You are welcome. Great job.

I think a lot of people would benefit from limiting carbs to under 100 grams a day. Those of us with health problems or greater needs even less. I limit to 20 grams but I am diabetic and control blood sugar with diet instead of insulin shots and drugs.

Here is a presentation on cholesterol I just watched you might be interested in. I personally would not worry about LDL. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=MPr_YnyfNnA

I agree with one exception, and that is addiction. 

For some of us it is easier to just say no than to fight the problems with cravings. Keeping it down to 20 basically eliminates all processed foods (because all have carbs to make them taste like something) and any sugary treats. For me it is easier to do that than fight cravings that the occasional higher carb treat will cause.

I would have never said I was addicted to food. But looking back at pre-low carb days I am absolutely sure I was. The hardest craving I had to get rid of wasn't even carbs but the sweet taste of diet soda. That sweet taste is what kept me craving other sweets. Once I finally got rid of that the cravings went away.

But you are right. 100 grams gives a much wider latitude of foods that can be included in a low carb diet (but not ketogenic - they are different). Which would suit many peoples needs very well.

Back home now so can pay a little better attention.

Triglycerides and HDL both moving in the right direction. From what I have recently learned, LDL is basically meaningless as far as longevity goes and hardly has any meaning concerning heart health. People over 60 with high cholesterol on average live longer than people with lower cholesterol levels. More than one scientific study has shown this.

I'm definitely not on a carnivore diet, but more carnivorish than a couple years ago. I still have some vegetables but pretty minimal. For example for supper on the road tonight at Braums I had a triple third pound cheeseburger with no bun, no sauce and no mayo. Plus another patty from my wife's so 4 1/3# hamburger patties, two or three slices of American cheese, a little bit of lettuce, a little bit of onion and two slices of tomato. That is pretty typical for me eating out at a hamburger joint. If I was pure carnivore I would only eat the hamburger patties and the cheese. But I'm not that strict. At home about the only vegetables we keep around and eat are onions (my wife loves onions), olives (black and green), avocado's, sauerkraut and sour pickles. My wife on rare occasions will use a little tomato paste in some dishes but very limited amounts as nightshade vegetables make her feel less than ideal. She might have a slice of tomato once in a while but she knows it when she does. That is odd because we used to raise and eat lots of tomato's. For some reason as she has aged, they just don't agree with her any more. Don't have any reasoning why. She still loves the taste of them, just feels better when she stays away from them.

Ok, I am rambling. More than you ask for.

If you want to get your A1C down below pre-diabetic levels (under 5.6) you might consider going a little lower on the carb count. For a diabetic it usually takes down to about 20-25 grams of carbs daily to get into nutritional ketosis and for a non-diabetic (more metabolically healthy) often under 50 total grams a day will get them there. There are some other health benefit advantages to being into nutritional ketosis at least part of the time. Plus the weight loss will come on faster because the body is burning mostly fat for fuel for energy. Being in nutritional ketosis will really help with the insulin resistance and overall metabolic health.

A ketogenic diet is a low carb diet but a low carb diet is not necessarily a ketogenic diet. A ketogenic diet is basically a VERY low carb diet. Carb ingestion so low the body has to switch over to burning mostly fat for fuel. That fat can come from eating the fat or stored body fat.

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The knowledge you have is priceless. Just like you described, should your blood sugar get a little worse, you already know what to do to get it back under control. Sounds like you are approaching it methodically. I applaud you for knowing what to do and doing it.

The more I learn the more I am convinced fructose in too large quantities is a bad thing. Maybe worse than blood glucose levels. Fructose does not raise glucose levels on a glucose meter like glucose will but it still glycates red blood cells. So we may be getting glycation that we don't know of because we do not have a meter to measure it. I'm not completely sure I understand all there is to know about fructose so I may not have that right. But I think it is. The body can convert fructose to glucose but the opposite can also happen and does happen with blood glucose gets to high levels. A little fructose from a modest amount of fruit is probably fine and the body handles a small amount fine. It is in excessive amounts like the amounts in soda pop or fruit juice that become problematic.  I used to drink a two liter bottle of Pepsi or Dr Pepper daily. Pretty sure that is a main contributor to my diabetes diagnosis when I was around 30.

I'm rambling again. Anyway, good job on your success.

Braums has excellent hamburgers. I figure the meat is from their old "past their prime" milk cows, but I don't really know that. Just a guess. But it seems to be excellent hamburger meat.

Once in a while I will get their 5 burger bag (two of them if wife is with me). Seems like it is five burgers for ten bucks or something like that. On those I just let them go ahead and serve them with the bun. Then I just throw the buns away. I ordered it one time without the buns and they gave me 5 plastic containers. I thought what a waste (instead of putting all the patties in one or two containers). I figured the price of each container probably cost as much or more than the bun. If I am going to support someone I would rather it be a wheat farmer than a plastic manufacturer (they just wrap the cheap burgers in paper). So I just throw away the buns. Actually last time, now that I think of it, I brought the buns home and fed them to my catfish in my pond (that are used to being fed fish food). The catfish loved the buns and catfish (unlike sport fish like bass) will get good out of carbs and grow.

When I order the triple burger I do order it bun-less though so it does come in a plastic container but at least it is only one container. Seems like if I ordered it with a bun the cheese would stick to the bun and lose part of it when I threw the bun away.

I always order them "minus sauce and minus mayo".