A Meaty Diet Challenge
I Dumped Off 21 Pounds in 42 Days as a Challenge From My Doctor
How I’m keeping my doctor from prescribing me more medicine I don’t want or need to take
The Setup
February 8th. I’m on my way to see my primary physician.
Just a routine visit. More of an annoyance than anything else. Well, that’s what I thought anyway. My doctor thought differently. Here’s the rundown:
- I’m 56 years old, even though I’m only 18 in my head. I know that’s a rather major age difference.
- I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis—an autoimmune disease.
- In March 2021 I was diagnosed with Acute Pancreatitis caused by gallstones. I spent a delirious and delightful week in the hospital to fight off the massive infection.
- The case of Acute Pancreatitis formed the largest pseudo-cyst the specialist surgeon had ever drained and worked on. I’m surprised he didn’t write a case study about this super pseudo-cyst that occupied at least half of my abdominal cavity. It might have made a great graphic novel. It took 5 procedures to drain and clean it out.
- My gallbladder was removed in August 2021. Although I’m not in horrific pain anymore, removing my gallbladder has resulted in a continuous “running” problem. Never trust that it’s just a fart.
- In late Jan 2022, I had a heart valve replaced coupled with a double bypass. I’ll take My Broken Heart for $1000, Alex. Ah, hell. Let’s make it a true Triple Jeopardy and bet it all.
- I have Atrial Fibrillation. My heart beats far too fast. I guess that means I need to stay away from beautiful women or my heart will beat so fast it’ll explode out of my chest.
- In June 2022, the pseudo-cyst refilled and needed to be drained a second time. Some people have all the luck.
I now realize I was deluding myself to think this was going to be a routine and uneventful visit.
The Challenge
The first thing the doctor told me after looking over my chart was he wanted me to get more weight off. He was worried about the extra weight with my heart issues. I had lost over 100 pounds during my year of health issues. Wasn’t that enough? Not for him, I guess.
He told me he wanted to use Ozempic to help me lose the weight. He had had good results with it. He also told me of another drug that the FDA was fast-tracking through the approval process that might be less expensive.
My answer was a quick, “No!”
3 reasons:
- If there are any side effects involved in taking a drug, I’m going to have it. Taking a weekly shot with the possibility of ending up back in the hospital doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies in the least.
- I do not trust the pharmaceutical industry.
- I do not trust the FDA.
Don’t get me wrong. I do take the meds I need, but the ones I agree to take have been used for decades and have a proven track record.
I’ve seen my parents, grandparents, and other seniors take handfuls of prescriptions per day and watched them get worse from the side effects each caused. One prescription my dad was prescribed was pulled from the market after too many sudden deaths occurred from people taking it.
I won’t be a human lab rat for Big Pharma or the FDA.
I admit I gained 30 pounds from my lowest weight of 245. I had been consuming a limited amount of sugar each day plus my addiction to Diet Pepsi. I think that is part of the reason I started gaining weight again. The other part is having a job again. After spending a year and a half wasting away in bed or on the couch with health issues keeping me off my feet, I feel I’ve put some muscle back on because I’m back on my feet and working.
He agreed to let me go for three months, but told me I needed to lose 12 pounds over the next 3 months. If I can’t do it, then he wants to try his way.
He then tried to explain to me the old Calories In-Calories Out theory of losing weight. Unfortunately, I know there is far more nuance than that simple theory. We are talking about the human body, not a piece of machinery.
Have you ever had a thyroid issue and a sugar addiction and tried to lose weight? Well, I can tell you it’s like trying to wrestle a large, meaty zebra leg bone from a 1000-pound saber-tooth tiger after a fresh kill. OK, it might not be that bad, but when you have a plateau and your weight loss stalls, it’s everything you can do to get the weight loss to start again.
BUT
Challenge accepted.🧐
My Plan and Weight Loss Results So Far
Because of my thyroid issues, I don’t put much stock in the Calories In-Calories Out theory of weight loss. I have moved more toward the Insulin-Carbohydrate theory of weight loss and eating. I won’t go in-depth here, but it’s basically, keeping your insulin levels low by keeping your carbohydrate consumption low and you should lose weight.
Yes, that is a greatly oversimplified explanation. I will put links at the end for your perusing pleasure for a better analysis.
I was already consuming a mainly carnivore diet. I say mainly since I had been going to the dollar store once a day for my sugar fix. That had to change.
I stopped going to the dollar store for my sugar fix and only ate eggs and meat. In the first week, I dropped 10 pounds. I’m assuming that most of those 10 pounds were water weight since sugar holds as much water in the body as sodium, if not more.
On February 28th, I weighed 262 pounds, compared to 275 pounds on February 8. A 13-pound loss in less than a month. No starving and no extra exercise outside of work.
Take that Doc!😝
Is It a Plateau or Something More?
I had my first plateau right then. I stalled between 262 and 260. It lasted over a week. I decided to look things over to see how to proceed next.
There is a good possibility my rapid heart rate from the afib is tricking my Fitbit into thinking I’m burning more calories than I am. Then again, it could just be a natural plateau that would break.
I decided to start breaking out a couple more strategies. I decided on intermittent fasting and bodyweight exercises.
The nice thing about the Carnivore Diet is I’m hardly hungry. Many times I just eat to put fuel in my body or just out of pure boredom. Intermittent fasting isn’t a problem. Just don’t eat until you’re hungry.
I went for 36 hours the first time. Far longer than I had planned. I just kept busy doing other things.
I know what you’re thinking.
Dave, you hypocrite! Once you start fasting or intermittent fasting, you are now in the Calories In-Calories Out model!
Yes, I have to agree with you. But sometimes you have to pull out all the stops. Remember that saber-tooth tiger? Sometimes you need to pull out any ammunition you have from your arsenal to get that succulent, meaty bone away from that big kitty.
I also started doing a couple of bodyweight exercises. After laying on my back for over a year, any sort of exercise is a massive struggle. I do want to get stronger again, though. It makes life easier.
It’s now March 22, and this morning I weighed in at 254 pounds. 21 pounds lighter than I was when I saw my doctor on February 8th. I’m happy with that. I’m also wearing a size smaller pair of pants than when I was laying on my back at 245.
The amusing thing is those pants are starting to fall down my butt. I have enough fat up front to hold them up in front, but I have no ass to hold them up in back. I guess it’s time to start doing a serious amount of glute exercises to keep my pants up in the back.
Going Forward
My next appointment with my primary doctor is May 8th. I am going to continue with eating carnivore, doing bodyweight exercises, and occasionally fasting. I’m hoping to blow his mind and then let him know what I did. I’m assuming that he still thinks I’m eating a mainly plant-based diet. I don’t think I ever updated him on the diet change.
Oops!🤭
I wonder how much more weight I will or can comfortably dump off by May 8th.
I’ll keep you all updated periodically on the progress and story of The Incredible Shrinking Dave.
If you would like to take a trip down the rabbit hole of the low-carb and carnivore community, I recommend starting with these great YouTube channels from medical professionals and research scientists.
Low Carb Down Under Shawn Baker MD and Dr Shawn Baker Podcast Anthony Chaffee MD Ken D Berry MD Professor Bart Kay and Dr. Ben Bikman. Dr. Bikman doesn’t have his own YouTube channel. He spends too much time in the lab and giving interviews to those who do have YouTube channels.
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