoon psyllium (metamucil) with one tablespoon ground flax seed. This also helps stop food cravings and helps take care of fiber needs.

With counting carbs (for me, rather loosely) remember to subtract the fiber from carbs to get net carbs. Carbs from fiber not only don't count, but they subtract from the carb content.

I made a list of foods I like which are low carb and purchase those and eat them. Some of the foods I like which are filling, delicious (for me) are like squash, okra, mushrooms, tomato, brussel sprouts,........... and the list goes on. But make your own list of the foods you like.

I love fried squash and fried okra. I had those off my list of approved foods until looking into low carb eating. (Atkins, Keto--ish)

Is it worth giving low carb a try? In my opinion, you betcha as you will learn a lot you can use from it anyway. And why do you need to make a decision of "forever?" Why lock yourself down mentally like that? Do it, enjoy it, learn from it, and if you go off of it some, so what?

Just my two cents worth

Harve