Ok - controversial mode here. I'm probably about two stone overweight and I know one of the risk factors for Heart Disease is being overweight. I don't have diabetes, have BP 155/95 (on pills) and Cholesterol is 8.2 (I'm currently not on statin) so I decided to do some weightloss but my way (After reading a lot of books). So - rather than doing low fat, I decided to do low carbohydrate (including complex carbs) but also introduce a lot more natural saturated fat into the diet for energy.
So - typical breakfast - Coffee and plain croissant (daily carb intake) or chunk of cheese and slice of 'proper' ham including fatty bit.
Lunch - Greek Salad, avocado, beetroot, roasted vegetables, with either grilled chicken or two boiled eggs or cheese (from local deli)
Dinner - Best quality Fatty steak or pork chops or roast chicken with either broccoli, green beans - remember to each fat / skin. Afterwards, blueberries / raspberries with whipped cream (did it myself so no sugar in there).
At weekends for lunch, I'd have big chunk of cheese (proper deli stuff) and a slice of proper deli off the bone ham (fat included).
Snacks would be unsalted brazil nuts, walnuts, dried prunes but didn't seem to eat a huge amount of these.
I'd also drink wine - probably about 3/4 bottle, 4 times a week (in evening), 2 x coffee's per day and water (no beer). No fizzy drinks / artificial sweeteners.
I wouldn't touch bread, potatoes, rice, ready meals, pizza, fast food, anything reduced fat or anything with more than about 5g carbs / 100g.
If I ate out - I'd have steak with vegetables with cream / brandy / peppercorn sauce but no desert. Would have starter instead e.g. pate or prawns (again, no bread).
After trying this for four weeks, I'd lost 10lbs, BP down to 140/80 but I don't know what my cholesterol is (which is a bit frustrating). I found I wasn't hungry at all and as I had some carbs in there - so didn't fall foul of nasty breath of Atkins.
I'm now debating how to move on. Do I go back to the low fat foods I was on before (and found I had to eat a lot more to fill me up but was cheaper) or keep with what I'm doing which fills me up (I wake up actually not feeling hungry)?