My boyfriend, Bob, went on Atkins the same day that I did, so back in June 2003. He was around 300 pounds at the time and had tried many other weight loss systems. We finally began Atkins because other family members had had great success with it, as had one of his coworkers.

He was worried about being hungry or losing energy, but actually he always eats until he's full and has lots of energy, and as of December 1st he was down to 235 pounds! The weight just slid off very easily, slowly and regularly over the months. We didn't really exercise at all, and we tried a large variety of recipes and snacks and prepared foods along the way.

A big difference for him is that he used to eat a lot of fast food and drink a lot of soda. Now the soda is all diet Splenda soda and the food choices are much more healthy. With our deep fryer he brings in chicken wings with him for lunch.

He's really inspired his entire office and often brings in chocolates or candies or other things for them to help us taste test. He has many of his office mates trying low carb now and having success.

He has sort of plateaued since our trip in early December, probably with the holidays and everything. Now that we're in a new year we're going to pay more attention to the food we eat again, and maybe even start riding the exercise bike we bought. I'll let you know how he does going forward!

But right now he's down several clothing sizes, and we gave away bags of clothing to the Salvation Army. He's thrilled to be more healthy and gets a lot of support at work for how much more fit he looks, how much happier he is in general, how much more energy he has. It really doesn't sink in, I think, how much being overweight affects your entire life and outlook, until you lose that weight.

I think his aim for 2004 is to lose another 45 pounds - to go from 235 to around 190.


Lisa Shea, Low Carb and Video Games Editor
Low Carb Forum