Carboman Thanks for the update. Sorry that it didn't work for you, but now you have information to help you figure out a WOE that WILL work. Don't give up--there will be something that works.

Carboman,

Either you do low carb, high fat or low fat vegan. The reason you put on weight is because you ate the carbs your body needed and you paniced and went back to low carb, thus the water weight is gone. You can do the Starch Solution and eat the low carb veggies if ya want, but you won't be satisfied, you need the starches to be full and satisfy your needs.

I drank beer while doing Dr. McDougall's plan and lost weight. I did adhere to his plan to the T and felt great. And it was not light beer either.

As for eating out, that can be tricky. Wendy's has baked potatoes and salad, Taco Bell has bean burritos, just don't have the cheese on it. Or take some snacks with you if you know food is not available.

Changes do take time, he does say it's not an all or nothing program, it's how much you do that reap benefits.

Carboman,

the weight you have won is perfectly normal, your muscles and all the cells of your body filled with glycogen and water. It is a necessary step. You can go slow on the carbs in the begining by going much more heavily on the veggies. The weight will come of slowly at around 1.5kg/week or so. If there is no weight loss, just go more towards fruits, or more towards veggies. The issue with your high fat diet is that it causes atherosclerosis to progress or at least to not regress, and ages you as combustion of carbs produces more antioxidant co2. Read about the randle cycle, and all the studies about how a high fat diet causes diabetes / insulin resistance. This diet is also way cheaper, is followed by billions of people since ages and there was never a diabetes crysis, quite the opposite. Check out the works of neal barnard, caldwell esselstyn, nathan pritikin and the others. Yes maybe the low carb diet keeps you in a better position than a normal diet, but nutrients, antioxidants, phytonutrients and minerals come from plants, not so much from fat/oil/butter/animal foods.

May the veggies be with you ; )

Love me starch solution!
 

Stark Solution is the perfect diet in my opinion.
I have tons of energy and lots of food choices. I've lost 8 lb in a month and only need to lose 30 lb total. Key is no flour and no fat, no oil.

Today I had overnight oats with berries, vegetarian chili, and stir fry over rice.

The other key thing that keeps me happy is that you can drink alcohol because it's fat free 🙂

Negatives are difficulty eating and restaurants and a lack of salad dressing options.

Originally Posted by Carboman:
Hi, I am 100 pounds overweight and I have been looking for a better way to lose weight and get healthy. I have unsuccessfully tried Overeaters Anonymous, WW, Low Calorie, Hypnosis, Low Carb (12x), vegan,and even fruitarian. As I have gotten older I just can't last more than a week anymore. I recently found John McDougall's Starch Solution. Before I try it I was wondering if anyone has had success with it and if I can do it long term. Thanks.

Look up high carb hannah via youtube or facebook...I believe this is what she follows and has had tons of success with it. Everyone is different of course.

Originally Posted by plucero:
The other key thing that keeps me happy is that you can drink alcohol because it's fat free 🙂

Negatives are difficulty eating and restaurants and a lack of salad dressing options.

Hopefully you're not drinking too much alcohol. I think everyone (even Dr. McDougall) agrees that heavy alcohol consumption is bad for you, for example it increases your risk of several types of cancer: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25422909
"Alcohol increases risk of cancer of oral cavity and pharynx, oesophagus, colorectum, liver, larynx and female breast."

Small amounts of alcohol probably won't hurt you, but also doesn't seem to have any benefit: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26997174
"Meta-analyses adjusting for these factors find that low-volume alcohol consumption has no net mortality benefit compared with lifetime abstention or occasional drinking."

There are lots of healthy nut-based dressing recipes, but I don't think Dr. McDougall would approve of them. Another option is to replace the dressing with spices. I think everyone agrees that spices are healthy.

I think McDougall is anti-fat for no good reason. Nuts and avocado have been shown to have various health benefits, and I'm not aware of any studies which show that nuts or avocado are bad for you. If you know of any such studies, please post a link, as I'd be interested in reading them.