I'm down about 40 lbs (about because I don't use a scale) and I've never limited fat or counted calories.

I lost most of my no-longer-there fat with breakfast as my main or only meal of the day. So if you tend to be less hungry later because of a large breakfast then you are just fine. OTOH, if you are just as hungry later regardless of how much you ate in the first meal then a better strategy is to go small or skip in the morning and have that large meal later so you are satisfied in the evening.

In my case, a large first meal of meat leaves me very non-hungry while eggs, yogurt or fruit leave me very hungry. I plan accordingly.

My reaction to cheating is the same as yours--the more I cheat the more I need to cheat. Period. So now I only cheat non-paleo on major holidays. Even paleo treats are limited to very small portions once every 2-3 weeks.

In my opinion, you are just correlating strategies that don't work well together.

In my experience...both the caloric restriction will work and..the cutting of carbs will work but not effectively together. (It is something you could try later on in conjuction with increaseing fat intake. That works for me but only if I'm fat burning adapted already. It's also just a very short term thing.)

For now I would only eat to satiation since the fat and protein will halt your appetite quite a bit. I would not restrict any calories. Also...I'll point out it's a relatively short period of time to already change things up but I don't want to throw cold water on your efforts since I agree that ketosis works.

Since you're doing a lot of high intensity training...you may find your energy levels too low to maintain. In my opinion you have two options...you can accept you may not have the same WOD success during this time or you can incorporate some blueberries, starch etc. post-training to restore your glycogen stores. I would also suggest taking some Morton's Lite Salt everyday and some salty bone broth to help with the transition. Helps with leg cramps and carb flu effect.

I'm sure there will be a lot of people who post some opinions that will be helpful. I only do traditional strength training and there are a lot of seasoned crossfitters who have probably dabbled with ketosis.

As a rule of thumb, when trying to lose fat and maintain lean body mass, I stick to these rules (gleaned from the great Robb Wolf and I've also seen/heard similar recommendations on bodybuilding forums):

• Eat roughly 10 to 12 calories per lb of body weight
• Eat 1g protein per lb of body weight
• Fill the rest with carbs/fat as you see fit or works best for you
• Adjust as necessary with your changing weight/body comp

So, if you weigh 147, eat between 1470-1764 calories. If you are starving on 1470, try increasing to the higher end; if you don't feel that you are losing adequately, try sticking toward the lower end. Get close to 147g of protein each day (if you eat 4-8oz of meat per day this will get you close). These recommendations are for active people as well. As/when you lose pounds, adjust the calculations accordingly.

(FYI: the rough calculation to maintain is 14-16 calories per lb of body weight)

The Livestrong recommendations are more geared toward the skinny-fat, or sedentary, or non-muscular/working-out athletes. Crossfitting 4-6 times a week, even though otherwise sedentary, is still getting a good amount of vigorous exercise and means that you most likely have much more muscle mass than the average population.

Don't forget to take measurements: waist, thigh, bicep, hip. Track changes. Measure body fat with calipers or take weekly progress pictures.

Anecdote: I weigh 155 now and wear a 6-8; ten years ago I weighed 155 and wore a 14-16. Scale weight isn't everything. And I'm 5'3! While I'm working on losing another 1-2 dress sizes, I have way better body comp than I used to and yet I weigh the same. I don't care if I have to weigh 165 to wear a size 4, have muscle definition in my thighs and abs, and look good naked!

For breakfast try eggs and two pieces of bacon. Ditch the almonds and extra fat. When is your workout?

Certainly wait and see how your weight (or better yet, waist size) responds to the new diet. Also, you probably will feel a little hungrier at first if you're not used to it, so giving your body a bit of time to adjust before restricting it should make the whole deal easier. Not that you should need to restrict anything really!

On a practical level, throwing in salad items, leafy greens etc. can really add substance to a meal without increasing carbs much. Again, as a transitional approach it may be better than feeling hungry and guilty for sneaking almonds. Don't get caught up in the numbers.

Meat-only (with just enough carbs to fuel activity) helps me to drop body fat FAST. Basically, you burn your body fat stores as your fat source.

This seems to work best after nutrient stores are replenished, so I don't recommend it until you've been Paleo/Primal without cheats for about 3 months. Get your Vitamin D, Magnesium & Zinc dialed in.