Strangely enough, even though I still exercise a LOT, I have gained about 30 pounds in the last 3 years. I DID need to gain some weight…but I could stand to lose about 5 of those pounds. I would feel a lot better if I did. Since low-fat living wasn’t working for me anymore, I needed to try something else. Finding Jimmy’s website has been a real eye-opener for me.

I have had a phobia of fat for as long as I can remember. Even now, it’s sometimes hard for me to acknowledge that fat is GOOD for me. But after 5 years of dealing with no menstrual cycle and infertility, I realized that my diet needed to change. I have always had a sweet tooth, and I know now that I can’t eat 3 brownies and then just “run it off.” It doesn’t work that way anymore.

Therefore, I am trying my hardest to live a low-carb life. I am also taking Chinese herbs to help get my body back in balance, and for the first time in NINE years, I have had several menstrual cycles ON MY OWN. (with no help from hormone shots or birth control pills). It is truly a miracle, and I think that a low-carb/ high-fat diet plus Chinese meds plus God’s mercy is the reason my body is slowly getting back where it should be.

I would like to give up sugar/ flour/ wheat for good, and I am taking steps in that direction. I hope someday I can bear my own children. I hope I can spread the news about low-carb living here in Asia, where I live. And I hope I can someday see the DVD, My Big Fat Diet, so I can continue to learn more about this life-changing way of eating.

Thank you for asking us to submit an essay, Jimmy. I enjoyed writing down my thoughts, and I hope I didn’t get too personal. But you’re always so transparent and REAL with us that I don’t think you’ll mind all the details.

As a child, I loved beans and corn bread night! My grandmother used to tell us, “You better eat your beans because they stick to your ribs” (little did I know they really would stick to me!). Because of our wonderful diet I was over weight all my life. I remember going on my first diet the summer before my freshmen year in high school. I limited myself to 500 calories a day. I ran a mile in the morning and before bed. During this time I also had summer Marching band practice and Colorguard drills all on 500 calories a day. I lost 25 pounds that summer just to regain it as fast as I lost it. So started my yo-yo dieting of starving and low-fat eating which lasted around 19 years and left me weighing a whopping 325 pounds.

In November 2007 I sat in my doctors’ office with type 2 diabetes, PCOS, high blood pressure and taking all kinds of medications for all my ailments. My doctor came into the room with my lab results shaking his head. He told me my results were not good and then went on to tell me that he was going to have to add another medication to my list because my cholesterol was high. It was then I knew I was going to die if I did not make a change. The doc then told me that if he sent me to a dietician it will only make me sicker. I looked at him in shock. He then handed me a two page Diet outline he wanted me to follow. After looking it over I realized he just told me to go on a low carb diet.

I went home, talked to my husband and started a new chapter in my life. Low-carbing was hard at first. I wanted bread so bad I could taste it. I started researching and joining low-carb support groups and cooking at home. It only took a few weeks to start feeling like me again. I started working out and coming home and eating bunless hamburgers with a side salad and low-carb pizza with loads of vegetables (which did feel a little strange at first). I was no longer hungry all the time and my blood sugar was under control. I also started having monthly menstrual cycles again and the weight was falling off.

Six months later I went to my doctor for a follow up appointment. My doctor was in shock! I had dropped 59 pounds, my blood pressure was normal my cholesterol was down and my Diabetes was under control. He took me off my medications for all my ailments and cut my Diabetic medication in half! My doctor told me I was his first Diabetic patient to ever change there health around the way I had and that he wished he could have someone follow me around to see how I did it. I was thinking “What?”, “I am living the low-carb lifestyle like you told me” but he was out the door before I could say a word. The doctor was out in the hall telling his staff the great news! I was on cloud nine.

In conclusion, my new found low-carb high-fat lifestyle has taken me from a young dieing woman with uncontrolled Diabetes, PCOS, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, taking all kinds of medications and a whopping 325 pounds to a healthy young woman with controlled Diabetes, PCOS, only on one medication and down 59 pounds! Low-carb is my life and living this way will keep improving my health and help drop the pounds so that I will have a long and fulfilling life.

Low carb made sense, it seemed to follow what my ancestors would have eaten. I made a false start once and it felt right but I wasn’t quite ready. While I wasn’t ready I knew I had found the key. I just wanted to do it right. I abandoned my effort after three weeks. Instead I choose to quit smoking three days before Christmas and caffeine a few days after all in preparation for low carb. My official Low carb start was February 5. That is what I would consider my new birthday. Not for physical reasons but because of all the emotional and life changes low carb has given me. I had never stuck to any diet more than a few weeks. This didn’t feel like a diet though; it felt like a new life.

Low carb showed me my own strength. It showed me that given the right tools I can succeed and that I can give those tools to myself. It helped me get ahold of my ADD and asthma when I ran out of health insurance and medication. Finding that inner strength allowed me to find joy in exercise for the first time in 10 years. I feel strong regardless of being assaulted not long ago. It reminded me that I can overcome and achieve. My weight gain was full of emotion and as the weight comes off so do those emotions. I have began to shed hurt, pain, and confusion with every pound. I’ve also began to own my own body again.

On Saturday I graduate after 10 years of being in and out of school and having given up last year. In OCT I am taking the LSAT and applying to Law School. It sounds really over dramatic but Low carb reminded me of who I am. Everything suddenly became much easier because I knew I was committed and stronger than something that most people never overcome. Quitting smoking or applying to law school back east doesn’t seem so scary. I am braver now. I guess Low Carb changed my life the way some Marathoners talk about that first race. So for me the gains emotionally have been far more that physical. I am in awe at the human capacity for strength and healing.

Since that day I’ve learned a tremendous amount about health and the benefits of low-carb dieting. I’ve lost weight, improved my health, and regained my life! My energy levels are high and my FMS pain is non-existent. Besides weight, I’ve lost Acid Reflux, IBS, joint pain, and my depression is under control WITHOUT medication. I enjoy living again!

I’ve learned a lot about myself as well. My emotional and mental state has improved beyond what I could have ever imagined. I have a self confidence that I don’t think I have ever had. Low-Carb has given me the courage to branch out and help others with their low-carb lifestyles. I now run a low-carb website, a low-carb blog, and help in various other capacities. It’s exciting to see others discover this amazing way of living. I’ve also gained the confidence to further my education and start my own business.

I simply would not be who I am today if it had not been for the low-carb lifestyle. I would still be sick, miserable, depressed, and scared of living life to it’s fullest.

Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. I had to end the insanity and tried low carb. I was shocked to see that I was getting about 70% of my calories from fat, but I quickly got used to the idea. Fat is yummy and much more satisfying than carbs. Even though I now give myself permission to eat as much as I want, I find I don’t want as much and don’t eat as much. There are still some “mindless eating” situations, but I find it much easier to deal with them now that the cravings ar gone.

The results are that I’ve lost over 110 lbs to date. More importantly, my blood sugar has improved greatly and I have been able to get off some of my meds. I have adopted low carb, high fat as a permanent lifestyle and will never go back to my former way of eating (or my former weight for that matter.)

Great interview Jimmy. This series has been very informative. Keep up the good work.

I’ve struggled with weight (and been on some form of diet) for as long as I can remember. For a long time, I assumed it was my own self-discipline that caused me to remain overweight. All that changed when my wife and I began seriously talking about having a baby. Not wanting to be the “fat dad,” I threw myself into what was “everyone knows” is the healthiest weight loss program. Weight watchers. I counted every point and never cheated. I lost about 12 pounds the first month but then my weight lost stalled.

I thought, “No problem. I’ll exercise.” I threw myself into an intense exercise program. I worked an hour and a half a day, 5 days a week. Exercise helped me lose about 4 more pounds…then the scale stopped moving downward for me permanently.

For 4 more months, I counted every WW “point” and exercised religiously. Despite my effort and dedication, I was horrified to find that not only was I NOT losing weight, I began to GAIN weight! Weight watchers was making me fatter! When I got back within about 5 pounds of my starting weight (despite my religious dedication to the diet and exercise program), I quit Weight Watchers.

I was incredible frustrated, but at least I now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it wasn’t my level of dedication that was keeping me over weight. The dedication was there. I just had bad information. That’s when I began reading about low carb.

Weight loss—for me—has always felt like an uphill battle. The analogy I like to use to describe it is pushing a rock up a steep hill. It’s a tremendous amount of work, and I know that if I slip up even once, the rock is going to roll right back over me, and I’ll be right back where I started (or worse.) Even if I could somehow find a way to lose weight, I knew that I would find it impossible to keep the weight off. It was just too hard.

Eating a high fat/low carb diet completely changed that. Losing weight still isn’t easy for me. I still have a few more pounds to lose, and I have to watch my carbs, portions and exercise (The trifecta!) in order to LOSE pounds, but now it’s possible when it wasn’t before!

However, the magic of a high fat diet—at least for me—is in the maintenance. I’ve lost over 55 pounds, and I find maintaining the loss to be effortless. I don’t even think about it.

I have found that when I keep my carbs low, I am unable to gain weight no matter how much food I eat, and remember, I’m the kind of guy who can LOOK at a donut and gain weight. Being able to eat as much as I want without gaining weight is a completely foreign concept!

For me, THIS is the miracle of a low carb/high fat diet and it has changed my life.

It reminds me of Michael Pollan’s latest book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Have you read it? I highly recommend it. One of his main themes is the development of “Nutritionism”, a belief that bad food can be made good by merely adding supplements to it.

For instance taking a really deficient breakfast cereal (which started life as a highly nutritious, lower-glycemic whole grain and then was refined to the point of nutritional uselessness with HFC added) and “improving” it by adding all kind of extra vitamins and minerals (usually in a form that is inferior to the way nature originally supplied it).

A great example of that is when Dean Ornish told Jimmy how proud he was to have convinced Tropicana to add processed fiber back into it’s orange juice, rather than just encouraging people to get the “orange juice with natural pulp” or - better yet - just eat a real orange.

You can read my review of Pollan’s work and see a video at my health blog: Michael Pollan Speaks In Defense Of Food

On a different topic, I think that “high carb” as a movement is dead, though of course lots of people eat like that. No need to fight it any more. The emerging movement that is alive and well (which of course doesn’t mean it is right) is the “good food/bad food” idea:

Low glycemic foods are good; high glycemic foods are bad.
Local food is good; food from far away is bad.
Meat from naturally raised animals is good; grain-fed beef, bacon, sausage, chicken with antibiotics and hormones are bad.
Organic food is good; food raised with pesticides is bad.
Food from the farm is good. Food from factories in packages is bad.

Anyhow, you get the idea. In fact, you already knew it!

=)

I love the Drs. Eades; their books have been a great help to me, and I enjoyed hearing them on your show. Interestingly enough, I was at my chiorpractor’s yesterday to gain some help with my fatigue and burnout. And guess what they recommend for optimum health? A low carb diet.

http://lowcarblinks.blogspot.com/2006/09/theme-based-low-carb-links-shirataki.html

As for eating soy in general, I try to avoid it. It reminds me too much of a low-fat diet to begin with (EEEK!) and I just don’t like the flavor of it. Plus, there are some rather damning studies out there about soy despite what the low-fat apologists have to say about how “healthy” it is. THANKS again for writing!

I currently have two jobs. I do adult echocardiography in the morning and then work as a night manager at the student center at DMC( Downstate medical center of Brooklyn).

My day starts 6 am and ends at 12am so by the time I come home you can imagine how tired I am. When I stumbled upon your website I couldn’t go to sleep for at least few days listening to all those podcasts. I have found the messengers and their messages so intresting and educational.

No insults to anyone else but especialy Dr Mike Eade. I trully admire him. I read all of his work back in the days. I loved his first book in which he detaily describes protein synthesis and explains why low carb diets work. I also watched him on his show with his wife. Thank you for interviewing him.

I know so many websites charge a lot of money for listening to the interviews. And I did pay money to listen to few. I would definitely pay money to listen to people like Eades and Bowden, but I didn’t have to, and for that I truly want to thank you.

I have a question though. I know that you are not a big fan of soy. The studies are very controversial about soy. I know that more and more companies grow whats known as genetically modified soy which could be dangerous for our health. However I am one of those crazy people that happen to love soy, especially fermented such as miso.

I actually asked Dr Feinman when I spoke over the phone with him few days about soy. How lucky is it to work with that man door to door. He only works part time though, but he is gracious that not only he gave me his cell but I can pop in in his department of biochem at any time to visit him. Dr Feinman said he doesnt know that much about soy and thats its not part of his repourtair.

But I love shirataki noodles. Have you ever tried shirataki noodles? They are made of yam flour( which is basically pure soluble fiber) and a bit of soy for texture. The whole package has only 40 calories and basically carb free. I saute it in olive oil with garlic and spices and then fry it with egg. They do taste like regualr pasta aldente without all the guilt. What’s your opinion about shirataki?

I have lots of anecdotal stories about my experience with diets but it would take at least a day to describe. May be I will share it in one of the forums.

Jimmy, I cant express enough gratitude and appreciation for the work you have been doing educating folks out there on the benefits of low carb lifestyle. Not only you conduct it in a professional and lighthearted way, but you also let your listeners do it for free. I want to thank you from the bootom of my heart! The interview with Dr Feiman was amazing, very informative and useful. Look forward to share my story with you sometime. Its quite intresting.

I have come to USA about 15 years ago. I have since graduated from two colleges with a degree in nutrition, EMT-Paramedic and DMI( diagnostic medical imaging}. I have lost and regained more then 120 pounds 3 times. I have experimented with all diets out there from Ornish eat more weight less to Dr Barry Sears zone to Fat flush to Dr Gundry diet evolution to Paul Bragg miracle starvation diet. I even tried drastic measures while being on Ornish diet.

While working in Italian restaurant and being able to avoid those hunger times, I would suck on ascorbic acids ( 20 of them) until my tongue bled and that would prevent me form eating, I simply couldn’t. I could go on and on!

I was the most successful on Atkins diet but my doctor basically convinced me I would be dead by the age of 40 if I continued. i was terrified and quit. I studied nutrition extensively to only finally suffer from “paralysis from over-analysis”.

I was ready to give up and adapt a diet that has only one simple rule; Eat anything you want as much as you want as long as you do naked in front of the mirror! Until one day I stumbled upon your website. I can’t describe the jubilation and excitement. I am a reborn person again and hearing those wonderful doctors and scientist talk so passionately about low carb made a believer out of me again.

I am back on a bandwagon again!

I really liked this interview. I look forward to the next interview on Thursday. Thank you and I will try and find the metabolic web site.

Mary

Thanks Jimmy and thanks Dr. Feinman. What a brilliant and generous he is.

Teresa H

Dale

But if I get the urge to send you more thorny questions I’ll count to a thousand first, and see if the urge passes before I send them on.

Thanks for that guys. I get so excited about the way I feel now - I am just loving it - when I take my dogs out I can feel this new energy in me and I feel I can walk forever - it is amazing ! Now the really interesting thing is that I have been on other diets - low fat - low GI and I read about all the energy benefits etc - so I just flip pass any mention of how I was going to feel on Atkins - in fact last night I was checking low carbers on line I saw mention of the lifting of the brain fog and the sluggishnesse - and that happened to me. It just blows me away.
Jimmy I have never thought of doing a blog - maybe I should - I am going away in four weeks time and won’t be back till almost the end of July. I have put a lot of work into plans to keep myself on low carb while I am away - I even bought a light weight egg cooker with two different plugs for the countries I will be going to so I can cook up my eggs each day.
Perhaps what I could do Jimmy - with you help - is look at it all now and see if I can work it into my life now and perhaps I could do some really interesting blogs about travel and staying on low carb. That might even help me stay on track !

Diamond Girl that is a good point and I have gone over that in my mind. I see it this way - if I am perceived as being too nice by people with an attitude problem or who have a tendency to be bullys then I feel I am the first to get my head chopped off - or so it seems to me. I can’t do anything about their behaviour - wouldn’t even try - so the only thing I have to work with is myself. So what I am doing now is trying to establish a line in the sand by being more assertive and giving the general impression that I am not going to put up with bad behaviour. I n the past people get me on the defensive - and it is often in regards to things that are none of their business. Instead of trying to defend myself because I wanted to be polite I will now say up front - I am not going to go on the defensive and this really is none of your business or words to that effect. This is coming from a new strength I have - I have now realized that this whole self loathing thing with the
weight just wasn’t my fault - I was fighting an impossible battle. I don’t feel like a stupid loser now, my whole sense of myself has changed - no doubt things will change still. So the long and the short of it is I can’t change people and how they behave towards me but I can change the way I react to them and so far it seems to be working
cheers
Helena

Do you think that dropping sugar/carbs was as much of a radical change for you as is someone dropping serious poor behaviors with how the interact with others?

It is truly amazing how mood effects attitude, though. I’m amazed at how I can look at the exact same thing in totally different ways depending on the day and my mood.

My practice is to treat people with the respect that they deserve, but challenge them on the points that are at odds with what I believe. Am I always right? Of course not. But I expect a rational response in the areas that just don’t make any sense to me. That’s what this “adding fiber to refined carbohydrates makes them healthy” question to the Eades was all about. Ornish still hasn’t explained himself very well about it.

THANKS again, Peter, for sharing your thoughts and concerns. I welcome your feedback anytime because it will only serve to make this podcast even better. Take care!

Do you honestly believe that Ornish’s reader don’t remember which foods are in which category? That seems disingenuous.

Aren’t the categories rather an important part of the book?

Thanks so much.

There’s plenty that you don’t agree with in Briffa’s writings, Davis’s (Heart Scan) writings, and many others but with them you focus on what you do agree with, which makes sense to me. With Ornish you seem obsessed with what you don’t agree with, especially that one sentence about why he puts flour and sugar in category 3. and I bet hardly anyone who reads The Spectrum remembers that one sentence or can remember what foods are in which categories.

I think when you and Eades get into calling people who don’t agree with you about something “dumb” and “idiots” and making fun of their view (as if Ornish endorses eating donuts with metamucil) you turn a lot of people off, Eades more so than you. Respecting people when they don’t agree with you, on the other hand, will gain you readers I bet.

That is a powerful thing you just wrote:

“I have been on low carb since January and I am becoming a very different person. I feel so strong now within myself and I am finding my courage again.”

You should create a text file and paste that in so that you can look at it again if you ever find yourself having moments of doubt or weakness!

Yes that is exactly what my problem has been - people pleasing and weak boundaries. I have been on low carb since January and I am becoming a very different person. I feel so strong now within myself and I am finding my courage again. One of the things that was the first to change when I changed over - apart from my fat just melting away - was the brian fog that I never even knew that I had lifted and my mind cleared. That is when I started to think - what the hell am I putting up with stuff for - for what reason ?
Getting rid of the carb and sugar is the best thing I have even done for myself and it is only the beginning.
It is great to have people like you and Jimmy out there writing and talking about the truth
Blessings
Helena

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7154875690262117141

Keep up the good work!

Just stopping back in to say I am still going strong on my diet. I have lost a total of 176.5 lbs and I feel wonderful, and I am getting married in 6 weeks!!!
For everyone out there who is feeling skeptical, don’t think about it DO IT!
IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jade

I can relate to your story 100%. I think it’s very common, after conquering a sugar/carb addiction, to look at other ways your life isn’t working. I, too, have had to reassert myself and set healthy boundaries. After all, besides the physiological aspect of carb/sugar addiction, there’s the psychological hook: people pleasing and weak boundaries—putting other people’s needs/preferences above my own. In the same way that I learned to set boundaries with myself and my eating, I’ve also learned to set boundaries with other people. So, yes, I think this is a very valid connection.

Best,
Karly