I'd like to begin by saying that we are controlled by the mass media and the big food companies that are telling us what we should eat, what's good for us and what's not...

27 years old, male.

I began my low carb diet beginning of Sep 2008. This was actually my second time doing this diet because I had fallen back on bad habits and the amount stress going through school had me finding comfort in eating. I hit my peak in Sep of this year at 242 pounds. I had gained weight extremely fast which made me have constant sharp skin pains on my stomach along with very ugly stretch marks. I knew I had to do something about it but every time I wanted to start the low carb diet again, my addiction for high carb, sweets would take over and convince me that it was the last time. I felt this high like nothing else when i had food in front of me. I would look forward to my next fast food meal while eating my current meal. Some of the symptoms I had while being fat were as follows:

-Shortness of breath
-Low energy.
-Never satisfied no matter how much I ate
-Severe food cravings at unusal times in the day.
-Severe heartburn prevented me from sleeping and functioning.
-Couldn't wake up in the morning and when i did, I had to rest half hour before beginning my day
-Difficulty in concentration. Loss of interest/motovation at work
-Pains on my stomach due to skin being streached, stretch marks
-Unhealthy, excessive oily skin, hair, excessive body odor.
-Reduced sex drive.
-Low self esteem.

and the list could go on and on. The first week of the diet was quite difficult but I know I had to keep up with it. I reduced my diet to basically meats, salads, cheese and a small amount of vegies. I cut 100% of sweets, rice, grains, starches etc. I wanted to shock my body into ketosis since I knew the faster I do this, the faster my cravings would go away and sure enough at the end of the 2nd week, almost all my cravings were gone! I stopped feeling hungry all the time. I could eat two medium sized meals a day and feel completely satisfied. I was able to concentrate on other things for the first time! Before I would always complain about not having enough time but I realized this was because I had food on my mind all the time. I all of a sudden had time that I could never find before which was great. I immediately felt healthier, my skin improved greatly and stopped hurting, I had much more energy than before, my heartburn stopped completely, I fell asleep and woke up with no problems, concentration and work habits improved so I was more productive and I could finally walk from my work area to the parking lot without losing my breath! It's just amazing how much better you feel overall.

So here I'm supposed to listen to the media and FDA tell me what is good for me and what isn't? I do admit that the amount of carbs I ate in a day were probably more than what they suggest but that's what resulted in me eating too much in the first place! I am 100% convinced that human beings were not designed to eat processed foods such as bread, pasta, sweets etc. The food pyramid isn't made by god!

So far I have dropped about 40 lb in a little over two months. My goal is 185 and I'm sure I'll reach it. I have so far gone from a tight fitting XL to a medium and from size 42 jeans to a loose fitting 36. I just wanted to express my feelings about this diet and what it has done for me to hopefully inspire others who are seeking to lose weight. I've been there and know how it feels to be overweight. I know the daily struggles, cravings, self steem issues, hopelessness that many of you go through and I'm here to tell you that you can absolutely overcome them if you put your mind to it for 7 days in your life. I know that after that first one or two weeks, things will become much more easy, you'll begin to see results, feel better and hopefully continue the diet. I hate to use the word "diet" in low carb because it's really not a diet. it's a style of eating which doesn't involve starving yourself and doesn't make you feel starved.

I'd be more than willing to answer any of your question if you have any so please let me know.

YAY you! Excellent work! Now everyone's gonna wanna see pics Congratulations!

What a fantastic post. Thank you so much for that. Congratulations on your deserved success, and wishing you more, plus successful maintenance.

If you don't mind me asking a question, I'd be interested to know if you raised carbs after induction, and if so, how you got on with that as you progressed? I have struggled a bit at times when upping carbs (because I experimented with different foods and sometimes did it too fast). Grains, sugar alcohols and starchy/sweet veggies like carrots are out for me and cream makes me gain. I was quite happy to take the scenic route to weight-loss, but I don't want to backtrack, and I absolutely hate to be at the mercy of careering blood sugar levels. If I had increased the carbs absolutely by the (Atkins) book and been more strict, then I'd have fared better. Hence my question - I get the impression that you ate a lot of salads and stuck with veggie carbs throughout, just eating more of them. Is that so? Did you mainly eat induction veggies, or did you include a wider variety? I'm wondering if there's a benefit to me sticking closer to the induction lists in future. I'd be really interested to have the benefit of your "take" on that, if you have time to spare.

Thanks again for the encouragement and inspiration.

Kirsteen

Congrats!!! Can you also give a sample of your daily menu?? - what a wonderful post - thanks for sharing

First I'd like to thank you for all your support...

When it comes to counting carbs, I simply don't. I think if you stick to a few simple guidelines, you can estimate how much carbs certain foods have. I have a mental list of foods in my head broken down into 3 categores (Low carb, Medium carb and High carb) and eat according to that.

I began by roughly taking in 10-15 carbs a day for two weeks to begin the ketosis process. I then upped it to about 30 carbs a day. I use Ketone strips to constantly check my status and so far I've been in that state about 90% of the time. I cheated a couple times such as having cheesecake one night, Had pasta another time but didn't notice any stalls. I did however notice that I went out of ketosis when i cheated but went right back in the 2nd or 3rd day. i actually think that your body needs the fluctuation in carbs to maintain weight loss so I don't feel too bad about cheating once in a while.

Kirsteen: you are right in that my diet includes mostly meats, salads and a select variety of vegies. i stay away from too much carrots but I have moderate amounts of broccoli, asparagus (my fav), zucchini etc. about once or twice a week. The hardest part though is going out to dinner but I have always found ways to adjust what i order to include the lowest amount of carbs possible. For example, I always substitute vegies for mashed potatos and of course leave out the bread.

As far as fast food goes, I think I should be a sponsor for El Pollo Loco haha! I think El Pollo Loco (fast food chicken chain) is a low carbers ideal place, forget subway... I have it at least 3 or 4 times a week for lunch and sometimes even for dinner. I always order the same, 2 piece breast and wing with two sides of salad and vegies which comes out to about 18g of carbs and 476 calories. The other fast food item I tend to have is lettuce wrapped burgers but I find it less satisfying.

For snacks, I buy blocks of pepper jack cheese (my fav type) along with dry salami which works perfect together. I had more eggs, bacon, sausage early on when i started (first 3 weeks) but I find myself not interested in it anymore for some reason.

At home, I like to grill boneless/skinless chicken breast along with bell peppers and other vegies. I also prepare steaks but I find that it could get quite expensive quick with good cuts of steak so I choose chicken more often.

Hope that helps.

Dear Narbs,

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my question so thoroughly. It was really helpful. I'm going to simplify my diet - lose a few nuts I have each morning, experiment with dropping other things, and try to keep to a simpler plan, like yours. I'm happy with my progress, but since doing induction, I have been careering around on a blood sugar helter-skelter, and I know it isn't the veggies which are to blame, because I didn't strictly limit those during induction. Even though I am already quite strict, it'll take a lot to psych myself up to doing this, because I think I must try cutting out certain foods, including dairy.. and I don't want to.

Keep up your fabulous progress,

Kirsteen

Congrats on your loss thus far and thanks for posting your daily sample of meals.

I do something similar to you Narbs, although I am losing more slowly. Still it's very liberating not to have to count carbs constantly by keeping that mental list of foods instead. Probably the only reason we can "get away" with this is because we've both done LC before and with practice it become almost second nature to know about how much carbs a food contains and what a real serving size looks like.

Best wishes!

Thank you for your post Narbs! You are truly an inspiration to me and I'm sure to many others. I have all the symptoms you listed and I also feel like you did when you were fat. I'm 5'2" and I weight 165 and have two boys, a 6 year old and a 11 month old. I'm miserable. The days are not long enough for me to get things done around my house and my husband and I are always fighting about that. He is the opposite of me. He takes care of himself. He goes to the gym and works out EVERYDAY! It's anoying to me because I have a full time job and I have to stay at home with the kids, make dinner and get ready for the next day while he goes to the gym. It's frustrating! I have a plan thought. Next week I will start back on lc'ing. I have been thinking of just focusing on what I eat, and once I get used to that, I'm gonna slowly bring in time for excersixe. Wish me luck!

What in inspiration Narbs! Fabulous job on losing 40 pounds

Personally I don't count my carbs either, I've done LC before and pretty much know what I can and can't have.

I do have one question for you...how much did you exercise? I find my weight loss slows down when I do but I feel awesome afterwards so it's worth it for the most part. Of course I'd like to see it move faster but I'd also like to be stronger.

Thanks and congrats again, amazing progress!

xjennjennx: Thanks for your support. During the initial weight loss of 40 LB, I didn't step foot in the fitness center. I continued the LC until my weight loss slowed down at around the 200 LB mark so I decided it was time to hit the gym. I'm also with you in that you feel great when you work out but I have seen no significant weight loss from it. For me however, after working out, my appetite increases drastically so I tend to eat more. I also do weight lifting so the lack of weight loss could be from the muscle gain. My advice to you is to avoid the gym until you reach about 10 to 15 LB from your goal weight. I personally find working out disrupts the weight loss in some way or another, if not physical then psychological wise. But I totally agree with you in that you feel great and it also temporarily cures any depression, anxiety you may have.

Hi Narbs,

Unlike the rest, my question isn't going to be about what you eat now... it's going to be more of an appearance question, I hope you wont mind.

I noticed at the start of your post you mentioned the stinging sensation and stretch marks appearing. You have now lost 40lbs, how is that stinging/painful sensation now? how are the stretch marks looking now? are they looking better or worse?

I have stretch marks, I also get that horrid stinging/painful sensation because I stretched my skin too much TOO quickly. God do I regret it now. I would honestly do ANYTHING to go back in time and change it... anything.

Mom2s, having your husband exercise and you not is not the way it is supposed to work. You, also need to be able to take the time to exercise. Maybe the two of you should switch on/off. He takes MWF to exercise and you take TTS. When you are at the gym or walking, then he should be able to take care of the kids, make dinner and bathe the kids. He needs to takes responsibility of your 2 children as much as you do. Even if it is just a 30 minute walk, just do it! On the off days, then you put the kids to bed and go in another room and do flexing and stretching exercises. Walk at lunch for 30 minutes. The two of you are equals in this marriage. I have been married for 27 years and this worked for us bringing up our children.

Kay2008: I don't mind at all... I wish I had started the LC when I saw the first stretch mark but unfortunately didn't so now I have to live with it The stinging sensations began going away after losing about 10-15 pounds (thank god) It was one of the most annoying things to being fat. As if the daily physical and psychological struggle of being overweight wasn't enough, you had to see and feel yourself become scarred.

The appearance has definitely improved but they definately did not disappear. The skin color has changed from a bright pinkish color to a darker skin tone so it appears to blend in better but I'm still conscious and quite frankly embarrassed by them.

Stay focused and motivated and I hope you achieve your goal. Best of luck to you.

Hi Narbs,

Thank you for getting back to me. I am glad your stretch marks are no longer stinging! I've got alot of old stretch marks, but recently gained a few new ones on my left arm . So the only area (where stretch marks are) that is stinging right now is my arms... the place I really couldn't cope with getting any worse!

I did lose 3 stone over a year ago (gained it back), but all my stretch marks were old and silver/white... and I really cannot remember what they looked like after I lost the weight.

I hope my newer ones will soon fade once I start losing the weight... and I also hope that they wont look as harsh anymore either.

That's another frustrating thing about stretch marks... the fact that you can never completely get rid of them, but I have hope that they can look slightly better after losing weight and the skin not being under so much pressure and stretching.

Take care
Kay