The problem with a no flour – no sugar diet (not eating anything white) is that it works for maintenance, but it
doesn’t work for weight loss. You can take in way too many calories and carbohydrates eating sweet potatoes
and brown rice and winter squash. Not to mention liquid calories (oils, butter, milk, sugar-free ice cream)
and calories from fatty meat (steak, ribs, duck). Most diets are actually maintenance programs. They stop you
gaining, but most of the time the calories and carbohydrates are not cut enough to create any kind of sustainable
weight loss. Weight loss has to be fast, or you won’t stay on any diet. As there’s no significant difference
between the weight lost on 500 calories a day compared to the weight lost on 800 calories a day – 800 calories
is your first target. If you are ravenously hungry, you can probably increase your calories up to 1200-1500 a
day and still lose weight. But you have to keep your carbohydrate grams under 20 a day at the 1200-1500
calorie level, or you won’t lose weight quickly enough to stay on your diet.