I was growing fatter and fatter, and what bothered me more than my appearance was the knowledge that overweight was a symptom of bad health. Moreover, my spouse had been obese for around 12 years, since 2001, and he’d been trying to lose weight as well and not succeeding.
In 2013, when I went to the doctor for a consultation, she told me to take some routine tests, since I was 35 and hadn’t taken tests in a long time. My HbA1c was 7.5 (normal range is 4 – 5.6%)
I knew I had to do something.
I had 2 choices before me.
Choice 1:
I would go to a physician and get prescribed a few medicines. He/she would reassure me that many people in the world live with diabetes, and that I could cope up too. I would spend the rest of my life eating medicines, in spite of which my health would go progressively worse.
My medication dosages would keep increasing, eventually the doctor would prescribe insulin, which would also gradually increase in dosage. I would get fatter. I could start getting health complications that arise due to diabetes:cardiovascular diseases, nerve damage (neuropathy), kidney damage (nephropathy), eye damage (retinopathy), foot damage, skin conditions like carbuncles, fungal & yeast infections, dementia and finally Alzheimer’s disease (now referred to as ‘Type 3 diabetes’).
Within a few months of Type 2 diabetes medication, they would prescribe me statins as well. Statins would come with a host of side effects like joint pain, liver damage, muscle aches and damage, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, rash, memory loss, mental confusion, high blood sugar, and type 2 diabetes (if you don’t already have diabetes, taking statins increases your chances of getting diabetes. Read this and this).
In simple language, it means I could lose sensation on my hands and feet, which leads to wounds and amputation. I could become blind. I could have memory loss and mental confusion, making me an inconvenience to my children and my care-takers. I’ll never forget a line from the podcast mentioned below. The doctor says this about memory loss – “The lights are on, but nobody’s home”.
I’d be on the fast track to death – I’d probably die 10 years younger! Most people I know who are on diabetic medication live miserably before they die. Diabetes is unmerciful. So, even after sending so much medication into my body to ease the symptoms of diabetes, I would continue to be in ill-health and I would eventually die of one or more diabetes-related complications like heart-attack, renal failure, or infection of a chronic wound.
Choice 2:
I could stop this. I was averse to the idea of medicines life-long. I mean, why send these artificial chemicals into your body day-after-day-after-day? My mother who has diabetes (whose medications have been greatly reduced after LCHF), warned me that it is the worse disease to have. Usually, when diabetes/pre-diabetes is first detected, physicians advise the patient to decrease weight and increase exercise, and go back to them after which they would check if they still need medication. My brother too advised me the same. So, I looked up online for the best way to reduce weight and more importantly, to sustain weight loss in the long term. I read many articles and books (thanks to electronic reading enabled by Kindle). My research led me to conclude that LCHF is the only long-term solution to weight loss and a host of other problems. As a bonus, my blood sugar numbers and my cholesterol numbers would improve as well.
Why choice 2? Why not blindly choice 1? After all, the experts know what they’re doing.
Doctors are trained in a particular way – they look at the symptoms, eliminate using tests, use their knowledge and expertise to find out the problem and prescribe medicines. Nutrition constitutes only a tiny part of their medical education. Very few hours of their entire medical course are dedicated to the study of food/nutrition.
And most doctors simply do not have the time. Unless they are conscious and deliberate in updating their knowledge, they only know what they studied years back. Very few are genuinely are interested in nutrition and update themselves based on independent studies. Any new knowledge is supplied to them in conferences that are usually sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. And these profit-centred companies peddle their drugs to them. And the doctors genuinely believe in these “doctored” studies that the companies hold, and prescribe these drugs to their patients in all good faith, hoping it will improve their health. As for diabetes, the doctors themselves know and tell their patients that it is a chronic disease. It is a lie they believe in and tell their patients as well. (Watch “Two Big Lies of Type 2 Diabetes” by Dr. Jason Fung)
Most doctors may do the best they know, but their best is simply not good enough for me.
Unfortunately, most doctors are trained to treat the condition, not the person. (I heard this line on a podcast interview of Dr. Jason West by Dr. Isaac Jones. Please don’t be offended by the statement. Just pause and think about diabetes treatment alone, and you’ll know what it means.)
My health is in my hands
And ultimately, my health is in my hands. When I suffer, my well-intentioned doctor or my naive dietician does not suffer with me. Only I and those I love suffer from the choices I make. In our home, my partner and I don’t have ‘division of labour’, we have ‘sharing of responsibilities’. We each have our set of primary responsibilities for which we are accountable to God and to each other. ‘Physical health and well-being of the family’ is one of my primary responsibilities. So, it is up to me to look out for them and for myself. I can’t just blame the medical system & pharmaceutical industry, when my loved ones or I suffer or die from illnesses that we need not have.
We have come to accept these things as ‘normal’. Just because it’s considered ‘normal’ does not mean it’s ‘natural’ or ‘necessary’. Just because everyone around us thinks it’s normal, doesn’t mean we have to accept it for ourselves.
The definition of ‘normal’ keeps changing. A few decades ago, in the US, 1 out of 4000 people had diabetes. It was not normal. Nowadays, 1 out of 4 people have it. It has become normal. India is the ‘Diabetes Capital’ of the world with 41million people living with diabetes. So it’s considered normal, and we discuss each other’s diabetes and medication over casual conversation. It has been accepted as normal. Are you going to accept it as normal?
Look out for yourself
And that’s my friendly suggestion to anyone out there – Look out for yourself. Listen to what the experts have to say. And don’t blindly listen. Use your wisdom. The experts in this case may not necessarily doctors. They could be nutritionists or dieticians or research scientists or even engineers (check out Dr. Bernstein’s and Ivor Cummin’s stories). Even some science journalists and investigative journalists have investigated the “big food-big pharma-politician” nexus and are exposing the truth. See what they have to say. Read, research and reflect. And decide for yourself.
And try it out for a few months.
That’s what I decided. I would take all necessary tests. I would try it sincerely for 3 months. If the LCHF approach didn’t work and my test results after 3 months had not improved, I would go back to the “low-calorie-low-fat/eat less, exercise more” approach.
What could be the consequence?
Either I would get better… OR… I would continue to be fat and diabetic.
I was anyway fat and diabetic. I had nothing to lose!
Anyway, after weighing all the options, I decided the LCHF was the only sensible option that was sustainable in the long-term. I was very particular that I should do something I could sustain over years, not some short-term wight loss method that I cannot adopt for life. I know people who have reduced weight by intensive exercise for 60-90 minutes every day. While I could do that now, I don’t think it’s practically possible for me to exercise 60-90 minutes at 60 years, by which time I would have joint injuries as a result of all the jogging and fast-walking! Over-exercising only causes injuries. I think that physical movement (like slow walking or cycling, gardening, house-work, trekking, swimming etc.) is important for fitness, not for weight-loss. You can’t outrun bad food choices!
So, what happened?
And so, one fine day in March 2014, after what I then considered adequate reading, my partner and I started LCHF. I had a migraine headache for a day; he had no side-effects. Some people have some unpleasant side-effects as the body tries to change to fat-burning mode instead of carb-burning mode. But these effects go away after a while and you’ll feel better than ever before.
I lost 5kg in around 2 months; he lost 18kg in around 3 months. Then we stalled. For around a year and a half, we didn’t bother much. We were happy that we had reduced much weight and were satisfied with status quo. Then I realised that I had to further reduce my fasting blood glucose numbers and he also wanted to further reduce weight. Just as we were thinking about it, something happened – we went on a “workcation” and when I came back home, I had reduced about 1kg. I realised that it happened because I had increased my butter intake during that holiday. So, both spouse and I have increased fat intake and reduced protein intake, and are continuing to lose weight. In the meantime, I started consuming bitter melon powder, Indian gooseberry powder and Amway Glucose Health to help me reduce fasting glucose numbers.
Apart from weight-loss, better cholesterol, blood sugar and pressure numbers, we found that there were many other advantages to this WOE. At the end of my 3-month trial period, my results indicated that I was doing the right thing, so I decided to continue this WOE.
If you are improving, continue what you’re doing. If you are stalling or going backwards, consider trying these tips.
Be deliberate and observant of what you’re doing and how it affects your body.
Have faith, gather knowledge, and try different things.
You will find the right solution and what works best for you. Don’t give up!
Here are our numbers:
Natchi
|
Date |
Weight |
|
Mar 2014 |
123.5 |
|
Aug 2014 |
105.7 |
|
Dec 2015 |
104.5 |
|
Jan 2016 |
103.7 |
|
Feb 2016 |
100.7 |
|
Mar 2016 |
98 |
|
May 2016 |
96 |
Tina
I used to take multi-vitamin supplements and Omega-3 supplements everyday for the first couple of years on LCHF, but I don’t anymore.
I am not on medication for diabetes. Never have been and never intend to be!
So, the numbers you see below are purely a result of the LCHF way of eating.
If you’re on diabetes medication, read no. 8 on FAQ page
Abbreviations explained under the table.
|
Date |
Weight |
HbA1c |
FBS |
FI |
PPBS |
PPI |
Trig* |
HDL* |
Trig/HDL ratio* |
|
Aug 2010 |
67 |
||||||||
|
Aug 2012 |
7.0 |
144 |
|||||||
|
Oct 2013 |
7.5 |
||||||||
|
Mar 2014 |
65 |
7.5 |
181 |
181 |
42 |
4.3 |
|||
|
Jul 2014 |
60 |
5.8 |
125 |
101 |
70 |
42 |
1.6 |
||
|
Sep 2014 |
5.7 |
||||||||
|
Sep 2015 |
5.7 |
||||||||
|
Dec 2015 |
60 |
5.9 |
116 |
98 |
68 |
47 |
1.4 |
||
|
Jan 2016 |
58^ |
5.6 |
96** |
91 |
|||||
|
Feb 2016 |
56 |
114*** |
5.5 |
102 |
8 |
||||
|
Mar 2016 |
55 |
||||||||
|
Apr 2016 |
53 |
5.3 | 92 | 6.6 | |||||
| May 2016 |
53 |
||||||||
| Sep 2016 | 53 | 93 | 5.3 | ||||||
| Aug 2017 | 53 | 5.4 | 73 | 3.9 | 78 | 66 | 43 | 1.53 |
