A Webmaster's Progress

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.

Up until that point, my weight loss had been pretty much stalled. (Of course, I'd lost over 100lbs since starting back in 1998, and I was VERY happy about that. But even the most dedicated knight on a quest eventually wants to I find the grail. Quests ARE exciting, and I thrive on that stuff - FRODO LIVES! - but not when they go on and on and on and...) Problem was, I couldn't seem to find the right combination of protein, fat and carbs to make my weight go anywhere and decided (correctly, as it now turns out) that my metabolism was just at a set point and exercise was the only answer.

I started out very modestly. Timidly, you might say. Fifteen minutes of treadmill, and then circuit training - did that 1 or 2 times a week. I REALLY enjoyed weight lifting (who would have thought?) and I was seeing some difference in my body. But my cardiovascular fitness was clearly not where it needed to be. I would watch the thin girls on the various cardio machines and think, "That's great for them, but not for people like me."

People like me. What did that mean? DUH.

So I began doing the eliptical cross-trainers. Had to do a very easy 10 minutes to start - but eventually worked up to 30 minutes. And after a few months, I found that the DREADED cardio was actually becoming FUN! Yes, it was hard work. But I started to find the "high" that I've heard other people talk about. It was a mental break-through in terms of how I thought about myself and exercise!

I started doing cardio 5 days a week, and weights 3x a week - and absolutely enjoying it. Perhaps because I work from home (for now), I found my time at the gym to be really therapeutic and mind-clearing.

And something else very good happened. I started paying attention to calories, because that little "calories burned" meter was right there for me to see. Here I am, sweating my rear off to burn 300 calories... and I pick up a "low-carb" bar that is 270 calories and say, mmmm it's not really worth it...I started cutting out seconds of protein at dinner...I started choosing to snack on celery and carrots with low-fat (and low-carb) dressing for snacks instead of nuts or cheese or meat or egss.

Now before you write me a nasty note saying, "But isn't the whole point of low-carb so you can eat as much as you want without counting calories?" we better backtrack.

NO the whole point of low-carb is not, and never has been (to my knowledge) that you can eat as much as you want without ever considering calories.

Of course you don't need to obsess about calories, or go really low-cal. That - most of us would agree - is hardly satisfying. But where this idea of "eat all you want" came from is really beyond me. People took Dr. Atkins saying "eat until you are satisfied" to mean "eat as much as you want" and those two NOT the same thing. I might WANT to eat three cheeseburgers (albeit bunless) and two big sausages and a boiled egg at one sitting, but unless I'm on death row or some kind of marathon athlete or something, I'd really have a problem if that much food was what it took for me to feel satisfied day in and day out.

Yes, during the first phases of a low-carb diet many very obese people (and include me in this) can eat VERY large quantities of the 'allowed foods' and still lose weight really well. That's the big advantage when you're starting out, and your whole life revolves around food. But at some point your body mass has decreased enough that you PHYSICALLY CAN'T consume the same number of calories you were consuming during induction, unless you're offsetting that with a HEC of a lot of exercise. I've been running this site since 1999, and this particular fact is one that can't be ignored. I've seen this "stall" happen to people over and over again. There's no question in my mind (although of course this is anecdotal not scientific evidence) that many, if not most, low-carb dieters hit a stall about about half or three quarters of the way to their goal and unless they take into account the fact that their body is 50 or 75 pounds less than it was when they started and therefore requires less energy they will NOT move on. This is the point at which they need to either eat less or exercise more.

And of course, if you are still keeping carbs very low, you will most likely be able to consume more calories than you would if you were doing low-fat, high-carb, as the study done by Penelope Green at Harvard a year or so ago showed. I was in a chat with Drs. Mike and Mary Dan Eades (authors of the Protein Power series) a while ago, and they told the story of a patient of theirs who was not losing weight and after analyzying her diet they found out why. She was consuming 4,000 calories a day! What amazed them was the fact that she wasn't GAINING weight. So yes, there really IS a metabolic advantage! But it's an ADVANTAGE not an FREE PASS.

Then we come to the other point: there does come a point at which your life should STOP revolving around food. For me, ketosis went a long, long way to accomplishing this. I have written elsewhere about how it was like a "wonder drug" that turned off the constant food cravings I had suffered from all my life. But there were - and still are - many personal issues that I needed to work through to get to the point where food was no longer so important. Ketosis was the key, but there were other actions involved in opening the door.

Which brings me back to exercise.

The physical aspect of adding muscle and burning calories aside, working out on a regular basis has been a life-transforming experience because it showed me I could MASTER that area of my life. That good feeling is spilling over into other areas, places that I felt inadequate or lacked confidence. A lot of things have changed for me in the past year because of that.

Well, this section is dragging on too long. To finish quickly, I recently switched gyms and am working out at Gold's, which I absolutely love. A different atmosphere, certainly. Less warm and fuzzy, but a lot more exciting and challenging. I am truly looking forward to where I'll be a year from now, God willing! I now eat fruit every day (which I didn't trust myself with previously) and I have plenty of energy and stamina to get through each day even when I really push the work out. It's been a very exciting experience. And I wish it on every one of you!

Oh, and have I lost more weight? You bet. As far as the scale goes, only 20 pounds. But two sizes in pants and shirts. And I look, well, a WHOLE lot different. Or so my husband tells me. (grin)

We're no longer lunatics crying out in the desert. Low-carb, despite the ignorant who still find innuendo and outdated science sufficient, is really much more main-stream than I ever dared hope. It's time to move on from the "but low carb DOES SO work" debate to other things. We've still got a lot of work do to, because there are still MANY people who are trying low-carb for the first time or coming back to low-carb after many years, and they need support, information based on science, and a place to hang with their friends.

And here we are.