- Hello, My name is William, I am currently a Chiropractic student at Palmer Chiropractic. I am no where near the weight that I want to be at and definitely do not want to be portrayed as a hypocrite when going into practice. A little of my history. . . I am a graduate of UF after which I joined the Peace Corps, stationed in Guyana South America. It is funny, I have pretty much been overweight all my adult life, yet over there I lost weight instantly without trying at all. 50 lbs in about a couple months, the lowest going to my ideal of about 195 (I'm about 272 right now). Coming back to states after about a year and a half was very very difficult, but it was in that time that the most profound event ever occurred, I accepted Jesus as my savior and received the Holy Spirit. That of course was a total turn around from where I was going, hell to heaven, and I thank God for it. After returning I worked at a community mental health company for a year and a half, got married, enrolled at Palmer, and my wife is about to have a baby (a true blessing). Unfortunately after returning back to the states with a different life style, diet, and previous bad habits, I gained the weight back, bit by bit, year by year. The biggest jar is not how I look or feel, but in that I want to help people overcome their health obstacles while pointing them to Christ in my practice, that means I must overcome my own obstacles myself (and thus why I am here).
- I have done some research, and after some consideration on how the body works a low carb diet seems to be the best option in the short term for me. I am planning to go on the Stillman diet for one month. My concern is this: I do not want a repeat of losing the weight and then gaining it back. So after the short-term effects of the low carb diet are over what do you do? Is there a book or resource that I can use to guide that stage? Any suggestions would be appreciated ? The long term effects of losing this weight greatly outweigh whatever health risks the anti-lowcarb group says; however, one thing they say that sticks is that you could gain the weight back once you have lost it. I would like a plan that would prevent this as well as point me to a template to build a new health related lifestyle, any suggestions?

Thanks and God Bless,
-William

William, you will gain weight back after you lose it if you return to your old eating habits. You do need to determine how you are planning to eat for the rest of your life. Stillman's is a pretty strict diet, I can understand why you are not planning to stay on it forever.

The benefits of low-carb are NOT short term and neither does the low-carb way of eating need to be. At it's most basic and most liberal, it's a way of eating that rejects sugar and refined/white starches and grains. If you want to read more about maintenance living with a low-carb lifestyle, try reading Atkins for Life by Dr. Atkins.

In addition to Atkins for Life, another good book is The Protein Power Lifeplan.

And Val is right, unless you make a change in your eating habits for life, you will gain the weight back.

Good luck to you. And good for you, for wanting to be a good role model for your patients.

"one thing they say that sticks is that you could gain the weight back once you have lost it. I would like a plan that would prevent this as well as point me to a template to build a new health related lifestyle, any "

William, this is quite true. However, this statement is true of ANY diet you follow to lose weight. Once you have lost your weight, if you go back to your old way of eating, you will regain the weight you have lost. This is for ANY diet, not just a low carb diet.

If you make a lifestyle change, then you should have no problems keeping your weight off. Low carbing is a lifestyle. It's chosing healthy fruits, vegetables, proteins, healthy fats (yes, saturated fat is healthy), nuts and seeds. It's ditching the starchy foods that truly are not healthy for us.

As for books, there are a plethora of books to chose from for low carb dieting advice. Go to Amazon.com and type low carb diet into their search engine. You'll find a lot of information and a lot of books; some books are by doctors and/or nutritionists and others are by lay people who have had great success in improving their health by following a low carb lifestyle.

My best to you, shortstuff

Welcome, William! Nice to meet you!

I recommend that you read several low carb books, and choose a plan that offers clear instructions for Maintenance. Also, choose the plan that best fits your lifestyle, and that you believe you can follow for the rest of your life.

You might want to visit your local library and check out "Living the Low Carb Life," by Jonny Bowden. In it, the author compares 17 different low carb plans, and offers suggestions about the types of people who might be most successful on each plan.

If you do Stillman's to lose the weight and then switch to a maintenance plan, you will not have learned how to eat for life. Following the different phases of a plan like Atkins or South Beach, by the time you transition into maintenance you will have already learned how to eat to maintain your weight.

(To Times 2) I would agree with you if I were by myself, but when you combine faith and belief in Jesus Crist with obstacles you overcome. I know that He is with me on this. I've done my research and have experimented before so I know what to expect, and have tried other things before, but I wasn't ready (my mind was not made up and focused).
Be careful about who you write negative responses to, you never know if you're comments might be taken in a destructive way. For myself, as a future Dr., and just as a person, opposing someone when the are trying to change for the better is harmful, yet supporting those in those changes can lead to success. A fitly spoken word is like apples of gold in frames of silver. Negativity will get you no where.
-William

Hey William!

First of all I agree with everyone else,the change you need to make will have to be for life. For that reason you need to find a plan you can live with and continue to carry out for the rest of your life. I do think you can go more strict and then loosen up later, but not everyone will agree with that.

Second, I also am relativley new to this site. You will at times read responses that are hard NOT to take as destructive criticism or negative. I have recieved them myself and it is frustrating. All you can do is believe that it wasnt meant that way and turn the other cheek. Try not to let other people affect your attitude and you will be fine.

Keith

TimesTwo was in no way being negative, rude or disrespectful. She was merely making a valid point. You need to be less sensitive if you're going to make it as a chiropractor. JMHO.

I cannot stand the negativity that you will sometimes see either. But I do not think timestwo meant it that way at all. Please dont be offended.

She is simply suggesting that you do a plan that gives you a slow transition into the maitenence stages. Part of it is learning how to eat, but the other part is also not shocking your system into a suddenly different way of eating. I dont know much about stillmans but I do know it is particularly strict, and going from one extreme to a regular woe might pack on the pounds, set off cravings, etc etc. If you gradually enter your lifetime matinence, you will learn exactly what and how much you can eat to maintain and feel good, and also for optimum menu enjoyment, which is important too.

Your faith is admirable, and will help you feel strong and give you hope and power on your journey. But you also need to take body chemistry into consideration.

Good luck, keep us posted!

Keep mentioning your journey. There are a number of people on this site who have been able to lose a tremendous amount of weight with help from their faith, many of them Christian. There is a program that works with any diet plan that is Christ-focused, but I don't remember the name of it. I think you will succeed!

Janine

Not much to add, just wanted to reiterate that this is definately a way of eating for life. Using this "diet" to drop some weight, then going back to your old way of eating will ultimately cause you to gain all the lost weight back.

I think timestwo was just being honest with you, which what she said is exactly true.

Good luck!

The above is the best advice you received to your question. TimesTwo was by no means being rude or disrespectful. I do Stillman's occassionally to get over a plateau and then go back to Atkins OWL. Learning how to eat to maintain my weight has been my biggest challenge after years of yo-yo dieting. On this board all any of us can do is tell you what works/worked for us.

If faith helps support people making a diet/lifestyle change, more power to them. There are practical aspects to successful weight loss also, one of which is chosing a plan and sticking to it, as TimesTwo alluded to above. The combination of the spiritual and the practical is what leads many people to success.

If you'd "done your research", "experimented", and knew "what to expect" then you wouldn't have asked what comes after the weight loss phase.

Your question was if there are any plans or books that explain how to avoid gaining the weight back.

Yes. I suggested Atkins or South Beach.