Lost 5kg the first week and felt bloody awful, lost another 2kg last week and got my energy back in the last few days. Fluid retention all gone, migraines abated (will be happy to get those back to one a month for now.) I'm not counting carbs and I am not a purist. For me, the key to surviving more than a month is to get things mostly right and fine tune when this has become a lifestyle rather than a diet. That said, I'm aiming to drop another 5kg between now and April. I did 30 days last year and slowly but fell off the wagon. The last 4 months have shown me exactly why I needed to get back on it, and the experience has given me a much better mindset this time. I drink weak black tea once a day, and I have a weak long black coffee if I trust the barista use fresh beans and not to scorch them. This means my coffee intake is limited to a few cups a week. Other than that I drink water, and the Occasional glass of wine. My fruit and nut intake is way lower than last time. I think my body remembered the last attempt and reset itself much faster. Makes my life far more tolerable, I can tell you. The only dairy I really do now is soft goat's cheese or a touch of parmisan for flavouring in certain dishes. Exercise? I'm sure I'll get motivated enough for that one day...

I'm going to struggle with sugar addiction for the rest of my life, but at least now I recognise it for what it is; exactly that. An Addiction.

How do your clothes fit? Have you measured yourself too? Sometimes the scale doesn't budge and you still drop a size due to your changing body composition.

1-2 lbs/week is a great loss rate - you should be proud of what you've done so far!

I had similar results the first month or so, scale moving very slowly--the key is to pay attention to things like the way your clothes fit and how you feel. I felt a huge difference in the way my jeans fit even though I'd only lost maybe 5 lbs, tops. That was with little to no exercise.

After the first 30 days, I started restricting carbs a little more heavily (no fruit; nuts and starchy vegetables only occasionally) and am happy with the results I've seen from that. I have not eliminated dairy, but I stick to low-carb stuff like cream and butter. I also like crumbled blue cheese on my salads. I eat fairly large servings of green vegetables, with lots of fat. I drink water and coffee, sometimes tea.

Sounds like you're on the right track, keep up the good work.

I didn't count carbs, per se. I just eliminated grains and upped my meat intake. I saw great results from that -- only 5 pounds of scale weight, but it was -10 of fat and +5 of muscle in the first 50 days.

This month I'm doing a 6-week challenge at my gym and am going to go strict Paleo. No dairy, very little fruit, etc. It's worth it to me to try going all-out for 6 weeks to see how much of a difference those little tweaks make.

• 1/26/11: 146 pounds, according to the scales at a local gym (thought i was 138! Bummer.)
• 2/4/11: cut grains and most dairy from my diet
• 2/11/11: 140 pounds, according to the scale at my office

I am focusing on eliminating grains and most dairy (drink coffee black, add a little cheese to omelet or salad, sometimes). Once I get this down, I may further tweak my food, but find that I don't do anything if I stress the details too much!

End my 30 days on Tuesday. Have been strict paleo with no dairy. But have not counted carbs at all and have eaten lots o Veg and 1-2 servings of fruit a day. Assorted nuts plus some organic sunbutter (addicting).

down 15 lbs - have 50 more to lose

Will tweak down the road for more weight loss. The first 30 was all about reducing cravings and appetite and eating quality fresh foods.

I am not sure exactly how you are eating now ... but, probably with a few more tweaks, you can easily drop more weight.

3/4 cup broccoli is no big deal, that is less than 10 carbs, and a very nutritious carb source! I would suggest avoiding fruit (which it sounds like you are already doing), limiting nut intake, and making sure you are getting enough protein.

On the paleo solution podcasts, I have heard .5-1gram of protein per a lb of body weight. I tend to eat between .75-.85 per a lb of body weight. I would focus on making sure you are getting enough protein, and then filling in the rest of your diet with fat and carbs.

Also, are you sleeping enough? A lack of sleep can stress the body out and slow down weight loss.

I wrote some more detailed tips on paleo weight loss here:

http://www.30daysofpaleo.com/my-blog/2011/01/new-years-resolution-paleo-tips-.html

Eating broccoli is not messing up! Veggies are good, and so is 6.5 lbs!

It can be disappointing not to have the weight falling off if you feel like you're doing everything right. You may be losing fat but gaining muscle at the same time, which doesn't show on the scale.

Try logging your food for a week to see what your protein, fat and carb levels are. That will really tell you if there are problem areas.

Also try picking out a pair of pants that are snug or tight. Try them on evey week or two. That was a great motivator for me in the beginning when the scale wasn't moving fast enough. When I first started I lost 18 lbs in 8 weeks, and 20" overall.

Good luck!

Lost 17 pounds last month. No measuring, but animal foods + herbs + green leaves (I don't eat a pound of salad everyday, it's more of a garnish) (exception: mac nuts for a treat). I eat cheese sometimes, and a few tbsp of cream every few hours - dairy is always grassfed. Intermittent fasting with a 4-6 hour eating window, fasted resistance band/bodyweight exercises, and 1 hour of walking everyday.

I said I don't measure... But I also can pretty much gauge calorie content by looking and tend to add it up in my head OCD like, even when I try actively not to. If I'm hungry, I eat. If I'm not in my 6 hour window, I drink heavy cream with coffee. It's important, in my opinion, not to weigh yourself more than say... every two weeks, tops. Sanity sake. Also, I tend to have an easier time sticking to the diet if I'm not weighing myself obsessively. A weight gain, even if you know it's water, can trip you up. Even a little frustration or anxiety seems to fudge good progress.

Cut out all the dairy for sure for best results!

When I started, I was eating less than 20 grams of carbs per day, and the weight just fell off of me. I am not strict paleo and so I eat dairy, but it has to be low-carb like hard cheese, cream cheese or heavy cream. I would say lose the half-and-half, which has too many carbs. Go with heavy cream instead. Do not be afraid of fat, but watch those carbs like a hawk.

I'm a little bit confused about the gender-specificity of your question. I think the menfolk would have great answers to contribute, as well, seeing as they too went through a "first thirty days" experience. I've also heard that they enjoy partaking in beverages, but that's currently unconfirmed.

That said, I don't think you "messed up" by eating some broccoli. I eat broccoli several times a week. I haven't noticed it hindering my goals. I also eat the occasional fruit, but I know that we're all different in how we metabolize sugar.

As far as drinks go, I drink green tea in the morning, peppermint tea in the evening, and have been sipping on unflavored/unsweetened sparkling water as an afternoon treat. And I drink tons and tons o' water, just because I love it.

Good luck with your weight loss! 6.5 pounds is great! Don't get discouraged. You can do this! :)

I lost 10 lbs my first month but I ate -no- grains and I'm pretty overweight to begin with.

Since then things have slowed down quite a bit, but I'm still working on it! I fell off the wagon hard after a trip and didn't feel like cooking for a while.

I've not been worrying about losing weight,as I'm not that large to being with(5'3 and 136),more about feeling better and having more energy.My gym workouts are much better, and some of the lingering joint pains and fatigue I would feel after are vanishing.Two months into it, and still in the testing phase as to what I can and cannot eat.My body seems to like lamb and beef,with a little chicken thrown in here and there.Plantains,spinach,berries,squash,sweet potatoes,pineapple for veggies/fruits.Cheese is fine, yogurt and milk are not.Pork, bananas,any nuts/seeds,dried fruits,white potatoes,and table sugars make me blow up like a balloon..I can barely button my pants the next morning. My only irritation is that,during the period where you start changing from fat to muscle,what fat you have looks MUCH worse.Not sure why.

I've been losing weight slowly, a pound here and a pound there, maybe a few pounds on some other week. This is probably because I am eating mostly paleo but not super low carb. Back when I was on very strict lowcarb, but not paleo, I lost faster but I didn't feel as good as I do on paleo. Once in a while, I cut back the carb on the paleo and lose a little faster. But I have also been having fun experimenting a little. I think next, I will cut back the carb more, see how that goes, and then maybe experiment with this latest idea of cutting out all fructose but allowing potato, which seems to have worked for some.

I didn't lose any weight during my first 30 days, but I did lose 1-2 dress sizes. I was not overweight to start. I also did Crossfit a few times a week during that time.

I didn't count calories, fat, or carbs. I just followed general Paleo recommendations blindly. I found that counting all those carbs and calories just overcomplicated it for me. So, in short, no dairy, no grains, no legumes and only "good" fats (avocado, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, EVOO, etc.). I had the occasional sweet potato after a particularly hard workout, maybe twice a week. I struggled with sugar and had the occasional piece of chocolate.

I guess I feel that if you don't have a serious metabolic disorder and you're not chronically ill, counting carbs isn't particularly useful at all. I think the issue is the digestive/metabolic issues associated with grains/dairy/legumes, not the amount of carbs you take in. I associate carb reduction with Atkins, which I don't feel is as healthy or successful as paleo.

Also - i drank water and black tea mostly. Sometimes I threw some berries or lemon into my water to break it up.

I don't remember the exact number, but I do know it was slow moving. But it was moving: maybe a pound or two every week. What I noticed even more so than the number on the scale moving was that my body composition began to change. I kept tightening my belt (literally) or a shirt that I thought fit suddenly fit a lot better. I also had a few shirts that I realized fit horribly, lol (maybe stretched).

The scale hasn't moved at all the past few months...even so, the way my clothes fits proves that I am still losing fat, if not weight. I am on the last hole on my belt and I can't wear some of my pants because they are so baggy they look and feel terrible on me.

I weight myself every day. This works for me because it's made me realize just how much weight does fluctuate and how little it really matters. Muscle does, in fact, weigh more than fat and it's important to realize weight is just a number. If I don't weigh myself, I wonder what I weigh that day. If I do, I look at the number, contemplate what I've eaten, decide if I've been good to myself or not, put on my clothes, and usually I'm happy with the end feeling. 8)