Success stories in weight loss?

[Triskeliongirl]

I lost 35 lbs and kept it off for 2.5 years. After being a yo-yo dieter all my life (inluding a 50 lb loss with weight watchers 20 years ago that I promptly gained back), what finally worked was discovering why I had a tendency to put weight on. You see, I gained my weight while doing everything right, including biking 100 miles a week and eating 1200 cals a day.

In the end, I found my problem is that I have impaired glucose tolerance. Basically, I undersecrete insulin, making me a mild type I diabetic. SO, when I eat carbs, my blood sugar stays too high for too long, which turns off glucagon secretion also impairing my ability to burn fat for fuel. Once I started to eat a low carb/high protein diet (i.e. feed my body the foods it could metabolize) my weight 'normalized', that is 35 pounds just melted on a diet of 1400 cals per day, with regular exercise. For me regular exercise means most days I either cycle or go to the gym (although for me exercise is also critical for improving my glucose tolerance). At the gym I'll weight train, swim, or do the arc trainer.

I basically ended up at the weight I am now (140lb) because that is when my body stopped losing. This may sound heavy to you 00s out there, but I have a good deal of muscle mass (and am thrilled to be a size 6). I won't make the mistake I made 20 years ago on weight watchers of dieting off my muscle: I let myself get too thin, and once I lost my muscle very rapidly gained back even more fat than I lost. My diet now is not only low in carbs, but high in protein to be sure I preserve all the muscle I gained to carry around those extra 35 lbs of fat I shed!

Of course my weight fluctuates, but I have an upper limit that if I hit, I eat stricter (i.e. cut down on alchohol , snacks, and calorically dense items) until I am back to the low end of my range.