I’ve Gained Weight
Time to Get Back on the Wagon
In January 2019 I moved from the Philippines back to the United States. I had lived as an American Expat in the Philippines for about 20 years.
At the time, I had lost 231 pounds while living in the Philippines and I was feeling great. During my last 2 years in the Philippines I was fasting for at least 190 days each year. Not continuously fasting for 190 days, but during the course of each year I fasted for at least 190 days each year. I lost a lot of weight and was feeling great. My fasting and weight loss came after suffering a heart attack and having quadruple heart bypass surgery.
What happened when I got back to the States?
When I got “home” to the USA something happened that I had not expected. Everywhere I turned my head I saw food that I had not eaten in 20 years. Everywhere I looked the food triggered me, the thought that would come to my mind was:
Wow, I haven’t eaten one of those in 20 years, they don’t have it in the Philippines!”
So, I would have to try it again, kind of a “welcome home” experience.
Within my first 6 months back I gained about 40 pounds
That 40 pounds came on very quickly. After that first six months, though, I have not gained much more weight, maybe just another 10 pounds in the past 4 1/2 years, making a total weight regain of 50 pounds. During the past several years I have tried very hard to re-lose those 50 pounds, but I have not been able to do it.
I lost the vast majority of the 231 pound weight loss by fasting, usually for 5 days at a time. I have done some successful fasts since coming back to the States, however:
- While fasting used to be very easy for me, now it is difficult to do.
- Even when I have successfully fasted for 3 or 4 weeks in a row, the results have been a much more minimal amount of weight loss.
I have become very frustrated
When you go without food for days on end and only loose a small amount of weight, it is, frankly, a very frustrating experience.
Right now I am feeling extremely motivated to lose weight, though, but this time I am trying to do that in a different way.
The Carnivore Diet
I decided to go on a Carnivore Diet. Actually, I am currently on my third day of Carnivore, and I’m feeling great. On the advice of another person who is very experienced at living a Carnivore lifestyle, I have not weighed myself, and will not start weighing myself until I have been doing Carnivore for 30 days. After that I will weigh myself, but not as frequently as I used to do. Maybe I will weigh myself once a week or so, I’ll just have to see what I feel like doing when I get to that point.
What is a Carnivore Diet?
A carnivore diet is an animal based diet. Basically there are a few types of food that you can consume:
- Meat
- Some Dairy
- Cheese
No sauces and such on the meat, just meat.
This is certainly a very restrictive diet, but not as restrictive as what I was doing before, going 5 days with no food at all.
As I mentioned earlier, I am on day 3 now. I have been doing intermittent fasting each day before doing carnivore for the rest of the day. When I wake up I will drink coffee or tea. Around 2 PM I will eat for the first time in the day.
Yesterday at 2 PM I ate 4 Baby back ribs that I had cooked before noon. No sauce, just the ribs (they were still delicious). At 2 more baby back ribs at 8 PM along with 2 eggs and some cheese. That was all I ate for the day. I felt quite good.
As I write this it is 5:30 PM on Day 3. This morning I drank coffee, and at 3 PM I ate some pork rinds, just a couple of handfuls. I have eaten nothing else so far today and I am not hungry at all. Later this evening I will eat some more of those baby back ribs from yesterday (I cooked enough for 3 days of eating).
The truth is, though, that you do not need to limit your meal size, but there is no need or reason to keep eating after you are full.
Sustainable
Based on how I am feeling and what I have experienced in the past few days, I feel this is very sustainable. This is not meant to be a diet that you stop after losing weight, Carnivore is a lifestyle that you should live for the rest of your life.
That is my intention, to just keep living a Carnivore lifestyle. I want to be more healthy than what I have become. I don’t want to go back to being obese like I was in years past. I can do it. I will do it.
