Impostor Syndrome, or Why Am I Here?

(Larry Lustig) #1

While I’m very happy eating ketogenically (I lost a lot of weight and feel great), sometimes I feel like an impostor on these forums. The reason is that, although I was overweight, felt bad, and had some warning signs in my blood work (my HbA1c was 5.9, just tipping over into the pre-diabetic range) I was never actually metabolically sick.

But there are so many people here (Carl and Richard, Brenda, Tom, the other admins, lots of other people) who were really seriously ill and managed to do what is considered by the mainstream medical community to be impossible – to eliminate any signs of diabetes. Their achievement is just amazing. Sometimes I feel almost like I’m trying to bask in the reflection of their hard work.

I know there’s nothing wrong with eating ketogenically just for better general health and weight loss but I also know that when people congratulate me on the weight that I’ve lost they really should be talking to the people who’ve lost their ill health. What I did is merely dieting. What they’ve done is miraculous.

Anyone else out there who is "normal?"
(carl) #2

Don’t devalue what you have learned and how you can use that to influence others. Saving a life from diabetes is heroic, no matter what you did to yourself.

(Meeping up the Science!) #3

I would much rather have avoided the hard work. :wink: Being 750 pounds means I basically lost about 15 years of my life to obesity. I am now playing catch up. I am so happy actually that you have not done this, Larry. That makes your experience far more valuable, too. The idea is to cultivate more individuals such as yourself who are healthy long before they are where we were at.

#4

I wasn’t diabetic either, but preventing it is pretty amazing considering its a growing epidemic! Also preventing cancer, CVD in general, Alzheimer’s Disease, etc.

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #5

Yeah Larry man, you rock. And your A1c WAS creeping up, so you saved yourself. Now you are helping others. You are an honorable dude :blue_heart:

#6

I’m an imposter too! I only lost 60 lbs and now I’m in a “normal” bmi category. Not that BMI is a good way to measure. But I had lost that weight, or slightly less, before and it came back over and over again. And worse than that, I stopped being able to lose. No matter how much I did, I had the dreaded wheat belly.

I have no biomarkers from before but I’m perfectly healthy as of July. And I’m purposefully ignoring LDL in that assessment. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

(Meeping up the Science!) #8

60 pounds is a toddler. YOU HAVE LOST A TODDLER. How are you an imposter??

Silly people : P

#9

I lost a toddler? Quick, someone call child protective services!

(Blyss (Old @Charmaine)) #10

Your contributions and successes are just as valuable as anyone else’s. Not to mention the potential to impact others you come across from the moment you started learn onward is also just as valuable.

No imposter here. Just another important piece of the puzzle helping others.

(AnnaLeeThal) #11

Please do not downplay your success! The fact that your A1C was 5.9 does mean that there was something going on metabolically which likely would have led to diabetes quite soon. What you have done and are doing is not merely dieting, it is prevention and may I say reversal of the metabolic process that would make you quite sick in no time at all. You said yourself you were “overweight, felt bad, and had some warning signs”, so most likely Keto will allow you to live a long time with high quality of life! That is nothing to scoff at my friend! Keep spreading the Keto love.

(ianrobo) #12

Just got here, thanks Daisy and love this format.

So why am I here ?

Well always struggled with weight, up and down but blood sugars were normal. However done a lot of exercise and could not shift weight from around 95kgs.

I guy called Fidel introduced me to Keto before a cycle ride in July and started it in August, dropped now 13kg and close to target of 80kg plus fat adapted etc.

Now I like to show people what they can do and get advice generally. The best advice I can give …

Like meat, like butter and clear your mind of the old dogma

What I want people to know is that there are other ways and especially for those who want to be physically active there is no better lifestyle.

(Guardian of the bacon) #13

Anybody that is obese is metabolically deranged even if their biomarkers have not indicated so yet. I weighed 400 lbs at one point. Normal BP, barely pre diabetic BG fasting #'s, normal cholesterol, TG on high side of normal and HDL on the low side of normal. Anybody looking at my “stats” without looking at me or my weight would have said I was in good health.

I was lethargic, I ached everywhere, I could barely tie my shoes: I certainly was not in good health. Thanks to keto I am down close to 90 lbs, my biomarkers have improved, I feel much, much better. While I may not be the prototypical T2D target, the 2ketodude community has defintitely saved/prolonged my life.

(carl) #14

This is a great story, John. I know lots of people who fit your old description. Congratulations on your transmogrification!

(Kathy Swanson) #15

That’s a lot of weight, Larry and I’m sure you saved yourself from future health problems. You eat ketogenically but do you concern yourself with staying in ketosis? Managing your micros etc?

(Kathy Swinkels) #16

Me too. But wouldn’t it be great to get this message out to everyone before they are filling their prescriptions?

(ketohealthclub) #17

DYeah- don’t minimize the effects of your keto effort. I have almost 200 lbs to lose, but my A1C was similar to yours at 5.8 and I have high blood pressure. Nothing major like what others have reported. Despite my weight and other numbers, you and I are dodging a bullet. Your success is important because keto shouldn’t be the last-ditch thing we do to get healthy. You can be a preventative success story.

(darlee44) #18

Totally agree guru!

(Louise ) #19

I hear you @larry about Imposter Syndrome - it is a real phenomenon which I’ve played out in my teaching academic career. The feeling that you’re a fraud and being found out as being not worthy, is very real with thoughts of ‘what do I know??’. However, your lived experience of your transformation through this way of eating IS real. What you’ve done (and many of us here) have done is changed ourselves, and hopefully others through this forum of information sharing. Please do not discount your lived experience, how and why we got here is all varied (which makes for the richness of our diversity), but our paths have crossed and we are on collective journey. To think that your path is not as worthy as others, is an unfair comparison. I don’t see @carl or @richard handing out merit certificates for who had the highest HbA1c or scale breaking medals?! No, we are here now - lets get on with sharing our collective wisdoms.

(matt ) #20

I weigh about 165 pounds now. Imagine the looks I get when I tell people I went keto to manage my Diabetes.

“Skinny people don’t get diabetes!”

Oh yeah? Seems no one told my body that.

We all have our own stories and none are better than the others

Keto ON!!

(jani) #21

You know, you’ll never know what kind of metabolic disaster or cognitive diseases you have now nimbly avoided by choosing to fuel your body differently than you did before. We don’t have crystal balls, but my chief motivator, greater than weight loss, is to avoid Dementia if at all possible. I have heard Alzheimer’s categorized as Diabetes Type 3- this speaks to insulin involvement. I think avoiding that burden on your loved ones is heroic; having witnessed the disease first-hand in my mom, and the toll her care took on my dad.