Our Enemy - Aspartame

I have to share one of the biggest secrets I have learned on this journey.

Avoid LIKE THE PLAGUE Aspartame if you want to loose weight!

Aspartame is a sugar substitute commonly called NutraSweet or Equal and it is in 90% of the diet foods in the world. It is especially found in just about every diet soda on the market. It is also in diet gum etc.

Why did I put it on my enemy list?

Is it because it is an artificial sweetener?
No: While I personally try to eat organic, whole foods and avoid chemicals, that is not my primary reason. That is something that has to be a personal choice.

Is it because eating sweets makes you crave more sweets and not kick that habit?
No: That is partially true and another reason to avoid it but not the prime reason.

Is it because Aspartame causes headaches, cancer, MS etc?
No: Many claim those things but there has not been any conclusive evidence one way or the other. I am not saying I am an advocate for chemicals in our food and I do believe they may be harmful, but that wasn't my motive for adding this to my worst food to eat list.

Well, then why?

Because it makes you not able to lose weight.

Yes, you heard me right. You stay fat if you are consuming this.

Ever notice how many people who drink a lot of diet soda are still very overweight? This is no coincidence.

Okay, so here are the facts and what I found from experience.

As I stated earlier, I am following the Low Carb lifestyle. Dr. Atkins in his original book was a huge fan of this chemical as a way to allow people to still satisfy their sweet tooth but no or low carb/calorie. The revised book however said not to use it because people for some reason don't loose weight when they eat this.

When I first read this, I was skeptical, I thought that it was propaganda by the "granola's" who are against all things artificial and I decided to ignore this advice. I bought diet pop, diet gum etc. I was drinking a ton of a popular diet beverage that you add to water (the brand with the commercial that says women who drink thier beverage drink 20% more water). I thought this was good because it is true, I was drinking more water. But, I was being really good on the low carb plan following it to the letter and the scale wasn't moving at all.

I started to do the research and found some articles online that seemed to agree with the statement that it makes it hard to shed pounds.One article stated that it slows down metabolism. Another doctor found it stimulates appetite. Another article I found pointed to the way it was broken down by the body and how the body actually stores it as fat instead of flushing it out. So, let's summarize, you want to eat more, your metabolism slows and it stores fat. And this is diet food?

If you are anything like me, you read this stuff and get confused. Everyone has an opinion and they contradict each other. Some say it is poison, some say it is nectar of the Gods. Who do you believe.

Well, for me, I have to pretty much prove something out myself. I should have been born in Missouri (the show me state).

So, what did I do. I stopped all aspartame cold turkey to see what would happen. well, guess what? I woke up 2 days later and was down 16 lbs.

Yes, 16 lbs overnight!

I didn't believe my eyes. In fact I didn't believe the scale. I went to the gym and weighed in there too. And it was real.

As I said, I had been following the plan to the letter and should have been loosing but nothing. I was about to give up on that diet and try another one.

The aspartame was causing my body to hold on to the weight. When I got that stuff out of my system, whooshh out it all went.

From some reading I have done, not everyone has this with aspartame, but more do than don't.

The good news is because of some individuals who are seriously allergic to this product, all items with this product are regulated to have a warning on them so it makes avoiding this stuff pretty simple. Look at labels when buying stuff, if you see a warning at the bottom that says "Phenylketonurics - contains phenylalanine?" that is your hint to toss the product out. You don't even have to read all of the ingredients. This warning will jump out, it is often even in bold making it easy to spot.

Do you have to give up diet pop and gum?
No, not at all, there are many alternatives that don't have this effect.

In Grocery stores buy Diet Rite or Hansen's diet soda, they are both sweetened with sucralose (Splenda)



Better yet, check your local health food store and there are diet sodas sweetened with Stevia or Xylitol, these both are natural sweeteners and actually have health benefits. You can also find great variety of gum at local health food stores that are sweetened with xylitol.

If you like Crystal Light and need a substitute for that, there are many options made with sucralose. Here are some photos of some of the ones I love. These are not carb free, they have about 3 carbs per package on average. I usually don't use a whole package at once. I find that too strong. Propel for example is my favorite and I get about 3-4 bottles of water out of one package.

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