Last time I did low carb, I also avoided a lot of fat. I kept it under 20g of carbs every day except on cheat days for about a year. The weight melted off, but I believe i hit fatigue trying to keep my count so low. This time, I'm going to up my limit, but not exceed maybe 40-50g a day. That should give me a little more variety plus still be considered low carb.
edit: I've never counted calories. I'll do it for a month and see what i average, since my diet will consist roughly of the same foods every few days or so. Thanks for the tip!
I think you had carb addiction.
If you're addicted, this is what happens:
Eat carbs -> Blood sugar goes up -> Insulin is released -> Cells don't uptake sugar because of insulin resistance -> Excess insulin is released to compensate -> Cells absorb an excessive amount of sugar -> Blood sugar plummets -> Brain panics and hunger pangs hit you...and the cycle repeats.
Protein can be converted to sugar via a (very inefficient) process called gluconeogenesis which can still result in carb addiction symptoms.
By going to low carb high fat, fat is metabolized into ketones which get used directly for energy which do not trigger an insulin response, so there is no real way for the brain to trigger a hunger pang. The result of this is, hunger and eating aren't at the forefront of your mind so it becomes somewhat easy to skip a meal or 3. Comprising 20-30% of intake with protein, you're further satiated so it becomes a bit of a cycle in managing your hunger.
Further, eating high fat is a LOT of food, particularly if you modulate carb intake primarily with veggies. It will also be more useful if you manage your macronutrients (carb, fat, protein)...I think you'll find after a few strict days, you won't need to count calories as much as monitoring macros.
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