Where I am today.

As I stated in my introductory post, I have been trying to loose weight most of my life.

My highest weight was 402 lbs. Ironically this occurred after I started my pre-work toward Lap Band surgery.

One of my requirements for surgery preparation was to loose 10% of my weight. I weighed 385 so that would mean I would need to loose 38 lbs.

The reason they require you to loose weight is two fold:

• First, they need the extra room in your stomach cavity so weight loss gives them the room to do the surgery that weight loss would provide them.

• The other reason is to shrink the liver. The stomach sits under the liver and the fatter the liver is, the harder it is to see the stomach and the more difficult it is for them to do the surgery.

I think there is also a hidden agenda of them also seeing how willing you are to stick to a diet and how motivated you are. The bariatrician (weight loss doctor) doesn't give you this reason. Just my opinion.

Anyway, my insurance also had a requirement for me to do six months of a nationally recognized weight loss program under the care of my doctor. I chose Weight Watchers because I have had moderate levels of success with that in the past. However, because I weighed so much my daily points were set to 42. For those of you not familiar with how weight watchers works, every food has a point value and so this means I would need to eat 42 points worth of food. This is a TON of food, I felt like I was eating non stop and was forcing myself to make unhealthy choices (ice cream etc) to get to the 42 points. in just 3 weeks I ballooned up almost 20 lbs to my high of 402 because of this. Weight Watchers does provide healthy eating guidelines, but these are easy to ignore and there are no foods off limits so if your whole 42 points are in ice cream, you will gain weight.


I was frustrated and went back to my bariatrician and explained what was happening and he suggested a low carb diet.

Believe me, I know what you are thinking: "here we go again, didn't we already prove that Atkins didn't work?"

The reason I know what you are thinking is that is what I thought. In fact I had a frank discussion with my doctor about this. He said to just trust him, after all he is a weight loss expert and to try it again.

Well, I am here to tell you, he was right. I have been low carb for months and almost every day the scale moves. In doing research I found there is a right way and a wrong way to do this type of weight loss plan and I had done it the wrong way before like many others. Look forward to future posts about the low carb lifestyle including tips, tricks and recipes.

I am still following weight watchers to a degree too. I just am not eating all of my points and the points I am eating are low carb. I am mainly doing weight watchers simply because it is required for insurance for the surgery.

As of this morning I weighed 356 so that is 46 lbs from my highest weight.

Today, I am unsure about the surgery. My honest fear is that if I don't do it, I will end up gaining it all back again. We have all been there haven't we? Lost a ton and gained back 2 tons. I see the surgery as my mistake proofing device to keep the weight off.


By the way, today I had quiche for breakfast, I plan on having a Chicken Caesar salad for lunch and a homemade Greek seasoned lamb hamburger smothered in cheese for dinner.


Have a great day and God Bless you.

Karr