A Low Carb Diet Success Story – What Can We Learn?

Checking out the low-carb successes of others
can help us achieve our weight-loss goals

Amy is a short, 20-something young lady who weighed in at 267 pounds when she started a low-carb diet on January 6, 2009. That's slightly heavier than I was when I returned to Atkins in 2007, but she’s also a little taller than me.

In 2011, when I first wrote this post, she weighed 117.4 pounds – that’s just beneath her goal weight.

I can't show you what she looks like anymore. Her before-and-after pictures that were posted at the Low Carb Friends forum are no longer available, but there is still plenty to learn from her experience.

Here's how you can recreate Amy's success for yourself:

What Can We Learn from Amy’s Low-Carb Success?

Amy’s story is not your standard low-carb success story, so it might  puzzle you a bit. 

She didn’t follow the typical wisdom of the day that said to “pick a low-carb diet and do it exactly like the book.” 

She reached her goal by tweaking the Atkins Diet and Dr. Eades’ Protein Power Lifeplan into something that she could stick with for the rest of her life. 

She created something that fit her lifestyle better, something that worked for her.

The specifics?

1. She didn’t measure out her low-carb foods (not even the vegetables) and only loosely counted carbs. 
2. She ate whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it, as long as the food was low in carbohydrates, and kept to a reasonable serving size. 
3. She ate on a small plate rather than the extra-large dinner plates so popular today. 
4. She didn’t embrace the idea of having to eat a large low-carb breakfast; she simply indulged in her beloved coffee with heavy cream. 
5. She also didn’t engage in a formal exercise program.

If you look closely at these 5 details that Amy used as the foundation of her personalized low-carb diet, you’ll find that her method doesn’t fit into any of the typical recommendations that are often given to newbies or even those who have stalled part way to their goal weight.

While certainly low carb in principle, Amy's diet program didn’t follow in either author’s footsteps. Instead, she designed her own weight-loss plan. 

Something I’ve been recommending for a very long time. 

Why? 

Because it works!

This doesn’t mean she didn’t give in to temptation now and then. But she did decide to incorporate a more flexible approach than most. 

Occasionally, this caused her to go off her diet plan, now and then, give into an eating binge or splurge on a holiday meal – behaviors that many of us also struggle with.

The difference? 

She didn’t beat herself up over it. 

She simply decided that for her, a low-carb plan wasn’t “a diet.” 

And while that’s a popular mantra among low carbers even today, if you want to enjoy success with this alternative way of eating, you need to make sure your low-carb meals are something you can enjoy.

How to Personalize your Low-Carb Meals

It’s nice to view the before-and-after pictures of those who’ve achieved success with their low-carb diet because it’s wise to check out how these now-at-goal-weight individuals got there. 

But it won’t grant you real, honest-to-goodness motivation to apply to your own diet unless you figure out how to implement these lessons in your own life.

Effective weight loss is still possible, but it requires you to take a good, hard look at yourself:

• your personality
• your lifestyle
• your health issues

And especially your passions.

Think about your tendencies: 

• Do you want to eat breakfast and/or lunch everyday? Or just sometimes? 
• Do you eat only when you’re hungry, or do emotional issues come out to play? 
• Do you enjoy counting carbohydrates? Calories? Or neither? 
• Do you need the heavy structure of rules? Prefer no rules? 
• Do you love eating vegetables and salads? Fatty meats? Or carbs? 
• Do you drown your food with luxurious condiments like butter and mayo? 
• Do you smother everything in sour cream and cheese? 
• Do you have any health issues that might interfere with your current program? 
• Do you love to cook, or experiment with new recipes and cooking styles? 
• Does your lifestyle interfere with your ability to stick with low carb foods? 
• Do you turn to and/or crave comfort foods when stressed? 

While this list certainly isn’t all inclusive, it will get you thinking in the right direction. 

The idea isn’t to copy what Amy did, but to design your own personalized diet program. Something you can actually live with for the rest of your life.

And while you’re thinking about personalized passions, take the time to create a list of your favorite low carb foods. 

You know the ones I mean. 

Those absolute comfort foods you ate often when you first started a low-carb diet, but somehow forgot about them when you found yourself in a sticky situation. 

These are the type of comfort foods you need to eat to help you stay on plan.

For me, that’s:

• bacon and eggs
• cheesecake
• strawberry pie
• hot wings
• chicken alfredo over broccoli
• Alice Springs chicken
• a nice juicy pork chop
• rib steak
• fried chicken
• pork rinds
• just-cheese crackers and dip

Okay?

Now it’s your turn. 

• What are your favorite low-carb foods? 
• Have you tweaked your diet program? 

Why not leave a comment and tell us about it.