Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post - 2020 Dietary Guidelines requesting our input

I'm working on my "public" comment right now. I noticed that there is an option to attach a file. I just printed my "1000 Days of Healthy Eating" milestone to a PDF. Hopefully they will accept that as an attachment.

Edited to add... I finished my comment and submitted it. They actually give a significant amount of space to write. Here is what I said...

Quote:

Comment:
I have been morbidly obese for most of my adult life. In 2014 at age 50 I weighed 440 pounds. I had type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, back issues, and at least half a dozen other health problems. I dieted on and off for decades. I could lose weight, but I could never keep it off. Standard dietary advice did not work for me. In fact, I gained my first 100+ pounds in the late 1980's trying to eat a "healthy" low fat, low cholesterol diet. After that I could never sustain a diet long enough to lose all the weight. I'd diet, lose weight. Then when some short term goal was reached the diet would falter and I'd gain all the weight back and more. This yo-yo pattern went on for decades. I tried many different diets including low fat, low carb, and Weight Watchers. I had the best success losing weight with low carb, but I still gained all the weight back when the diet ended. By 2013 I'd pretty much given up trying. I was huge, I was sick, and I didn't see any way out. If I could have afforded weight loss surgery I would have done it. I had given up hope. I was about to become a huge burden on the healthcare system, too. I was sick with a multitude of metabolic conditions and things were not going to get any better.

Today I weigh 205 pounds. I lost over 230 pounds. I reversed my diabetes. I no longer have high blood pressure. I take no prescription drugs. I am completely healthy again. What did I do? I stopped dieting and changed how I eat to Low Carb/High Fat (LCHF). I stopped cheating. I deprived myself of the processed carbs that I used to love until I no longer felt deprived. I discovered along the way that I really was addicted to processed carbs and sugar. It wasn't until I abstained from eating those things that I was able to gain control over what I ate. By eating foods that normalized my blood sugar I naturally wanted to eat less and move more. Eating this way fixed my broken metabolism and it did so within the first few months of my new way of eating. It took me 30 months to lose all the weight. At my last two annual checkups my A1C scores were 5.3 and 5.1 - totally normal. After reaching my goal weight I just kept doing what I was doing. After 3 decades of struggle I finally found something that worked. 4 years ago I had to stop for a rest after climbing 1 flight of stairs. In April I will be running my 3rd Richmond 10K. I have my life back and I refuse to give it back. I'm eating LCHF for life.

So I pretty much eat the food pyramid upside down. My body runs better on fat. My health markers are the best they have ever been. I'd be happy to provide you copies of my annual checkup labs to back up my claims. The food pyramid/my plate guidelines may work for the majority of the population. But for those of us who are metabolically ill, those guidelines don't work for us. For some of us a carb centric diet breaks our metabolism. Once broken we tolerate carbs less and crave them more. When it comes to the guidelines one size does not fit all. Lord knows I tried the low fat approach. No amount of trying harder was ever going to make that diet work for me. I simply don't tolerate high glycemic carbs very well. When I eat such foods in my daily diet I lose control. I'm constantly hungry. I gain weight. I simply have to avoid foods that hammer my system with sugar.

I am just one of many. Recent studies have shown that low carb diets are effective in reversing metabolic diseases, including diabetes and obesity. These metabolic conditions are the driving force behind the catastrophe of exploding heath care costs. In one year's time I lost over 140 pounds, attained an A1c score of 5.1, and my doctor took me off of hypertension medication. I still weighed 297 pounds at the time and I'd regained my health. Eating low carb did that. It didn't end there. Sticking to my program I continued to lose down to a healthy weight. LCHF is sustainable. I've been doing it for 4 years now. Obviously it did wonderful things for my health, too; and did so very rapidly.

Metabolic diseases are about to bankrupt the world heath care system. People are suffering horrific and costly health conditions. Worker productivity is suffering. And things are just getting worse. IT IS TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE. NOW. May I suggest that a special set of guidelines be created for those with metabolic conditions; one that acknowledges that a low carb diet may be an effective treatment for those who are on the road to diabetes. Perhaps even provide incentives to Medicare/Medicaid doctors who provide diet programs that encourage and support as a low carb solution. Do this and be prepared for some magic. A miracle happened for me. Help make it happen for others, too.

BTW: I just live down the road near Richmond. I'd be happy to come up and bring my old size 56" pants and my medical records for show and tell. I wear size 34 pants now. Call me up!

Uploaded File(s)(Optional)

•2011_vs_2016_full_len.jpg: success
•DC_bench2_2014-2016.jpg: success
•20160409_10Ka.jpg: success
•LCHF_Success_Story_2016c.pdf: success
•LCHF_Health_Success_2016a.pdf: success