Active Low-Carber Forums - bowtieboy success story

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Bowtieboy has not visited the forum for many years now, so, while newbies are welcome to post here, if you have questions, you are best to ask them in the general forums, such as the Newbies Questions forum. :)

Just finished the Atkins diet today and feel like telling the world. 150lbs in 6mos and 2 wks. Down to 165 now from 315. Okay, so I'm not really finished, because I can never go back to the way I was eating before, and to be quite honest.....I have no desire to. I'll now have to learn how to maintian my current weight. So let me share my experience with anyone who is interested and either curious or doesn't believe this LC stuff works.

To start off, I never tried dieting before. I always thought that people who started off following a popular diet plan were mindless fools ready to follow any new fad. Needless to say, I had a low opinion of all the current diet fads. I always told myself, the day I couldn't do the things I wanted to, was the day I would lose weight. Well, I started not to enjoy the simplest things in life like taking walks and such. But in my mind, there was no problem. I told myself, why would I want to take a walk anyway? Just an example but you get the idea. Amazing how it creeps up on you.

Then one day everything changed. I was watching TV with my wife and she was flipping through channels when she got to an evening news program (i believe it was DatelineNBC) that was doing a special on the Atkins diet. She had a friend doing it and she was curious about it (not that she really needed to lose anything). I really didn't want to watch it but was too lazy to get up. So I watched....and was really impressed. Before that I thought that dieting was going to be lettuce and cucumbers. But surprisingly, the food wasn't too different than what I was having, except the extra carbs of course. So I made the now infamous (for me) comment to my wife: "Now there's a diet that I could actually do". She turned around and asked if I wanted to. I said, what the hell. I'll do it.

I made a commitment, and a promise to myself. If I was doing it, it would be done right, I would not cheat, and I would continue throughout the year if I saw any results. If not, then it was just another one of those diet fads that I fell for..Stamp "Sucker" on my forehead. So i didn't get the Atkins books (that was for losers, right?). My wife relayed the diet info from her friend. First two weeks, no carbs, then max of 20. (I know, wrong). So I started out. Didn't know what a net carb was, didn't know much else.

Having just been to the doctors, and knowing my weight was 315, I started the diet in mid Februrary. Our standard bathroom scale only went up to 299 so I have no idea how much I was losing (if any) during the first two weeks. That is until the beginning of the third week, when I just stepped on the scale and it read an actual number, 295! Whoa! There was no way I lost over 20lbs in two weeks (Was there?). So I ran to the doctors on my way home from work the next day to weigh myself on their professional scale. I didn't lose 20lbs...I lost 25lbs! (come to find out my 15yo bathroom scale was off by ~5lbs, and got a new replacement) So maybe this Atkins diet was for real. Maybe I should buy the books. Read Dr. Atkins book cover to cover and gained a lot of knowledge on the science behind it. I was starting to believe ( :) whistle X-Files theme in the background).

Unfortunately, I'm an engineer, which means for many things I'm a perfectionist and obsessive compulsive. I had to know more. I did a lot of research and charted my weekly progress, along with my daily carb intake and calories to chart some results. I gathered good data and got very consistant results. If anyone is interested I can get into a much more detailed analysis, but that is too much for this short (err, maybe long now) story! To sum it up, Atkins makes you lose weight because your not hungry, and you don't eat food loaded with empty calories. Now I was sold.

I was in a hurry to lose weight and get off the diet so I religiously stuck to the program. I lost weight very quickly, with most weeks in the range of 4-5lbs. People really started noticing when I dropped about 70lbs. Strange....all of a sudden...co-workers started mentioning things to me. When I dropped 100lbs, everyone was asking me how I did it and I was more than pleased to respond "Atkins" and explained the program. Many people were of the same opinion of diets but now they actually saw someone doing it. You can't imagine how it feels when someone tells you that you are there inspiration. That's just an amazing feeling and fueled my will even stronger. But looking in the mirror, I just didn't feel that I lost that much weight. Until what happened next.

Now for the really bad news. I had to buy a new wardrobe! At about 130lbs down, my wife said "That't it....I've had it". All my clothes went to goodwill and it was to the store for more clothes. I had been pleading to wait until my 145lb end goal, but I was wearing pants that were 8-10inches too big, snugged up tightly with my old belt that I drilled new notches into and wrapped around to my back. 3X shirts were floating on me. I did look ridiculous, so new dress shirts, pants, suit jackets, belts, underwear later, I tried on a new outfit and was blown away. I couldn't believe how I looked. Now i've never been vain and looked at myself in the mirror, but I was speachless. (sidenote.....i got to keep all my teeshirts, to be replaced when they wear out...go Eagles, Flyers, Phillies and Sixers!)

I went from 42-44 pants to 34. Shirts I'm now in a 16neck down from a 20. 44R suit jacket and L tee-shirt. I can buy off the rack! and much better clothes selection than what is available at big and tall type stores. Stupid little things like seeing a shirt you like, and not having to worry if its going to be offered in your size makes life just so much enjoyable.

My goal was to get down to 170. As of last Monday, I needed on one pound more. I told myself that I set a goal and was going to make it. Having only lost 2lbs the week before, figured I could do it in one more week, resisting the urge to weigh myself mid-week. This morning(8/30) I weighed myself and my jaw just dropped, I lost 6lbs. Blew right past my goal of 145 to 150. So now I'm down to 165.

But more important than how I look (what do I care I'm married to a wonderful woman anyway :D ) is how I feel. That's the question most often asked of me, and to be quite honest, I never really felt that bad when I was really heavy. But now, its night and day difference. Gone are the days when waking up with a sore back or having any knee pain. My energy has increased 10fold. Im constantly moving, even bouncing off the walls. I'm doing the things now that I never had the energy to do before. It really is an amazing change to my life.

Medically, my cholesterol is really, really low, and almost all of the good kind. Doctor said best he's ever seen. BP is 120/60 which i'm told is athletic. But in the end I really don't care about those numbers. There are people who are in perfect shape and drop dead of a heart attack at 35. Its not worth going nuts over since life is so short. In the end, the only thing that matters is enjoying the life you have. Now I can honestly say that I'm really enjoying myself in my daytoday activities. I no longer worry about going to a concert and getting tired from standing. I don't worry about going to the beach and taking my shirt off. I don't think about that stuff at all anymore. As the old saying goes, its the little things that matter, and that is true. And all that in a little over 6 1/2months. I know that I will never be heavy again because of this and give a emotional "Thank You" to the late Dr. Atkins and those continuing his work.

So for you reading this, I'm sorry I went so long but I had a lot to say. If your thinking about doing this, I'd highly recommend discussing it with your doctor, reading the books, and then make the plunge. It was the second easiest self improvement thing I've ever done (Sorry Atkins, but lasik eye-surgury was even easier-5min of chop and burn!). If your on a LC diet already, good luck and may your goals come as quickly as mine.