I just caught on Bruce's blog and read his comments about the importance of maintaining a healthy weight for those of us with KD. I mentioned a few months ago, that I am 5'6" tall and at the time weighed 263lbs. In July, I met with a nutrionist to ask for help in changing my eating lifestyle (I wanted to avoid diets, because, while I have lost weight with them, as soon as I stopped following them I gained it back +). What a help that has been!

The nutritionist explained that as KD causes me to lose muscle mass, my metablolism also slows down, burning fewer calories. She put me on a 1700 to 2040 calories per day restriction and suggested that I change my plate. The result? I eat all the same foods I always have, but now I eat only the serving size on the package. I eat all the same foods but in different combinations; now vegetables are the entree portion and protein (meat) and carbs (potatoes) are side dishes. For snacks I try, emphasis on try, to eat one fruit a day and for my sweet treat the serving size of oreo (3) instead of sitting down with a package and eating 'til I'm full or the package is empty.

I am eight weeks into my new lifestyle, 13lbs lighter and still losing. I happy and more self confident.

Oh one other essential tool for me? myfitnesspal.com. I track my calories after every meal and snack.

Thanks Bruce for your blog.

I am posting a companion post on the exercise forum

Fantastic Jim!! Keep up the great work. I LOVE to eat and have always had a huge appetite but am fortunate that I never really had a weight problem. Once I got in my 40s though I was having difficulting shedding the extra pounds. I'm 5'11" and was 216 lbs at my heaviest last year. I've never been a sweets guy so that has helped me I think (I never eat candy, cake, pastry, ice cream, etc.) but portion control has been the biggest thing to help me as you stated. Also I don't drink any "empty calories" anymore (no soda or ANYTHING with calories or High Fructose Corn Syrup). I lost 16 lbs within about a month simply by cutting out soda! My initial goal was to get down below 200 lbs and I'm happy to say I'm there (barely) but still trying to maintain or even lose a little more. My gut is my biggest problem as I'm am skinny everywhere else and when standing upright I, as many of us HAVE to do, overcenter my pelvis and lock my knees which thrusts my gut forward making me look pregnant! LOL.
Keep us updated as to your progress. Congratulations again!

Minimize your carbs (starch, sugar(including most tree fruits), etc.) and your weight loss will continue and your blood sugar levels will come down.

If you are changing your diet you need to know ASAP if you need to be concerned about your blood sugar levels. You can easily develop clinical Type II Diabetes by diet alone by over doing starch/carbs. You can do an A1C (blood sugar level averaged over about three months) self-test for $10 or less - I recommend the Bayer A1C Now test available at CVS and other retail locations. If your nutritionist didn't ask for your A1C before they started your meal plan I suggest you find a new one.

IMO tracking the glycemic load of your meals is as important, if not more than, the calories.

While I find many things about Self Magazine distasteful they have an excellent nutrition tool:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/ One great feature is they have alot of the menu items for fast food "restruants." Any nutrition tool you use to track meals should include glycemic load. (BTW Subway has a great option - any of the sandwiches can be order as salads instead - I order all spinach as the greens. Don't get soda or sweet tea and you have an excellent low carb and low calorie meal.)

Many nutritionists (in my experience) have a blind spot as far as low carb diets go. Almost the entire nutrition industry has been wrong about carbs over the last few decades and IMO they are so embarrassed about the damage they have done to us (obesity and diabetes at epidemic levels) they cannot admit they have been wrong.

I highly recommend this book: Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It if you what to learn how we've been mislead over the years.

If you find you have a high A1C I recommend: The Low-Starch Diabetes Solution: Six Steps to Optimal Control of Your Adult-Onset (Type 2) Diabetes There are plenty of similar titles now on the market.

Also, since KD'ers have problems with adequate levels of exercise diet is very important in controlling weight and avoiding diabetes.

Jim, Thanks for sharing your stories.

I cannot tell you how happy I am that you took the initiative to change your lifestyle and life. Between your exercise program and the restructuring of your eating habits, you are a new man. Congratulations!

Jim, this is great news) I think. That's not the end but the beginning of an interesting story)

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Thought I would post an update here also. I am now 17 weeks into my dietary changes and have lost 20 lbs. My calorie goal is 2040 per day and my daily average over the 17 weeks is 2105.

In the past four weeks, I have noticed that my weight loss has slowed down from 1.5 - 2 lbs per week to about 0.5 lbs per week.

I am feeling great and hoping that the changes I have made might make this winter a little easier than last winter.

Jim, another good story to tell. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Weight loss, as I understand it, will fluctuate as the body adjusts to your calorie count and exercise level.

For me, I believe it is important to just develop good healthy habits like you have done. Anyone can diet, but then immediately go back to bad eating habits after he/she reaches the desired weight. The key is to develop good habits that you can live with that will maintain and improve your health.

Thanks again for sharing. You are a success story.

A change in lifestyle has created lots of problem in human body specially those related to eating habits . Now a days their is a trend of canned food and processed food which are not good for health .

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yes friend I totally find that lifestyle has created lots of problem in human body specially those related to eating habits ,It all effecting to our health and ecosystem.

All this weight loss is good news. I have recently started a six month course with a dietician. Using a smaller plate, and more veg than usual. in eight weeks I have lost nine pounds, it seems slow but it is working.
Graham.

Graham, congratulations. You are doing it the right way ... slow and steady with a change in habits.

I wrote about changing your habits in a recent Living with KD blog article. Changing bad habits

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Lifestyle progressions are a process that require some investment and oblige help. When you're primed to make a change, the challenging part is conferring and completing. So do your examination and make an arrange that will equip you for victory. Cautious arranging methods setting little objectives and taking things one stage at once.

My weight was stable through my 30s and 40s but has started to creep up the past few years. Worse though is I have lost a lot of muscle so I've become quite flabby. I've hit the point where sustaining modest physical activity is getting hard, just standing up can be a challenge.

A couple weeks ago I started my first ever diet with a goal to lose 20 lbs or so over the next few months and hopefully regain some mobility. I'm currently eating two moderate meals per day and have eliminated snacking and am only drinking water and sometimes unsweetened tea. I've greatly reduced carbohydrates while trying to maintain protein intake.

It was very hard the first three days and I still have challenging days, but for the most part it is getting easier. I'm becoming increasingly confident I'll be able to sustain this, especially as I get some positive results.

I'm results oriented and somewhat impatient causing me to jump into this more aggessively than is likely ideal. I expect the real challenge will be tapering off the diet and finding a final balance that keeps my body fat at a steady desirable level. At that point there won't be any more exciting gains of mobility, but still the challenge of coping with the inexorable disease progression.

My biggest concern with dieting is the possibility of accelerating muscle loss through inadequate nutrition. I'm trying to manage that risk by focusing on eating healthy and time should tell if I've found a good balance.

In addition I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the research into longevity via calorie restriction is directly applicable to KD. Most of the targets of KD research are elements of metabolic pathways that are improved by calorie restriction.

Any updates from Jim or others who have been pursuing weight loss/management would be welcome.

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