Couple Loses Hundreds Of Pounds On Atkins Diet

wlky ^ | 11-04-03

[wheelgunguru]

Embarrassment, Health Issues Prompted Dieting

Many people have struggled to drop a few pounds, but what happens when you need to lose several hundred pounds?

Several years ago, Steve and Melissa Horstman of Boone County, Ky., decided that they didn't want to live with their weight problems anymore, and they used the emotional pain over being overweight to reach their goals.

Melissa and Steve met on the Internet several years ago and soon learned of their common bond: obesity.

"When you weigh 150 pounds over, you don't go out and socialize," Melissa said.

The couple met, dated and married, but humiliation struck again on their honeymoon when the airline pilot told Steve he would have to buy two seats next time because he was too big for one.

"It wasn't until after we got married that I saw on a daily basis how his weight was on his health," Melissa said. "I was afraid I'd just found him and we were just married, I was going to lose him."

Steve's weight topped out at 571 pounds. He recalls "just standing there in the winter and you're breaking a sweat just standing there because your back hurts and your knees hurt."

Despite the physical pain, Steve said the emotional toll on his health was greater.

"(It hurts) when you walk into a store and a 3-year-old looks up at their parent and says, 'Look at that fat man, Mommy,'" he said.

"It broke my heart every day," Melissa said. "I could see the people behind him. The looks, the whispers, the pointing."

Fad diets failed. Surgery was too expensive. So Melissa began looking into low-carb solutions like the Atkins diet.

Once the couple decided to try to the diet, major life changes were in order. First on the list: Eliminating the junk food that is tough to avoid for most people and irresistible to a 571-pound man.

"I could go to a certain drive-through and get eight sandwiches and four large fries, 10 to 12 cans of soft drinks a day, not the sugar-free kind," Steve said.

Steve weighed himself daily on a large scale in a local drugstore. The scale provided a printout, and Steve saved every one of them.

"At June 19, 1999, I was at 472 pounds," he said as he flipped through the printouts. "I'd lost about 100 pounds at that point."

Melissa dropped her weight, too, but for Steve, the diet was nothing short of a miracle. He was swimming in his size 6x shirts, and his 72-inch waist pants started falling off his waist.

Steve kept the belt he wore at his highest weight and punched new holes in it as he dropped the pounds.

These days, the couple is happy to simply blend in when they go to the mall.

From the time the couple changed their lifestyle, Steve has lost more than 320 pounds, and Melissa is down more than 100 pounds. They're proud of each other, and their confidence is at an all-time high.

"I always kid with her, 'How did that guy get that hot girl?'" Steve said.

"To go from people pointing and making faces and whispering to being hateful, to being mistaken for Howie Long ... He's extremely hot!" Melissa said of her husband.

Steve said he can't imagine going back to the overweight version of himself, and he's working to lose even more. His current weight is about 250 pounds, and he told Cooney it feels like "walking on air" when compared to his old weight.

"It's a terrifying thought," he said. "Just looking in the mirror and seeing the old me is motivation enough."

Redemption for Melissa comes in many forms, including a recent high school reunion.

"Nobody recognized me," she said with a smile.

Before:

After:

[BibChr]

About 80# down since April, first on Atkins-like, then on Atkins-period.

Feeling vastly better, better energy, sleeping vastly better, losing pain in my back, hips, knees, losing 12 pants-sizes, losing killer headaches, losing intractable tachycardia...

...if these are "serious health issues," more people should have them.

Dan

[ODC-GIRL]

Try adding a calcium supplement, if you're not already taking one. This sometimes helps kick you off a plateau.

[Huck]

Thanks for the tip. I am eating lots of cheese already, but I can try a calcium supplement on top of that.

[CDHart]

"losing intractable tachycardia... "

Is tachycardia the same thing as atrial fibrillation?

Carolyn

[Ribeye]

Lose weight?

1) Exercise. Period. You HAVE to move your body. Lift weights, walk, run, garden...move. There is NO excuse for not doing some form of exercise except physical limitations/handicap.

2) Quit eating refined sugars, processed and packaged foods, hydrogenated oils, margerine (butter is better for you). It's all garbage to your body. Drinking soda everyday is insane. Learn how to read an ingredients label.

3) Bleached flour is not good. Add water and you have glue. Stick with whole grains. And if you eat rice, make it brown instead of white.

4) Eat all the meat (chicken, fish,pork and, yes, Beef) and FRESH vegatables you can get your hands on. Avoid processed meats with nitrates and such.

5) Drink water. At least 64oz a day. Preferably more.
Not Soda, not diet soda, not juice, not Snapple...just water.

6) Exercise. Exercise. Exercise. You HAVE to move. Make the time. If you watch TV you have time. I workout at 9:30 pm or 4:00 am. My kids and work take up the rest of the day but I alway make time. A benfit from exercising is that you actually have more energy...


Our grandparents didn't need diet plans. They ate fresh un-processed foods and got more exercise.

The obesity rates we see today are a by-product of lousy food choices (fast foods, boxed foods, processed foods), bad eating habits (supersize = superass) and too much sittin' on butts.

This of course is only my humble opinion but, having lost 85lbs by doing all of the above, I speak from experience. So does my wife.

[sissyjane]

I walk(power walk) every day, and south Beach is the only diet I've ever tried that I can handle. I'm not hungry. I get snacks, I get three meals, and I get dessert. Check it out on-line.

Next week I start Phase II, and slowly start adding whole grains and fruit back in.

[Wright is right!]

"Now as I approach my target weight, the real battle begins - keeping it off!"

Hey, great going! I didn't know you were approaching -100, just that Atkins wasa a big success for you.

Actually, for you, KEEPING it off should be easy. You can eat MORE than you're eating now - just not those pesky carbs. Just keep eating what you eat now, the foods you love. You'll have no problemo. In fact, that's the best part about Atkins - you no longer crave the crap that made you heavy in the first place.

Michael

[70times7]

I've been told more than one that I could instantly loose ~30 lbs. of ugly fat on the Marie Antwanette diet plan...

[Wright is right!]

Hey, Dan! Great going! It's great to get a progress report from ya. I remember all the things you said when you went on Atkins - your determination has paid off. And the longer you go, the less of a desire you'll have for all those bad foods that led to your plight in the first place. You must feel fabulous.

Michael

[70times7]

one =once

[BibChr]

Um... er... I don't know. It's what my doctors have called it since I first noticed it in the '70's. It's where your heart rate can more or less double, and hold; and the longer it holds, the more unpleasant things happen.

There are some physical things you can do to stop it, most of the time -- which in a state of morbid obesity are themselves extremely unpleasant. And which weren't even working for me, towards the last.

Now, my heart's sped up once or twice, and all I've had to do is draw a deep breath and hold it hard for a moment, and it slows right down.

Dan

[Pahuanui]

Feeling vastly better, better energy, sleeping vastly better, losing pain in my back, hips, knees, losing 12 pants-sizes, losing killer headaches, losing intractable tachycardia...

Zounds! 12 pants sizes?

Tip o' the fedora to you.

[Wright is right!]

"6) Exercise. Exercise. Exercise. You HAVE to move. Make the time. If you watch TV you have time."

Best fitness device in the world is a big dog. Andi, my Golden Retriever, enjoys vigorous walks - and the only way she can get them is if I TAKE her on them. So we both get at least one good brisk walk every day, sometimes two. Things get slow here in the office, I just wake her up and off we go. It's actually helped my arthritic knee and hip. And Andi LOVES it. There's nothing like the love and companionship you get from a great canine.

Michael

[BibChr]

Thanks, Mike. Yes, I feel terrific, and thank God for it all the time.

Just went back to a lake up high in the Sierra with my boys; last time there had been pre-Atkins. I was so enjoying being able to hop up, run around, hike, climb, do everything, and just feel great doing it.

I won't lie: pizza smells wonderful, so does bread, and on and on. But in my mind, it's just all connected with being grossly fat, feeling miserable, hating the sight of myself, and not being able to play with my boys.

So I more or less shrug and have a chunk of ham with mayo!

Still a good ways to go; if I feel this much better when I'm nearer my goal, I'll just be unbearable.

(c8

Dan

[.38sw]

Tachycardia is not the same thing as atrial fibrillation. As you said, tachycardia is a very rapid heartbeat. Atrial fibrillation is when the atrial chamber of the heart doesn't contract properly, but the muscles in that portion of the heart "twitch" rather than beat in coordination with each other. When that happens, the blood is not actually pumped - there is no effedtive heartbeat.

[FeliciaCat]

your post is SPOT ON! I couldnt agree more! :)

Look at old family photos (really old - pre 1950/1940) and see how many OBESE people are in them...I have never seen ONE. Quite simply because crap food didnt exist in mass quantities and people exercised more then now (more walking, less sitting in cars, farm work, etc)

[.38sw]

You are so right! My mother has photos from the late 1800's and early 1900's of relatives. There were large families then, and I've seen lots of those photos. NO FAT PEOPLE! They were all (mom's side of the family) tall and slender.

[zx2dragon]

Steve kept the belt he wore at his highest weight and punched new holes in it as he dropped the pounds.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that did that! I ballooned up in hs and college, almost to 300 lbs. Dropped down to 174 after a few months of serious working out and eating better.

I tried Atkins, but I do not eat salad greens and the induction requires about 2 cups per day.

[Mamzelle]

re: Granted I have shed a pound or two, but I need a breakthrough. )))

I've been on Atkins maintenance almost a year. It took me a very long time to reach my target weight--and lose about 25 pounds--almost a full year.

One thing I discovered, is that on Atkins you can have prolonged "plateaus" where you don't lose. However, you're not going hungry, and not gaining. Patience.

[wheelgunguru]

I haven't seen any conclusive evidence that a low-carb diet has produced serious health issues.

The controversy doesn't deal with low-carbs. Lowering carb intake is obviously a part of dieting.

The Atkins controversy deals with excessive protein intake which produces strain on your renal system.

Plus, any meat-intensive menu is going to raise your cholesterol level significantly.

Losing weight is about lowering calories and increasing exercise. You can lower calories through any combination of foods, not just by lowering carbs.

BTW, my wife is a medical professional who told me the docs, with whom she works, despise the Atkins diet because of the health problems they're seeing.

And a recent news article said that, here in central CA, several hospitals have banned the Atkins diet.

If you want more info, go to Google, and type, "Atkins Diet Dangerous." Also, "Atkins Diet Renal Failure." Again, "Atkins Diet Cholesterol."

The resulting webs sites will give you plenty of info on both sides of the issue.

BTW, my best wishes are sincere, not "ominous."