During my pregnancy with my first child, I gained over 100 pounds. At 5'6", I ballooned from an athletic 160 pounds to 280 pounds. Over the next 6 years, I managed to shed 25 of those through "calorie counting" and exercise. 

In 2007, after my third child was born and I weighed in at 255 to 260 pounds, a friend introduced me to Atkins. She had lost close to 100 pounds on the diet and thought it would be worth a shot. I tried it and immediately lost 20 pounds, but I had difficulty sticking with it. By that summer, I'd gained the weight back. 

In early 2008, I recommitted to getting the weight off. I read up on the principles behind Atkins and decided to create my own plan. Ultimately, I discovered my "breakthrough" of meat, eggs, nuts, veggies and in-season fruits could best be described as the "Paleo" diet. On this plan, I dropped from 255 pounds to 215 in a few short months, and was soon expecting my fourth child. I stayed "Paleo" through my pregnancy and gained only, which I lost plus another 30 by the time my son with 6 months old. By his first birthday, I was down to 170 pounds.

Since the first few weeks of the diet, sticking to it and keeping the weight off haven't been problems. I cook most of my meals at home and enjoy experimenting with new combinations. After a few months, it became as natural to cook a Paleo meal as it had been to open a package of spaghetti. The biggest struggle has always been (and will always be) social events. It's often hard to find foods that fit the plan at a catered event or a small restaurant. 

I'd still like to lose another 10 to 20 pounds, but, after four children, I count myself lucky to be at nearly the same size I was before pregnancy. Obesity after pregnancy runs rampant in my family, so even if I have a bit more weight to lose by the numbers, I think it's a win to be able to zip up pants I wore a decade ago.

CHALLENGES: 
Convincing my children and ex-husband to get on board. Initially, none of them wanted to give up their usual meals.

ADVICE: 
Find places to buy meat by the animal and join a CSA, especially if you're starting your journey in late Spring. It was absolutely essential that I had a freezer packed with beef, pork, chicken and fish, and a fridge full of farm-fresh veggies. I never once struggled with having "nothing" to make for dinner that fit my plan. 

I was a lean kid and an average-weight teenager... 5'10, 130lbs... but I had this tiny best friend wearing a size 0, and I didn't understand that her shorter height meant her clothes needed to be smaller even though we were around the same leanness. Thus began my weight-loss path to obesity, disease and malnourishment.

At the time (early 80s) the diet-doctrine of the day was counting calories and cutting fat. I'd take tomato soup and air-pooped popcorn to school for lunches- skip breakfast, strip the skin from my chicken and eat my salads without dressing. Yuck. At the time I was pretty active- I was on the track team. But I was tired... a lot.

When I graduated high school I began going to diet centers like NutriSystem, Physician's Weight Loss and Weight Watchers. I was probably 10 lbs heavier then. I tried the Stillman Diet, Slim Fast and several others that I don't recall now. I would brown my ground beef, simmer it in water, strain the water out, chill it, skim the fat and them put in back and cook it down again. I had SO many ways of cutting fat it wasn't funny. In my early 20s, I gained weight slowly but rather steadily. By the time my husband and I were ready to start a family I was fat and infertile. We used modern medicine to take care of the fertility but we didn't know the underlying cause at the time.

After our third son was born, I weighed more than ever- 235lbs, I had the most terrible acne, I was exhausted all the time... I'd discovered a few vegan communities online and I decided to give whole-food veganism a whirl. Initially I lost 20 lbs... but over the course of two years, I'd gained it back plus 65 more to top out at 300lbs exactly. I had a dietician and my own doctor guiding me, but I just got fatter and sicker. Besides the weight-gain, my cholesterol skyrocketed, I had severe GERD, metabolic syndrome, PCOS, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Depression and chronic fatigue. I stayed with it longer than I should have, because there can be an undercurrent of shame (from the community) in failing to thrive on a vegan diet- and certainly no lack of folks willing to beat you half to death with the guilt stick.

Anyway- a visit with an endocrinologist turned the tide for me- I sat crying in his office, and he said, "Your diet is killing you." and suggested I start eating meat again and stop eating "white foods" (grains, pastas, sugar, etc) After several weeks of research I started with The Zone, then Atkins, and I lost weight-- but I didn't feel all that great. In doing more research and discovering papers by Loren Cordain and Michael Eades, I finally settled on primitive low-carb. Even though I use the "paleo" moniker, I don't follow Cordain's low-fat advice as my research has led me to believe that primitive diets were quite high in fat.

In the first couple of months, I lost a pound a day. Folks kept telling me it was "water weight" and I'd laugh and say, "I'm down 45lbs, how much water can I possibly shed?!" What was miraculous though was that I was medication free in the first month. The GERD, PCOS, metabolic syndrome, etc were nowhere to be found. My cholesterol came down 200 points, inflammation markers disappeared, my skin cleared up for the first time since pre-adolescence and I had ENERGY. Before the change, I believed my low energy was a natural part of aging, even in my early 20s, and I couldn't believe how good I felt. I stopped getting seasonal colds, the keratosis pilaris I'd lived with all my life was practically gone. My hair and fingernails were stronger and healthier than ever. It was life-changing in so many more ways than simple weight loss.

My diet looks like this:

I eat naturally raised animal foods, pastured chicken/eggs, grass-fed beef, some fish. I eat ALL the non-starchy veggies I want- and a very few starchy foods like tubers (no white potatoes) and squashes. I limit fruit in the same way I limit starches- keeping in mind that they wouldn't have been available to primitive man very often. I eat berries, nuts and some seeds. The only added oils in my diet are olive oil (for cold foods) and coconut oil (for cooking). I also cook in the fats rendered from the meats I'm using.

My only real non-primitive allowance is some raw dairy in the form of cream and cheese. Both are low in carbohydrate and from natural sources- cows/sheep/goats fed their natural diets. I also have a 'free' day once a week, but if there's nothing I'm really craving, I skip it.

CHALLENGES: 
Learning to pre-plan because it can be hard to find paleo-friendly foods while out and about- and finding affordable sources of naturally raised animal foods. 

ADVICE: 
Check out Michael Eades advice for starting or restarting low-carb. Understanding why the "paleo flu" happens when you get started, and addressing those issues makes a world of difference.

I started my first 'low fat' diet when I was 17. It was reasonably effective along with greatly increased physical activity (namely riding a bike 6-10 miles, 5 times a week). For the next 30 years I've eaten low fat and got fatter.  I was always thinking of food, always resisting eating food, always failing to resist food, always lethargic and always guilty - sure that I was the failure everyone else seemed to think I was.  

By my 45th birthday I had gone over the latest benchmark - 200 lbs!  I was actually quite confident about how I looked. I dressed well and didn't avoid the camera. Except this last Summer, if I could get hold of the camera and delete the pictures of me, I would.

Meanwhile my father had been suffering from Type 2 Diabetes for about 10 years. He has been overweight for at least the last 30 years although he was very skinny in earlier life, much like the rest of my family.  I knew, with a BMI of over 30, I was at risk of developing diabetes as well and I was scared to get tested.

One day a random search on the Guardian Newspaper website led me to an article about diabetes which included diet advice, in particular low fat diets. I thought this didn't sound right and most of the comments under the article agreed, suggesting low carb was the way to go.  And then I came across someone recommending Gary Taubes books and someone else agreeing with them.

The science of 'Why We Get Fat' was fascinating and shocking. It made sense to me. It made sense for the first time in my life.  The idea that it wasn't my fault that I was greedy and slothful but the fault of what I ate was extraordinary. It made me realise quite how burdened I was with this self diminishing belief that I was weak and hopeless.

I have to point out that, at this time, I was in a complete state about food. Everything seemed to be on the banned list. The things I ate never 'hit that button' but always left me wanting more. I would sometimes stand in supermarkets frozen in fear about what I wanted to eat, what I should eat and what all the packaging was shouting at me to eat. I mainly ate bread because it was easy and unthreatening but even then, I longed to put butter on it.

When I got to the end of 'Why We Get Fat' I decided to eat low carb, high fat. I looked at the advice in the book (the hardback version) and I looked at a few low carb lists on line.  I made my own CAN EAT/CAN'T EAT lists and was surprised at how many of my favourite foods were on the CAN EAT list.  Fatty food is very tasty, after all.

So far I've lost just under 2 1/2 stones (15.8 kgs) in 3 1/2 months (including Christmas at which I ate two potatoes and a load of parsnips!). It's been very easy. For the first time in my life, food is a non-issue.  I'm never hungry. I never have cravings. If I snack, it's a piece of cheese or some olives and mayonnaise. But I rarely snack. In fact I have to remind myself to eat regularly. I did no extra exercise other than the Tai Chi I was doing once a week and my usual busy life. I look at my plat and can't believe it's good for me but I've lost 6 inches round my waist and 5 round my hips.

I panic every now and then that the last three months has been a dream and I'm still the same person I was before I started eating this way.  I really didn't do it to lose weight but to avoid the insulin toxicity that might lead to type 2 diabetes. However the weightloss side effect is wonderful. I'm not carrying 16 x 2lb bags of sugar around anymore. The only problem is that I've got to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe....

CHALLENGES: 
Eating at other people's houses. Eating lunch at work, although thats been easier than I expected. Not boring everyone around me to death, talking about what I'm doing and how great it is.

ADVICE: 
Read the science, not just the diet info.  Knowing what insulin was doing to my body was answer to resisting carb laden food. Don't look at it as a diet but 'just eating differently'. Have a day off, if you really must, once a month but then completely reign in again. Better to splurge once than drip little failures into your diet every day. Keep a piece of clothing around to remind you how much you've changed when your brain starts playing tricks and tells you you're still as big as you ever were.  Measure instead of weigh yourself (although this can become compulsive as well!) Always remember to look at the total amount of anything you are eating, not the percentage per 100g.  Even a square of dark chocolate is OK if it's 20g per 100g but 10g per square! And vice versa with something that is low carb but you that you can eat 500g in one go.

I went to the library to look for a different book to help me lose weight and found the 'Idiot Proof Diet', a book based on Atkins which I started almost straight away. I felt so well immediately that I had very little trouble sticking to low carb. 

My arthritis disappeared and I love the food. I have researched since then and now eat mostly primal or LCHF. I continue to maintain the weight loss and the arthritis does not bother me!

CHALLENGES: 
Fitting in with family and friends. Now they just now that I'm a bt strange and don't eat grains.

ADVICE: 
Focus on and enjoy the food you can eat and don't obsess over the cake and bread that everyone else is eating