My history with Paleo & Keto

Initially I tried the Paleo diet back in about 2008, I had never heard of the keto diet at that time. Paleo is similar, also high fat, lower carb, clean foods, just not quite as rigours on the low carb restrictions but fairly similar otherwise. Back then I weighted about 90-92 kg (200 - 203 lbs). I did the Paleo diet for close to 6-8 months, and exercised a lot, that's also when I got into biking and then doing Triathlons for a few years. I made a vow with myself back then that I was NEVER EVER going back to weighing 200 lbs, and so far I never have.

Even though I stopped doing a strict Paleo diet,  I did keep up the exercise and didn't eat quite as many carbs as I had before, at least for the first few years. I would gain a bit of weight over winter, then basically lose it over summer. Over the later years between 2014 and 2016 I began to notice an upward trend, I wasn't  losing as much over summer, and I was putting a bit more on each winter.

I decided in the spring of 2016 that I need to stop this trend in its tracks. At first I was going to start back into the Paleo diet but that was when I discovered the keto diet.

I have been on and off keto ever since. When I first tried keto back in 2016, I went from 77 kg (170 lbs) down to my all time low of 67 kg (147 lbs)@12.8% body fat between April and September of that year. It took just 5 months to drop 10 kg ~ 22 lbs and lower my body fat 6%  from 18.8% to 12.8%. That's a drop of roughly 1 lb per week.

I haven't, as of yet, been able to stick to the keto diet for more than about 8 months at a time. I find the winter holiday seasons to be difficult, with all the tempting foods over Thanksgiving (in October here), Christmas, and then New Years, followed by the February blahs. Those times still seem to give me problems.