I wonder if I count? Between sixteen and thirteen years ago, I lost a total of 105lbs when I went low-carb. I maintained the loss for another four years, until I got pregnant. Despite my total dedication to low-carb, which had turned my life around, and which I was utterly in love with, I was so sick (I had ‘mild’ hyperemesis gravidarum) that no matter what I tried, I could only stomach carbs. And then I threw them up. But despite throwing up four times a day, I gained about 25lbs before I could go back to low-carb - at which point I didn’t gain any more weight. But then I gained a bit more during breastfeeding, and I had gained some pre-pregnancy, during the honeymoon months when I wasn’t as careful as I needed to be. So when my son was a month old, I found myself about forty pounds higher than I had been at my lowest weight. Which was incredibly distressing. But I figured - low carb had finally taught me how to eat, so all I had to do was continue, and I’d lose it again, even if it would take time, as I’ve always been a slow loser. Well, it didn’t happen. For the next eight years, it didn’t happen. I kept eating low-carb, and every so often I’d put in extra effort - I’d do strict keto for a month, or I’d count calories as well as carbs, or I’d quit sweetener… but there would be minimal change, and I would feel like I was on a diet, feel deprived, not feel like I’d felt when I initially low-carbed. I even kept slowly gaining weight over those years. By the time December 2016 rolled along I had managed to go up to 217lbs from my low of 145 (highest weight was 250, in my mid-twenties). I thought it was age - I’m in my forties now. But I was so miserable - there I was, a dedicated low-carber, I owned all the books, I knew all the names - before many of you did, I’d been doing this for sixteen years; even Good Calories, Bad Calories, when it came out, only confirmed what I already knew from my years on low-carb/Atkins etc. But how could I be an ambassador for low-carb when I was gaining weight despite eating low carb 95.5% of the time? I was never diabetic, by the way - just very fat. My bloodwork was all great - because I ate low-carb! One doctor almost laughed at me when I asked about having an insulin test - because why would they give me one, when everything else looks fabulous?
Anyway… in December 2016 I read The Obesity Code. I almost didn’t buy it - just another book telling me things I already know, I thought. Thank goodness I did. Most of it was familiar, true enough - but there were two things that stood out: 1) sweetener raises insulin and 2) even low carb won’t necessarily lower your insulin to the point where you can actually lower your setpoint.
I quit sweetener and started alternate day fasting, in combination with my ever-present low-carb/keto diet (I call it low-carb, but really you could call it lazy keto - I have always been fairly strict, but I also would use sweetener).
I am now, a year later, down fifty pounds. I have no doubt now that, while it may take me a while longer - i’m still a slow loser - i’ll get back to that 100+ lbs lost. I’m now 83lbs down from the highest weight I saw, which was twenty years ago. I have another ten pounds to go to my pre-pregnancy weight, and twenty-two to my lowest weight as an adult (I was obese by the age of 14).
Keto wasn’t enough for me, not once I had had kids. I’m sure my cortisol was raised for years post-birth - my son was a terrible sleeper so I was permanently sleep deprived. Then I went through some years of secondary infertility - more stress. Then another very hard pregnancy - this one even worse, so I actually didn’t gain any weight even though I could only eat carbs - I threw up so much I was losing weight. Then another son who didn’t sleep for years. So it’s possible that even if I’d found Dr Fung’s work earlier, it wouldn’t have helped, because I don’t know how I would have got my insulin lowered when I was being woken up multiple times a night by babies and toddlers.
Sorry for this very very long post!! But I love to talk about my experience - because I have been doing this for so long, and because my long-term success with low-carb/keto was negatively affected by the upheavals of pregnancy (and some other stresses like job losses) despite my continuing to eat right, and it took eight years of struggling and only then, with Dr Fung’s book, a combination of keto and fasting and quitting sweetener for things to work again. But now I’m on fire! I love fasting and my love of keto and low-carb has been renewed. My appetite is back where it should be; I’m in charge, not my body, and I finally feel like my appearance has begun to reflect my commitment to the healthiest way of eating there is!! before_after|690x344
I’m sorry that must have been frustrating