Success Stories
by Julie Westly, CarbSmart Contributor
Posted 4/17/04
Clyde from Texas is 47 years old. He follows the Atkins program and is current at goal weight and on maintenance. Clyde began at 280 pounds and a 40 inch "tight" waist. He was delighted to reach 210 pounds and wear size 36 waist pants for the first time in over 20 years. Clyde's weight is currently 222 pounds but not from fat gain, rather lean muscle from weight training.
"Before I was married I weighed about 180 pounds" Clyde said. "That was kind of underweight, since I'm 6'5" tall. Within about five years of getting married, the weight started coming on quickly."
"I am currently in week nine of a conventional-style cross training program called Body For Life. On BFL, you lift weights three times per week, 45 minutes per session; you do aerobics three times per week, 20 minutes per session; the seventh day, Sunday, you're off."
"The only diet I've ever done before was the 'deprivation' diet. The first time I did it I used Ultra Slim Fast for a while. I weaned off that and just fasted all day until dinner. At dinner I ate maybe 800-1,000 calories."
"I was a painter at the time. One day I was painting in a Taco Bell restaurant, and one of the employees called me the "Pillsbury Doughboy" (I was wearing painter's whites). That did it... I was going to lose some weight. I went on a deprivation diet for a couple of months."
"I lost 40 pounds, which was good. The bad thing was, I had to condition myself to look upon hunger as being like "an old friend". That was relatively easy the first time I did it, but the second time I tried it, I found I couldn't adjust to the feelings of hunger. It all seemed great, when I lost weight. The second time, it was just plain discouraging. It was simple to follow, because I just didn't eat anything. Maybe being older, I was unable to adjust to the constant feeling of hunger. I work physically, and I didn't have any energy, between being overweight and not eating anything. I'd never recommend it to anyone. Deprivation diets are for the birds. After losing the 40 pounds the first time, I went on to gain back that much and 20+ pounds more."
"Low Carb eating is a great regimen. There is no hunger, unless I want to go without long enough to feel hungry. As it turned out, a lot of people I knew had lost a substantial amount of weight through low carb eating."
"The best part of this way of eating is that you feel great, look good and have a lot of energy. The downside would be that eating meat and cheese costs more than eating rice and potatoes. I've lost weight without starving myself. I can handle that."
"Is it easy? Real easy and I can stick with it for a lifetime. I will *never* go back to looking and feeling like I was a year ago."
"Additionally there are lots of benefits. I have a lot of energy, less problems with colds, etc. No more heartburn or reflux, which I had all the time before. When you've improved your physical health as much as I've managed to do, you can't help to feel good emotionally too."
"My family, my work associates, nearly everyone who knows me is very supportive even though early everyone was skeptical at first, talking about how "bad" low-carb diets are. Now, no one around me is doubting their benefits."
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