Age: 65
Very Low Carb , meat heavy “Ketovore” for 2 1/2 years.
Was formerly athletic, became morbidly obese, peaking at least 365 pounds I actually don’t know HOW HIGH my final weight went because my scale DIED beneath me one morning. Within half a year of this dietary change (heavy meat ketovore) , I was down to 332 pounds and feeling great.
My food before Ketovore was primarily ‘rice and something’. Lots of veggies, peppers, onions ginger/garlic and often a few slices of meat, but always half a plate or more of Indian Basmati rice or Japanese ‘sticky’ rice. If I ate a pound of meat per WEEK it was unusal. Using Indian spices, the food smelled and tasted terrific. However, my sweet tooth was strong. SWEET coffee, a “healthy” muffin or other snack with more sweet coffee at intervals less than 2 hours. My endurnce was very poor: having to refuel at two hour intervals during the work day or my energy and concentration would decay badly. Being an engineer, concentration and endurance are critically important. My eyes were rapidly decaying (posterior uvitis/”bird shot” Rx = predinisone 60mG/Day) to delay my eventual DIAGNOSED impending blindness!!! Rapidly increasing obesity and blood pressure.
My food before Ketovore was primarily ‘rice and something’. Lots of veggies, peppers, onions ginger/garlic and often a few slices of meat, but always half a plate or more of Indian Basmati rice or Japanese ‘sticky’ rice. If I ate a pound of meat per WEEK it was unusal. Using Indian spices, the food smelled and tasted terrific. However, my sweet tooth was strong. SWEET coffee, a “healthy” muffin or other snack with more sweet coffee at intervals less than 2 hours. My endurnce was very poor: having to refuel at two hour intervals during the work day or my energy and concentration would decay badly. Being an engineer, concentration and endurance are critically important. My eyes were rapidly decaying (posterior uvitis/”bird shot” Rx = predinisone 60mG/Day) to delay my eventual DIAGNOSED impending blindness!!! Rapidly increasing obesity and blood pressure.
My good friend Al suggested that I might consider “Keto” helpful (I was morbidly obese) for him, he took off 20-25 pounds his first month and felt GREAT. I am a “why guy” I need to know WHY something works, before I will even consider it valid to test. I studied all I could find online about the theory of why Low Carb WORKs. Internet and books by Drs. Jason Fung, Ken Berry, I began to understand the HORMONAL response to my high carb, refined sugar and “vegetable oils” diet. Nina Teichulz was a wealth of information on fake oils and real meat. Your channel was in there BUT I can tell you that – at that time- I thought that I would never go full carnivore because I was so conditioned to believe that it was unhealthy. Now, here I am.
Initially my dietary rules were simple: zero surgars, absolutely 20gm of carbohydrates or less per day, no fake oils. I measured my morning/fasting blood sugars, blood pressure and more, my Wife (a very good nurse) assumned that if this worked, I would eventurally need to reduce or eliminate some medications: that was indeed a correct assumption. We were both VERY concerned about my eventual ‘need’ for insulin injections looming in my future as a T2 diabetic; we both knew that we could not afford it with my greatly reduced retirement income.
I noticed the loss of fat and was amazed, to be satisfied. If I became ‘snacky’ I’d make bacon and eggs or a burger patty and the problem was solved. I began eating more meat and above ground veggies in rich butter/heavy cream sauces with caramelized red wine for flavor (Remember the “French paradox”? They eat full fat everything and are generally slim. 🙂 I was still doing breakfast, so 3 – 4 egg, butter omelets with some chives and garlic, with cheese started the day with coffee. Red meats at meals were rapidly introduced in increasingly larger amounts. 1 – 2 pounds becoming normal.
- Ribeyes = I finally understood what being ‘sated’ at mealtime meant!
- My energy between meals was excellent – no slumps as when I was carb fueled. It was like having a huge fuel tank once I was ‘fat adapted’. My Wife noticed that my energy level was ‘through the roof’: house projects and more were getting done.
- My morning fasting blood sugars dropped from the 200’s to below 100 for the first time since I began monitoring them a year earlier.
- Due to light-headedness, I went off Metformin – which required a few tries before I stabilized.
- BP was far too low 117/70’ish and I worked with my Doc to get a ‘baby dose’ of Losartan, which I still seem to require. (I’ve been hypertensive since my thirties – high stress jobs…)
Before diet change – my diagnosed ‘conditions’ and symptoms were:
- Severe Sleep Apnea
- Dangerously high blood pressure
- Posterior uvitis (“birdshot”) retinal flashes, and bleeding inside my eyes!
- Retina Doc mentions: “Where is ALL this inflammation coming from?”
- CPAP required for sleep
- GERD
- Constant tooth decay and very red and swollen gums. My dentist hated what he saw.
- Constant and increasing 2+ pitting edema on shins
- Fatty liver. Doctor: “Sooo, tell me about your drinking?” and I wondered did where THIS came from?
- Slow or no healing – example: a hole on my shin remained unhealed for many months. Even routine scratches remained for many weeks or more.
- Peripheral neuropathy on outside three toes on both feet.
- Infections in odd places, wound edges, skin folds. (Glycated body was probably TASTY for pathogens?)
- 6x daily meds – before diet change:
- Losartan 125 mG w
- HCTZ 25 ?
- T2D
- Metformin 500 mG to increase if needed later – never needed 🙂
- Anti-inflammatory Rx: Tramadol and more as their effectiveness diminished.
- Pain meds PRN for knee injury.
- Couldn’t slide into some restaurant booths, would have to squeeeze behind the car’s driving wheel.
- Very sore joints and chronic body aches (was told that this is “normal” aging)
