Dr. Nowzardens 600lb life 1200 calorie diet?


(Jenny) #21

Dr. Fung would say the idea of a person running around with extra fat being worried about skipping some meals is insanity. And it is.


(Jenny) #22

not enough little hearts for me to love this enough!!!:purple_heart::purple_heart::purple_heart::blue_heart::purple_heart:


#23

If they’re not getting enough nutrition, and if they can’t get their insulin down, then skipping meals is a bad idea. It’s the basic tenant of Ketogenic fasting that you should break a fast when you’re hungry and let fasting come to you naturally. Telling a 600lb person they should just skip meals is pretty reductive and is a step away from saying “just put down the donut, fatty.”


#24

On Brandon’s Story the other night, he started out at 718 pounds. When Dr. Now gave him the diet to follow, he told Brandon he needed to lose 120 pounds in two months “because it takes a lot of calories to maintain such a weight”. He lost 141 pounds!

Overall, Brandon dropped over 250 pounds before surgery.

It was actually this reality show that convinced me I didn’t need to get surgery (again). I figured if they could lose that much weight before surgery, why would they need surgery? I had my stomach stapled in 2000 and learned quickly that there are ways to eat around the surgery. Now, with Keto, I weight less than I did post-stapling.


#25

What do you mean “again?” I’m asking out of curiosity, if you dont mind me asking :slight_smile: You had your stomach stapled and then you would’ve had another surgery, a gastric sleeve/bypass?


#26

When I hit 520 pounds in 2000, I went ahead and had my stomach stapled, because I was a compulsive overeater. It was not a good experience. I bled out the following week and it took over 6 months after that to heal. I had a huge hematoma. I ended up dropping to about 490 pounds, but most of that was from recovery from the surgery, not because the surgery got me to eat that much less. For nearly 15 years, I would throw up 5 to 10 times per week because the “ring” at the bottom of my esophagus would get plugged up, and I’d need to do a “roto rooter” job on it.

At the end of 2016, I was hospitalized for a severe electrolyte imbalance (I’ve needed to supplement potassium since about 1997 or so). At that time, I was my heaviest. About 650 pounds. I had been considering going back and doing bypass surgery. When I was in the hospital, they didn’t have many of my normal channels on the TV, so I ended up watching a lot of My 600-lb Life.

Like I said, after seeing so many “You need to lose 60 pounds in a month” declarations from Dr. Now, and seeing how much weight they were losing before surgery if they followed the diet, I wondered why they even needed the surgery? I was familiar with keto, and Dr. Now’s diet is similar to keto, so I started eating a strict keto diet in the hospital. They had a number of very good shrimp dishes, and they were delicious.

After the hospital and rehab, I tried to focus on 1200 calories per day keto. I’ve been as low as 463 since (lowest weight in decades), although I’ve been in a stall for quite a while because I’ve been letting the calories slide.

I am a T2 diabetic. At the end of 2016, I was using insulin and metformin, but barely keeping my A1c in check, at 7.3. Since going reduced calorie keto, my A1c has been as low as 5.2, without any diabetes medications.

The two biggest advantages of keto for me is better control of hunger and blood sugars.


#27

I’m so sorry this journey has been so tough with numerous hospitalizations…I watched a few documentaries and there were many similar experiences with the band.

My own interpretation of the show - he wants them to come down to the weight, ASAP, where he can operate on them as safely as possible and at the same time, see if they are willing to put in the effort. That takes two to three months and in those months they aren’t ready to face their demons yet and think long-term; however, he does need to get some weight down very quickly because they are in very bad shape. He then performs the gastric sleeve/bypass, which is the long-term treatment, including therapy - they are a bit healthier now, so they have time to focus on therapy and can start resolving the issues that made them overeat.
Of course, that’s my interpretation - it is tv, after all.

I believe that you are on a plan that will make it a lot easier than before, keto is great for that. But like all of us, we need to find the root of the problem in order to succeed long-term.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #28

I would worry about the same kind of metabolic damage that plagues alumni of “The Biggest Loser.”


#29

I saw a discussion the other day that the show is recently having a lot more gastric sleeves than bypasses. The consensus seemed to be that the sleeves were less invasive, less risk and fewer side effect (short-term and long-term), while the bypasses only had slightly better weight loss.


#30

That seems to be less of an issue when someone is in ketosis? The question is how much less?


#31

Someone created an audio collage of Dr. Now’s very frank comments:


Some before and after pics (although some pics seems to be later than the reported ending weight):


#32

Makes sense, he’s definitely the one to trust which option is better :slight_smile: