I think you need to look at outcomes over 5-10 years, not a couple of months. As far as I can tell, radical diets pretty much always work over the short term.

I think you need to look at outcomes over 5-10 years, not a couple of months. As far as I can tell, radical diets pretty much always work over the short term. I'd speculate this is some combination of: you're not actually replacing all the calories you removed, and your body needing some time to adjust to the right mix and quantities of enzymes to fully metabolize your new diet. (Also, I'm fairly skeptical that you're really losing 10 pounds of fat, or anything other than water, per month.)