Low Carb Success Story: Maggie from New York
By
Julie Westly
As
published in CarbHealth Magazine, April 2003
Maggie from New York is 52 years old and 5’1" tall.
Maggie follows the Atkins program. Maggie began her low-carb
journey weighing 160 pounds and wearing size 12/14 (and some
brand 16’s) petite. She is currently 112 pounds and wearing
size 4/6 petite.
Maggie has a family history of type II diabetes on her paternal
side. “I do believe that the newer descriptions of Syndrome
X or Metabolic Syndrome apply to me,” Maggie began. “In
my late thirties, I started to gain weight. It kind of crept
up on me. By the time I was 45, I decided that I was getting
‘matronly’ and, well, that’s just how it was
going to be. A few months before my 48th birthday, I had an
experience with a bat that had gotten in our home. To make a
long story short, I wound up having to get a rabies series,
which, by the way, is no big deal anymore. But the initial treatment
is gamma globulin, which is dosed by weight. Wearing only a
hospital gown, I weighed 160 pounds. As a comparison, I weighed
only 125 pounds the day before my son was born in 1971. I had
thrown my scale away years before so I was actually surprised.
In retrospect, I don’t know why.
”I had gone on the estrogen patch about two months before
the bat incident, for unrelated reasons. I started Atkins in
the fall of 1998 and by my next gynecologist visit in the spring
of 1999. I was already a little smaller than when my doctor
had suggested the patch. She expressed surprise, since in her
experience, patients tended to gain weight after starting estrogen
replacement therapy. Imagine her surprise in subsequent years!
As of my most recent appointment, she said she was recommending
a low-carb diet to her patients.
“I was born ‘chubby,’ Maggie continued, “9
1/2 pounds and 21 inches long. I stayed moderately round until
I hit puberty. By age 14, I was quite slim, and stayed that
way until my mid- to late-thirties. Then everything started
to change. I’d gain weight and then starve and exercise
it off. Then gain it back in record time and always with a bonus!
”
Being a nurse, I knew that counting calories was the only way
to go. Expend more than you consume and you will lose weight.
It does work to some extent, but youknow, while you’re
doing it that you can’t go through the rest of your life
being that hungry. When the ‘goal’ is reached, the
‘diet’ is over.
Throughout, I tried to make my eating habits healthier and healthier.
I ate less fat, more grains (whole wheat bread, brown rice,
oatmeal), and lots of fruit juice. Looking back, I can see why
I’d gain the weight back in record time. Those foods make
my blood sugar soar! I stayed on this roller coaster until I
went to law school.
“Commuting to school and then starting a practice, I was
too distracted for a number of years to pay any attention to
how I looked or felt. When the above-mentioned ‘bat incident’
forced me to look at my weight, I started to do some research.
First, my husband, a surgeon, did a series of blood tests on
me. It showed that I had normal thyroid function, but my blood
sugar was going through wild swings. I was already becoming
insulin resistant My cholesterol was too high, with low HDL,
high LDL and high triglycerides. In all, I was pre-diabetic.
Not for the first time, he recommended Atkins. I had already
figured out, after years of trying and failing at calorie restriction,
what was needed was some kind of life plan. Something I could
live with.
“Rejecting Atkins out of hand, since my nurse’s
training had already taught me that his program was not healthy,
I tripped over the Barry Sears’ book and decided to get
into The Zone. The book was very logical. However, when I tried
to implement it, it turned out that the amount of food calculated
as my requirement left me starving. I mean, two slices of ham
and a couple of olives? This is a meal? Well, I toughed it out
for a month and, indeed, I did go into starvation. Although
I was hungry all the time, I wasn’t losing much weight,
since my body was trying to protect me from starving by lowering
my metabolism. One month later I was about three pounds lighter
and a complete witch. It occurred to me that I wasn’t
going to live that way the rest of my life. I thought, if this
is what it takes to normalize my weight and my blood work, I’d
rather be fat and die with a Hershey’s kiss in my mouth.
“Finally, I read the Atkins book my husband had been foisting
upon me along with endless stories about some fellow named Steffanson
and his turn-of-the-century writings about the native Eskimo
diet, yadda, yadda. I was determined to give it my best shot.
I read the book, and re-read it many more times during the first
year.
“I started this way of eating in October 1998. Not surprisingly,
given my test results, I was metabolically resistant. The first
two days, I was feeling pretty strange and weak, but that passed
and never came back. Following Induction to the letter, I couldn’t
get a keto-stick to purple without a magic marker. I lost about
five pounds during the first two weeks. In spite of the modest
results, I was already feeling much better. I never did get
the increased energy everyone talks about, but I’ve never
been an energetic person. I have definite couch potato tendencies.
What I did get was a consistent level of energy throughout the
day.
”On my previously ‘healthy’ diet, I’d
have (as recommended by a nutritionist, mind you): a big glass
of fresh squeezed orange juice, a bowl of oatmeal and a piece
of whole wheat toast with some honey or jelly (suggested as
an alternative to deadly butter). By 10:30 a.m., I’d be
starving, tired, shaky and looking for anything with a lot of
sugar. The sugar, of course, made me feel great, until an hour
or two later, when I’d again be hungry, tired and jittery.
That was pretty much how a typical day had been on my so-called
healthy diet. So, the nice, even feeling I got from Atkins was
sufficient pay off for the new way of eating. I did Induction
for another week or two, and I lost another pound or two. But
by then I was tiring of eggs, meat, Romaine salad and pork rinds.
“Personality wise, I don’t eat to live, I live to
eat. I’m a good cook and I love to eat. I like variety
and careful preparation. The question became, how do I customize
ongoing weight loss for me? Since I didn’t feel that the
keto-sticks were a good gauge, I started doing blood sugars.
I don’t recommend this particular approach to anyone,
but it was the right way for me. I started introducing other
foods into my diet, keeping a meticulous diary of what I ate
and what my blood sugar was before eating and at 20, 40, and
60 minutes after eating it.
”After a couple of months, I had a really good handle
on what kinds of foods, and in what amounts, I could eat without
causing more than a small elevation in my postprandial blood
glucose levels. I continued the testing for about a year, but
not as frequently, since I only tested if I had tried something
new or was doing my weekly ‘cheat.’ I continued
to lose weight very, very slowly, but that was no longer my
goal. By the beginning of 2002, it was clear that I was at my
optimal weight and I’ve stayed there since. I’m
never hungry, and have an interesting and satisfying diet.
“My recent blood work showed normal sugar and insulin
and my cholesterol is down: HDL up, LDL down and triglycerides
so low they flag them! Interestingly, I think the diet has helped
my dental health as well. I had some serious periodontal problems
several years ago. Now, at my checkups, the doctor and staff
are amazed at the health of my gums, and commend me on my increased
diligence to the ridiculously time-consuming regimen, which
was prescribed. Guess what? I’m just as lackadaisical
about my dental routine as I always was. I brush after meals
and floss whenever I get the urge. I credit the fact that I
don’t have a bunch of starch packed around my gums all
the time anymore.
My best advice would be to be honest with yourself and drink plenty of water. If you are doing the Atkins diet, pay attention to the end of the book, where Dr. Atkins urges you to make it the ‘Margaret (or Judy, or Bob ...) diet, rather than the ‘Atkins diet.’ His whole point is to teach you some fundamental things about nutrition and the endocrine system and to provide you with tools so you can to learn to ‘listen’ to what your body is telling you.
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