Success Stories

Hi Everyone! I was a frequent visitor last spring and summer when I was just starting (again) a LC WOE. Over the past several years I had some success, but then it seemed to stop working for me. When I started again last April, I cam to the LCE site to get your advice, wisdom and encouragement. I apologize for not having posted in, well let's see, about 8 months! I did NOT fall off the wagon.

Several years ago on this very site, I posted my story about my years as a yo-yo dieter.  It was entitled "No Longer a Professional Dieter."  In this lengthy testimony, I revealed my years of struggle with my weight and self-esteem. 

Protein Power: The High-Protein/Low-Carbohydrate Way to Lose Weight, Feel Fit, and Boost Your Health--in Just Weeks! author: Michael R. Eades,Mary Dan Eades asin: 0553380788

By August of 2003 I was basically resigned to being overweight—a nice way of saying obese or just plain fat. For over thirty years I had been able to "control" my weight by periodically changing my low-fat diet to a low fat - low calorie diet. "Control" is obviously a misnomer. If I could control my weight there would have been no need for me to periodically lose the weight I had regained.

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, New and Revised Edition author: Robert C. Atkins asin: B000C4T48I

It was the year I was to turn 50 that I looked in the mirror and suddenly saw a fat, old woman. Never mind the shock of stepping on the scale to find I was weighing in at 192 pounds. Never mind the realization that if I kept eating the way I was I would just keep getting bigger. Now I was in pain: It was the searing irritation of the rash where my thighs squished together in the crotch of my pantyhose that finally led me to scream, "Enough!" I had been battling fat all my life. It was time to win the war.

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, New and Revised Edition author: Robert C. Atkins asin: B000C4T48I

It was exactly a year ago (almost to the day of this writing) that my husband and I joined a local gym here in Dutchess County, New York. It's a "friendly" gym - a place where all shapes and sizes of people go to get in a workout and try to get healthier. They don't allow skimpy clothes, and there aren't many "muscle heads" and it was exactly what we needed to get started.

If you don't think you can do this—if you are feeling completely overwhelmed by how much weight you need to lose and if you think you have to be some kind of superhero to lose 100 pounds or more—well, I'm here to ask you to reconsider.

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, New and Revised Edition author: Robert C. Atkins asin: B000C4T48I

My story starts quite a way back, during my pregnancy with my 1st child I ballooned up pretty big and weighed around 175lbs after he was born. I was staying with my mother and she put me on a low fat diet and extensive exercise program, with her leading the way I did loose weight and got down to a pleasing 115lbs. Needless to say when my husband was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada I went back up in weight.

First a little background! I grew up in a family that was overweight. So naturally being overweight was something that, well, came naturally! My family also has a history of heart problems, diabetes, and high blood pressure just to name a few! At times I have had problems with my BP, but never to the point of being on medications. I have watched my loved ones struggle with and die from the same illnesses as we speak.

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, New and Revised Edition author: Robert C. Atkins asin: B000C4T48I

Like so many, I was always overweight.

Maybe not by much in the beginning, but it was enough of a difference that it made an impact on my personality early on.

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, New and Revised Edition author: Robert C. Atkins asin: B000C4T48I

Did you ever look at pictures of yourself when you were very young, and wonder where all that joy went? This photo was one of my mom and dad's favorite pictures of me, because - as mom put it - "You were so happy back then." BACK THEN??? What happened to that little girl, I wondered many times over the years. How DID I become so lonely and introverted? How did I go from being a postive, happy child to feeling like I was a completely unworthy sub-species of the human race? Could it really be all downhill from the age of two????

I was always a skinny child, and my father had a few nicknames for me, such as, "Crybaby Donna, Sticks, and Bones." I could eat anything and everything I wanted and never gained a pound.

I was, and still am, a very emotional person. My feelings can get hurt at the snap of a finger. I have been told many times that I wear my heart on my sleeve. Whether I'm happy or sad, I cry. I also am an emotional eater. If I become upset, angry, or sad, I tend to eat. Still, I didn't gain any weight, even with the emotional eating.

My name is Redell. I am a 36 (almost 37) wife and mother of one son. My story is typical of so many I have read. I had struggled with weight issues even before I was a teen. I remember the craziest thing I did to try to lose weight was the vegetable oil diet. The idea was to swallow 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil before eating so that the foods would slide on through rather than being absorbed. Needless to say, I didn't lose weight.

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, New and Revised Edition author: Robert C. Atkins asin: B000C4T48I

I have always loved FOOD. Learned it well from my Mom, who during her lifetime has been overweight and dieted numerous times. I spent most of my young life perched on the counter in the kitchen, watching her every move. She's a great cook.

I was a chubby kid up until the age of 6 or 7 then I grew into my weight and stayed slim until college. Then I went away to college. Suny at New Paltz is in the beautiful Hudson Valley about 90 minutes from NYC. The first year I was required to have a meal plan since I lived in the Dormitories. This was all you can eat, no limits on carbohydrates, heaven. Or hell, as it turned out. Second helpings of the entre and sides were a standard for me. 2 desserts also. It didn't help that I discovered beer. By Christmas I was 10 pounds heavier. By the end of Freshman year it was 20.

Protein Power: The High-Protein/Low-Carbohydrate Way to Lose Weight, Feel Fit, and Boost Your Health--in Just Weeks! author: Michael R. Eades,Mary Dan Eades asin: 0553380788

By denise_nowell

For years now I have been overweight—well actually obese. I tried to diet with no success. I tried to exercise, just to feel like I had beed run over by a Mac truck. I tried high impact, low impact, lifting weights, you name it. It seems that anything I tried either didn't work or it was just to much for my 344 pound body to handle.

Walk Away the Pounds: The Breakthrough 6-Week Program That Helps You Burn Fat, Tone Muscle, and Feel Great Without Dieting author: Leslie Sansone asin: 0446577006

Why did I choose Low Carb? A couple of reasons: Back in March of '02 I had gone to the doctor to have a mole checked. It turned out to be nothing and he froze it off. But my blood pressure was sky high, which was unacceptable. That was partly due to the fact that I was imagining all kinds of things about this mole and worrying, because we don't have insurance.

I was a "chubby" baby and was roundish, more or less, until I hit puberty. By 14 I was quite slim, ranging between 105 and 115 lbs, and stayed that way until my mid thirties, with only minor weigh gain during my pregnancy and a quick return to "normal." Then everything started to change.

The last time I weighed what I was supposed to weigh was in 8th grade. I weighed 140 pounds(I'm 5'10'), and I thought I was fat then! This was during the era of Twiggy, my best friend was a size three, and both of my brothers were sticks.

I've tried every diet known to man, some of them more than once. I was able to lose significant weight a few times, but I could never sustain the diet long enough to hit goal. Then, of course, I would gain back all I had lost, plus some. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Over the years, my weight ballooned up over 300 pounds.

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, New and Revised Edition author: Robert C. Atkins asin: B000C4T48I

When asked where I'm from, I never know quite what to answer. Where I was born? Where I lived the longest? Where I lived last? Or where I live now?

Well, maybe the term, "professional dieter" is a bit extreme, but that's essentially what I was. From the age of 12 until now (age 33), I have been very weight-conscious. And until I found this woe, I had tried just about every fad diet there is!

As a child and teen, I was never overweight. I went through a short period of chubbiness around age 10 but fat was not a word you would use to describe me.

As I got older, I maintained a slim shape until I was 18 years old. After graduating high school, it was all "upscale" from there.

So what happened?

That is the question I've been pondering for the last 5 years and to which I recently figured out the answer.

by  Robert W. Kochman

When I was in my early thirties I began running as therapy for injuries sustained in an accident. Running became a passion, and with it a concern about nutrition. The running community as a whole tightly embraced the high complex carbohydrate diet and I fell right in with everyone else.

Mine is not a particularly dramatic story. It's ordinary enough to be a fat kid, a chubby teen, a yo-yoing adult whose self-worth swings with the dial on the scale, and the dial keeps going the wrong way.

But in early 1998 my Mother died. I'm sorry to say that's what it took for me to take a good look at myself, and to decide, at age 49, that life was too short to be fat. How much more time would I have?.. How many more chances?.. I knew if I was ever to become serious about reclaiming my physical and emotional health, much less my figure, it was time.

The Zone: A Dietary Road Map to Lose Weight Permanently : Reset Your Genetic Code : Prevent Disease : Achieve Maximum Physical Performance author: Barry Sears asin: 0060391502

I was a skinny kid but began gaining weight after puberty. I reached 179 at age 16...but then my thyroid went hyperactive, and six months later, I weighed 120 and was sick as a dog with hyperthyroiditis. Fortunately, medication evened out my thyroid rather quickly, and by the time I graduated high school a year later, I was a gorgeous 160...size 12/14. Slowly...ever so slowly....over the course of the next 6 years, I got up to 220 and a size 20.

MY CONTINUING STORY OF WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS

In the beginning...

I walked into the dark meeting room of the motel. It took awhile for my eyes to adjust from the bright sunshine of the warm, summer evening. Waiting my turn in line, I assessed this group. A few old women sat at a table, chatting merrily. Blue hairs. That's what they were: dark red lipstick, flower print dresses, fresh-from-the-beauty-salon hair-dos and sickening sweet perfume. I could smell them from where I stood.

My story starts in May of 1999. After years of eating low fat everything, my doctor, who is also a personal friend, threatened to put me on medication to lower my blood pressure and cholestorol. I weighed 290 lbs - I'm a 6'1" male.

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, New and Revised Edition author: Robert C. Atkins asin: B000C4T48I

I woke up on the morning of August 29, 1999, looked in the mirror and no longer recognized myself. I knew I had to do something, and had to start TODAY, and so I did.

I took my measurements and weighed myself and was quite alarmed, but I was going to give this a go for myself as I had nothing to lose except lots of weight. Plus, I had been miserable for so long.