Congratulations on your weight loss! I'm down 30 of a targeted 60lbs weight loss, half way there! It sounds like an interesting study, I can't wait to read the results. My view of weight loss is simple: eat less. I eat anything I want, don't eat until noon each day, do essentially no cardio, and lift weights for less than 30 minutes 2-3 times/week. My weight loss is fairly constant at 1 lb/week. My progress:
https://trendweight.com/u/2c41346d238544/ (note: chart starts at 210 which is 15 lbs into my weight loss when I started tracking).
I say all this only to point out that losing weight can happen regardless of approach. One's chosen approach to losing weight may or may not be suitable to one's personal lifestyle or dietary preferences, but ANY approach can work because the math is infallible: calories in < calories out = weight loss. So, just eat less than what your body needs to burn on a daily/weekly basis.
If low-carb makes you happy because you can indulge in 1 lb block of cheese, then by all means go for it. Yes, things like ketogenic diets have other physical effects on our physiology but I prefer a simpler point of view: there are only so many blocks of cheese one can eat before you get tired of it. If you're restricting your carbs, you simply ultimately eat less. The restriction of choice is the root cause, for example.
So: for everyone trying to thinking about losing weight, find a diet you buy in to and go for it. Personally, I found the approach of analytically tracking my food and weight and permitting myself to eat ANYTHING I want liberating. I know precisely what I eat every day, and I like that. It fits my personality and liberates me from the nagging choice of where/what to eat. I have my favorite foods and I eat them, and have found ways to do so so that I hit my daily protein target and stay at or under my daily calorie target. The down side to this approach is I don't eat out much because it's hard to know what's in that food (this isn't a downside for ME, though).
Don't buy into the need to do a specific diet, all diets can work if you find one that you are in tune with, because ultimately, it's all about finding the optimum path to eat less than what your body needs without sacrificing whatever mental and physical joy you get from food.
I say all this only to point out that losing weight can happen regardless of approach. One's chosen approach to losing weight may or may not be suitable to one's personal lifestyle or dietary preferences, but ANY approach can work because the math is infallible: calories in < calories out = weight loss. So, just eat less than what your body needs to burn on a daily/weekly basis.
If low-carb makes you happy because you can indulge in 1 lb block of cheese, then by all means go for it. Yes, things like ketogenic diets have other physical effects on our physiology but I prefer a simpler point of view: there are only so many blocks of cheese one can eat before you get tired of it. If you're restricting your carbs, you simply ultimately eat less. The restriction of choice is the root cause, for example.
So: for everyone trying to thinking about losing weight, find a diet you buy in to and go for it. Personally, I found the approach of analytically tracking my food and weight and permitting myself to eat ANYTHING I want liberating. I know precisely what I eat every day, and I like that. It fits my personality and liberates me from the nagging choice of where/what to eat. I have my favorite foods and I eat them, and have found ways to do so so that I hit my daily protein target and stay at or under my daily calorie target. The down side to this approach is I don't eat out much because it's hard to know what's in that food (this isn't a downside for ME, though).
Don't buy into the need to do a specific diet, all diets can work if you find one that you are in tune with, because ultimately, it's all about finding the optimum path to eat less than what your body needs without sacrificing whatever mental and physical joy you get from food.