Lee and Dee From Des Moines, IA’s Low Carb Success Story

Success Stories

Every now and then I get a success story letter that leaves me saying, “I can’t improve on that.” This is one of those cases. Here is a letter I received from Dee in Iowa about her and her husband Lee’s low carb success.

“Dear Julie,

Here is my testimonial…. fat history! My normal and best weight is around 150 pounds, but I had ballooned to nearly 236 pounds after years of the January dieting and returning to weigh even more than before. I was feeling rotten and hated to look at myself sideways in the mirror. I swear that I looked pregnant. When I saw photos of myself, it just made me sick.

In 1980 I lost 60 pounds and nearly went into a period where I was on a spiraling weight loss that took me into an all time low of 131 pounds. I am 5′ 8″ tall, so that was too thin for me, but I just couldn’t eat and found myself not even caring about food. That seems so ridiculous when you look at my lifetime of having been always dieting, gaining, dieting, and so on….. You know the drill! It took me 2 years to take off all that weight and it was strictly a low calorie diet with hardly any sugar or fat. After being told that I looked terrible, I finally started eating again and it took me 2 years to put it all back on and then some.

I always swore that I could take it off, but that I was happier at a heavier weight. Boy, was that a rationalization! Our son graduated from the Air Force Academy in May of 1998, and if ever there was an incentive for both of us to lose weight – that would have been the ultimate. (There were no class reunions in the picture.) Long story short…. another diet started in January, but by February we had started having pizza again on Friday night and we had both gained back nearly all of the 10 pounds we had taken off when we went out for graduation in May.

I remember having to buy a dress in a lose fitting size 20 just to feel that I could show myself in public at the fancy evening dinner. My husband, Lee, had to buy a new suit at the Big & Tall Man’s store which was a black pin stripe size 50 coat and 42 waist pants. We were quite the couple. Of course it is easy to cover up with blazers and jackets, but the fat was always there in the mirror.

Lee started the Atkins diet in January after he saw a success story at work illustrated by one of his colleagues who had lost 60 pounds and had reduced his cholesterol by nearly 30 points. I was very skeptical, but was determined to give up candy for Lent (my practice for the past 4 years). I thought that I could lose at least 10 pounds by doing that, but I replaced the candy with dill potato chips and some wonderful ranch flavored pretzels. Lee was, in the mean time, losing weight every week.

By the middle of March he had taken off 15 pounds, and I decided to try the diet. Spring break week we stayed home (I am a teacher), and I started the diet. I finally reached the milestone when I was able to set the scales (we have one of those doctor’s scales with the sliding weights) below the 200 mark in July of 1999.

Lee has gone from 240 pounds down to 184 pounds, and is even thinking now that he will try to get down to his ideal weight of 170 pounds. He looks “MAHVELOUS,” and feels just great!

I am wearing clothes that I haven’t worn for over 10 years and have thrown out most all of my size 22 pants in favor of 18s, which now feel lose and fit quite well. I was a size 18 for a long time. Most of my clothes have elastic waist bands (surprise, surprise), so they stretch out and back and out and back with ease.

In September we both had our health profiles done at the college where I work. My blood pressure was 108/65 and Lee’s was 110/70. Our cholesterol was 154 (Lee) and 170 (me). Everything else came back in the “normal” range.

As I told you earlier, Lee also works out quite regularly in addition to walking 4 miles a week with me. He rides his exercise bike like a mad man, but I just can’t do that because my knees won’t take it any more. (Although I will say that this diet has helped my arthritis tremendously!)

For the last 2 weeks I have fought the scales and barely lost 1.5 pounds. This week it seems that it has leveled off and that I may have even gained some weight. Lee has also had a few weeks where he would not lose any weight, and even one week when he gained a pound. He has broken the diet several times during the past 9 months, but I have been completely faithful.

Lee is also taking Fat Burner pills, which don’t mean much to me since I was losing anyway and hate to add more pills to my already bulging handful of vitamins. I take a Centrum multivitamin, 500mg of calcium, 500mg of vitamin C, and 500mg vitamin E every day. I have to take estrogen due to a medical problem, but I have taken that for nearly 2 and a half years, and it didn’t prevent me from losing weight on this diet.

I am now at 194 pounds and holding. I am certainly willing to try the meat and water or about anything else to get my diet moving downward again. Anything but giving up food and having to go back to those horrible hunger pangs of days gone by. I have been having 3 microwave sausage links with cheese (gouda) and a very small piece of fruit (1/4 of a kiwi or 2 grapes or 1/4 of an orange) for breakfast. Lunch is 1 serving of lean meat, 2 olives, 7 nuts, and perhaps a hard boiled egg. Usually supper is meat and a salad of some kind or a small helping of green vegetables. Once in a great while I have an artichoke in lemon, pepper, and melted butter for supper.

Bacon rinds kind of take the edge off not being able to eat any chips, but I probably don’t eat over 6 a week. I make diet Jell-O with whipping cream (also made with a small pack of diet Jell-O), and I have also made Atkins’ cheesecake using whipping cream and cream cheese and one package of the diet Jell-O as a sweetener and for a different taste. We divide the recipe into 8 slices and count it as 1 carb per slice. It is a very small square but it sure tastes good.

Lee eats salted peanuts for his fill-in snack, but he counts every one. He eats a lot of cheese cubes, too, and we found some beef sticks that are also zero carbs. I eat cheese between lunch and supper if I have a craving for a snack, but it’s not because I am hungry. Neither of us has large portions of anything we eat. It sure feels funny eating 2 grapes !

In July of 2000 I had a complete hysterectomy which was a part of another surgery for a cystocele (fallen bladder) for which there was no cure but to have the repair done to the vaginal wall and the bladder.

In November of that year I was at my lowest point of 164 pounds, and felt great with the exception of being weakened from the extensive surgery.

In March of 2001 (my 3-year Atkins Anniversary) I had gained back 10 pounds, and I attributed this to having to take hormone replacement drugs as ordered by my doctor to improve the healing process from this tough surgery.

In March of 2002 I had stayed even weighing in at 174 pounds, which is still an amazing loss of 62 pounds!

Today, Lee and I continue to eat and enjoy a low carb life style. Our “cheats” are planned special events, but we really don’t even think about ever returning to a low fat or low calorie way of eating. We enjoy many of the new low carb products that are available to us, but still eat the basic foods that were on our original weight loss plan as stated in my above letter.

I have an annual physical and my statistics continue to be well in the normal range. Lee does the same.

I enjoy exchanging ideas, recipes, and success stories with others on this way of eating and smile (sometimes inwardly) at those skeptics who continue to think that low fat is the only way to lose weight. We know better!

Regards, Dee

Lee & Dee – Des Moines, Iowa Lee 5′ 11″ – 190 pounds, size 38 waist, 42 jacket Dee 5′ 8″ – 174 pounds, size 14/16 in most everything”