Has anyone out there lost a significant amount of weight?
One of the features of my weight loss website is a monthly newsletter. I like to include success stories whenever possible. So far, I’ve featured someone who had gastric bypass, someone who became healthier as a result of becoming a vegetarian, and someone who lowered their cholesterol and blood pressure (and lost weight) by making a commitment to eat healthier and exercise regularly. If you’ve lost weight through lap-band surgery, diet and exercise, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Alli, or another way and want to share your story, please contact me!
amount, anyone, LOST, Significant, there, Weight
id never been over weight i been chubby 140 at 5”7 i lost 13 pounds of belly fat bye doing weight taring at school and eating less food i haven’t gained it back my belly is so much smaller my friends mom whats to lose 100 pounds from 247 to so she orded herbal and so far lost 20 pounds she been exercising
i love sharing my success story!!
at 19, i was just out of high school, just married (though, now, at 30, i am happily divorced!!) and in the beginning of our courtship, i was an attractive 135 lbs. i had played sports and been active all through school. the year was 1999.
we received a fry daddy as one of our wedding shower gifts. we fried EVERYTHING! and with no more sports to keep me active, we were also very immobile.
by 20, i had ballooned from 135 to 170.
fortunately, i lived across from a gym. and even more fortunately, i had a friend who began teaching aerobics that summer that talked me into coming to her classes, and made me feel just HORRIBLE when i skipped out. and i mean she laid the guilt on THICK when i would miss.
at the time, i just attended her classes just so i wouldn’t have to hear her big mouth…
but over time, i started noticing i was getting my old body back – only better!
i only lost 10-15 lbs, but i went from a size 12 to a 6! i was half my size, and had this great muscle tone that everyone began commenting on. i loved it!
i weighed more than the 135 that i did at 19, but i looked SO much better!
after that summer, my friend had to go back out of town to school and asked me to take over her classes. turns out, i had a knack for teaching aerobics, and i still teach today.
not only am i an aerobics instructor, but the mere fact that my friend asked me to attend her classes has lead me to study nutrition, kinesiology and exercise science to be a certified personal fitness trainer.
the day that she asked me to attend her classes has changed my life for the very best, and i am so very thankful to her.
i live in a small town, and i am well-known for my fitness classes and training now. i am the only trainer and one of the only 2 aerobics instructors in the county. people look to me for help towards a healthier lifestyle, and it’s very rewarding.
i hope you can use my story, and sorry it’s rather long, but like i said, i love telling this story!!
I *thought* I had a healthy diet, low fat, high carb, adequate protein & kept getting sicker and fatter. I started Atkins 5 years ago just to get my appetite under control. I am disabled and can’t exercise & I didn’t think it was possible to LOSE weight without exercise (which was how I always controlled my weight before I was disabled) or hunger (I never believed in low calorie diets) I started Atkins (didn’t weigh first) & I shrunk quick. I have never tried to lose weight and I still lost massive amounts of weight without trying, just making different choices. I can’t worry about my weight until my health is better, but with low carb balancing my hormones, I am starting to heal. My cholesterol & triglycerides are now perfect (they were high before). Dr.Atkins was a cardiologist, low carb was a health plan easier sold as a “diet”
I advocate a high fat diet, more commonly referred to as a low carb diet or a high protein diet which is actually a misnomer. Though the carbohydrates are low, the protein is only a little higher than adequate but the magic happens in this plan with the fat.
Glucose is the bodies preferred fuel (if you want to get technical, if actually burns alcohol most efficiently, but that doesn’t make it any healthier for the body than carbs), the body can convert 100% of carbs, 58% of protein & 10% of dietary fat into glucose. The body can also be fueled by fat (dietary fat & fat cells) but only in the absence of carbs. Your brain actually prefers to be fueled by ketones (part of the fat burning process), only the heart requires glucose, but glucose can be easily converted from fat stores or excess protein if needed or dietary fat.
Your body requires fats, you will die without them. Your body requires protein, you will die without them. You will die if you eat protein without fat. You do not require carbohydrates. The body can manufacture all it needs from the protein/fat combination.
High fat, adequate protein and very low carbs will after 3 days convert your body to burning fat as fuel (ketosis). While in ketosis you will burn dietary fat and if dietary fat is more than sufficient, body fat directly. High calories will keep the metabolism at maximum fat burning capabilities.
Eating carbohydrates while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) and exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.
A calorie is not a calorie. The body does not follow logical mathematical equations. Metabolism is controlled by nutrition. You can’t eat 600/1500/2000 calories of fruit (pick a number, it doesn’t matter – only the amount of fat stored changes) , your body will treat it as being starved (which it is, starved of nutrition) and will shut down your metabolism as if you’re eating nothing, but will store every possible ounce as fat. Inversely, you wont gain weight on 4000 or more calories of fat & protein (if fat is 65% of calories) because insulin (the fat storage hormone) is not activated.
Your body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow your metabolism to compensate & store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering your calories, it will continue lowering that set point, til you can survive off nothing and store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of food. Read the diet boards about the young girls eating 600 calories a day for months (but fruit is so healthy!) & not losing weight and considering lowering their calories further. Sure they lose some weight at first but it’s water weight & lean tissue but their bodies become fat storage machines.
Although it is completely possible to live on a fat/protein only diet for long term (as proven by research done in a hospital setting) it becomes boring fairly quickly. Luckily many, many vegetables and some fruits, nuts and seeds are low in carbs and greatly expand the diet. Most long term low carbers eat as many, if not more non starchy vegetables than vegetarians.
Detractors of the high fat, high protein Atkins diet claim that Dr. Dean Ornish’s low-fat vegetarian diet as the optimal diet. I believe that Atkins & Ornish’s plans are not that incompatible, they both promote ultimate health as their goal. They both agree that the major problem occurs when you mix carbs with fat. They both agree that highly refined non nutritional carbs with man made fats (trans fats, hydrogenated fats) in mass quantities produces the current obesity/health degradation epidemic that is of global concern.
Ultimately, your diet needs to be what can you live with? I personally wouldn’t be happy living without meat, fat, cheese. I like not having calorie restrictions. It’s easier for me to do without than to do “in moderation”.