How I Lost Weight
I have been through this four times. I have no intention of going through it a fifth time, and I do not expect to have to.
By May 2009 I was on an upward swing in my weight, and I was clearly out of control regarding carb consumption once more. At the same time I read Gary Taubes excellent book ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’, which is really an expose of the nutritional establishment over the past hundred years… and what I needed to do came together.
I have had enough success with low carb and controlled carb dieting to know that it works; but why did I never get off the treadmill? In my case, I finally realized that it was because I was not being stringent enough. I tried to follow modified versions of the Atkins plan (which I consider perfect), and Protein Power. In each case, I was still eating enough carbohydrate that my insulin-generating problem was not going away; I was therefore not losing quickly, and staying hungry. I decided to experiment on myself.
I would stop eating carbohydrates, ENTIRELY. Nothing. Just a combination of meat, eggs and cheese. Water / Coffee / Coke Zero. That’s it.
The first three days were as bad as always – and they are bad. Withdrawal from something I am addicted to, with all of the attendant headaches and body aches. On the fourth day this was gone, and I felt fine. At the beginning of the second week, I started riding my exercise bike. I found I had so much energy I quickly went from 5 miles to 10 miles to 20 miles per night on this stationary bike. And my weight began dropping. So did my blood pressure – by three weeks it was falling amazingly low, and I contacted my Doctor. He began weaning me off Altace, a blood pressure medication, and reduced my Metformin to two x 500 ML / day instead of three. Once I was safely off Altace, I began reducing Metoprolol. After two weeks, it was also gone. Neither have ever come back. I continue to take Metformin to counteract Insulin
resistance.
I had started out at 260 lb. By the time I went to Disneyworld in September with my daughters, I was down to 208. By Christmas I was in the 180s. In January I hit 178, and I have stayed within two pounds of 178 since.
The key to this process is that I had identified which foods were causing me problems, and eliminated them from my diet. I am unable to ingest more than a tiny amount of Carbohydrate without causing very significant Insulin release, with all of its attendant problems. By keeping my diet devoid of carbs, I am able to eat what I want (which includes rather copious quantities of cheese and peanut butter) and my weight continued to slide to a balance point that is almost identical to the weight I carried around as a teenager after losing 85 lb. the first time. Since I continue to eat a nearly carbohydrate free diet, I do not get hungry, and I am stable. Do I miss Pizza and Lasagna? Of course. Right now it is more important to maintain my health, so I have to do without stuff like that.
To reiterate: the secret is to be honest, and identify the foods that cause particular problems for you, and then avoid them. If you are Diabetic, you have my problem with carbs. If not, you may have a lesser problem, and may find that you can eat a small amount of carbohydrate and lose weight. This is the beauty of the Atkins plan, as it lets you figure this out. In my case Atkins was not stringent enough. As soon as I tightened it up, off came the pounds.
Someone at this point is screaming because I cannot possibly get proper nutrition eating like this. Guess what? I never did. I always ate wierd but a lot of it was based on flour products like macaroni. I take a collection of supplements (which I will post) that give me all of the essential building blocks, and I get enough energy from what I do eat to keep my weight stable.