My name is William Marshall, I am a lawyer living in Hong Kong for the past 10 yearsand I have lost over 190 pounds on a ketogenic diet. I have reduced my body fat from well above 40% to under 15%. I am not selling anything I am simply moved to share my story and what worked for me on my journey with as many as possible. I was a guy who no one (including myself) ever thought would lose weight or get fit. Through information shared by other keto people, I have changed my whole life. I think others can beat obesity and health problems if they just have access to information or become aware of the mounting weight of scientific evidence that keto is effective and safe and perfectly accessible as a long term way of eating.
As a busy professional, whose job demands heavy international travel around Asia and the rest of the world, I may have some unique experiences and insights that may help others that feel this kind of lifestyle is holding them back.
A bit more about my journey
I was over 400 pounds and very uncomfortable. I wasn’t officially diagnosed with anything but purely because I avoided the doctor and not because I was in good health. I know I had high blood pressure as every time it was tested it was high, but I never had the requisite repeat tests to be officially diagnosed and medicated. I feel certain I was diabetic based on family history and wildly erratic blood sugar issues but never diagnosed or medicated.
I started to lose weight on a basic calories-in-calories-out method in August 2015 but this quickly morphed into the “beer diet” as I traded calories at lunch for example in order to go to the pub. Hahahah ugh. Needless to say, this was not sustainable. I lost quite a bit of weight (about 50 pounds) until the holiday time and then stopped the beer diet and any diet at all.
Over the next 9 months I regained about half of the weight I had lost. In October of 2016 I started a general low carb approach, which worked. I lost a further 40 pounds over 2.5 months but again, around the holiday time I stopped doing that as well.
Then in January of 2017 I heard a podcast with Dr. Peter Attia talking about his own symptoms and weight gain and his nutritional approach. I was intrigued. I then read his blog, looked up Dr. Stephen Phinney, found LowCarbDownUnder’s YouTube channel and fell down a deep rabbit hole of medical lectures, testimonials, information, and details on keto. I was hooked. The logic was appealing, the science compelling, it seemed to address problems that precisely described my own.
So in Mid-January 2017 I started. I haven’t looked back. I haven’t had a single cheat meal since starting, and have regularly worked out. I feel amazing and my entire mind set has changed. I don’t struggle with refraining from delicious foods, I eat intentionally for the health outcomes I want. On that basis it doesn’t take motivation or discipline to continue on strict keto indefinitely, just a focus on health and wellness. I have found it relatively easy to want to follow and to be consistent.
As for my diet, I try to keep my protein to around 150g or lower per day. I am not super strict on this one but generally mindful. I notice that prolonged periods of 200-ish grams of protein per day reduces my level of ketosis. I try to keep my carbs around 20g max per day. I occasionally have gone as high as 40 g. But not higher. Very rare do I go above 25g. Maybe less than 5 times total in the period I’ve been on keto since January 2017.
I regularly maintain food logs. Every single day. I know some people view this with drudgery. I have found this liberating. The knowledge and control it gives me has been a huge contributor to my success. I keep my food logs on MFP and keep it open to the public for people to review. My username is HKWilly. Do feel free to peruse it. My streak is over 580 days now and I am very comprehensive about recording what I eat, even when I over eat.
I keep a regular posting on Instagram too. @HongKongWilly. I share info on what I eat, my struggles, what’s worked for me, etc. This was meant to inspire my sister and father predominantly but I want to help as many others as I can. I don’t sell anything and don’t promote my account, although it too is public. A friend of mine back in NJ is now starting keto based on following me for the last nearly 2 years on journey.
I’ve attached some transformation pics as well.
It makes me sad that others who are very overweight, feel defensive as their first instinct and look for outside factors to make clear it isn’t their “fault” that they are morbidly obese. We always seem to connect gluttony or lack of discipline or some other character flaw with obesity. It’s not fair. It’s really a lack of information. At least it seems it was in my case and my whole life is different now. I did all of this with free resources from YouTube and podcasts. I have listened to many 2ketodudes episodes and I thank you for putting helpful information out there for others. It is valuable even if you don’t hear about always.
I want to contribute in some small way and show an example of a 40+ guy, busy professional, heavy travel schedule, and was able to achieve health and weight loss.
