“LCHF had to be the way to go”

Before and after

Can the key to weight loss be going against conventional wisdom and reintroduce naturally rich foods that you ate in your younger days? Here’s Margaret’s low-carb journey:

I did not have a weight problem until I was close to 30 and went back to school. Being a single mom and now extremely busy, I started eating a lot of fast foods rather than taking time to cook. I put on 35 pounds (16 kg) in that first year! And it’s been uphill ever since. That was about 1979 so was close to the time the obesity epidemic started in the USA.

In September 2016 I discovered low-carb by researching what I learned was often called the dawn phenomenon with type 2 diabetes, in an article by Dr. Jason Fung. Being rather skeptical about diets and such, I continued to research for several more days, until I was convinced that LCHF had to be the way to go. I’m old enough that I remembered eating naturally the LCHF way long before we knew anything about low fats, refined foods, etc. and we did not have weight problems back then! So it just made too much sense for me to ignore.

In recent years I had not only developed type 2 diabetes, but also was having problems with thyroid, some borderline lab results, some hypertension, a severe vitamin D deficiency, and depression. My fasting blood sugar was getting so high I was afraid they’d want to put me on insulin, and I knew I was not going to go that route! I have been a missionary in Uganda, East Africa, for nearly 20 years now, and was just finishing a sabbatical in the US when I discovered and started LCHF. I immediately quit the Metformin and my blood sugar began dropping more without it than it did with it, because of LCHF eating! And in only 2 days my depression left, never to return. After 3-monthly repeat lab tests over the past year now, all my labs are normal, and my A1c dropped from 7.5 down to 5.6.

I returned to Africa in late October 2016, and that has probably posed my biggest dietary challenge. It’s hard for me to get salad greens, and I’m 50 miles away from any western-style grocery stores. Mostly I shop at local markets where variety is limited. Staple foods here are root vegetables, rice, bananas. And unfortunately, unhealthy cooking oils, junk foods, and obesity are hitting Uganda too. The extremely poor people I work with use the cheap seed oils, and healthy oils like coconut and olive just recently became available and the prices are too high for most local people to buy them. I use mostly butter and ghee, and some friends of mine are now using ghee too.

My weight loss has been slower than I’d like, 45 pounds (20 kg) in one year. But I have worked hard on my diet and have also learned on Diet Doctor that weight loss can be harder for post menopausal women. So I actually am ok with a slow, steady loss. I am pushing 70 and will have my second great-grandchild in 2018!

I have not decided on a weight goal just yet. I’m probably going to decide when I’ve lost some more. But recently I had to weigh my dog to give him the proper dose of an injectable medication. A few days later, I realized that he weighs about 45 pounds (20 kg), the amount that I have lost, and I could barely lift him to weigh him! And to think I was packing that much weight around on my body 24/7 just a year ago… I had to take a photo!

Thanks for all you’re doing to make the dietary truths known to us after so many years of being deceived by false nutrition info.

Margaret

Comments

Happy to hear that you’re so successful, Margaret!

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