At 550 Pounds, Weight Loss Needed To Live Again

Following my wild and wacky week where over 25,000 pageviews were registered at my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog, the forward momentum in the empassioned enthusiasm about the low-carb lifestyle hasn't slowed down a bit. WOO HOO!

While many of the visitors to my blog in the first week of January were long-time readers, I was pleased to see so many new people popping on here to find out what this low-carb diet thing is all about. If that's YOU, then WELCOME and stay a while. I don't bite...too hard! :)

I have a couple of thought-provoking e-mails about a couple of people who each weigh over 550 pounds to share with you from my inbox that will break your heart, but at the same time should be a solemn reminder of why we have chosen this way of eating to help us manage our weight and health.

Here's the first e-mail:

I just had to write you. I know you read that a lot, but still it is true. I found your site because of Dana Carpender. I don't get the chance to read it everyday or even every week, but I have to congratulate you on your success and let you know I will also be keeping your brother in my prayers.

I have to tell you I went on a low-carb diet about 3 years ago and lost 85 lbs in about 3 months. I know this seems like a lot but but I weighed in at 550 pounds so losing a lot very quickly isn't unusual. I joined Weight Watchers at one point and they were concerned about my quick weight loss on low-carb and wanted to modify the program for me. But, like all low-fat diets, I was hungry all the time no matter what I ate. I would wake up thinking about food and go to sleep still thinking about it. But once I got back on low-carb I would have found I often forgot to eat and had to make myself do it.

By the time I finally found out and read about low carb diets, including The South Beach Diet, Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution and of course Dana Carpenter's books, I was up to 550 and had become disabled with back problems due to my weight. I stayed with it and ate normal even when others in my family weren't until Thanksgiving came. I enjoyed my turkey dinner, but then I went back to it afterwards.

Somehow, though, I let myself be talked into giving up low-carb until after Christmas--that was two years ago. Well let's just say I have tried several times to get back on the low-carb lifestyle again but I have yet to succeed. So here it is January 2007 and two years have passed over which time I have gain nearly all of my weight back.

This year I am determined to get back on it and stay there. I can't stand not being able to walk, to go out, to even go to a store and buy stuff I need. I try not to think about it too much but I haven't been out of this house more than a dozen times in the last three years. So my goal this year is to lose enough weight to be able to get out of the house and maybe even go shopping.

You don't know how bad I want to feel better, healthier, and to help my mom live longer. My mom has been having some difficult health issues of her own this past year and I want her to live to be at least 99. Right now she's 71 years old and she is overweight weighing around 260 pounds with high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

I'm sorry this e-mail is all over the place, but part of what I have found is that between my weight, the diet sodas I drink, and being trapped inside of this house like a prisoner, I feel like I just can't focus. I hope this makes sense to you.

I love your blog and would love to read past blog posts if there is a way to do that. Also, if you have any suggestions or helpful hints about what I can do to lose weight, then I would love to hear from you. I haven't followed any low-carb program in particular, but simply tried to keep my carbs at around 50-80 grams daily and never going lower than 30. This has worked wonderfully for myself and my mother but wasn't enough carbs for my sister, so I think this time I will move the carb count up.

Sorry for the rambling, but I appreciate all your work and effort to keep everyone informed on how wonderful a low-carb diet can be for a lot of us out here. Thank you again!

Whew! That was SOME e-mail, wasn't it? It's a sad story that hopefully will have a happy ending for this person desperate to get her life back again. I'm so glad she found my blog last year when Dana Carpender advertised my blog in her Lowcarbezine! newsletter. If you have never even heard of Dana Carpender, she is the queen of livin' la vida low-carb with many bestselling low-carb cookbooks, including her latest release entitled the Every Calorie Counts Cookbook. I also invite you to read my engaging interview with her from last year where she opened up about the current state of low-carb in America.

While a lot of people like the support they get while on Weight Watchers, the fact is many people who fail to stay on the rigid low-fat, calorie-controlled diet they require have found a haven in livin' la vida low-carb. In fact, one of my faithful readers reported that they allowed him to speak at a recent Weight Watchers meeting and he captivated the attendees with his low-carb weight loss success which led to a thunderous round of applause when he was finished. I know they mean well with their program, but low-carb beats Weight Watchers in a head-to-head matchup every time!

At this point, it's been too long for you to ignore your weight problem as your health continues to be in decline. The best thing you can do is find a low-carb plan you feel like will work for you (not doing it on your own like this woman I talked about in one of my recent podcast shows), implement that plan exactly as the author wrote it, and then keep on doing it for the rest of your life.

But even before you do all of that, you need to RIGHT NOW make up your mind you want to SERIOUSLY do this. Weight loss experts have said that success must first begin in the mind before it can be manifested physically in your body. Stop living in fear of the unknown and the misery of settling for the life you've been dealt. Make today the first day of your brand new life. It CAN happen, but it's up to YOU!

Keep reading resources like Dana Carpender's web site and my blog as well as the many of low-carb resources that are available to you. By the way, accessing my older columns is really pretty easy. At the bottom right-hand side of this blog, I keep an archives section with all of my previous posts divided by the months since I started. With nearly 1,500 posts, that's a lot to go through but there are many encouraging and educating columns in there to give you hope and inspiration in this journey.

I'll go ahead and post the archives here for your convenience:

April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007

THANK YOU again for sending me an e-mail. I am always available to help you in any way that I can, so don't hesitate to e-mail me anytime! Next up is a woman who was shaken back into the reality of her own weight problem after seeing her cousin in North Carolina who has allowed his weight to climb to 560 pounds. She is a strong believer in God and is praying her faith along with her knowledge of livin' la vida low-carb will help him and her before it's too late.

Here's her e-mail:

Hi Jimmy,

I just wanted to say congratulations on your weight loss. I came across your blog and read your story today. You are truly an inspiration for alot of people including me. I just started the low-carb for the bazillionth time but this time I'm staying real focused and, of course, asking for help from God. I believe in the power of prayer and just recently got back from North Carolina visiting my cousin who was in the hospital. He was not getting enough oxygen so his lips were turning blue while in the ICU.

When I saw him he had a oxygen mask on and I was devistated. His weight had climbed to 560 pounds. This was really a wake-up call for me as I have struggled most all my life with weight problems. I guess it runs in the family, but I am trying to do something about it now. I have never been this determined.

We all had a prayer chain going for my cousin because the doctor told his mom that he only had a 50/50 chance of making it. So now I'm happy to say he's out of the hospital, and trying real hard to lose weight. His wanted to have gastric bypass surgery, but the doctors said they couldn't do it until he loses over a 100 pounds. But I have some reservations myself about that surgery.

I am going to keep on the low-carb lifestyle and see where it takes me this time. I just wanted some support from someone who's been there like yourself and I was so inspired by how much weight you lost. I hope I haven't bored you with my story. I'm just reaching out to chat rather than eat something I shouldn't. LOL! Well, it was nice talking to ya and hope to hear from you soon.

Another tear-jerker of an e-mail, eh? You know, my heart aches for people who are 400, 500, or even 1200 pounds like Manuel Uribe was not that long ago. I know the pain of weighing more than "normal" and the pain that comes from people staring at you like you're some space alien. It's no fun at all.

But livin' la vida low-carb can and will help. It certainly changed my life for the better and I'll never look back again. I hate to see your cousin contemplating gastric bypass since low-carb is the diet he'll be eating after surgery anyway. Why not just stick with the low-carb lifestyle to begin with rather than having your insides all cut up? This is something my mom, who had gastric bypass surgery in December 2003, has now started.

This reader was so excited about getting going on her low-carb lifestyle again that she responded back one more time:

Hey Jimmy,

Thanks for replying to me. It's so supportive to talk to other low-carbers on this long journey. But I know I will make it this time because I'm hyped up for this. I'm already feeling my clothes getting loose. Yeah! So, have you still maintained your weight loss? Thanks again for the reply.

I LOVE it when people get excited about livin' la vida low-carb. That excitement should NEVER die because it will propel you to great success. And YES, I have kept my weight off that I lost in 2004. I am trying to get below 200 pounds, one of five health-related goals I have set for myself in 2007. I am confident I will achieve all of them, but it won't be without a little effort on my part.

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who has made the fateful decision to start livin' la vida low-carb in 2007. I encourage you to make this way of eating your New LIFE resolution and I guarantee you will never be the same again. YOU CAN DO THIS and I'm gonna be here to help you in any way that I can. Please don't hesitate to e-mail me anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. I don't have all the answers, but I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have for me.