What specific carb foods did you reduce?
Pretty much everything in a box and/or jar that shows high carbs on the labels. That includes all cereal except for a brand called Hi-Lo that I order on line and love. I initially cut out almost all bread and pasta -very difficult for me. And I cut out almost all sugar - chocolate was a huge culprit. After loosing as much weight as seemed sensible (195 > 163) with almost no bread, cereal, rice, pasta, or potatoes, I slowly added some carbs back in. I now eat a little bit of potatoes, a little rice (e.g. 1/2 C cooked with a meal). For breakfast I usually eat a bowl of hi-Lo and/or a couple of hard boiled eggs, or I will have bacon and eggs, often with a bacon sandwich on Pepperidge Farm Carb Style bread. At home I often eat a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch with Carb Style bread if possible. I often buy 1/2 pound bacon/cheese burgers or Philly cheese steaks when out to lunch but will tear off about half the bun. Afternoon snacks tend to be nuts, cheeses, carrots, and celery. At dinner I will have a large meat or fish portion with a little rice or potatoe and a moderate to big salad. I eat all the salad, veggies (I hate them so don't eat much), meat, fish, fat, cheese, eggs, bacon and nuts that I want without counting calories at all. I eat some fruit (e.g. apple a day) but not tons.
This works well for me (in terms of weight) possibly because it fits my predilections so is easy. I assume it is not ideal from a nutrition standpoint because of low vegetables but nothing I can do makes them palatable in large amounts. I console myself by reading polemics arguing that you can get all the essential nutrients from meat and fish and I take multivitamins as insurance.
Incidentally, I am the cook so I make lots of sauces and crank out veggies for DW. Our dinners, in particular, are not bland.
Edit: As for numbers, I no longer track grams of carbs carefully but for the first 6 months I logged them meticulously and tried to stay around 50 digestible grams a day or less. Over the last few moths I am probably around 100g a day with some days about 150g. HDL went from 61>86 and triglycerides from 137>52 (that later was the last reading, I suspect a little higher will be the norm). LDL has gone up from 108>137 (so total cholesterol has gone up) but that and all the other changes occurred AFTER quitting statins. Years back before statins the cholesterol numbers were worse but I don't have a record of how bad they were.
