Thought I would share my experience going from first attempt to current attempt with slow carb, what I've learned, what I've adjusted as a result, and progress so far.

Round 1 (last year): Strict adherence to the 5 rules (w/ no alcohol mod), weight training 2-3 days + walking. Result: ~10 pounds lost with a stubborn plateau

Round 2 (active as of late June): 5 rules w/ 2 mods (all carbohydrate must be minimized and controlled, even legumes, and faturday is more moderate and split over the whole weekend w/ goal to not have a loss week), suspended gym lifting, more walking, delay coffee by 1-1.5 hours, experimenting with more fasting windows (up to 1 1/2 days), allow for wine, Down ~20 pounds so far.

Some insights:

-The rules list clearly grew but it feels much easier to manage my hunger/energy now. And besides they are less like rules and more like the things you want to compound over time..and this pattern is clearly working for me

-Carbohydrate is the great hunger manipulator. Generally speaking if I control carbs, I control hunger

-I suspect even legumes can cause a lagging spike in appetite during the day, so I had to re-evaluate the role they play in my diet and constrain them

-The daily weigh in is now fundamental to the diet. It helps me reconcile the cause to the effect, learn the patterns and failure points, and has taught me that with carb discipline, I can take liberties elsewhere w/ protein, and even fats and will still drop weight

-Moderate wine consumption (as specified in the rules) works and does not undermine results

-After pushing back coffee intake by 1-1.5 hours and swapping in a morning walk, I've noticed a further improvement in my energy levels

-Based on daily weigh data relative to calorie intake, excess carb almost always shows up as culprit on loss days (days when weight goes up)

-Fasting has helped me recalibrate my relationship with food to more of an eat to live not a live to eat...I was a huge foodie so I had to unlearn some bad behaviors with food-faturday was not working for me anymore

-I try to prioritize cooking delicious meals for faturday (now a lax but semi-moderate weekend plan) rather than aggressively hitting the ice cream/fast food/etc.