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Before and after 3 months
Here’s how Jason lost 50 pounds in just 3 months.
The Email
Hi Andreas,
I’ve been a long time reader of your site and wanted to share my results of going LCHF in case it might help to inspire any readers who are on the fence about trying it since I achieved results so quickly.
The first picture was taken on April 26, 2015. In that picture I weighed 265 lbs (120 kg) and had a number of health issues. My main issue being that I had an extreme case of reactive hypoglycemia. I can honestly say that condition was pure hell. I had it so bad that I could literally smell something sweet, like a cake baking or perfume and I would be hypo within 10 seconds. I won’t get into the details of my symptoms, but the mental symptoms I can only describe as a nightmare.I’d managed to gain so much weight because with my insulin resistance issue (of course I was a pre-diabetic with those hypo issues… I also had the starting of gangrene at the end of my toes and floaters in my vision from ruptured blood vessels… which are all completely healed now). I had to eat so much to get my blood sugar back up.
Also, I had GERD and had to take over 10 extra strength Tums a day. The problem with that was I’d eat a bunch of food to stabilize my insulin and blood sugar, but because I ate so much I’d have to take more Tums, and the sweetness from the Tums would make me hypo again, then I’d have to eat again. It was a vicious circle.
My condition had gotten so bad that I knew I had to change. The final scare was heart palpitations and shortness of breath so bad that I thought I was going to have a heart attack, and that was enough of a scare to set me straight because I knew very bad things were going to happen NOW, not 10 years down the road (I was addicted to carbohydrates).
Long story short, the second picture was taken exactly 3 months after the first one, on July 26, 2015. In that picture I weigh 215 pounds (97 kg), for a weight-loss of 50 lbs (23 kg) in just 3 months, which is insane!
My reactive-hypo episodes are also pretty much completely gone as well, maybe a small bit of an adrenaline shot after my first few bites of food the odd meal but that’s it, and I expect to be completely healed in the following months. The only thing I have to watch out for is that I don’t eat way more fat than I do protein, since fat lowers blood sugar. So I eat about 70 grams of protein a day and about 80-90 grams of fat (I only eat once a day), and carbs are kept as low as possible, no starches, no sugar, no fruit, and no artificial sweeteners either.
I also didn’t exercise that much since it did take me a little longer to fat adapt than most because I had such extreme insulin resistance. I went to the gym a few times and walked here and there but nothing crazy, my weight loss was pretty much all from LCHF.
I don’t consider that second picture to be an after picture, my goal weight is 175 pounds (79 kg) so I’m going to send you another update in 3 months to share with the readers and I expect to be down at least another 30 pounds and have my health just keep improving and improving.
Thanks for all the great work you do, Andreas! And if anyone wants to contact me to find out exactly what I eat, etc… they can email me at jaymanwell@gmail.com.
Take care!
Jason
Comment
What a fantastic success story Jason, and looking forward to the follow up!
Update
Many people actually thought the pictures above were Photoshopped, as the change is so fantastic. But they were wrong. Here’s Jason’s update a few months later:
Progress: -30 Pounds in Another 3 Months, Total -80 Pounds on LCHF!
Earlier Success Stories
Your Story
Do you have a success story you want to share with others on this blog? It’s a great way to inspire other people to change their lives, like you perhaps have done.
E-mail your story to me at andreas@dietdoctor.com. Before and after photos are great for making your story concrete and relatable to other people. Let me know if it’s OK to publish your photo and name or if you’d rather remain anonymous.
Below, find out what you can do if you want to try LCHF for yourself, as well as stories from others who have tried.
I need to lost my weight
I'm now 48. I had been doing low carb for a couple of years, but got no results for over a year (100 lbs (~45 kg) overweight) unless I also went drastically low calorie (and research indicates that's a VERY bad idea to do for an extended period). I tried upping my fat: nothing. Higher protein: nothing. I switched to a cyclic ketogenic diet to help with beneficial hormonal re-regulation, and essentially still saw no results (no change up or down in weight) for many months. I finally found a low-carb-friendly MD's office; they ran a blood panel and diagnosed low T and (mild, I think) Hashimoto's disease. I started testosterone replacement therapy in the summer, and finally started shedding pounds in January. It's been slow going, but I finally saw a change on the scale, and I'm about 20 (~9 kg) lbs improved now. I've had various injuries that have prevented me from working out, or really even walking (I know that I need to find *something* I can do...). I stalled out again recently, but I fit quite nicely into old pants that are one size smaller, and I'm not gaining weight despite eating a lot of carbs on Saturday afternoons/evenings. If you're doing the LCHF lifestyle and aren't seeing much progress, you're fairly certain you're being strict and careful with your carb consumption, and you're keeping it under 30g/day, I'd encourage you to look for a physician's office that specializes in this sort of thing, to get blood work analysis and discuss possible hormone replacement therapy. I recently went back to find that my testosterone numbers are good, but other markers indicate that aromatization was converting too much of it to estrogen, so I got a prescription to suppress that, as well as a meds to help thyroid function. My A1c has improved from 5.7 (low end of the "pre-diabetic" range) to 5.5 in the past year. Again, that's with a large influx of carbs on Saturdays, and no exercise.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2015/02/11/ajcn.114.096925
Thanks
Comparison of low- and high-carbohydrate diets for type 2 diabetes management: a randomized trial.
Tay J1, Luscombe-Marsh ND2, Thompson CH3, Noakes M4, Buckley JD5, Wittert GA3, Yancy WS Jr6, Brinkworth GD7.
Author information
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Few well-controlled studies have comprehensively examined the effects of very-low-carbohydrate diets on type 2 diabetes (T2D).
OBJECTIVE:
We compared the effects of a very-low-carbohydrate, high-unsaturated fat, low-saturated fat (LC) diet with a high-carbohydrate, low-fat (HC) diet on glycemic control and cardiovascular disease risk factors in T2D after 52 wk.
DESIGN:
In this randomized controlled trial that was conducted in an outpatient research clinic, 115 obese adults with T2D [mean ± SD age: 58 ± 7 y; body mass index (in kg/m2): 34.6 ± 4.3; glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c): 7.3 ± 1.1%; duration of diabetes: 8 ± 6 y] were randomly assigned to consume either a hypocaloric LC diet [14% of energy as carbohydrate (carbohydrate <50 g/d), 28% of energy as protein, and 58% of energy as fat (<10% saturated fat)] or an energy-matched HC diet [53% of energy as carbohydrate, 17% of energy as protein, and 30% of energy as fat (<10% saturated fat)] combined with supervised aerobic and resistance exercise (60 min; 3 d/wk). Outcomes were glycemic control assessed with use of measurements of HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, glycemic variability assessed with use of 48-h continuous glucose monitoring, diabetes medication, weight, blood pressure, and lipids assessed at baseline, 24, and 52 wk.
RESULTS:
Both groups achieved similar completion rates (LC diet: 71%; HC diet: 65%) and mean (95% CI) reductions in weight [LC diet: -9.8 kg (-11.7, -7.9 kg); HC diet: -10.1 kg (-12.0, -8.2 kg)], blood pressure [LC diet: -7.1 (-10.6, -3.7)/-6.2 (-8.2, -4.1) mm Hg; HC diet: -5.8 (-9.4, -2.2)/-6.4 (-8.4, -4.3) mm Hg], HbA1c [LC diet: -1.0% (-1.2, -0.7%); HC diet: -1.0% (-1.3, -0.8%)], fasting glucose [LC diet: -0.7 mmol/L (-1.3, -0.1 mmol/L); HC diet: -1.5 mmol/L (-2.1, -0.8 mmol/L)], and LDL cholesterol [LC diet: -0.1 mmol/L (-0.3, 0.1 mmol/L); HC diet: -0.2 mmol/L (-0.4, 0.03 mmol/L)] (P-diet effect ≥ 0.10). Compared with the HC-diet group, the LC-diet group achieved greater mean (95% CI) reductions in the diabetes medication score [LC diet: -0.5 arbitrary units (-0.7, -0.4 arbitrary units); HC diet: -0.2 arbitrary units (-0.4, -0.06 arbitrary units); P = 0.02], glycemic variability assessed by measuring the continuous overall net glycemic action-1 [LC diet: -0.5 mmol/L (-0.6, -0.3 mmol/L); HC diet: -0.05 mmol/L (-0.2, -0.1 mmol/L); P = 0.003], and triglycerides [LC diet: -0.4 mmol/L (-0.5, -0.2 mmol/L); HC diet: -0.01 mmol/L (-0.2, 0.2 mmol/L); P = 0.001] and greater mean (95% CI) increases in HDL cholesterol [LC diet: 0.1 mmol/L (0.1, 0.2 mmol/L); HC diet: 0.06 mmol/L (-0.01, 0.1 mmol/L); P = 0.002].
CONCLUSIONS:
Both diets achieved substantial weight loss and reduced HbA1c and fasting glucose. The LC diet, which was high in unsaturated fat and low in saturated fat, achieved greater improvements in the lipid profile, blood glucose stability, and reductions in diabetes medication requirements, suggesting an effective strategy for the optimization of T2D management. This trial was registered at http://www.anzctr.org.au as ACTRN12612000369820.
Nonetheless, if he has high adherence, good on him.
My "Breakfast" (I follow Intermittent Fasting so I eat around 13:00, then around 19:00) is 900 calories, sometimes 1000 calories by itself and I'm only 70kgs ~11% bodyfat, this guy needs to eat AT THE VERY LEAST 1800 calories.
So I'm with Pleb 100% here.
I'm not sure why some people think that LCHF means 'Starve to death'? :-(
Where do you see that?
All I can see is:
"first picture was taken on April 26, 2015"
"second picture was taken exactly 3 months after the first one, on July 26"