My run with the diets of all shapes and sizes





My name is Lynda. I am 30 and have done a vast amount of dieting since I became a mother. Back in 1996 I was 245 pounds. I tried doing low fat but had no will power. I became pregnant in 1997 and developed Gall Stones. Because I was pregnant, I was advised to eat low fat for the duration and then deal with the surgical extraction of my gallbladder once the baby is born. From the 4th week to the very last, I ate low fat to no fat. Fat intake caused the gall bladder to work in overdrive, forcing small stones and sludge through the bile ducts which was very painful. Once the baby came, My gallbladder was removed and I continued to eat low fat as I was amazed with how much weight I had lost. A year later, I was down to 149 pounds. I got pregnant again in 2001. After the baby, I was up to 185 pounds. I felt huge and attempted the low carb. After seeing my sister lose over 100 pounds and my mom drop 45, I thought it was gonna be a sure fire way for me.

I lasted 3 days the first time, and caved into sweets. I attempted low carb on and off for well over a year. With each attempt, I was lethargic, cranky, felt deprived, and overall miserable. I came to lowcarbeating.com for advice, inspiration and found it. However, it was not enough. After bouts of depression, and another 45 pounds gained from yo-yoing my husband told me I had to stop obsessing and find a diet and stick to it. I knew low fat worked before and so I tried it again. I lost 25 pounds in 2 months. I ate 20 grams of fat a day, walked 2-3 miles and was attending college.

My sister came to me admitting she was abusing her diet and taking laxatives as well as forcing herself to purge. Her teeth rotted out and she was getting dentures, her hair was thinning and she looked like death. She went onto weight watchers for maintenance and gained 25 pounds. She currently struggles between atkins and low fat but has maintained a healthy weight.

My mom is obese and dealing with heart issues. Her doctor put her on southbeach phase two. She adhered to it, lost 35 pounds but because she has other issues, retained water and grew discouraged when the scale showed no immenant results. My mom yo yo?d on and off the low carb for a year. She felt good at first, but found herself sleepless and depressed and used food to console.

After I dropped another 10 pounds, I stalled from October to March. Five months of no loss, I stopped exercising because of school, and cheated here and there. I gained no pounds, and lost none.

Meanwhile, Aimee was on low carb and dropped 15 quickly. After three months, she went off it and gained 29 pounds. She said the diet was hard to stick to, she missed many of the fruits and realised she could induce carb intake after two weeks but did so with failure. She gained 5 pounds when she upped her carbs 4. She said her hair was falling out and she was getting migraines as well as irregular periods. She is now struggling with weight and not sure what to do.

Meanwhile, after my long bout of stall, I lost another 15 pounds. Through this , I was tempted to go off and on the atkins and did not. I remained true to low fat and have not at all felt deprived. I eat little sweets, eat mostly fruits when craving and can have a low fat, fat free treat without it effecting my weight loss.
On this site, I have seen people come and go, and come back and go again. There are the few..and I reitterate FEW old timers here or self proclaimed Veterans that are doing awesome....but they are not part of the statistical results. Note "Results not typical" on the atkins website for testimony.
I know a lot of people enjoy low carb and believe that it is the way. Perhaps it is for most. With dedication and some restrictions, along with exercize, low fat works well, if not better. People are less tempted on low fat, feel generally good even though the weight comes off slowly, it stays off. Where areas one on low carb goes off it for a week, they gain quite a bit of weight. Low fat is easiest for long term success. Carbohydrates are essential for cellular function. It regulates blood function and synthesis of proteins properly. If one consumes enough protein in a low carb diet, or excessive protein, their body turns the protein into carbs as the body needs carbs. Low fat stopped working for many americans because they assumed if FAT FREE is on the label, they can eat all they want. They paid no regard to the caloric intake and splurged, expanding their waist line. What it boils down to are two little but important things. Exercise is important to weight loss, one cannot lose optimum weight if they do not exercise and portion control is the huge factor. Eat small amounts of sugary foods, healthy whole grains in abundance with fiber rich fruits and veggies. Avoid low fat junk food and take fruit instead. Avoid eating out with intent to finish a plate, as portions in the USA are huge because of the idea ?more for your money.? Supersize nothing, and take vitamins. If you find yourself like many others, yo-yoing because of mixed feelings, slowed results...find something you know can be life long and dedicate yourself to it. Prepare for the few slip ups and know that your body is a perfect machine that needs carbs, fats, and calories to reach optimum power.

No fad diet survives, and that includes LOW FAT ideas, LOW CARB?.just eat right and disregard the diet stigma.

When are you going to stop coming back to this site telling the same sad story over and over??? Of course we recognize you, even though you keep changing user names. (And that happens to be a violation of our terms of use. But I'm going to ignore that for now.)

How in the world do you think this is helping anyone????

We have ALWAYS said,

DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. LOW CARB IS NOT FOR EVERYONE.

Now, please provide support for the following statements if you want to ever have any credibility:

Please provide these so-called "statistical results".

(By the way, every diet plan must state "results not typical" - whatever kind of plan it is.) What I'm specifically interested in is what data you have to suggest that low carb is worse than low fat in terms of people being able to stick to low carb and keep the weight off. (And if you want to bring in the Duke study by Yancy et. al. you should be careful there: Yancy himself said that more low fat people dropped out of the study (guess low fat wasn't so easy to stick to for them???) and that skewed the results.

Please give supporting studies. I myself found just the opposite.

Please give support.

(Btw, in case you didn't realize it, when you do low carb, you reduce the amount of glycogen stored in your muscles. So when you go on a carb binge that gylcogen is replaced, and along with it a large amount of water. So to turn around a stupid saying used against low carb: "it's mostly water." At least in the first week.)

Where is the problem with this and low carb? I'm confused? Both exercise AND portion control are important. So what's your issue here?


Our point exactly. So again, what's the issue here. We want people to be healthy and happy. Do what works for you.

As my doctor once said to me(and I am sure others have said it as well), "The best diet is the one you can stick with over the long term. Obviously low carb wasn't your cup of tea because you weren't willing to stick with it beyond a few days.

Do some of us fall off the wagon, so to speak, on low-carb? Sure, but the same can be said for followers of low fat. I am happy that you found something that worked for you.

I have never felt happier or healthier than when I follow a low carb WOE. I no longer have extreme drops in my blood sugar that resulted in nausua,headaches and stomach pains after eating a high carb meal. My total cholestoral dropped from 197 to 167, HDL(good) went from 50 to 77, LDL went from 123 to 78 and triglycerides are at an excellent level of 85. My doctor(from the Cleveland Clinic) was extremely pleased. All of my other bodily systems tested out at optimum levels.

Have I regained weight? Yes about 12 pounds, but I went from working outside the home to being a stay at home mom against my will last year, eating anything and everything to assuge my unhappiness. Do I blame low-carb? Hardly!

I have eaten low fat in the past when I was at an ideal weight and when it first became the buzz (the 90's), because it was supposed to be healthier. All I can say is that I was miserable and ended up gaining 20 pounds.

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Libby

2004 174/142/138

Begin Again 2007

164/159/142

Part of the reason so many women are depressed these days and taking prescription drugs to "fix" themselves is because they DON'T EAT ENOUGH FAT.

The brain needs fat. You cannot starve yourself of an adequate supply of healthy fats and not adversely affect mental health. I would bet that if a large percentage of the women taking prozac or zoloft, etc. would just begin adding 2-3 tablespoons of HIGH QUALITY fats (such as coconut oil, olive oil, salmon, butter, etc. something natural) to their diet every day, they wouldn't NEED the meds after 2 months.

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It is always necessary to leave some part
of cooking to improvisation. - Paul Bocuse
Member since 2001

Marci, your statements are true reflections of my issues. I realized that my depression began to creep back into my life when I went off plan for an extended period of time while I had no serious boughts of depression or anxiety while I ate my healthy fats (butter, olive oil).

violeteyes insaying "just eat right and disregard the diet stigma" I believe you echo the thoughts of many here. But you have pigeonholed low carb into being just a "fad diet". It's a way of eating and not just something to be done for a time then left behind. Diets are temporary. In regarding low carb as a way of eating I believe I have disregarded the diet stigma. Now I am one that has fallen into the bad food habits. But in the past when I was "dieting" and fell off I did not return to the diet. I may be struggling to get back on track but I know a healthy way of eating is the key to reaching and maintaining a healthy weight not a short term solution such as a diet.

So, I'll stick with low carb, thank you. And while I take some time to get back into the groove of healthy eating I remember that I have been eating poorly for 25+ years (I'll give my mother credit for feeding me right in the beginning but when I could make my own choices I chose poorly) and it's not going to be as easy as 1-2-3 to reverse many, many years of bad habits and poor nutrition.

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Noël


Worry doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrows, it empties today of its strengths.