I received a form submission to this website that simply said “I am 100 lbs overweight and not healthy. I'm desperate. I want to lose weight and get healthier.” Here is my answer. I am over 100 lbs down from a max weight of around 283 lbs that I achieved several times in my life (Currently 65 years old, 6'1" and 180 lbs). I despaired as you did. Several times in my life I briefly lost 60-70 lbs to save my military career. I was on the “fat boy” program throughout my military career including Navy Boot Camp in 1970 when I came in at about 225 lbs and I was made the “chow runner” to help me “run it off”. 10 weeks later I was down to 198 lbs but I gained it all back with interest as soon as I finished boot camp and had to wind up buying larger uniforms a big expense for a young sailor, especially the dress uniforms. The pattern repeated throughout my military career, my weight would creep up and I would lose 50-60 pounds of it by starving myself on a low fat diet and running 30-40 miles a week, all the time being tired, irritable, miserable and not fun to be around and as soon as I let up, the weight came right back, usually with interest. You, probably like me are one of 66% of Americans that according to the CDC have the "Metabolic Syndrome". What I discovered is that this a genetic predisposition to get fat, have high blood pressure,diabetes and heart disease if a person with it eats a carbohydrate based diet. As a doctor and scientist I feel that human's have evolved to eat a meat based diet over millions of years and that the decision to return to plant eating 15,000 years ago while it allowed our population to skyrocket, caused or health to relatively plummet. I believe that for many people carbohydrates are addictive and that for all people sugar is a toxic addictive substance like cocaine or heroin that needs to be avoided at the risk of serious damage to our health. A person who is 100 lbs overweight of course needs to see a doctor to make sure there is not a thyroid or adrenal medical condition causing the obesity but these condition as a cause of obesity are exceedingly rare and the cause is usually over-consumption of carbohydrates and sugar. Your body has no need for any carbohydrates or sugar in the diet. They are not "essential nutrients" many people like the Inuits, the Masai Warriors, and the Nemets or Siberian Meat People have proven that humans can thrive for thousands of years without them. As with any addiction, "cutting back" usually doesn't work. Early in my career as a Navy physician I was tasked as part of my duties to be the physician for the Navy's 6 week inpatient alcohol and drug rehab program at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base and later held the same position at the program at the Corpus Christi Naval Hospital. I've examined and heard the story of innumerable Alcoholics and I don't recall ever meeting an alcoholic who had been a heavy daily drinker for more than a year that was ever successful at "cutting back" to be a "social drinker". That's why I think that "cold turkey" is the only way to go. So whatever changes you decide to make to your diet need to be permanent and forever. I have chosen to completely give up all plant foods because one, it's such a clear line that it is really easy to know when when you've crossed it. Two, it eliminates all sweet tasting foods and sugars, which in my opinion are the biggest addictive factor and before you tell me sugar substitutes have no calories let me tell you that they still trigger overeating by turning off the part of the brain that makes you feel full after a normal meal and can lead to overeating and craving for more sweets, artificial or regular. And 3, all plants have some chemical defense against predation by plant eating animals and many of these can be toxic to our health. Since I don't need to eat plants to be healthy, why do it, I see it as just a "bad habit". I do think we can use plants as medicines when used judiciously but this should only be done when a specific illness arises, not as a prophylactic as meat is complete nutrition and no plant food gives us as much nutrition meat does. If for whatever reason a person does not feel they can give up meat they have the daunting task of drawing another line. Before I became a pure carnivore my line which worked for me for several years starting in eary 2011 though occasionally I would slip a little (never more than 10 lbs gained before getting back on the path or just tightening my line further further) was this: First step Cut out all sugar including milk because it is full of sugar (fermented cheeses like cheddar are ok because the sugar is consumed by the fermenting bacteria), use only artificial sweetners, cut out all breads, grains, starchy root vegetables like potatoes, corn, sweet potatos etc. This still left meat plus salads, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, squash including spaghetti squash, cabbage, onions, garlic I was able to get into the 220's with this regimen (I consider my ideal weight around 172) and was never able to go lower than around 225 on this plan. It is definitely possible to overeat on such a diet, though for us metabolic syndrome sufferers it will definitely lead to significant weight loss. After this diet I tried a "ketogenic" version of the same diet, counting carbohydrates and protein and weighing portions and got down to around 208 but I hit several rocks, one of the biggest being the few blueberries and raspberries recommended by many of the Keto gurus who I actually love and admire like Stephen Phinney MD and Eric Westman MD. With my addictive personality I could never be moderate with these sugar bombs and gradually my weight crept back up to 228. On 7/10/14 I gave up anything that even tasted sweet (no artificial sweetners) and managed to get my weight down to around 210 but got stuck. Then on 4/12/15 I read an article about a family who I won't name because they received terrible harassment from "orthodox" nutritional advocates. This family was thriving, eating nothing but meat. I found out that many human societies and in fact all human societies up until about 15,000 years ago had thrived in just the same way eating a meat based diet. It was like a light bulb went on in my head and I have not eaten any plant foods since. I was on the "eat all the meat you want plan and was able to lose about 15 lbs down to around 203 but plateaued even crept back up about 5 pounds by the the end of about 6 months meat only. It was at this point that I switched to my current diet which is meat only, ketogenic, intermittent fasting (I hate the word fasting because this suggests one is intentionally making themselves hungry and unhappy, let me assure you I am never hungry on my diet! I prefer to call it scheduled eating because I am so busy with other activities and have so little hunger that I often have to set an alarm to remind me to eat and can easily go 30 hours without eating with no hunger as I did during the preparation for my recent colonoscopy) I eat 2 times a day (usually 2PM and 8PM, though I feel any 6 hour eating window is fine and progress is probably possible even with an 8 hour window, especially if years of carbohydrate and sugar abuse have not damaged your liver and pancreas too badly). I do not consume anything that has caloric value except during my eating window (2PM-8PM). In my case I drink nothing but water though some do unsweetened tea or black coffee or other drinks. The only macronutrient (macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins and fats) I count is protein. I limit myself to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight which turns out to be 117 grams for me (since I only eat meat, eggs, cheese and butter I naturally consume almost no carbohydrates, so no counting needed for it) . This equals about 17 ounces of meat. I also assure that at least 80 percent of my calories come from fat. This is the big secret. Fat makes you satiated and keeps the hunger away. If you eat lean meats like chicken breasts, pork and tuna you will definitely confront the beast of hunger, even when eating ribeye steaks which are around 70% fat calories I always add room temperature, unsalted whipped butter, about 1/2 teaspoon to every bite. I have a post on how to calculate fat calories here http://www.borntoeatmeat.com/not-a-high-protein-diet.html . The result is that I am now down to 180 lbs and wearing the same size pants as I did in high school. Here's a picture from my vacation last week waiting for the "Ghost Tour Herse" in Savannah, Ga.
The bottom line is that losing the 100 lbs is not impossible and you don't have to starve yourself to do it. There are bumps and you have to decide how many you're willing to endure. Giving up breads and starches is a big one but pays big dividends in weight loss, giving up sugar is a big one and will give benefits and giving up all sweets, including artificial sweeteners may be the most difficult for most but will give huge rewards. And finally for people who have caused damage to their livers, pancreases and other organs by years of carbohydrate and sugar abuse, in my opinion are just not going to get to where they would really like to be unless they go ketogenic, intermittent fasting while a young fat person could get to ideal weight with only step 1 or on an meat only, all you want plan. . Here's hoping your nightmare of being fat can end like mine did, Paul
PS: Here are some books I recommend, click on the title for links: (There is no book on Meat only, I do plan to write it in the next 1-2 years)
"The big Fat Surprise" by Nina Teicholz"
If you read just one book, I recommend this one. It is the story of how the myth that a low fat diet is good for us was manufactured by a combination of prideful men and powerful interests that stood to benefit from their ideas.
"Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It" by Gary Taubes
This book is a condensation of his much larger book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories" that tells much the same story as "The Big Fat Surprise" but doesn't have some of the information on how damaging oils from plant seeds are for our bodies. If you've got the time of course read "Good Calories, Bad Calories", but it's 700 pages of carefully documented investigative journalism.
If you're not going to go meat only I recommend
"The New Atkin's for a New You" by Eric Westman MD and Stephen Phinney MD
This is basically my "step 1 plan" mentioned above.
And for Keto with plant foods I recommend:
"The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" by Jeff Volek, PhD, RD and Stephen Phinney, MD
A good guide to doing a Ketogenic diet and discusses intermittent fasting
"Keto Clarity" by Jimmy Moore with Eric Westman, MD
A very good keto guide that also discusses intermittent fasting.
PS: Here are some books I recommend, click on the title for links: (There is no book on Meat only, I do plan to write it in the next 1-2 years)
"The big Fat Surprise" by Nina Teicholz"
If you read just one book, I recommend this one. It is the story of how the myth that a low fat diet is good for us was manufactured by a combination of prideful men and powerful interests that stood to benefit from their ideas.
"Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It" by Gary Taubes
This book is a condensation of his much larger book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories" that tells much the same story as "The Big Fat Surprise" but doesn't have some of the information on how damaging oils from plant seeds are for our bodies. If you've got the time of course read "Good Calories, Bad Calories", but it's 700 pages of carefully documented investigative journalism.
If you're not going to go meat only I recommend
"The New Atkin's for a New You" by Eric Westman MD and Stephen Phinney MD
This is basically my "step 1 plan" mentioned above.
And for Keto with plant foods I recommend:
"The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" by Jeff Volek, PhD, RD and Stephen Phinney, MD
A good guide to doing a Ketogenic diet and discusses intermittent fasting
"Keto Clarity" by Jimmy Moore with Eric Westman, MD
A very good keto guide that also discusses intermittent fasting.