Low Carb Success Story: Josh Mankiewicz
By
Kimberley Debus
As
published in CarbHealth Magazine, December 2002
Josh
Mankiewicz did not expect to become a celebrity in the low carb
community. In fact, he thought he was just doing a short piece
for DatelineNBC, to follow up the July New York Times Magazine
article about low carbing.
Funny how a seven-minute segment can change your life.
Mankiewicz’s newfound popularity led me to contact him
for an interview - he in his office at NBC studios in LA, me
in my living room in North Carolina. “So tell me a bit
about your weight loss history,” I asked.
As a kid growing up in Washington, DC, and into adulthood, being
overweight was not an issue - in fact, he was scrawny and was
“encouraged to eat a lot.” This continued through
college, where he, like many college students, was very active.
However, like many college kids, he ate pizza and drank beer
a„ a habit that continued as he started his career at a local
television station in Washington, DC. Suddenly, without the
constant activity, he put on weight, and in 1980 was given a
directive by his boss to lose 10 pounds.
He did - he lost somewhere between 10 and 25 pounds - and this
made the producers happy. But eventually, the weight crawled
back on.
“I gained it all back, until I was stationed in the Middle
East for ABC, and I could find nothing to eat.” Mankiewicz
figured it was “fate telling me to eat less.”
But when he returned to the United States, he didn’t change
his way of eating; he just began to eat again.
“Of course,” Mankiewicz admits, “in this line
of work, you are constantly eating on the run, in the car, in
the fan, in hotels, and at weird hours. It’s easy to overeat,
and to eat the wrong stuff.” Add to this the new USDA
food pyramid, which said “stop eating all that beef! Eat
pasta and rice!” It’s no wonder Mankiewicz found
himself 47 pounds overweight by the late 1990s. And then, like
many of us, Mankiewicz had a life-changing encounter.
He was in San Francisco on a story for DatelineNBC and ran into
a woman he’d known in Los Angeles. “I almost didn’t
recognize her, she was so thin.” He asked her what she
did.
“Easy,” she replied. “Atkins.”
Mankiewicz says that this one conversation sealed it. “I’ve
known her for years. She has less willpower than I have, so
if she could do it, I knew I could.” He went out to buy
Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution (which was just gaining in newfound
popularity), and started Induction on November 23, 1998. By
January 4 a„ and through the holidays a„ he had lost 24 pounds,
and by March 17, he’d lost 39 pounds. During the summer,
his weight loss slowed down a„ partly because he was close to
goal, partly because there was no longer the imperative to drop
weight a„ but by December 13, he had lost a total of 47 pounds.
In early 1999, DatelineNBC scheduled a story on Dr. Atkins.
Noticing that Mankiewicz had begun losing weight on Atkins,
they asked him if he wanted to do the report.
“Absolutely not.”
I asked him why, since I know that I became almost rabid with
my promotion of the low carb way of eating.
“I was still new to it and wasn’t entirely sure.”
But then, three years later, low carbing made headlines again,
culminating in an extensive article by Gary Taubes in the New
York Times Magazine in July 2002. DatelineNBC producers asked
Mankiewicz again about doing a story, and this time he said
yes.
The segment, which aired on July 16, covered Mankiewicz’s
own experience, as well as input from both sides of the low
carb story a„ most notably from Barry Sears and Dean Ornish.
(the complete transcript can be found at http://www.msnbc.com/news/780727.asp)
“I was terrified to do the story,” Mankiewicz told
me. “I couldn’t even watch it on TV. After all,
I’m out there telling millions of people ‘I used
to be a big fat pig - look at me.’” And we did look
at him - picture after picture of him, overweight - and eating.
And then there was the response.
“Most of the time,” Mankiewicz said, “when
people write in after a segment, they are angry.” The
typical big story brings around 100,000 hits to DatelineNBC’s
website, and handful of eMails. Within a day after his low carb
segment, hundreds of eMails poured in - and the site got over
600,000 hits.
“I was surprised at the nature of the angry eMails - those
who were opposed to low carbing reflected a colossal vitriol
of opposition. I was astounded that people were so angry. I
got eMails with statements like ‘I hope you choke on a
piece of steak and die.”
But the positive eMails were also astounding, and accounted
for more than 60% of the total response. “Hundreds of
eMails praised my ‘taking on the low fat establishment.’”
Mankiewicz was told about low carb web sites, stores, and products
- and he discovered that there is a low carb community that
had “such wonderful things to say about me and the segment.”
“There aren’t many times as a journalist that you
know that what you’ve done has changed lives. But after
this first segment, I had the feeling I’d made a difference.”
I asked Mankiewicz about the response within the office. “It
was split, as you’d expect. Some people thought it was
great, and others actually got angry. Keith Morrison walked
up to me the next day and said ‘I liked your piece, and
I think you’re dead wrong.’” Mankiewicz encouraged
Morrison to do a response a„ not for balance, but because there
was momentum. Mankiewicz was already planning his follow-up
segment, which aired a week later.
When Morrison did his piece, the response was again surprising.
“Hundreds wrote to Keith a„ and to me a„ to tell us how
wrong he was.”
Mankiewicz believes the controversy around low carbing will
be around for a while, but like most low carbers, he knows the
proof is in his personal results. “So many people said
to me, ‘Dr. Atkins saved my life’ a„ and to that,
I say ‘me too.’” He is more slender, sleeps
better, has no more heartburn, no more back problems, and overall,
has a much better self-image. “Knowing I can do this for
the rest of my life brings relief and a peace of mind. It’s
no longer something I hate about myself.”
Wrapping up the interview, Mankiewicz offered some words of
wisdom a„ keys to low carb success. “Buy the book, take
your vitamins, drink your water, and don’t take shortcuts.”
He also said, “remember, low carb diets are not about
what you’re eating, but about what you’re NOT eating.
And don’t take someone else’s word for it a„ go
on your own diet.” And of course, he recommends checking
with your doctor before starting a„ if nothing else, for a benchmark.
And finally, Mankiewicz suggests, “don’t believe
the bull against low carbing - believe the science, and believe
your own results. The people who say low carbing is wrong speak
with a volume and anger that is the same as those who said the
earth was flat.”
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