Low-Carb Diet Success Stories

Dave's Story

By Dave

When I was in high school I never thought I would ever be overweight. You see I was one of those kids that never gained weight. I was 6’ 1” tall in grade 8. I weight 150 lbs at that time. Going though school I grew to 180 lbs and 16% body fat. It wasn’t till after I got my first car did my weight started to pile up. I thought I was immortal and there was nothing that could affect me. I was wrong. My weight started sneaking up on me. Before I knew it I was 240 lbs, none of my friends said anything since I was always a big guy. I didn’t think 240 was that bad so it never bother me that much. I made a trip down to Magic Mountain last year. Last time I went was 1993 and I got to ride every ride there. This time around I rode every ride again except the “Batman” ride because I couldn’t get the seat belt down. I thought the ride was screwed. Never dawned on me to think I’ve gained weight. Fast forward to spring 2001. I got the opportunity to weight myself at my friends shop. I never would have guessed what I weight because my weight snuck up on me very slowly. The scaled read 300 lbs. My jaw just dropped and at that time I knew I need to do something.

I started doing research on diets. I just about read every diet out there. Nothing really caught my eye. One day I was having lunch with a friend that is in the vitamin industry. I asked him about dieting and he suggested that I stop eating carbs. He told me about ketosis and how it works, but he never told me the name of the diet. That evening I asked another friend about Ketosis and she knew all about it. She even had a book on it. It was the Hollywood diet or something like that. After I read that I started doing research online for low carb diets. That is when I ran into the Alkins diet. I bought the book and decided that this diet is for me. It made sense to me and I like the fact that I can eat a whole lot of food.

July 7, 2001 I officially started the Alkins diet. Everyone knew I started this diet because I was asking everyone about dieting before this. I would say over half my friends didn’t like this diet and warned me about it. I didn’t let all that discouragement change my mind. The first two weeks was hard for me. You see, I was a heavy Coke drinker. About 12 cans a day. That was the hardest thing for me to lose. After the first two weeks I lost 10 lbs. I was happy with the result and didn’t find I miss the carbs so I decided to keep eating the 20 grams of carbs a day. I kept in introduction to the end, only cheating a few times.

After the first two months I lost 46 lbs. I felt great and wanted to get back to the shape I was in high school. I use to be a die-hard cyclist when I was younger so I got myself a new bike. From then on I rode that thing everywhere. Started entering races and not once did this diet make me feel weak. I think losing 50 lbs will help with energy too. It was about this time when my friends started noticing a difference. Some non-believers suddenly started asking me about the diet. I actually got 6 people to try the diet. Unfortunately as of today no one else had the same result I had and 5 have quit. The one that is still on it has lost over 50 lbs. I personally think that you need to exercise with dieting to obtain fast results.

After I hit my goal weight I treated myself to a eat fest. I ate everything I wanted except Coke. I was shocked that I still lost weight so I kept eating carbs. I can tell you now that this diet works. By eating carbs and still exercising I started gaining a few pounds back. This was proof enough for me to decide I need to watch my carbs from now on. About 8 months after I started this diet I have lost a total of 108 lbs. I will keep it off and my life has changed so much for the better.

I think the only advice I can offer people is never quit and it doesn’t matter how long it takes because you have the rest of your life to lose. I’m a 190 lbs now and still on the diet. Good luck everybody.