So in this blog I talk about the way I, specifically, have managed to lose weight. Currently I am at 76.4 lbs lost (I'm writing this on June 10th, but I'll be posting it later). So yes, I can only attest to what has worked for me and that I have been successful at. That said, there are other diets that have worked for people, I have a lot of family members that swear by the Keto diet, that is great for them but I am personally less than remotely interested in it FOR MYSELF. Personally I feel like if your self-imposed diet requires supplementation in order to get all the things your food is supposed to give you then what is the point?
I completely understand health issues that require specific diets or lifestyles and therefore you have to supplement, for example I had a friend in high school who could not eat protein. Specifically her body could not process some of the amino acids in protein, her body didn't have the proper enzymes to digest those amino acids so it would get confused and send them to her brain where they could build up and inhibit brain functions (this disease is called MSUD if you would like to know more about it). She could eat the amount of protein in a cube of cheese per day, however her body still required the other amino acids in protein so she had to drink a very specific amino acid shake that only had the ones her body could process and omitted the ones that could potentially kill her.
That all being said, you certainly CAN lose weight other ways than the way I did. I have a great friend (my fitness accountability buddy! I can't express how great it is to have someone on the journey with me, to share the successes and the frustrations, it is such a blessing and she is such a blessing!) who is doing something very similar to my diet however in addition she cut out dairy, red meat, and pork from her diet. She recognized that those three things were downfalls for her so if she removed them from her diet completely she could cut down on her desire to eat high calorie foods. It has totally worked for her! She looks and feels amazing and that is a really great strategy to deter yourself from eating things that may cause you to stumble! Some of my family members who are doing the Keto diet have been very successful as well.
There isn't a 100%, fool-proof "correct way" to lose weight (although there are definitely WRONG ways to lose weight). It is about making sure that you are healthy while doing it and it is maintainable. Keto isn't maintainable or intuitive TO ME so I'm sticking to what I know works for me and what I know I can maintain. I like that I don't have to supplement my diet, just make smarter choices and/or have smaller portions and I get the proper nutrients from making sure my diet is properly balanced. My watch tells me how many calories I burn a day, as long as I stay under that I know that I am in a calorie deficit and will lose weight, to me that is simple and intuitive. Also, from what I understand, ketosis breaks down muscle since it doesn't have carbohydrates to break down, which, for me, defeats the purpose of me trying to build muscle and tone (my information on that comes from family members on the Keto diet as well as a google search about the diet, feel free to research it further).
Some of my extended family members have lost faster than I have and have implied that that is why I should switch to Keto. The thing about that is that I know I could lose faster if I wanted to, I would just have to cut down an extra hundred or so calories a day, however, I have stretch marks from being very overweight and if I lose weight faster than my body can adjust I am just setting myself up for having copious amounts of excess skin (this happened to my brother, well, not COPIOUS amounts, but he did struggle with excess skin when he lost 130 lbs faster than he probably should have about 5 years ago). Now, it isn't fool proof, I am sure I will probably still end up with some excess skin but I'd like to minimize the amount I end up with as much as possible. Also it really isn't good for your body to lose weight too quickly, talking to a doctor and a quick google search will tell you 1-2 lbs is the most you want to lose a week. Plus, once again to my understanding, if ketosis is breaking down muscle then that means that the weight lost is comprised of fat and muscle so saying "I lost x number of pounds" is misleading, really some of it was fat and some was muscle, I'd prefer to just lose fat, personally, even if that means the pounds on the scale seem to decrease at a slower rate, at least I know the pounds are quality.
I have also had people tell me that my diet is wrong because I will have plateaus, I'll get into plateaus in a later post but my short response is that they, though frustrating, are necessary for your body to adjust to its new size and shape once in a while. My chiropractor "scolded" me when I was "complaining" about a plateau I was going through and he wanted to make sure I understood it was a necessary adjustment period for my body to go through during the weight loss journey.
That all said, I have no actual problems with other diets, such as the Keto diet. I would never try to tell someone they are losing weight wrong AS LONG AS they are doing it in a healthy manner. If you start passing out or tearing up your insides because of your diet then there are issues because that isn't healthy at all. Please treat your body well so it can work well for you! If the Keto diet works for you then I am so proud of you! Successful weight loss takes dedication no matter what program or method you use. If counting calories and exercising, like me, works for you, then I am so proud of you! If cutting out dairy, or soda, or red meat works for you, then I am proud of you! As long as you are getting results and you are becoming healthier then I am proud of your efforts and you should be too! Don't let anyone make you feel like you are losing weight wrong as long as you are doing it in a healthy manner. Don't let anyone steal your success and belittle your hard work.
Please do your research before doing anything extreme that may require supplementation or special adjustments, not to discourage yourself from that path necessarily, but so you are well informed and can modify your lifestyle to accommodate properly and you don't end up with some kind of deficiency. Also, make sure to learn how to maintain once you get to your goal weight or fitness goal. So often people are able to lose a bunch of weight but never learned how to maintain that and end up gaining a bunch back. The best diet, in my opinion (as well as the opinions of the doctors I have spoken to), is the kind that you can stick to and modify to fit your new lifestyle once you are finished.
Very well said.
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