How I Lost 50 Pounds in 6 Months without Exercising
The website Reddit offers content threads based on specific topics. These are called “sub-Reddits.” My brother said one of the sub-Reddits is called r/keto and he used it to change his eating habits.
In the sidebar are must-read links for beginners. While I had read Protein Power years earlier, they offered information on r/keto I had either forgotten or never learned.
For example, you are encouraged to use heavy cream in your coffee because of its high-fat content:
I just discovered heavy whipping cream. It goes perfect in coffee, it has less then 1g carbs per oz, and you won’t need more then an ounce for a cup of coffee. It’s also good if you want something milky, you can do a 50/50 whipping cream and water mix, and it tastes really good.
I learned you want more fat because it makes the digestive process slower, which results in a decreased desire to snack between meals.
r/Keto users post all kind of tips and recipes, and their NSVs (non-scale victories) motivated me to look for successes outside of my routine visits to the scale.
I remember one morning I walked into work and one of my peers said, “Have you lost weight?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “About 30 pounds. Thanks for noticing.” It was my first NSV and it felt pretty good.
But that felt nowhere near as good as the day I pulled a pair of size 36 khakis out of my closet. I hadn’t worn them in years. When I first started, I wore size 44 pants.
I held those khakis in front of me. I figured if I was going to get them on, I’d have to lie down on the bed to fasten them, but even that would be a huge NSV. I put one leg in. Then the other. Pulled them up.
They fastened.
“Sara! Come here!”
I had to share this with somebody.
Love it! Congrats on your success! I’ve been following the paleo diet for over a year and its changed every part of my life for the better. I’ve been dieting on and off since I was 12 (that’s nearly 20 years of yo yo dieting!), and this is the first time I’ve ever had a decent relationship with food and my body. Congrats again!
Carbohydrates are killers. Sugar is a loaded gun. I too lost 22 lbs. and kept them off by eliminating the killers entirely from my diet. I consume lots of fats, but I am no longer fat. Others drank the Kool Aid of the no-fat diet. They’re dying AND fat.
…to be followed soon by “How I had a major heart attack because I eat nothing but fatty foods and I never exercise.”
It’s possible to lose weight in a healthy way – but it takes a little more work.
Seriously, hit the gym and eat a balanced diet. Atkins and all these other gimmicky no-carb diets will kill you.
Wrong. My blood pressure is perfect and so is my cholesterol. I feel better than I have in years.
You simply refuse to change your paradigm. There are benefits to exercise and I plan on hitting the gym soon. But that doesn’t mean I’m not healthy.
Read the science and learn the truth.
Sorry, Duane – you sound like a Scientologist or a Global Warming activist denying common sense, and, yes, science. Atkins himself died obese and with heart disease, but his family and followers, much like cult members, deny the truth and claim it had nothing to do with the unsafe fad diet he created. And, of course, his family has monetary motivations for denying the medical report’s accuracy.
I don’t need to “change my paradigm.” I lost more weight than you doing it the *right* way, and I have kept it off. Check back with me in five years, and I’ll weigh the same – but you’ll be suffering from cardiovascular problems and/or you’ll be obese again. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
NOT SO FAST!!!
Yes, death he was WAY over his proper weight, HOWEVER NOW THE REST OF THE STORY. He slipped on ice (not weight related) hit his head on the side walk and was taken to a hospital. He was in a coma and he was put on steroids to relieve the swelling in his brain.
He was Six foot tall and 195 pounds when admitted to the hospital on April 8, 2003
He officially died April 17, 2003 and at that point weighed 258 pounds.
He gained 63 pounds in 9 days AT THE HOSPITAL.
The Atkins Diet DID NOT MAKE HIM FAT.
Gee – you’re kinda arrogant. You seem to think you can’t fall off the wagon. Are you really so perfect?
I remember when I was diagnosed with candida and told to go on a high protein diet. That one change dramatically reduced my craving for carbs, and carbs is what candida needs. Never looked back.
Now, if you’re talking about maintaining muscle mass to delay loss of function due to aging, that’s where exercise can be helpful. But I used to run with marathoners. They were proud of being able to eat anything because they burned it off so fast. What I saw was exercised-induced bulemia. They didn’t vomit the excess; ran it off. But obsessive-compulsive behavior around food was similar.
As health care professionals, my wife and I have seen vegans with poor skin color and flacid epidermis from insufficient dietary fats, increased allergies, and inability to build muscle mass. Yes, they’re thin, but there’s more to life.
Education, moderation and reason are good places to start. Congrats, Duane!
Howard, Well said!
based on absolutely nothing…
paleo/whole-foods diets are not “fads”.. they are about avoiding known toxins… good quality saturated fat is extremely healthy
I would suggest not going completely “zero” carb though.. low-moderate carb is fine, but if you’re glucose metabolism is healthy again and/or if you are doing any sort of higher intensity working out you should definately eat far more carbs (sweet potatoes/yams etc)… I have been eating a lot of these recently and haven’t stopped leaning out. I’m down about 100 lbs now, have put on muscle and cured all of my illnesses (ibs/adrenal fatigue etc)
So, congrats to anyone who has found out what avoiding capitalism in food does for you.
You’ve got it backwards. Start writing your will.
Fantastic!!! My brother was having headaches and blurry vision for about a year and doctors thought it was related to a previous injury. He had always struggled with 10-15 pounds of overweight. Then, he did some bloodwork and was told he was borderline diabetic, and that without an immediate change in his lifestyle, he would very quickly become diabetic and insulin dependent. He quick sugar and carbohydrates cold turkey. Within two weeks, he had lost 12 pounds and the blurry vision disappeared-it was directly related to a pre-diabetic condition. He says he has never felt better in his life and I’m so proud of him. He was told that he can gradually introduce very small quantities of both sugar and carbs into his diet again, but only small amounts.
You really only need 15-20 minutes a day of high intensity exercise. The “gym rat” crowd is mostly trolling for ladies.
It is very hard to lose weight on exercise alone.
I love to exercise, and alternate between a 3 mile run or 1/2 mile swim every morning, and try to train three classes (1.5 hours each) of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu per week, and don’t lose weight unless I also watch my diet.
I once lost 200 pounds in six months without exercising. Of course I was locked in a car trunk by a serial killer at the time.
You should market that plan.
Thank you for this great story! I’ve been following the Wheatbelly diet, which is similar–very low in carbs, energy comes from fats and protein, no calorie counting. Have finally been able to lose weight, though not as dramatically as you. I have also been trying to follow the daily exercise strategy from Younger Next Year and do think that has a lot of health benefits. Maybe when your schedule normalizes you’ll be able to fit in some exercise.
Another way of achieving this is to go gluten-free (or even just wheat-free). (Although you can’t then go and buy those “gluten-free” breads and snacks which are high in sugar and carbs). It really limits you to meat, cheese, dairy, veggies, and fruit. If you do eat gluten-free carbs, limit yourself to a little oatmeal in the morning or a whole-grain loaf made of brown rice or teff.
We were traveling through the Midwest last week and stopped for the first time at Hardees. Did you know they will do a low-carb version of their burgers? They wrap them in lettuce leaves. Same stuff on them–lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup, mustard, etc.–but no bun. Delicious!
Jimmy John’s “Unwich” is pretty great too. They will wrap any of their sandwiches in lettuce for the same cost as one with bread. They’re not even messy, which was a big surprise for me, the first time I tried one.
Wow! Thanks for letting me know. I love Jimmy Johns but have avoided the place since I found out I can’t eat gluten.
The whole “eating fat will cause you to get fat/clog arteries” reminds me of medieval doctors and their ideas of root causes. The “doctrine of signatures” where if it looks like something found in the body, it will help that same part of the body. If it looks like a worm, it will expel worms from your body. If it looks like your teeth, it will help with toothaches. In these cases, it was positive associations for the herbs, many of which are useful, just not in the way the early doctors thought.
The fat theory is the negative of this. That fat will be translated into fat in your body and cause all sorts of damage, especially to your arteries. The science quoted in Gary Taubes’ book is fairly clear. The connection between fat and heart disease is mostly wishful thinking. Taubes’ does take the scientific standpoint that things could change with more evidence, but so far ALL the evidence even from studies trying to establish the efficacy of carbs, prove that excessive carbs are the primary culprits, not fat.
Have fun when your thyroid crashes in a few months due to VLC.
Trex, read the Taubes book “Why we get Fat and what to do about it”. You can read a large sample of it for free at Amazon and get a good deal of value out of that. (I did, before buying the book) It’s an excellent book and it lays out the case like a prosecutor’s case. It’s heavily referenced as well to actual scientific studies over the last 150 years.
Like Keynesianism, weight loss is a case where the popular wisdom is not producing the promised results. In such a case, to question “what would it be like if the common wisdom is wrong? Would that fit the real world results I see?”
Actually Keynesianism goes very much against common sense: to the extent that it has become “conventional wisdom”, it is only because it has been rammed into our heads and we were too shy to question it.
I’ve read it. He just demonizes one macronutrient instead of another. If you look at ancestral diets you will find the macronutrient ratio varies greatly between cultures- high-fat low-carb like the Inuit, low-fat high-carb like the kitavans… it really doesn’t matter in terms of health. Suggest you read Weston Price- a real researcher. (and his entire book is free on the net.)
VLC’ers often run into thyroid issues- low body temps, low libido, grouchiness, fatigue. Of course it doesn’t happen until a year or so into low-carb. 6 months is a good time-frame to feel really good about your weight loss and certain you have solved all your problems.
Taubes has stated, for the record, that he can’t eat more than a handful of blueberries without gaining weight. Does that sound like someone with a healthy metabolism?
Jimmy Moore, low-carb guru, is still obese.
Jimmy Moore is still eating 50g of carbs a day (in sweet potatoes, last I read.) For him, that’s too many. For you, maybe not. Taubes can’t eat berries and neither can I b/c we no longer metabolize carbs well. Too many years of eating all those juicy sweet fruits and healthy whole grains. If you can eat carbs, lose weight and fee healthy, more power to you! If it ever stops working for you, consider cutting carbs.
In the meantime, the point in Taubes’ books is not what you or anyone else should eat. The point is that the “science” behind the low fat diet wasn’t even slightly “scientific.” It’s worth a look.
I agree with you about the low-fat diet being based on junk science. I just think low-carb is equally stupid and dangerous.
And by the way I very much question the conventional wisdom. I just also question the sanity of swapping one macronutrient for another as if either actually mattered.
Yeah, here’s certainly no question that it doesn’t matter what nutrients we take in.
There’s obviously no connection between the content of our diet and our health.
Right.
Thanks for citing all that double-blind clinical research to support your thesis. (/sarc)
I’m confident you can find it without my help
Unlike others I am not trying to sell a book.
The Taubes lo carb diet works. I have been yo-yoing for over 50 years with increasing frustration and decreasing success. Was pointed to Taubes by several suggestions in Instapundit. Got his two books and read them. The thing that made it click with me was his description of the Inuits living on the Alaska North Slope and what they used to eat vs what they eat today. Went on the diet in mid-March. Down 20 in 3 months. Best thing about this is that I am never hungry which has never happened on any previous diet. As to the fat and cholesterol charge, it is garbage. From my yearly physical bloodwork last month, diet increased my total cholesterol by 20 points – 160 to 180. Triglycerides went up some. Results may vary. OBTW, I am doing this with a couple glasses of wine in the evenings. This works. Cheers -
Count calories, commit to lifestyle change, don’t “cheat”. I dropped 75lb in 9 months and have kept it off for 13 years. If you don’t commit to the liefstyle change you’ll fail…every time.
Did you hear about the doctor in Kreplachistan who proved that it’s the vowels in food names that make you fat? He did a study that showed if you load up on consonants you can loose 10 pounds every hour!
Or you could eat a balanced healthy diet with moderate daily exercise.
…but that would be crazy.
I am reminded of the Australian folk song…
Free the pounds! Let them go loose!
HINT: “loose” rhymes with “goose”, “juice”, and “Bruce”.
Maybe you should try to LOSE weight, instead.
It’s not ketosis that made you lose all that weight; it’s gluconeogenesis. Since you’re diet does not provide enough carbohydrates to support your brain, your liver uses protein and glycerin and converts them into glucose to make up the difference. Now, glycerin is released from the breakdown of fat, whether it be fat from your diet or fat from your adipose tissue, and gluconeogenesis is the normal pathway for metabolizing glycerin. The protein, however, is where your weight loss is coming from. To generate the 60 gram/day glucose output you need from protein to cover your glucose deficit, you need to consume about 180 grams of protein. Your liver, in turn, expends roughly 10% of the energy derived from that protein to turn it into glucose and dispose of the waste ammonia. This is on top of the fact that protein requires more energy for the stomach to break down than carbohydrate.
Result: you don’t have to work out to lose weight because your liver and stomach are doing the workout for you.
The book I used is the only one that’s ever worked for me that I can live with: the 1964 “drinking man’s diet,” which consists of one rule: Eat less than 60 grams of carb a day. (And I don’t even drink.) It’s almost impossible to go the full paleo or Taubes route while also keeping kosher (too expensive and lacking variety when some meats and most seafoods are excluded), plus I have a family with no interest in imitating this. But I have gone down 15 pounds in 5 months, and am within striking distance of my target weight. Keeping in mind, of course, that food eaten on Sabbaths and holy days contains no carbohydrates and no calories…
werewife, you are nearly referring to the “No-S” diet! Google for it – it’s “no seconds, no sweets, no snacks” except on days that begin with S (which includes holy days, birthdays, whatever festival days you keep, as long as you don’t start including the dog’s birthday….)
It’s a great idea!
Dr. William Davis, Cardiologist and researcher into why we have visceral fat and what can cure most of what ails the modern human. His book is called Wheat Belly. It isn’t low carb or high protein. It is a way for human’s to eat like they were born to. It is a proven fact that wheat was changed to enable the farmer to grow more wheat per acre in a year to bring food to the third world. Modern grain products will kill you. Of course many things will kill you, but our diet is something no one can avoid.
Like our author I too started at 319lbs on a 6ft 3in frame. Most folks would look at me and say I was huge but not fat. Truth is I was hypertensive to the tune of 190/120 on a good day and a Type 2 diabetic with tingle toes and legs twitches at night. I was on CPAP to keep me from choking myself to death, 18cfm pressures. I was fat, sick and nearly dead. I dig ditches for a living and this and my naturally hardy Scots-Irish bloodlines were the only thing keeping me from keeling over.
I tried the Atkins plan and couldn’t keep it up because it made carbs a no-no. Then one day I was watching a show on net flix and was introduced to the juicing fast. I tried it for 21 days and it was a major life changing moment for me because I realized that I was addicted to grains. I had dreams about them. I could smell them when I was sitting in the driver seat of my truck even though I knew there weren’t any in there. I still hadn’t made the complete transition to a grain free lifestyle, but I was beginning to understand my addiction. Then I happened to have a conversation with a friend in a bookstore on a Sunday and bought the book that day. May 5th 2012. I began my journey to freedom from addiction and cravings and obesity. I am working daily although I don’t restrict my calories, I still lose .6 lbs per day average over the 30 day period.
But the best part is I don’t hurt anymore. I don’t have hypertension, type 2 diabetes or tingle toes and leg twitches. I still use my CPAP mostly because I like the fact that it filters the air and makes me sleep deeply. I probably won’t need it within the year. I still dig ditches daily and don’t get winded like I used to. I started lifting weights again like I did when I was in college but because I wanted to not because I think it will help me lose weight. But because my wife likes me with big muscles.
ABC, avoid alcohol, bread and carbs. But limiting vegetables is probably not that good for digestion, and I know when I’ve gone full blown Atkins, I’ve gotten constipated, groggy and cranky. So what I’ve done pretty much full time is I have no bread, pasta or sugar in the damn house. But non-starchy vegetables are just nice on the gut and for the brain, in my opinion.
I can’t say I’m where I want to be. Lost and kept off about 25 lbs. Would like to drop another 20 but despite what anyone says, even if you eat only meat, fish and greens, you can get fat if you eat 4,000 calories a day’s worth. I love to eat! I also found that the biggest fat maker was cheese. Now, I know, it has no carbs. True. But when you eat a fist size piece of mozzarella or a few thumb size pieces of brie, you’ve really eaten most of your day’s calories.
So my little advice, as a guy who’s lost and KEPT OFF 25 lbs for about ten years now is stick to meat, fish, salad, with enough non-sweet fruit for your vitamins. Typically, eggs for breakfast, or a pear or an apple. Lunch, salad or sashimi or some steak and dinner more meat and salad.
The key is to throw away your clothes as you shrink.
you and several others here have referred to Dr Atkins diet as NO CARBS which is untrue- the extremely low carb diet is recommended for only 2 weeks and that does include one salad per day. The books discuss several levels of lo carb based upon an individual’s metabolism- some can add many veggies and a few fruits and still lose weight, some people cannot- and he goes into a lot of detail to tell a person how to decide the proper amount. I have all his books and I can tell you many vegetables are on the list of things he recommends eating. Some veggies are high in starch (turns to sugar in your gut) and can only be used sparingly or not at all until you get to your goal weight.
It is amazing how vilified this man’s good advice is, despite it’s proven effectiveness in fixing diabetes, heart disease, candida and depression, despite scientific testing while the mantra of low fat is just repeated by the brainwashed. SUGAR white refined sugar is better put into your car than your body.
My guilty pleasure is a daily sausage egg and cheese bagel for breakfast from a chinese restaurant about a block away from work. My version of the Atkins is more a dialing back of carbs, starch and sugar rather than a wholesale ban. From a high of 255 on a 6’1″ frame I’m down to 230 over 6 months or so.
I’ve managed to go full Gibbs* on coffee, no more cream and sugar. Grains and taters are persona non grata on my plate except for visiting days. IOW they’re muchly reduced. Instead of a weekly pizza it’s down to one every other month or so. I must have occasional carrots to reward me for the sticks.
*Mark Harmon’s character on NCIS
this is a temporary fix.
given the heart problems and diabetes in your family you are really not doing yourself any favors eating that way.
getting the weight off is awesome and a step in the right direction.
can i suggest reading ‘eat to live’ by joel furman (spelling is wrong)
i have a couple of friends, one male who lost over 50 lbs in a few months and kept it off utilizing this lifestyle change. my female friend who is only about 5’2″ has lost 60lbs and still going. she exercise hard on a regular basis.
good luck. do some more research. also you can include virgin coconut oil in your daily intake for automatic metabolism boosting and weight loss.
Ketosis is the product of negative calorie balance, plain and simple. I guarantee you if you ate a high-carb low calorie diet, you’d have ketones in your urine, because your body would have to turn to fat for energy (and your brain (eventually) to protein for gluconeogenesis, as the brain HAS to have glucose) to keep itself alive.
I’d encourage you to google “twinkie diet”.
A high-carb diet would provide the brain with all the glucose it needs. 120 grams per day covers the brain’s energy demand.
I am quite amazed at Dr. Davis’s book, “Wheat Belly”. Because I have metabolic syndrome and coronary artery disease, my wife and I have adopted a diet which avoids most processed foods. As a result, I have avoided stent placement and multiple bypass surgery first recommended to me in 1998. (I have not avoided having to take a truck-load of pills in the meantime, however. Nor have I avoided quarterly monitoring by my cardiologist.)
A month ago, we finally went through our kitchen and threw out all our wheat flour and processed foods containing wheat or wheat flour. We still do some baking, but with other flours: oat, brown rice, and, if you can imagine it, garbanzo bean flour. Obviously, vending machine treats are out. We no longer dine out as much. At home, I have increased my intake of fat and protein.
I have had three welcome surprises with the elimination of wheat/wheat flour (and sugar) from my diet. 1.) I have lost a modest eight pounds in one month. (My goal is one pound per week for the next year.) 2.) I no longer have ravenous periodic cravings throughout the day. As a result of this, I am able to easily ration myself to a couple squares of dark chocolate per day, whereas in the past, our chocolate cache would have sung its siren song to me all throughout the day until I gave in and devoured it all. 3.) The most amazing thing is that for years, I have had a modest level of exercise induced angina—classic referred pain radiating from my sternum across my chest and down my left arm. Within a few days of eliminating wheat and wheat flour from my diet, this pain has been reduced by about 90%. (I look forward to discussing this and my weight loss and likely good changes in my cholesterol numbers sometime next month.)
I recommend Davis’ book, “Wheat Belly”, Taube’s articles and books, and a movie called “Fathead”. What you have been told about “good nutrition” may well be all wrong. The many, many pounds of excess fat, may not be entirely your fault and your supposed lack of willpower at all.
I am on a beer diet, and I feel great.
For now….
I am on a panocha diet, it’s a acquired taste but it’s so good for you.
Congratulations on your successful weight loss. How you accomplished the feat doesn’t matter, the fact is you did it. Now the challenge is.. but you know that. Exercise does help. Best of luck!
Let me guess, youve been hanging out with Jeremy Mayfield?
LOL!
If you live in So Cal, you’ll have to go to the Orange County Fair.
http://articles.dailypilot.com/2012-07-14/news/tn-dpt-0715-ocfair-20120714_1_deep-fried-chicken-charlie-bacon-wrapped
Turkey legs wrapped in a pound of bacon. Fried butter as a side dish. And fried ice cream for dessert. You’ll lose weight here for sure, or discover a few new menu items.
I had to have my Australian Battered Potatoes, but that’s the worst thing I’ll eat all year.
Now I have to quit putting off starting this type of diet. I know the reality but I just keep putting off living it. But here is yet another success story
BTW, hamburger is just to bland for me. Try these Bacon Parmesan Pork burgers I found. Just leave off the bun, the patty is juicy and flavorful. I do add a couple drops of A1 to the mix.
The high-carb, low-fat crowd might want to not go there as this burger will definitely stress you out.
I think a picture’s worth a 1000 words. How about this short video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zVxA6yipv4&feature=player_embedded#!
I’ve eaten this way for over 15 years. Originally lost 70 lbs and have kept it off. I’m almost 60 and my Dr. says my numbers indicate a mid 40s person. It has to be a way of life not a diet mindset.
Congratulations, Duane!
While I have not enjoyed success at the dramatic rate that you’ve had, it’s still very nice to be heading in the right direction for a change. I have much further to go, unfortunately, but I’m in this for the long haul; at the rate I’m going, it will probably take a year, give or take, to reach my “college fighting weight” of 160.
But when I started this whole thing this past March 12, due primarily to Glenn Reynolds’ posts on Taubes, I weighed 240 pounds (5’10″). Taubes convinced me that I have been a lifelong carb addict, and so just to see what would happen I decided to try giving up breads, potatoes, rice, and starches of any sort, also sweets. And I started eating steaks, burgers, bacon, ribs — foods which I usually avoided because of their high-fat content. Bottom line, in a little more than four months, I’m down 27 pounds, and am at the verge of resuming a human shape again. I also have more energy now, and that was almost immediate, starting about five days into it.
I should point out that I’ve been through a huge weight loss before. About forty years ago, I was a 235-lb. tenth-grader and — tired of the kicking around that fat kids in high school seem entitled to receive — white-knuckled it all the way down to 160 by my freshman year of college. I say “white-knuckled” because I had no idea in those days that there were “good calories and bad calories.” I also continued to white-knuckle it successfully well into my forties, but finally I reached a point where I could no longer control my weight that way. It took about five years to gain sixty pounds, and another ten years to gain twenty more — and (the nature of carb addiction being what it is) I was hungry the whole time. I’ve been hungry all my life.
Until now. For the first time ever, I’m not walking around in a constant state of hunger. When I do get hungry, I grab for a piece of bacon or hunk of cheese — fat is your friend. I’ve even allowed myself to continue drinking in moderation, though I’ve had to give it up for a few days here and there when it looked like the weight loss might be stalling.
I realize this means a life change, not a diet, but I say, bring it on. I owe Gary Taubes and Glenn Reynols a huge debt of gratitude.
I was diagonised with insulin-resistant diabetes about 5 years ago. So, of course, sugar is out. Carbohydrates as well. I mainly eat proteins and vegetables. I have lost 50 pounds and gone from a waist size of 40 inches down to 36 inches. I am not endorsing diets as a way to lose weight. I am arguing for changing the way you eat. In particular, I would argue that you should meet with you PCP before you do anything.
Eat less, exercise more.
Wow! What a good looking guy you are, Duane, without carrying the curse of the carbos! Congrats!
My brother the Internist says as long as his patients lose weight, he doesn’t care how they do it…even on high protein diets their blood work (lipids, cholesterol, etc.)and blood pressure improves.
Right on brother, I grew up on a farm and thats basically what we have always eaten,
Bacon, Eggs, Fish, Meat, Pork, cabbage, spinach… lots of it too…
I still eat the same way and I haven’t put on more that 5lbs since I left the Marines… I do execise though, its good for the heart and lungs..
Cheers,
Doc
Way to go! Dang, I wish I could try that diet. Doctor has me on a severe low-fat diet due to stomach problems . . . God, I miss bacon.
It is probably just a happy coincidence that the FDA based lo fat diet has kept pharma sales healthy and Dr. visits regular.
Hit that one on the nose, you did. I recommend watching the movie “Fathead”, that is what got me to make this change about a month ago, I don’t weigh myself because weight is nothing but a hang up; however, I can now comfortably fit into clothes that I haven’t been able to for over a year and I’ve gone down one belt notch.
I did Atkins when it first came out. I lost a bunch but the ketosis kept me dizzy all the time.I also tried various starvation diets; they all worked but I had more and more problems with positional hypotension. (Stand up and hold on till the room stops spinning. Bend over and feel faint.) The best diets are balanced as long as you can keep iron discipline.
Reading the comments, everybody had a different way to eat to lose weight. Find your own and keep it up.
BRAVO!!!!!
I also panicked when the scale hit 300. Conventional low-fat/high-fiber diets just don’t work for me, and old injuries/chronic pain limit my exercising ability to walking and swimming, about 30 minutes MAX in any one session. I was desperate!
Nevertheless, I lost 125 lbs in 18 months on a virtually zero-carb regimen (think Atkins Induction Phase as a permanent way of life). I stabilized there for another 18 months, and am now going “all the way” into the Paleo diet to shed the last 50 lbs.
Do I miss carbs? SURE. There are days I feel like I’d KILL for a sandwich. But then I look in the mirror (5 dress sizes smaller) and take my blood pressure (now back in the normal range WITHOUT medications) and realize that “killing for a sandwich” is just another way to say “killing MYSELF” on the installment plan.
I truly wonder which special interests/industry groups drive that idiotic low-fat/high-fiber “food pyramid,” when it’s obviously SO bad for all of us who aren’t in high-physical occupations (e.g., pro athlete, Navy SEAL). Wouldn’t it be interesting to follow THAT money to see where it leads?
Anyone interested in learning more, one resource that has helped me a lot is “Laura Dolson” (find her via your favorite search engine). She publishes an e-letter composed of some science, some anecdotal stories, a LOT of recipes, and the occasional “low carbing in the news” items.
I think Gary Taubes has done a real service toward curing the obesity epidemic with his books by providing the science and history to show why the “calories in/calories out” model is wrong and should be discarded. He also was correct in explaining the role of the endocrine system in obesity, although he seems to focus on insulin to the exclusion of other hormones involved in controlling hunger, satiety, fat burning and energy production.
I haven’t read “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” but I did just finish Taubes’ book, “Why We Get Fat and What to do About It.” He answers the objection that the Atkins diet he recommends could cause heart disease by showing that carbohydrates are the culprit rather than fats. However, he does not address the objections that the Atkins diet causes kidney failure, kidney stones, osteoporosis and gout. Most people know that kidney failure is a terminal illness, but are unaware that osteoporosis also is a progressive, terminal illness that results in disability and death due to fractures from falls, or even just standing up or walking.
I think Jillian Michaels has done a better job than Taubes in her book, “Master Your Metabolism,” of providing people with the explanation of the role of the endocrine system in achieving and maintaining weight loss. She also does a vastly better job of providing people with a diet that is fairly easy and pleasant to follow, which will burn fat and provide plenty of energy and well-being.
Over the last two years I’ve gradually lost over 60 pounds using the Bodybugg (to count calories in and out) plus exercise. (Jillian Michaels uses a different version of this gizmo called the BodyMedia FIT, which measures the number of calories you burn each day and the quality of your sleep.) I’ve learned that exercise gives you a glow and stamina and well-being that you can’t get from weight loss alone.
So kudos on your weight loss, but you would be very well-advised to move heaven and earth to start an exercise program. For one thing, it’s good for your brain. It’s also good for healthy body composition to improve your muscle-to-fat ratio. Once you get close to a normal weight range, the body composition numbers are much more important than just your weight, especially since your body digests its own muscle before it will burn fat if you are not dieting correctly. There are affordable digital scales now that provide body composition information along with your weight.
Something else to bear in mind is that you can keep going toward your goal even if you have to change strategies on how to achieve it. So if you review more research and other authors and decide the risks of the Atkins diet concern you, there are other programs that also work as well or better.
I’ve been following the Primal Blueprint and Mark’s Daily Apple for about a year now and I am a believer! I do need to eat some sweet potatoes or potatoes for carbs those days i do some sort of long run or hard workout — but if I wasnt working out I wouldn’t et the tubers. the biggest thing is NO GRAINS and NO MILK.
That’s great Duane. God bless you!
Don’t leave exercise out though, just don’t bother with the gym. Do 20 pushups in the morning and 20 at night. Think of that as a barebones maintenance minimum. If you can’t do that, do what you can.
Figure on less than a minute a day with that