In February of 2010, at 35 years old, I weighed 268 pounds, and my doctor told me that if I didn't do something about my blood pressure, cholesterol and pre-diabetes that I should go coffin shopping. He started to write some prescriptions for me, but I told him, no. I wanted to do this without meds. I had seen what Lipitor did to my dad's legs, and wasn't going to go through that. 

On March 1 of that year I started Atkins. Within 6 months all my numbers were normal! Without meds and without a whole bunch of exercise (just walking 30 minutes a day). I was also down a bunch of weight. 

Well here I am today, at 175 at my goal and feeling better than ever before. Better than even when I was a teenager! And I can now exercise even more!  When I started, the 30 minute walk was breathtaking.  Now I do Crossfit 5x a week and I actually look forward to it!

CHALLENGES: 
Overcoming all the objections of friends and loved ones.  They were all certain that I was going to kill myself with all that fat.  When my lipid numbers improved so dramatically, they all became true believers and no longer questioned what I was doing.

ADVICE: 
My biggest advice is just do it.  Within 2 weeks you will feel radically different and energetic.  Also, do not get hung up on weight.  It will fluctuate.  Besides, weight is a bad motivator because you lose that motivation when you get to your goal.  Instead, focus on health improvements, as they can serve as an on-going motivator and won't get you down on the week you maybe didn't lose or gained a bit.

I had a BMI of 40.3, hypertension and suffered from arrhythmias in addition to GERD, sleep apnea, hemorrhoids, asthma, frequent respiratory infection and sinus congestion. Energy was absent and I was ashamed to be seen by others in public because I could not seem to control my weight, eating behaviors, etc. 
After I became concerned with getting a MI (myocardial infarction) in my sleep due to a heart rate 150 BPM fairly frequently, I started a diet called the Belly Fat Cure. After losing 8-10 pound in two weeks, I was hooked and fascinated. I came across Gary's book GCBC and put a lot of the research to work in my life. All my health problems went away, I went back to school, got my BSN and am working on my MSN (maybe another degree after I finish my MSNEd next April.

Anyway, I would like to write a more thoughtful description of my experience since it has changed my life and will continue to change my life in profound ways. There have been many things learned along the way and more to come. I am glad you are taking this paradigm to another level and hope you touch many untold people suffering from this seemingly intractable milieu of excess weight.

CHALLENGES: 
This is twofold. Initially, getting over my cravings was the biggest challenge I experienced during the integration or action phase of this lifestyle change. The second and more difficult challenge is ongoing due to social pressure and food availability. It has been learning about the healthiest types of foods that fit within a paleo/WAPF/Carb restricted whole foods lifestyle. 

ADVICE: 
Ignore the naysayers, don't worry about how your body responds initially since it is going to be shocked on so many levels, i.e., gastrointestinal, hormonal, and type of macronutrient energy metabolism. The biggest thing one can do is learn to avoid sugar and how to identify foods that are not readily identifiable as sugar but turn into sugar after eaten.

I am a 24 year old woman with PCOS working nights as a registered nurse.  I was overweight basically my whole life until I found keto.  For those of you who do not know, keto refers to a ketogenic diet or a diet of 65% fats/30% protein/5% carbs.  I basically eat meat and vegetables with every meal, usually cheese or some other fat and very limited other carbs (mostly veggie carbs).  I have been on my diet since November 11, 2011.  Today is January 28, 2011.  I weighed in most recently on the 24th and have gone from 190 lbs (at 5'6") to 171.4 lbs in that time.

CHALLENGES: 
I love carbs, I used to live on pop-tarts and cereal and cookies and junk but I've learned to live without them. Plus, there are many great low-carb substitutes one can make.

ADVICE: 
Hang in there. It really is amazing what happens when you follow it.

This wasn't the first time I had gone on a carbohydrate restricted diet.The first time was in 1997 I went on Atkins and ate extreme induction the whole time almost pure protein and very little fats I took the skin off chicken and didn't eat a lot of fatty meats and almost no veggies at all. I went from 325 to 175 in just under a year. but by the end of that diet I felt exhausted and had lost hair and was cold all of the time. I kept most of the weight off for almost 5 years but it was creeping back on 5 lbs at a time while adding most grains and starchy veggies back into my diet. I developed food allergies to most fruits and some veggies so I didn't eat those anymore. I quit working as full time Massage Therapist due to health issues I developed Vertigo and extreme Hypoglycemia.

I was getting Fungal infections every year and the allergies were out of control I was sitting there not able to move due to dizziness and depressed. I started to binge on carbs and gained rapidly till I hit 296 lbs I felt so bad all the time. Sick and exhausted I didn't sleep well I woke up tired I had sleep apnea and I was diagnosed as having very low Vitamin D level and I was pre-diabetic I cut out sugar and was looking into starting the Atkins diet again when I saw the movie Fat Head bye Tom Naughton. It was a revelation on how I had done it wrong the first time I was scared of fat so I had decided to eliminate it also how insulin works and why. 

I made it my quest to find everything I could about it so I got the book Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes and the easier read Why we get fat and what to do about it. Both excellent books I found everything I could see about him on youtube and I saw his video at the Ancestral Health Symposium. I decided to watch all the rest of the videos I was blown away by the idea of the Paleo movement and started reading all the blogs of the speakers, including Nora Gedgaudes. I just finished reading her book Primal Body Primal mind, an amazing book. I am going to eat low carbohydrate, high fat, moderate protein the rest of my life. I am 9 weeks into the Leptin Reset by Dr Jack Kruse and I have never felt better in my life. Not even when I was a teenager. More energy. Better sleep. My lifelong insomnia is getting better and better. I'm halfway to my goal weight and I don't care for the first time in my life how long it takes me to get there!

CHALLENGES: 
Finding places to eat that don't use bad fats in cooking and a good low carb choices.

ADVICE: 
Pre-make meals for when you don't feel like cooking, so you don't resort to going out for something fast and bad for you.