Richard Morris (@richard) and Carl Franklin (@carl) talk with three weight loss surgery (WLS) patients - Dr. Louise Reynolds (@LouiseReynolds), Donna Lordi (@Donna), and Daisy Brackenhall (@Daisy) - about their experiences, and how they all landed on the ketogenic way of eating. This is a 2-hour event!
Do you have a Weight Loss Surgery story, too? We’d like to hear it. Please reply.
I started following a Ketogenic Way of Eating on May 15th, 2016. At that time, I was 49 years old, 6 feet tall, and weighed 372 pounds.
I have followed a strict Keto diet since then - just over 8 months. As of January 28th, 2017 I am 50 years old, 275 pounds and continuing to lose weight.
My Keto Story:
I’ve been overweight pretty much my entire life. As a child, my parents gave me food as a comfort. Later on in life, I began to use food as a coping mechanism. When I graduated high school I was 6 feet tall and weighed 275 pounds.
Over the course of the next 20 years, my weight gradually increased. At the age of 28 and 320 pounds, I started working at a desk job that would keep me sedentary 5 days a week. I began experiencing lower back pain and spasms which were aggravated by inactivity. I was a sugar junkie and began a sordid affair with “Little Debbie”, consuming at least one or two Nutty Bars, Swiss Rolls, or other cheap sugar bomb pastries daily. Working right near downtown, it was easy to “forget” to bring a healthy lunch to work and instead grab a fast food burger, Chinese buffet, pizza, etc. I was quickly becoming addicted to food, specifically cheap processed carbs, and was constantly chasing my next sugar rush.
February 2004, my weight peaked at an all-time high of 405 pounds. At that time, I began considering bariatric surgery. I felt like I was completely out of control of my weight. I sought out referrals to various bariatric programs and finally found one that my insurance would accept. However, in order to qualify for having the procedure done laparoscopically, I needed to bring my weight from 405 down to 360. I was put on a liquid diet for about 8 weeks - basically protein shakes and nothing else - and put on an intensive walking regimen to quickly drop the weight. It was miserable, but I managed to drop the necessary 45 pounds.
I had a proximal Roux-en-Y gastric bypass on October 21st, 2005. About 6 incisions were made at different areas of my torso. Various scopes were inserted to observe the procedure, along with the necessary surgical tools. The surgeon used a small portion of my stomach to create a new “pouch” stomach, then, bypassing the duodenum, attached the new pouch directly to the small intestine. The remainder of my stomach was left attached to the duodenum, which was then routed back into my digestive system below the pouch.
After the surgery, my weight loss was immediate and significant. I went from 360 to 275 pounds in one year. I was concentrating on eating “protein forward”, which my Doctor said would maintain my muscle mass and deliver the most concentrated nutrition. I was also told to take a multivitamin daily for the rest of my life, since my digestive system could no longer fully absorb the nutrients from the foods I was eating. It was also recommended that I should not consume alcohol. During this time, my stomach “pouch” was so small - about the size of an egg - that I could not physically consume any more than a scant handful of food every few hours. This prohibited me from binging on sugar, and my addiction shifted from food to alcohol and cigarettes.
After the initial one year of weight loss, in late 2006 my weight started to creep back up. I was drinking a lot of calories in the form of beer, and started sneaking more and more sugar and starch into my diet. By the Summer of 2009 I was back up to 350 pounds, tired all the time, suffering from worsening back pain, angry and frustrated that I had not kept the weight off.
September 2009, I stopped drinking cold turkey, but I was smoking at least a pack of cigarettes daily.
July 1st, 2011, I quit smoking (ask my wife how THAT went). I continued to pile on weight.
March 2013, three discs in my lower back ruptured while I was lifting a crate at work. This eventually led to a diagnosis of Degenerative Disc Disease. I began having twice-yearly Radio Frequency Ablation therapy to deaden the nerves in that area of my spine. This kept my pain under control. It is a minimally-invasive procedure but it’s painful - several LONG needles are inserted into my back using ultrasound guidance.
In the Spring of 2016, my wife and I were looking at different diet plans to try to lose weight and improve our overall health. My blood pressure was 170/95, I was constantly in pain, and got winded easily just from climbing a flight of stairs. My family history of diabetes was creeping up on me, and I knew that I was going to cut my life short if I didn’t figure something out.
We first looked at the Nutritarian Diet. Essentially this diet plan is 100% Vegan, meaning no animal products whatsoever. It consists almost entirely of non-starchy vegetables, with an emphasis on dark leafy greens, mushrooms, onions, beans, nuts, seeds, and berries. It disallowed starchy veggies like potatoes and corn, and also nixed all oil, including “healthy” ones like coconut and olive oil. This felt very restrictive, but I was desperate to lose weight and feel better. I tried eating Nutritarian one meal per day, but found it unsatisfying and not “filling” at all. Needless to say, this was clearly not going to be sustainable long-term.
In April, 2016, a friend of mine recommended a book called “Eat Bacon, Don’t Jog” by Grant Petersen. It is a simple primer on the Ketogenic Diet, with easy-to-follow recommendations on how to get started. I had previously had a passing familiarity with the Ketogenic Diet as a treatment for epilepsy in children, but I was not aware that it could be used for weight loss and overall health. I shared the book with my wife, and we both read it cover-to-cover in one day. We went online and researched the science and the practical methods espoused by the author. The science was there, along with hundreds of success stories and forums filled with people who were passionate about the Ketogenic Way of Eating.
On May 15th, 2016, I began eating Keto. My macros were 70% fat, 25% protein, 5% carbs. I tracked every bite of food using the app My Fitness Pal. For the first week, I was cranky as hell and had major carb cravings. However, I was losing weight fast so I committed to eating Keto with zero cheats or slip-ups. Within about two weeks, my energy level was up considerably and my afternoon office “brain fog” was gone. I kept Ketoing on.
On July 14th, after 2 months of faithfully eating Keto, I had my yearly physical. My doctor immediately noticed that I had lost about 40 pounds since my last appointment, and asked what I had done to cause the weight loss. When I told him I was eating Keto, he was familiar with it, but immediately said that he expected my cholesterol levels to be “through the roof” as a result of ingesting “all that fatty meat”. Then he took my blood pressure. It was down significantly to 130/72. All my other vitals were good. When I got my blood test results a few days later, I was surprised to see that all my cholesterol numbers had actually IMPROVED. My LDL was down slightly, from 145 to 142. My overall cholesterol number had gone from 198 to 182. Nothing was “through the roof” except for my joy at getting to eat bacon every day and still lose weight.
From July on, I just continued eating Keto and kept seeing the fat disappear from my body. In September 2016 I was down to 310 pounds. I had to buy smaller pants, and all my T shirts (which had been quite snug before) started to look baggy. Around this time I found the 2 Keto Dudes podcast and quickly got caught up on all the archived episodes. 2KD was a great resource for me because it was hosted by two totally relatable guys who were documenting their own experience turning their health around - and supporting their own findings with scientific research.
I kept Ketoing on through the 2016 holidays with little trouble. I made it a point to bring along AWESOME Keto-friendly foods to family gatherings. This was definitely the first Christmas that I actually LOST weight.
As of right now, I have been Ketoing for just over 8 months.
Here are the effects of 8 months Keto:
Lost 97 pounds
Improved energy
Improved mental clarity
Better moods
Better sleep
No afternoon sugar crash
Significant improvement of chronic back pain
Able to “keep up” with my teenage daughter
Able to sit on the floor and play with my toddler niece and nephew
Enjoy cooking at home more often
Eat delicious, quality food
At my biggest, my waist size had been 72 inches - yes, I had a 6 foot waistband. Since starting Keto, I have had to punch 5 or 6 new holes in my belt to keep up with my weight loss - my belt now goes one and a half times around my waist. I think it’s time to buy a new belt…
My chronic back pain has improved so much that I have gone without a Radio Frequency Ablation for a full year. I haven’t had a “flare” of back pain since I started Keto, and I’m hoping that my decreasing weight and inflammation will continue to keep my back pain at bay.
Another pleasant “side effect” has been all of my friends and family noticing my weight loss - and then getting to tell them that I pretty much just eat bacon, steak, and cheese. It especially freaks out my sister-in-law when I grab a spoon and take a big scoop out of the butter dish…
I am passionate about Keto and I love to discuss the science behind it with anybody who’ll listen.
By following a Keto WOE, I dropped more weight (95 pounds) in 8 months than I dropped after my gastric bypass surgery (85 pounds) in one year…all while enjoying rich, delicious, nutritious food and eating to satiety.
I plan to stick with Keto for life.
What an excellent show! Well worth the long duration for the amount of info and incredible stories.
It was also a treat to hear the voices of @Donna , @Daisy and @LouiseReynolds as they told their stories. Thank you gals!
THE EASY WAY OUT…NOT SO EASY
I’d like to tell you about my experience with weight loss surgery…twice. A little background first. From the time I was a small child and could understand, my Dad, who thought he was being helpful with his idea of reverse psychology, called me" Pork" as a nick name and sang to me as I entered a room…“here comes fatty, fatty two by four, can’t fit through the kitchen door”. Ah, good ole Dad. I love him and miss him terribly. He was only doing what he thought he knew was right. He had an extremely obese sister and didn’t want his little girl to “get like that”. So fast forward to adolescence. I was very tall for a young woman, 5’8" and weighed 135 lbs. still thinking I was fat. Ugh. I got married and was carefree. I became pregnant with our daughter and then, OMG…the weight just climbed. I gained 60 lbs in my pregnancy and haven’t stopped since. I joke with my husband that I am more than twice the woman he married. Really not funny down deep. So again fast forward from 1978 to 2008…still struggling with my weight, my self esteem and the prying and judgmental eyes of the world. The constant barrage of weight loss “tips”, commercial weight loss programs and now the panacea of them all. Weight Loss Surgery. The only thing I hadn’t tried. I had just been through chemotherapy and a year of maintenance treatments for non-hodgkins lymphoma. I was desperate to be “healthy”. I had gained additional weight during chemo. I see you raising your eyebrows…most people lose weight and even become emaciated…how is possible to gain weight. Well, when part of your treatment is steroids, it’s quite simple. And of course there is always one person who fails to ask if you are okay, but instead wants to know if you are “skinny now”. Like that’s the most important thing. So back to the weight loss surgery. I had a neighbor and a friendly waitress encourage me to get lap band surgery. Both had it done and had success. So I looked into, and read what I wanted to hear. I made my appointments, cardiologist, psychotherapist, surgeon, on and on. After about six months the surgery was scheduled. Everything went well I was told. Uh, not so much. I lost a significant amount of weight about 20 pounds in the first 3 weeks. Of course, I was eating next to nothing. Maybe 500 calories a day. The fear had made me diligent as well as the swelling from surgery. The first three weeks you must adhere to a liquid diet. Then after the fear of eating and potentially throwing up subsided and I had gone for my first fill, I started to slowly introduce solid food. I was told with much authority to “eat my protein first”. No drinking of any liquid during meals. Put my fork down between bites. Eat slowly and chew deliberately each bite 30 times. Well, eating protein was difficult to say the least. I would not get the signal that I was “full” until it was too late and I was running to the nearest receptacle to vomit . The pressure from the small pouch that is created by the lap band and the back up into the esophagus is too much to control So, what does one do when they can’t eat one thing, they switch to another. I began eating foods that were tolerable and mentally soothing. Yogurt, scrambled eggs, pudding, salads with a good amount of dressing, cookies, chips, etc which easily dissolve even before entering your “pouch”. These things were tolerable and didn’t make me vomit. Of course they didn’t help with weight loss. I should have realized something was awry, when I went to the first informational meeting and the people that were there and had already had the surgery, looked like they still needed it . But instead my thoughts were, they just weren’t committed and I was going to be the poster child for lap band surgery. Of course, that’s the hype they ply you with. So after a year or more of tweaking my lap band, with very little to no success, I kept vomiting and eating poorly, I gave up and had all the fluid removed, which essentially brought me back to where I was before surgery; except now I had this ominous device within me. It felt foreign and almost like I had an alien inside my body. The two ladies that had encouraged me to have this procedure also developed problems and both of them have had their band emptied. One has gained all her weight back and the other has gained some, but has become an alcoholic instead of a foodaholic. How the media and capitalism deludes us.
Years went by and I was becoming increasingly insulin resistant and headed toward diabetes. I sought other opinions along the way and discovered Gastric Sleeve surgery. Ah another twinkle of hope. Again, I did my research and thought this makes better sense. 80% of the stomach is removed and you are left with a stomach the size of a banana. There are little to no restrictions on food and the doctrine seems to be, if you can’t eat as much due to the size of your stomach, then you won’t consume as many calories and viola…weight loss and a healthier lifestyle. Not so much. Again, one learns how to consume extra calories, because neither of these methods addresses the bodies changing hormones, the signals that the brain gets regarding satiety or the underlying physical or psychological reasons we as human beings eat. In hindsight, I realized that the only way for either of these methods to work was to restrict my caloric intake and DIET!!! Well, I ddin’t think that was the point. I looked at this as a way to STOP thinking about food constantly. I can’t say that either of these methods are not a TOOL for assisting in weight loss. However, they are not a magic bullet, nor is any other chosen style of weight loss. But seriously folks, I underwent two major and potentially life threatening surgeries and am not much ahead of the curve then when I started. I would strongly recommend to anyone who wants my opinion, DON’T DO IT. I haven’t even addressed some of the social issues of having these surgeries and how it affects your social time with friends and family, especially since the number one form of entertainment in the USA is dining out. And if you think fat shaming is hurtful, well try being judged and shamed because you “took the easy way out and you still failed, so it must be you…you just don’t have any willpower”. Not so. I encourage you to do your research on Ketogenics and Intermittent Fasting. Perhaps that is the panacea for you. It’s not for everyone, but so far it has been very sustainable for me. Though I am just in my infancy of following a Ketogenic lifestyle, I have been successful in losing ten pounds in just one months time. I have maintained a level of ketosis throughout and I have not missed all those high carbohydrate foods. I’m not thinking about food constantly. The inflammation in my body has subsided. My knees don’t hurt anymore, my mood is happy, my energy levels are definitely on the increase and my skin isn’t dry. I haven’t had to employ and “tricks” to staying full and satiated. I’m not trying to fool my body, I’m trying to feed it what it really needs and operates on efficiently. I am ignoring the naysayers. Avoiding the media and gaining a great deal of support from other Ketonians via 2Ketodudes, YouTube, reading blogs, and everything and anything I can get hold of to make my journey what I want it to be. For me this about my health. As a cancer survivor (stage IV, by the way) and only in remission, not cured; I have recently learned that cancer cannot survive in a metabolic state known as ketosis. By eliminating sugar and carbohydrates I am giving myself the gift of an opportunity for continued and healthful longevity. I would encourage anyone who needs to get healthier for whatever your reason to do your research read the science and forget about the hype. I recently found this little tidbit on the Truth About Cancer website… "Research continues to show that sugar is the main source of fuel which feeds cancer and contributes to an inflammatory environment. Sugar essentially increases the risk for cancer and disease. Switch to a ketogenic diet for optimal health. What ever dis ease you have, I hope it gives you pause to think about how science and not profiteering is the key.
This podcast was excellent and very educational! It was wonderful to meet you all and hear your stories. Thank you so much for doing this.
Thanks guys for starting to post these on YouTube! (firewall friendly)
I am sitting here really connecting to the guest/admins that are sharing thier stories on this podcast. I was really touched by the comment about not hating who you are and the shame in having WLS. I have been SO disappointed in myself but Im making a comeback.
I had lap-band, a horrible experience! I had gastric bypass and lost 70 lbs. I have gained 50 lbs of it back. I am following a Keto lifestyle and losing but I always wonder if the standards of Keto apply to those who are physiologically intact? I have a modified stomach, intestines and no gallbladder.
So, does that mean I have to do Keto differently?
Echo the comments here. One of the best of the 2KD podcast. I love hearing these stories. A friend of mine just did the sleeve, and her doc did recommend keto diet once she could start eating solid food.
Thanks for sharing your story.
I have forwarded the cancer information to my mom from the website thetruthaboutcancer.com
Frederick, thanks for sharing your story. It was very inspiring.
I was wondering, have you shared your way of eating and the reasons why with your daughter.
I have two daughters with which I share information. One really takes to it, the other…
Marc,
So glad my story was helpful. Another Ketonian I just met, had prostate cancer, refused any suggested treatment ie. chemo and radiation. Researched “diets”;went keto, reduced his tumor to the point they were able to remove it surgically and got it all. At last check he was cancer free. He and his family are staunch ketonians as a result, even their older kids. We probably sound like snake oil salesman, but the science is there and no one is selling us anything. It’s all free information if you look for it. Best wishes to your Mom.
@KetoRestartAnn I wouldn’t think that you would have to do Keto any differently with having WLS. I have had the vertical sleeve, and have a much smaller volume capacity of my stomach. With your bypass, you have some ‘re-engineering’ but what you take in should still be the same. You still want to be able to get the nutrients from your food, that is the macros, to be able to receive the benefits of Keto.
@KetoRestartAnn I’m glad you’re here as you’ll get the support and information you need. Welcome! 
